Bobotie | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

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Introduction

This is a traditional South African dish that I love so much that I had to share it. The raisins are optional as I have friends who won't eat them although the dish does loose a certain something with out them.

Ingredients

Serves: 0

MetricCups

1 kilogram minced lamb (or beef)
½ onion (diced)
25 millilitres cooking oil
10 millilitres butter
25 millilitres curry powder
10 millilitres salt
25 millilitres peach chutney (or apricot)
15 millilitres apricot jam (smooth)
15 millilitres Worcestershire sauce
5 millilitres turmeric
25 millilitres malt vinegar
¾ handful raisins
3 eggs
375 millilitres milk
1 slice bread (crestless)
1 pinch of salt
bay leaves

2⅕ pounds ground lamb (or beef)
½ onion (diced)
1 fluid ounce cooking oil
fluid ounce butter
1 fluid ounce curry powder
fluid ounce salt
1 fluid ounce peach chutney (or apricot)
1 fluid ounce apricot jam (smooth)
1 fluid ounce Worcestershire sauce
fluid ounce turmeric
1 fluid ounce malt vinegar
¾ handful raisins
3 eggs
13 fluid ounces milk
1 slice bread (crestless)
1 pinch of salt
bay leaves

Method

Bobotie is a community recipe submitted by juzzi and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

Put bread into bowl with milk and leave to soak. Heat oil and butter in large pan and fry onions. When onions are soft add curry powder, slat, chutney, Worcester sauce, jam, turmeric and vinegar. Mix well.

Drain bread, saving milk. Add bread, raisins and meat to pan. Cook over low heat until meat looses its pinkness. Remove from heat and add 1 well beaten egg. Mix well then spoon into greased ovenable dish and level the top

Beat remaining 2 eggs into the reserve milk, add turmeric and salt, mix well. Pour over meat mixture and place bay leaf on the top. Bake uncovered in 180C for approximately 1 hour or until set (nicely browned). Serve with yellow rice, banana, coconut & chutney.

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What 6 Others have said

For my birthday party in March this year, several of my girlfriends offered to help with the cooking. I asked each of them to use this recipe. 6 Baboties were made and each one was delicious. Some used lamb, some mixed lamb and beef. I liked the beef alone best. Only one person found any peach chutney but mango did beautifully. One did without raisins because her husband doesn't like them. The whole thing was a huge success and my very small house smelled of the delicious fruit and spice for days. We are about to do a similar thing for day before Christmas Eve.
Posted by mrparsley1 on 16th December 2015
To clarify some of the points in the recipe & my comments: I added 50g toasted flaked almonds when adding the raisins. The teaspoon of whole coriander, teaspoon of ginger & lemon juice (approx. 1 tablespoon) are added when adding the main spices. The recipe is also a bit confusing as it says to add the tumeric & salt with the main spices then mentions them again with the custard. I treat the custard as a sub recipe and using the remaining milk, add a further teaspoon of tumeric & a pinch of salt. I then add 1egg & beat them together & pour on top of the meat mixture. For the quantity above I used a 2.6 litre Pyrex dish (25x20x7.8cm - from Amazon UK). This dish has a plastic lid which covers & seals the 'leftovers' which can be reheated quite happily in a microwave.
Posted by glynhall on 22nd August 2014
Lived in Cape Town for many years and ate "Cape Malay" traditional bobotie many times & it always had toasted almonds (either whole or flaked). Mrs H S Balls original chutney is a must as mentioned by another reviewer (available at Tesco in the UK). The only other things needed are juice from half a lemon, a teaspoon of whole coriander seeds and a teaspoon of ginger (powdered is fine) (these additions enhance the taste) Only one egg is sufficient in the savoury milk custard topping - using 2 eggs creates a topping like an omelette not a custard! Using a fan heated oven, I had to reduce the temperature to 160°C and the time to 30 - 35 mins. (check the custard top browning - don't burn!)
Posted by glynhall on 18th August 2014
To clarify some of the points in the recipe & my comments: I added 50g toasted flaked almonds when adding the raisins. The teaspoon of whole coriander, teaspoon of ginger & lemon juice (approx. 1 tablespoon) are added when adding the main spices. The recipe is also a bit confusing as it says to add the tumeric & salt with the main spices then mentions them again with the custard. I treat the custard as a sub recipe and using the remaining milk, add a further teaspoon of tumeric & a pinch of salt. I then add 1egg & beat them together & pour on top of the meat mixture. For the quantity above I used a 2.6 litre Pyrex dish (25x20x7.8cm - from Amazon UK). This dish has a plastic lid which covers & seals the 'leftovers' which can be reheated quite happily in a microwave.
Posted by glynhall on 22nd August 2014
It was one of the first things I cooked for my South African fiancee. She taught me the secret is to use Mrs Balls chutney. It was a revealation.
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Posted by bigdave67 on 12th August 2014
Whilst I don't add Worcestershire Sauce, My recipe has very similar ingredients. But I do add a granny smith apple, chopped small. It just makes the dish more moist! It is a huge hit in my family and such a quick recipe.
Posted by GogoJudes on 18th March 2014