Rebecca Bourhill's Bobotie

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Bobotie / Kate Martens (p)

“Rebecca Bourhill, of Rustenburg in North West Province, would spend her holidays working with me - like every holiday from the age of 16. Her life is food and her enthusiasm is very evident. A close-knit family, Granny Iris would make this dish to celebrate her son’s visits from the army, and it became a family favourite. “Bobotie is a typical Cape Malay dish with an egg custard topping. “My gran would make it using mutton mince and later changed to half mutton and half beef because of the expense factor. I now use pure beef and find that a fattier mince works best for the flavour that one gets,” she explains.”

— Jackie Cameron

Ingredients

• 3 slices bread (I use rye bread and works as a good substitute)
• 1 cup + ½ cup milk
• 30ml SUNFOIL sunflower oil
• 2 large onions, roughly chopped
• 20ml medium curry powder
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2ml turmeric
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 750g beef mince  (ground beef)
• 125ml chutney
• 1tbs apricot jam
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• 20ml tomato paste
• Oryx Salt and pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 4 bay leaves

Method

1. Soak the bread in 1 cup of milk.
2. Fry the onions in 30ml of oil until soft.
3. Add the curry powder, mixed herbs, cumin, turmeric and garlic and allow to cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the meat and brown. Once the meat is browned add the chutney, apricot jam, lemon zest and juice, tomato paste and season with salt and pepper and give this a good mix.
5. Squeeze the rest of the milk, do keep this milk, from the bread and put the bread in the meat mixture and place this in an oven proof dish.
6. Sieve the milk that has come from the bread and add the other ½ cup of milk. Beat in the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour this over the meat and put the bay leaves on top.
7. Bake this in a 180 degree oven for 45min or until golden brown.