Bobotie (Chutney)

Bobotie (Chutney)

Chutney is traditionally served with mince meat dishes in S. Africa. My favorite is bobotie:

2 thinly sliced onions
1 kg ground beef or mutton
1 slice bread
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp. medium curry powder
1-1/2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tbsp. turmeric
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup almonds (quartered or sliced)
1/2 cup raisins
4 lemon or bay leaves (or zest of one lemon rind)
3 tbsp CHUTNEY

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Brown meat and onion in pan.

In a separate bowl mix milk and bread, stir and pour off the milk (but save). Mix all ingredients expect for half of the milk, 1 egg and the bay leaves (I also keep out the almonds).

Spoon mixture into greased pan and insert leaves into surface of mixture (leave sticking out a bit for easy removal after cooking) and sprinkle almonds on top if not already mixed in. Bake for 30 min.

Mix remaining egg and milk and pour over meat. Bake for another 30 min.

Serve with rice and chutney.

I have another version that uses apricot jam that is mixed with the bread and milk (in lieu of the chutney) but that's in Afrikaans and it's too late for me to translate. I have to admit that I haven't tried this version yet since Mrs. Ball's chutney is more expensive here than apricot jam but the one above is from the Afrikaner equivalent of The Joy of Cooking so I'm sure it's good.

erin in SB
(10/28/04)