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Bobotie with yellow rice being served

Bobotie

A South African Comfort food, this casserole of ground beef, lamb and sometimes pork with dried fruit and nuts with an egg custard topping is delicious.

Course Main Course
Cuisine South African
Keyword caramelized onions, casserole, cinnamon, curry, dried apricots, egg custard, ground beef, ground lamb, rasians, savory, toasted almonds, turmeric
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients

The filling

  • 2 lbs ground lamb or beef or 1/2 and 1/2 and or pork or a mixture (I used ½ lamb and ½ beef )
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
  • 2 large onions, chopped about 4 cups
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 large clove fresh garlic, crushed
  • 2 Teaspoons curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
  • 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 slices bread, crumbled
  • 1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
  • juice from ½ a lemon about 3 tablespoons
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup chopped dried apricots
  • 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
  • 1/3 cup black raisins
  • 1/3 cup sultanas golden raisins
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds

The Topping

  • 5 large eggs
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 pinch of black pepper
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup cream
  • Cinnamon for the top

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

To prepare the filling.

  1. Butter a 13 x 9 inch casserole or lasagna pan.
  2. Heat a large skillet, dry over medium heat. Add the almonds and toast stirring often until golden brown, remove and set aside.
  3. Brown the ground lamb and the ground beef if using, drain and set aside. In the same dirty skillet add the olive oil. Over medium-low heat, cook the onions with 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Stirring, often, cook until the onion has caramelized. The onions should be a deep golden brown and have reduced by more than half, it should take 20 minutes or more. This will develop great flavor.
  4. Add the garlic and the curry powder, turmeric, and the cinnamon. Let the onion, garlic, spice mixture cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, to let the spices heat up, and become fragrant.
  5. Stir in the vinegar scraping up the bottom of the pan to deglaze the spices and any other flavorful bits.
  6. Take off the heat.
  7. Add back in the ground meat.
  8. Stir in the remaining sugar, breadcrumbs, lemon rind, lemon juice, salt, apricots, both kinds of raisins and the reserved toasted almonds.
  9. Stir in the cream and the beaten egg. Mix the filling well to combine.
  10. Spread the filling into the prepared casserole dish Pat down well, smoothing down the top.

To make the topping.

  1. In a medium bowl or a 4 cup measuring cup, beat the eggs with the salt and pepper until frothy.
  2. Beat in the milk and the cream.
  3. Pour carefully over the filling. It helps to use a large spoon as a buffer letting the stream of milk hit the back of the spoon directly over the filling.
  4. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon.
  5. Bake the Bobotie for 1 hour, or until topping is set and golden brown.
  6. Serve in cut squares with South African Yellow Rice if desired.

Recipe Notes

Serve in cut squares with South African Yellow Rice if desired.