Some pronounce it "bow bow tie" and some say it's "bow bow tee", but however you pronounce it, this dish is delicious! Bobotie came to South Africa in the early 1700s, introduced there by people arriving from Indonesia and Malaysia. It's possible the recipe is much older, but its current style is firmly seated in the early people of Cape Malay. Apicus (of early Rome) has a similar recipe in his notes. The people of Argentina have their own version, which is not baked in a dish but is instead packed into a hollowed out pumpkin and cooked in the ground! This is a fun, relatively easy recipe that's both historically accurate to the 18th century (and possibly earlier) and easy to tolerate for the modern palate.
Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a medium (about 8 x 10) casserole dish. I used a large round glass pie plate.
Rough dice the stale bread into cubes, and place in a small bowl. Add the half cup of milk to the bread, and press it under the liquid as much as possible. Let it soak while you do the next steps.
Heat the butter or oil in a large frying pan and saute the onions and garlic, on low heat, until soft and translucent. Add the ground meat and cook until most of the pink is gone. Do not drain the grease off.
Add the curry, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, and cook for another 2 minutes. This allows the aromatic spices to blend into the meat. Add the salt, pepper, mango chutney, and apple cider vinegar and stir to combine.
Squeeze excess milk from the bread and add the bread to the meat mixture and stir well. Add the egg to the mixture and stir to thoroughly combine. Add the apples, apricots and raisins and fold it all together. Scoop the meat mixture into the greased casserole dish.
To make the custard, combine the milk, eggs, salt, and turmeric and whisk together until blended. You want to use an actual whisk for this, and continue mixing until it just barely begins to froth, about a minute or two. Evenly pour the custard over the meat mixture. Place the bay leaves on top and evenly sprinkle the slivered almonds over everything.
Bake uncovered for an hour or until the mixture is set and the top is golden brown. Serve with yellow rice.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground meat (beef, lamb, pork, or combo)
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 -1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1 -1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 slices stale bread
1/2 cup milk (to soak bread)
1 large egg
1 cup diced apple
1/4 cup finely diced dried apricots
1/4 cup golden raisins
For the custard:
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
For topping:
6 bay leaves
2 tablespoons slivered almonds
Notes:
This dish can be made dairy free by substituting olive oil or a vegan margarine for the butter, and using oat milk in place of the milk. Neither substitution changes the end product, and the flavor is exactly the same!
I cooked the Bobotie for 45 minutes at 375F, and it came out beautiful.
If your meat is extra fatty, you may want to drain off some (but not all) of the fat before adding in your spices.
If you can't find mango chutney, you can substitute apricot jam. However, do try to find the chutney. I hate chutney but it's VERY good in this.
I didn't bother peeling the apples. I just diced them up, skin on. It made no difference and saved me a lot of time.
Use a big enough pan to actually stir all this stuff together. When I first made this, I used the pan we normally use to make tacos, because I know it holds a pound of ground beef without a problem. However, the bread and fruit add a lot of bulk, and I had a difficult time stirring.
You'll know the dish is ready when you can insert a fork into the custardy part on top, and it comes out clean. If your fork still has creamy stuff on it, continue baking until it's fully set.
