South African · Main

Bobotie

Intermediate
35 min
roughly 3 of 4 for cost

bright · rich · nutty-toasted · aromatic Leads with acid holding everything up to the light, richness that coats and comforts, opening aromatic and staying there.

Ingredients

800 g coarsely minced lamb or beef
2 thick slices white bread, about 80 g
350 ml full cream milk
300 g onions, finely chopped
40 g butter
4 garlic cloves, crushed
20 g fresh ginger, grated
14 g mild Cape curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
60 g dried apricots, chopped small
40 g sultanas
45 ml brown grape vinegar
40 g smooth apricot jam
12 g salt
3 large eggs
6 fresh lemon leaves, or 4 bay leaves
30 g flaked almonds

Equipment

Grater / zester

The skills inside

Tempering a custard Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

Soak the bread in 150 ml of the milk until it is saturated and falling apart, then squeeze it out over the bowl; keep both the pulp and the milk it gives back.
Sweat the onions in butter over medium heat until slack, translucent and sweet at the edges; add garlic, ginger, curry powder and turmeric and fry only until the spices smell toasted and the pan looks dry, about a minute.
Raise the heat, add the mince and break it up until it has just lost its raw colour without browning hard, then stir in apricots, sultanas, vinegar, jam, salt and the bread pulp until the mixture is glossy and tastes sweet, then sour, then salty.
Press it into a buttered 25 cm dish, loosely rather than packed tight, and stand the lemon leaves upright in the surface.
Whisk the eggs into the remaining milk plus the milk squeezed from the bread, pour it over so it floods the surface evenly, and scatter the almonds.
Bake at 160C (320F) until the custard is set and lightly freckled at the edges but still trembles in the middle when the dish is knocked, 35 to 40 minutes; rest 10 minutes before cutting. 40 min

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Tempering a custard 59 recipes

The hot liquid went into the eggs a little at a time with constant whisking, and only then did everything go back to the pot.
The heat under it stayed gentle throughout and it was never allowed to boil.
Stirred continuously and right into the corners of the pan, where it thickens first and sets unnoticed.
Judged by behaviour: it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a clean line when a finger is drawn through it.
Taken off before it looks finished, and strained. Residual heat carries it the rest of the way, and a custard held on the heat until it looks right arrives past right.

Where it goes wrong The hot liquid went in too fast, or the pot went back over full heat to save time. The yolks set into threads before they could thicken smoothly, and a scrambled custard does not come back; straining hides a little of it and nothing hides the rest.

Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes

No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.

Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.

At the Table

The Pour: Cabernet or Rioja Reserva
Also Right: Malbec
From the Taps: Porter
Zero-Proof: Pomegranate spritz

Lamb’s sweet grass-fat wants structure: tannin from Cabernet, smoke-echo from Rioja’s oak, or Syrah’s pepper for the spiced routes.

Family notes

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Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Bobotie Technique: Tempering a custardThe skill inside this recipe The cuisine, deeper Technique films from the South African kitchen