Bobotie

When I last was in South Africa two years ago, British TV chef Anthony Worrall Thompson apparently was there at around the same time as I could read in the local newspapers. Now, they asked him: What do you think about South African food? He replied something down the lie of: It is a bit like Europe in the 50ies. Everything, especially vegetables, are desperately overcooked.
I am not a big fan of Worrall Thompson, but he definitely has a point there. If vegetables make it on your plate, which isn't that common in South Africa anyways, then they are soggy, tasteless and vitamin-free.

What South Africans are good in cooking though is meat which is always deliciously marinated or seasoned. Still, in can be a bit chewy, dry and overcooked.
When I last cooked Bobotie my South African friend was surprised how moist my version of this dish was in comparison to hers.
Bobotie is something like a squidgy meat loaf. Using good quality meat and the right ratio between beef and pork mince is paramount if you don't want to be left with a rather dry dish.

There is only one kind of meat that makes it on my table: organic meat. It is so much more succulent than standard meat. Try to fry organic bacon versus cheap bacon. You will not see any water coming out of the organic bacon, whereas all the flavour and succulence of the cheap bacon simply vaporises.

The succulence in my Bobotie of course also comes from adding pork. My experience is that every mince dish benefits from the addition of pork as it doesn't dry out as quickly as beef does.
Bobotie, for 5-6
: 200g organic beef mince
: 200g organic pork mince
: 1 large white onion
: 1 slice of brown bread, preferably sourdough bread
: 300ml milk
: 2 small/medium eggs
: 1 oxtail stock-cube, dissolved in 4 tbsp water
: 3 tbsp apricot jam
: 1 tbsp ginger, grated
: 2-3 tbsp curry powder
: 1 handful of yellow raisins

Soak the bread in half of the milk. Set aside.
Fry the onions until soft, then add ginger, curry and jam. Once the jam has liquidised, add the bread (plus any leftover milk from the soaking process) and the dissolved oxtail stock cube. Combine the mixture well, making sure your are not left with any big pieces of bread. Pour onto a plate or into a bowl.

Using the same pan, fry the meat in a little oil. When the meat has turned slightly brown on the outside, remove it from the heat, then add the bread mixture and raisins and mix everything well together.
Now whisk the eggs and mix them with the remaining milk. Pour half of this mixture over the meat and give it another quick final stir before transferring the mix into an ovenproof dish.
You can either bake the Bobotie in one large dish or - as i did - divide the mixture between 6 large, lined muffin tins.

Pour the remaining egg/milk mixture over the Bobotie before baking it in a 180 degree Celsius oven for approx 45 minutes, or 25-30 mins if you use muffin tins. Serve with creme fraiche, mustard, steamed greens and curried rice.