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South African Dish - Bobotie

Bicycle Lee
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Bicycle Lee

Bicycle Lee

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Posted (edited)

OK....so I met this girl in one of my classes who is from South Africa...such a cutie, great company...oooooweeee! that accent really does something to me...

ANYway, we were out to sushi the other night and I asked her about food in S. Africa... she told me her favorite dish was something called "Bobotie"....and I was hoping that some of you well-steeped food folks could give me a hand in concocting this dish to win her heart...

Thanks in advance for any reply... :biggrin:

Edited by Bicycle Lee (log)

"Make me some mignardises, &*%$@!" -Mateo

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skchai

skchai

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Bobotie is a popular Cape Malay-inspired meat casserole dish. It typically consists of spiced chopped lamb or beef cooked topped with a beaten egg and baked in an oven. There should be several recipes out there on the web - try South African sites such as Henries Hotch Potch on iafrica.com. While you're at it, I would cut out the "oooooweeee!" that probably won't go over very well.

Sun-Ki Chai
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/

Former Hawaii Forum Host

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KatieLoeb

KatieLoeb

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Find yourself a used copy of "Foods of Africa" from the old Time-Life "Foods of the World" cookbook series. There's a great abundance of South African recipes in there.

That ought to score you some points. And I completely understand. I'm a sucker for a guy with an accent too. Got me into trouble in the past... :smile:

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
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Suzanne F

Suzanne F

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I've got a beautiful book, Rainbow Cuisine by Lannice Snyman (published by Koneman), with recipes from all over South Africa. It's got a recipe for Bobotie, and one for Fish Bobotie as well. Let me know if you want me to pm them to you.

And good luck. :wink::biggrin:

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Bicycle Lee

Bicycle Lee

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I would love that, Suzanne....thank you so much...she said her favorite was the meat one, but both recipes would be greatly appreciated....

and about the "oooooweeeee"...I can't help it, I'm a cowboy deep down...hehe

nah, I am a cool cucumber when I'm around her...

Edited by Bicycle Lee (log)

"Make me some mignardises, &*%$@!" -Mateo

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Suzanne F

Suzanne F

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Bicycle Lee: the recipes are on their way to you as we, um, speak. I should have warned you that the measurments are in grams and milliliters, and oven temperatures in Celsius. Oops. If you have trouble figuring anything out, just ask. Sorry.

The Time-Life recipe is very similar, and in U.S. measures.

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Bicycle Lee

Bicycle Lee

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not happening yet....

I'm on holiday til next monday, so I might have to do it next week some time...

I'm excited though...it's been a long while since I have felt this way about a female...

thanks for all of your help...with any luck I can reach her heart through her stomach

"Make me some mignardises, &*%$@!" -Mateo

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  • 2 months later...
NeroW

NeroW

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Posted
Alright the time has come.

The bobotie sounds like no problem...

Any suggestions for wines? Salads? Desserts?

Cool! I forgot about this . . .

Noise is music. All else is food.

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bushey

bushey

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Sauvignon Blanc and Pinotage from South Africa are both good options. We recently had a South Africsn themed wine dinner at a favorite local restaurant and loved the food and wine pairings. Tried to find the wines on the Table & Vine website but their search isn't coming up with them......will dig out my notes when I get home and post them. I especially loved the dark, smoky taste of the pinotage.

The bobotie we had was wonderful. Ostrich, also.

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nanuq

nanuq

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I grew up in SA, so happy to hear you like the bobotie - it'a a Cape Malay dish, as are many "South African" dishes - they are heavily influnced by other cuisines. There are lots of sources of South African products on the internet now, and they are showing up more and more in my local markets.

I'm not very fond of Pinotage, myself, and my hubbie, who is Canadian, won't touch the stuff, he can't stand the nose, but we buy a lot of SA wines - the Sauvignon Blancs are great value, the others getting pricier as they get discovered.

Cheers

Tracey

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bushey

bushey

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I found the listing of wines we had at the South African dinner:

Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc, Stellenbosch 2003 -- this was just a terrific sauvignon blanc, zippy with acidity the way I like. It had a little bit of lemony flavor, too. Went will with a trio of appetizers (birks, doro wat and grilled calamari salad) and our salad of roasted beets and carrots.

Simonsig Pinotage, Stellenbosch 2001 -- This is the one I loved. It had an earthy, smoky taste with a hint of plums and berries.

Glen Carlou Grand Classiqe, Paarl 2000-- A bordeaux blend. I found this a little heavy on the tannins, but my husband, who likes his wines "chewy", preferred it over the pinotage.

Served with my marinated antelope kebab, bresaola-style venison (oh my, so good!) and bobotie, accompanied by charkalaka, which is a spicy coleslaw. My husband had the ostrich stew with msamba (braised kale with peanuts), both of which were delicious. By the way, our menu describes the bobotie as you did: "a dish originating from the Cape Malay people. Curried ground meat, tomato and fruit chutney topped with a baked custard".

Pineau de Laborie, Pinotage dessert wine, Paarl 1998 --Fortified with brandy made from pinotage grapes. Similar in taste to Port, but with an underlying richness. Very good with my Pumpkin Bread pudding. Mr. bushey doesn't "do" pumpkin, so he had the Melktart, a custard tart served with lion paw puff pastry. A bit bland overall.

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Alex

Alex

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OK, I gotta ask. What took you so long? :laugh:

I'm looking forward to hearing about how the dinner was received by the object of your affection. I hope it was :wub:

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

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Bicycle Lee

Bicycle Lee

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still not yet....this Friday night is the zero hour

it took so long due to scheduling problems...she is a gymnast for the University I attend, and their season doesn't start til next semester so she has been really busy with formulating new routines and practicing. On top of all that, since she is an international student, she has to take a certain amount of credit hours (15, I believe) AND since she is on scholarship she has to get above a 3.5 so she has just been incredibly busy. Now that she is done with all of her schooling and is preparing to return to SA for Christmas, she finally has some free time.

I almost forgot to thank all of you...I am going to try my hardest to find some SA wines here in Utah... haven't yet decided on a salad or dessert, mainly because I have been up to my ears in renaissance humanism, but hopefully I can get that out of the way tomorrow...

Edited by Bicycle Lee (log)

"Make me some mignardises, &*%$@!" -Mateo

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
lueid813

lueid813

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Find yourself a used copy of "Foods of Africa" from the old Time-Life "Foods of the World" cookbook series. There's a great abundance of South African recipes in there.

Excerpts from "Recipes: African Cooking (Foods of the World)" by Laurens van der Post, including a recipe for Bobotie (South Africa), are online here:

www.congocookbook.com/c0179.html

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  • 19 years later...
TdeV

TdeV

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Reading a new cookbook from my library  VEGAN AFRICA, Plant Based Recipes from Ethiopia to Senegal, by Marie Kacouchia. She says Bobotie is traditionally made from meat, similar to the French Hachis Parmentier. She says the dish was brought to Africa from Indonesia and adapted by the Cape Malays, descendants of slaves and political deportees.

 

Her dish uses green lentils, onions, carrots, walnuts, apples, raisins, apricot jam, garlic, soy sauce, cinnamon, cumin, pepper, cloves, paprika, turmeric, lemon, wheat bread and plant milk. There is also a sauce.

 

PM me if you would like this recipe.

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Smithy

Smithy

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On 12/1/2023 at 10:07 AM, TdeV said:

Reading a new cookbook from my library  VEGAN AFRICA, Plant Based Recipes from Ethiopia to Senegal, by Marie Kacouchia. She says Bobotie is traditionally made from meat, similar to the French Hachis Parmentier. She says the dish was brought to Africa from Indonesia and adapted by the Cape Malays, descendants of slaves and political deportees.

 

Her dish uses green lentils, onions, carrots, walnuts, apples, raisins, apricot jam, garlic, soy sauce, cinnamon, cumin, pepper, cloves, paprika, turmeric, lemon, wheat bread and plant milk. There is also a sauce.

 

PM me if you would like this recipe.

 

This may or may not be of help to the original question, but I've found a few links here relevant to Bobotie 

 

From the Dinner topic (no specific recipe) 

 

and here is @JohnT's post on the topic:

 

 

 

 

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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