Bobotie and Yellow Rice

This is a really good Bobotie (pronounced approximately"Baboowati") recipe. For those of you who don't know, this is a traditional South African delight, which I have stolen, in this instance, from my mother-in-law, Shirley. It's from Annette Human's Seasonal Menus (Human and Rousseau, Cape Town 1998). She says it was puiblished in a newspaper "years ago". Wikipedia says ACTUALLY, it comes from Britain - but isn't that what the British think about everything??? We are used to that kind of stuff in the Colonies.

Anyway, it is a great recipe. Leon made it on Sunday for guests.

Bobotie and yellow rice

Group A

3 medium onions
3T Olive oil
2T brown sugar
2T ground ginger
1T curry powder
1 ½ t Turmeric
¼ t pepper
2 t salt

Peel and chop the onions coarsely. Braise in a heavy-based saucepan until softened. Add the rest of Group A ingredients to the onions and fry lightly.

Group B

3T chutney
2T smooth apricot jam
2T vinegar
2T Worcestershire sauce
2T tomato paste

Mix all the ingredients in Group B and add them to the mixture in group A.

Group C

2 thick slices of brown bread
1kg lean minced beef
5 Bay leaves
1 ½ cup milk
2 eggs

Soak the bread for a while in cold water. Press out most of the water and mash the bread. Mix the mince and bread lightly with the onion mixture. Stew for 15 minutes over a moderate heat, stirring often.
Preheat the oven to 180° C and grease a 2lt oven proof dish.

Spoon the mixture in the dish, press the bay leaves. Beat the milk and eggs together and pour over. Bake for about 1 hour until the egg on the top is golden brown and set.


Yellow Rice

3C boiling water
1 C rice
2T butter or margarine
1T sugar
1t salt
1 cinnamon stick
½ C seedless raisins

Heat all the ingredients except the raisins, slowly to boiling point and boil until the rice is almost dry.

Add the raisins to the rice, stir lightly with a form and simmer over a low heat until dry.