babotie

You probably won't hear much from me for the next little while; I have a good friend from the US staying with me and we are spending a lot of hours talking and catching up on lost time. :)

Tonight we made babotie for dinner. This is a traditional South African dish of spiced meat topped with a savoury custard. It's very cheap, easy to make, delicious and nutritious.

To make 3 large servings:

Approx 1lb lean minced (ground) beef

Olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 slice of soft sandwich bread, soaked in milk for 30 seconds, and squeezed dry

2 tablespoons of mango chutney

1-2 tablespoons of curry powder

75g (2-3 ounces) of sultanas or raisins

75g toasted almonds (I didn't have any so left them out)

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

3 eggs

150ml (5 fluid ounces) milk

1. Set the oven to 180 Celsius. Brown your minced beef, breaking it up as you cook. Drain off the fat and set aside.

2. Add some olive oil to the pan and soften the onion and garlic for a few minutes.

3. Return the beef to the pan, and add the bread, chutney, curry powder, raisins, lemon zest and juice and bay leaves. Season well with salt and pepper and mix very well. Transfer to a greased casserole.

4. Beat the eggs and milk together. Pour over the meat mixture and bake for approximately 40 minutes until golden.

5. Eat!

We had ours with a delicious dressed leafy salad and brown rice. I'm stuffed now!