Babotie Recipe

One of my favourite meals each week was Sunday lunch with my family. One of the great classics that was served now and then was babotie, so naturally being overseas this is one meal I missed and decided to try making. Turns out it’s a rather easy meal to make!

For those who don’t know, it’s a rather unique South African mince dish served with rice.

Ingredients for the meat dish:

500g lean mince
2 tsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped large red onion
1 large carrot
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup milk
2 crustless slices of soft white bread
2 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp hot curry spice
2 tsp coriander spice
1 tsp chopped ginger
2 tsp turmeric
A dash of cinnamon
2 tsp sugar
A dash of lemon juice
Some ground salt and pepper
Ingredients for the topping:
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
A grind of salt
A few bay leaves

Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Soak the bread in milk
Pan fry the mince in olive oil
Add chopped onion, carrot, garlic and ginger to the mince while it’s cooking
Mash the soaking bread with a fork till it’s a pulp
Add the butter, raisins, tumeric, curry powder coriander, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice to the meat and mix in along with the bread pulp
Lower the heat – while that is simmering, make the topping: beat the eggs together and add the buttermilk
Transfer your mince mixture to a casserole dish
Add the topping mixture to the casserole dish
Put the bay leaves on top and season with salt and pepper
Pop it in the oven for 40 minutes
Serve with some fresh herbs for the babotie and yellow rice (tumeric on normal rice with some raisins)