Bobotie with dried apricots and cashew nuts for RSG

A respected and well-loved fellow blogger, Nina Timm from www.my-easy-cooking.com, invited me to a cook-along at her house on Tuesday. Myself and 2 other bloggers, Ishay Govender-Ypma from www.foodandthefabulous.com and Jane-Ann Hobbs from www.scrumptious.co.za, were asked to create festive recipes using Safari dried fruit and nuts. Martelize Brink from RSG joined us and recorded a few snippets while we were cooking. You can listen to Nina and Martelize live on RSG from 09h00 on Thursday morning, discussing my recipe for bobotie.

This is my spin on a traditional bobotie, using dried apricots instead of raisins, and adding cashew nuts for extra flavour and texture. It was such a hit! I can recommend that you experiment with different dried fruit and nuts – apples, peaches or prunes will also work well, or try almonds instead of cashews.

Ingredients: (serves 4 – to make a larger bobotie, just double all the ingredients)

• 30 ml (2 T) vegetable oil
  
• Finely chopped: 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 t freshly grated ginger root
  
• Dry spices: 2 t mild curry powder, ½ t turmeric, ½ t fine coriander, ½ t fine cumin, ½ t fine cinnamon
  
• 500 g lean beef mince
  
• salt and pepper
  
• Flavourants: 1 T lemon juice, 2 T chutney, 2 T fine apricot jam, 1 T Worcestershire sauce, 1 T tomato paste
  
• 1 slice of bread, processed to fine crumbs, soaked in water
  
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) finely chopped dried apricots
• 100 g cashew nuts, chopped (not too finely)
  
• 4 bay leaves
  

Top layer:

• 250 ml coconut milk (or use regular milk)
  
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
  

Method:

1. In a heavy based pot over medium heat, add the oil, then fry the onion, garlic and ginger untill soft and translucent but not brown.
2. Add the dry spices and fry for 1 minute (the bottom of the pot will look very dry, don’t worry about it)
3. Add the mince, then fry untill it has changed colour, taking care not to brown it too much. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add all flavourants, along with the soaked breadcrumbs, chopped apricots and chopped cashews. Stir well, then cover, and let it simmer on low heat for 20-25 minutes. This mixture burns very easily, so check on it every 5 minutes and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to prevent burning.
5. Remove from heat, then transfer to an ovenproof dish and flatten the surface. Press in the bay leaves.
6. In a separate bowl, lightly mix the eggs with the coconut milk, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Pour over mince mixture. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes, or until the top layer is set and golden brown.
7. Serve with rice, extra chutney, desiccated coconut, sliced bananas, tomato sambal,  or any other sambals of your choice.