Real Food Friday Feast - Free range, organic good old South African Bobotie!

Things are crazy in the Lowe-Martin household! Today we are going on holiday for a week with my folks and GLM's family so there has been MAJOR shopping, cooking, soaking, fermenting and baking going on. The freezer and fridge are literally OVERFLOWING with food. This is what happens when you are a real foodist and only eat organic and free range. You have to plan ahead, and plan WELL. You can't shop on the way or there if you want to keep it clean!

So my mom and I are handling 5 dinners for the gang. That's 8 adults and a toddler. It's a lot of food if you think about it AND you need to try and keep it interesting and add variety. I'm doing my chicken curry of course, then we've got 2 whole chickens to slow cook, some free range lamb for a lamb casserole, a wild caught snoek, courtesy of Woolies, and finally, my mom's Bobotie.

It's not something I've ever thought of making, mostly because it uses lamb mince and I never used to eat lamb. But since I discovered that I can eat lamb as long as it's free range, I've really been enjoying it. HOWEVER... because we're already doing lamb one of the nights, we decided to change the recipe to another kind of meat.

Some of my international followers may be wondering just what Bobotie is. Well, it's a traditional South African dish made with spicy mince and an egg-based topping. Actually, the first recipe for bobotie appeared in a Dutch cookbook in 1609 and, shortly after that, it ended up in South Africa and was adopted by the Cape Malay community. 

You'd be amazed how easy it is to make Bobotie organic and free range. My mom's recipe wasn't originally, but we modified it a bit and now it's a deliciously, nutritious organic meal. The fact that it's spicy is also a huge bonus because spices are incredibly good for you! Needless to say, all ingredients need to be organic and the meat, free range.

Bobotie - Serves 4

1 med slice sourdough bread (gluten free if you're gluten intolerant like me!)

full cream milk to soak bread in (use goat's milk of you're lactose intolerant)

2 med leeks

2 garlic cloves

2cm piece fresh ginger

25g butter

2 tsp masala (1 tsp if it's a hot masala like mine and you are feeding heat intolerant people!)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 cloves (this is optional)

2 tsp ground allspice (make your own allspice with equal parts ground nutmeg, cinnamon and clove)

1 tsp mixed herbs

500g ostrich mince (this is up to you! We decided to go with ostrich, you can use any mince you want)

1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

50g dried apricots (sulphur free)

50g sultanas or raisins (sulphur free)

25g soaked, flaked almonds (or just grind up some whole almonds into chunks with a pestle and mortar)

3 tbsp chutney (we found some homemade, organic tomato chutney at a local shop)

4 tbsp chopped parsley

2 bay leaves

Topping

250ml full cream milk (use goat's milk of you're lactose intolerant)

3 large free range eggs

salt and black pepper (use a good quality mineral salt)

4 thin lemon slices

2 bay leaves

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180º
• Soak bread in just enough milk to cover it, then mash with a fork and put to one side
• Wash and peel the leeks and garlic
• Peel and grate the ginger
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low to medium heat and cook the garlic and leeks for about 5-7 minutes, until softened.
• Stir in the ginger, masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cloves, allspice and herbs and cook for about 2 minutes.
• In a separate pan, fry the mince on a medium heat until it's coloured. Make sure you break up all the lumps. 
• Add it to the leek and garlic mixture
• Add the mashed bread and the vinegar and heat up altogether, mixing it well.
• Chop the apricots and stir them in with the sultanas, almonds, chutney, parsley and bay leaves
• Tip the whole mixture into an oven-proof casserole dish and press it down firmly then set aside.

Topping

• Beat milk and eggs together
• Season with salt and pepper
• Pour over the top of the mince mixture
• Put the lemon slices and bay leaves over the top
• Place in the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes (keep an eye on it. The topping must set and the colour should be golden)

I am so excited to make this next week! It is such a lovely recipe and so easy actually. If you are stuck for any ingredients and you live in Jhb, head to Fruit and Roots to find pretty much everything you need. Pick n pay sells free range ostrich mince. You will also find a lot of these ingredients at the Bryanston Organic Market which is where I got mine.

The bad news is, as I am away on holiday, blogging time will be limited. I will TRY and post when I can but I think it's best to assume that you won't hear from me until Monday 28th! We will be spending some time in the Kruger and signal is generally not too great around there. I also want to take advantage of having some quality time with my folks and my GLM:)

So, have a wonderful weekend and week and happy cooking!