Bobotie

This is an old favourite from our days in South Africa back in the nineties. Bobotie is a South African dish from the Cape Malay community, said to have originated in Indonesia. It's a baked layered dish of minced meat cooked with spices and topped with a layer of savoury egg custard. It also includes a sweet element from dried fruits, apricot jam and chutney. It is usually served with rice - traditionally yellow rice with turmeric in South Africa, although I cooked coconut rice last time, which complemented it very well.

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6):

sunflower oil

600g minced meat (a mixture of pork and beef is good)

1 large onion finely chopped

large clove garlic, minced

1cm piece of fresh ginger, minced

2 - 3 tsp curry paste (I used Patak's Madras) or more to taste

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tbsp chutney ( I used a mixture of onion chutney and some apple, sage and chili jelly)

(if you don't have chutney, use a bit more jam and add a tablespoon of cider or wine vinegar for the acidity)

1 tbsp apricot or apple jam (I used apple and ginger made by my dad)

2oz dried apricots, chopped

2 slices white bread, soaked in about 200ml milk

bay leaves

2 to 3 large eggs (depends how deep you like your custard layer - I like quite a lot!)

300 ml milk

salt and pepper

handful of cashew and/or almonds, roughly chopped

handful of slivered or flaked almonds to top

1. Roughly tear up and soak the bread in the milk and set aside for about 15 minutes or so for the milk to have time to absorb.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C
3. Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and spices in sunflower oil gently until the onion is soft and slightly brown.
4.  Add the meat and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the chutney, jam, a bayleaf and apricots.
5. Gently squeeze the bread and tip the excess milk out, reserving it to add to the custard, then mash the bread and stir it into the meat mixture.
6. Continue to cook until the meat is just about done - not too much, as it will be baked in the oven. 
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Tip into an ovenproof dish (I used a 28cm square dish) and spread evenly, pressing it down slightly. The meat layer should be a 3- 4 cm deep.
9. Beat together the eggs and milk with a little seasoning (a bit of turmeric is good too)
10. Pour the egg mixture over the meat and stick a few bay leaves into it (lemon leaves are more authentic, but they don't grow here).
11. Sprinkle some slivered almonds over the top.
12. Bake for around 45 minutes until the custard is set and slightly browned.
13. Serve with rice and steamed veggies.