Bobotie, the national dish of South Africa, is an interesting meal. The closest thing I can compare it to is shepherd's pie, but with different flavors and textures.
The first step is to soak some white bread in milk, which creates quite an unappetizing visual. There's something about wet bread that really grosses me out, so let's move on.
Next, I browned my "meat" and sauteed some onions. Bobotie is normally made with ground beef. Somebody picked up the wrong tube of fake meat at the grocery store, though, so I ended up using some veggie sausage, which ended up giving another dimension of flavor to this already complex dish.
I then added raisins and a couple tablespoons of apricot preserves. In South Africa, they probably use sultanas/golden raisins, but regular raisins are what I had available. There are also quite a few different options for the preserves, with many recipes calling for mango chutney, some for chopped dried apricots. I think as long as you've got some kind of fruit in there, you're good.
All of that simmered together with a bay leaf or two until nice and thick.
Then the wet bread comes into play. After most of the liquid gets absorbed by the bread, you then squeeze it to get out the extra liquid. It looks slightly less disgusting at this point. I actually forgot to mix the bread in with the meat mixture before getting it all pressed neatly into my baking dish, so I had to re-do it all.
Ah there we go, a much mushier version than the picture above. I suppose the bread acts as a nice binder for the ground meat, but it probably could have used less of it. I've since used the same technique (but with bread crumbs) for making meatballs so I suppose it's not too crazy.
What I found more fascinating was the topping. Simply eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and a few bay leaves arranged on top. I think I probably used a bit too much milk--or if I had used something with more fat, it probably would have worked better. Most recipes call for whole milk, but I just used almond milk.
I didn't get a nice smooth texture on the top like the pictures I've seen--in most of them it honestly looks like it could be mashed potatoes. Mine was a little goopy, probably because of the lack of fat to emulsify everything. It didn't quite firm up the way I wanted it to. I think I would have enjoyed this dish more if the textures went right; I'm sure it's meant to be a lot more solid, like a casserole, or like I mentioned before, a shepherd's pie. I also think the flavors are probably a bit of an acquired taste, with so many competing flavors, but I bet with the right ingredients it's lovely.
Recipes Used: Bobotie
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