A Taste of Africa - Bobotie - traditional South African dish
Molly MacRae: Please give a warm Mystery Lovers' Kitchen welcome to Stanley Trollip. I met Stanley and Michael quite a few years ago at the Magna Cum Murder conference in Muncie, Indiana. They are a charming duo who write the award-winning Detective Kubu mysteries.
Stanley Trollip: I am half of the author known as Michael Stanley. The other half is Michael Sears.
The main character in our Detective Kubu series
is, of course, Detective Kubu – a large man who loves his food. One of his
favourite dishes is bobotie – originally a ground lamb casserole, but which can
also be made with ground beef.
Kubu lives and works in Botswana, but most of
the non-local foods originate in South Africa.
South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation
because of its diverse cultures. (Did you know that it has eleven official
languages?) One of these cultures hails from the areas now known as Malaya and
Indonesia and has infused South African cuisine with a variety of aromatic
dishes, such as bobotie.
I have made a variety of curry dishes over the
years I’ve lived in the United States, and bobotie, by far, is the most popular
amongst my American friends. What makes it so appealing, I think, is that the
curry is very mild, and the fruits give it a hint of sweetness. All of this is
enhanced by serving it over yellow rice with sweet mango chutney on the side,
accompanied by cucumber in yoghurt and sliced bananas drizzled with lime juice.
Bobotie is also a wonderful left-over. It can
be frozen and reheated or eaten cold. And it is terrific with sour cream, as
the filling to pita bread. I’m also partial to using it as a filling for an
omelette.
I hope you’ll join the give-away at the end.
Ingredients
2 pounds (900 gms) ground lamb or beef
1 slice bread
4 cups (700 mls) milk
5 eggs
1 medium yellow or white onion chopped
1 – 2 tablespoons (15 – 30 gm) curry powder
1 tablespoon (15 gm) brown sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground pepper
¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice
1 tart apple grated. I leave the skin on.
1 cup (225 gm) seedless raisins or dried
apricots
½ cup (120 gm) slivered almonds
Several bay leaves
Directions
Put the bread into a bowl containing all the
milk. Let stand.
Lightly brown the meat in a skillet, breaking
up any chunks. Transfer to a large
container with a slotted spoon.
Cook the onion in the remaining fat until
translucent. Don’t burn!
Add the curry powder, salt, sugar, and
pepper. Cook for a couple of
minutes. Add the lemon juice. Cook for a few more minutes. Pour the mixture over the meat. (Note that
bobotie is not a spicy hot dish but rather a spicy aromatic dish with a hint of
hot.)
Take the bread out of the milk and squeeze out
the milk back into the bowl. Put the
bread with the meat.
Add raisins, almonds, apple, and 2 eggs to the
meat. Combine.
Pack the mixture firmly into a casserole dish.
Combine the remaining three eggs with the milk
and pour over meat.
Push a few bay leaves into the meat.
Cook for 45 minutes at 300 F (150 C).
Serve hot over yellow rice, with sweet mango
chutney on the side. I’ve provided a simple, delicious recipe for yellow rice
below.
A side dish of thinly sliced cucumbers in
yoghurt (a cucumber raita) works well, as do slices of banana drizzled with
lime juice.
Yellow
rice
Ingredients
1 cup white basmati rice (200gm)
1 (5 ml) teaspoon
butter
1 (5 ml) teaspoon
turmeric
2 (15 ml) tablespoon
seedless raisins
2 cup water (480ml)
Directions
Rinse the rice well.
Put the rice in a pot with the butter,
turmeric and raisins. Pour in the water, stir to mix everything together then
cover the pot.
Bring the water to a boil, reduce to a
simmer and cook until all of the water has been absorbed. Stir to mix before
serving.
Michael Sears |
Stanley Trollip |
Michael Stanley is the pen name of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The two are both South Africans and retired academics, Michael a mathematician and Stanley an educational psychologist. Michael lives in Knysna on the South African south coast, and Stanley splits his time between Minneapolis, Denmark, and Cape Town. Their award-winning mysteries, featuring Detective Kubu, are set in Botswana. Death of the Mantis was an Edgar finalist and Deadly Harvest an International Thriller Writers award finalist. The seventh Detective Kubu mystery, Facets of Death, was released in January 2020 by Poisoned Pen Press. The eighth mystery, A Deadly Covenant, was published in September 2022.
A
stand-alone thriller, Shoot the Bastard,
featuring investigative journalist, Crystal Nguyen, was published in June 2019
by Poisoned Pen Press. Outside North America, Orenda Books published it as Dead of Night.
They
have written and published many short stories and have edited an anthology of
short stories set in hot places called Sunshine
Noir.
Website: www.michaelstanleybooks.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/michaelstanleybooks
Twitter:
@detectivekubu
Instagram:
@detectivekubu
Email: michaelstanley@ michaelstanleybooks.com
Blog:
murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com (with 9 other mystery writers)
Give-away
Please leave an answer to one of these
questions in Comments in order to be put into the hat for a drawing of two
ebooks: the latest Detective Kubu novel, A
Deadly Covenant, and an anthology of our short stories, titled Detective Kubu Investigates. There will
be one winner, who can choose between epub and pdf formats. To temper the pain
of not winning, we’ll give everyone who leaves a comment an ebook copy of a
special recipe book we put together of Kubu’s favourite foods and drinks. It is
titled A Taste of Africa: A KUkBUk.
We’ll make the draw on Sunday, 18th
September.
Question 1: Other than Michael Stanley, who
is your favourite African-born author?
Question 2: Other than bobotie, what is your
favourite African food?
Welcome to the blog. This dish sounds fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting and sharing your recipe. I like Moroccan dishes and have even made my own Moroccan spice mix. Your rice recipe would go well with Moroccan chicken.
ReplyDeleteI think it would work perfectly. Stan
DeleteI don't believe I've read any African authors or had the food. Yours will have to be my first!
ReplyDeletekozo8989(at)hotmail(dot)com
I hope this encourages to try both. Stan
DeleteGround nut stew.
ReplyDeletelibbydodd at comcast dot net
Did you enjoy it? What did you eat it with? Stan
DeletePeanuts are pretty irresistible to me. Something like naan would be great with it.
DeleteI remember bobotie from my years in South Africa. I recently spent a lot of time in Mozambique and the best food there is, by far, the prawns. I'm now spoiled for shrimp or prawns for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteAh, Vicki . . . . Mozambique prawns! Stan
DeleteHello and welcome! I've never had bobotie but it looks tasty. Thanks for visiting and sharing!
ReplyDeleteI hope you try it.
DeleteAnd the winner is . . . . . Libby Dodd! Congratulations. For those who didn't leave their email address in Comments, please send it to us at michaelstanley@michaelstanleybooks.com. We will send you an ebook copy of our Taste of Africa KUkBUk. Thanks for having us.
ReplyDeleteFor those who didn't leave their email address here, please do so. Then I can send you a KUkBUk of African dishes.
ReplyDelete