Recipe: Bobotie (2), also Curry Marinade for Sosaties, Traditional Onion Salad

Hi Julia :-) Here are 2 recipes for Bobotie that were posted previously by Julie/South Africa and Olga/Canada. Since you are doing a South African meal, I thought that you might also like the recipes for Curry Marinade for Sosaties, and Traditional Onion Salad that Julie posted as well. Also, if you are interested (though I have not checked), if you type "Julie/S.Africa recipes" in the search box, you will find more recipes that she posted and perhaps more ideas for your meal.

"We have such a diverse mixture of dishes ??.a lot based on our wide availability and variety of meats, fruits, seafood and vegetables, our climate is very conducive for agricultural products.
South Africa has a cosmopolitan population. We owe our cuisine to all the four corners of the world and the special qualities of South African soil and its climate. The combination has been unique and has produced dishes as varied as sosaties, sour fig preserve, biltong and Soutribbetjie (salted rib).
Meat forms a large part of your average South Africans diet. Game is also popular, ostritch is one of the meats that is becoming increasingly popular (Very healthy it is too being extremely low in fat) Eating Game is associated with our pioneering background.
Fish and other seafood's are in wonderful supply here both in the variety and quality. In the Cape especially the rich variety of seafood and the early peoples that colonized the Cape in its early days (the Malays from Indonesia spring to mind and the Dutch) some of these wonderful dishes have become over the years uniquely South African. Such as Pickled fish (I adore this!), smoorsnook and numerous fragrant fish and shellfish curries.
Our Sunny climate encourages us to barbecue a lot (we call it a Braai) and I can think of nothing nicer than the aroma of meat fish or chicken cooking in the open air!
I thought I'd start with a few very tradional South African dishes such as Bobotie and Sosaties."

BOBOTIE

2 Lbs of minced beef or lamb
1 thick slice of white bread
1-cup milk
2 onions chopped
2 tbls butter
2 Tbls mild curry powder (use your favourite or I could post you my home made one)
Good grinding of Black Pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbls apricot jam
12 crushed almonds (optional)
2 eggs
6 orange, lemon or bay leaves

Soak the bread in half of the milk until very soft, then mash with a fork (should look like porridge).
Saut he onion in the heated butter until transparent. Add the curry powder and seasonings and cook for a further 2 minutes, then add the lemon juice, soaked bread, jam, almonds and minced meat. Continue to cook until the meat just begins to colour. Place in a greased oven dish and even out the top.

Beat the eggs and the remaining milk and pour over the top of the meat.

Arrange the leaves of choice on top and bake at 160C/325f for 30 minutes.

Serve with rice, chutney/sliced bananas and sambal, which is a tangy condiment of Malayan origin and consists of grated quince flavoured with salt and vinegar or chopped tomato flavoured with chopped onion. (Sort of like a salsa!)

THE WORD Sosatie is believed to have come from satay, a very similar Indonesian Recipe. Sosaties are made from cubes of lamb, pork and speck (sheep-tail fat, but this is rarely used these days due to health reasons!) and dried and fresh fruit such as Apricots (my fav.) and prunes. Impaled onto wooden skewers. Peppers and onions can be used to or a combination of both.
Pork and Prunes are good, you could wrap the pork cubes with streaky bacon (this is delicious as it keeps the meat moist, important when you are using pork fillet! And imparts a lovely flavour.) Chicken cubes (Thigh meat works best), peppers and pineapple, also Rump cubes with Apricots or pears.

The meat is then marinated for a day in a cool place and then grilled preferably over hot glowing coals.

Curry Marinade for Sosaties
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4 Large onions, cut into rings
2 Tbls sunflower oil
3 cups vinegar (I use a light red wine one)
3 Tbls sugar
1 Tbls mild curry powder
3 Tbls apricot jam 4 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground turmeric (also known as Borrie in Afrikaans)

Saut he onions in the heated oil until transparent. Add the curry powder and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. Pour marinade over the cubes of meat and leave overnight.

Drain the meat that you have chosen to use and thread the meat onto wooden skewers (remember to soak the skewers in water for a few minutes, otherwise they will burn!) And grill slowly over hot coals. Heat the curry marinade and serve separately.

Traditional Onion Salad

18 pickling onions, peeled
1-cup water
1/2 cup wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp dries mustard
1 tsp salt 2 eggs beaten

Boil onions until tender, but not too soft, drain. Boil together the water, vinegar, sugar, mustard and salt for 5 minutes. Allow cooling. Add beaten eggs, return to the stove and cook till thickened, stirring constantly at a low heat so it just simmers. Once thick, allow cooling. Pour over onions and serve.

African Bobotie

Ingredients:

3 slices day-old bread
1 1/2 cups milk
2 medium onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs

Directions:

Soak bread in milk. Squeeze milk from bread, reserving milk. Combine all ingredients, except milk, and 1 egg.

Press mixture into an 11x7-inch baking dish.

Add enough milk to reserved milk to make 3/4 cup. Beat together milk and remaining egg. Pour over meat mixture. Bake uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.