Globe-cooking recipe (South Africa) : Bobotie and Geelrys en Rosyntijes (Yellow Rice)

Our globe-cooking adventure took us to a new country this month, thanks to the South African-themed Kitchen Trotter box. I decided to try out the intriguingly named Bobotie and Geelrys en Rosyntijes.

This required two ingredients from the box, the Durban curry mix and the Coriander.

The Durban Curry spice kit contains lots of whole spices (cloves, cardamon pods, cinnamon, bay leaves, black pepper) as well as a sachet of mild curry powder. The packet also has a recipe for Durban Curry which I will share with you in a later blogpost.

Bobotie and Geelrys en Rosyntijes

ingredients :

Bobotie :

1kg lean minced beef

2 onions, chopped

1tbsp curcuma

1tbsp sugar

juice of 1 lemon

3tbsp apricot jam

1/2 cup sultanas

6 bay leaves

1tbsp vegetable oil

salt, pepper

25cl milk

1 egg

 Geelrys en Rosyntijes (Yellow Rice)

2 cups white rice

2tsp curcuma

1 stick cinnamon

2 tsp sugar

1tsp salt

1/2  cup sultanas

water

Heat the corainder in a dry pan until the aroma of warming spices fills the kitchen ! Turn off the heat and carefully crush with the back of a tablespoon.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onions over a low heat, stirring from time to time, until they are soft and translucent. Add the crushed coriander, the curry powder and curcuma and mix well. 

Add the lemon juice, sugar, jam (I was all out of apricot jam and didn't think blackcurrant would work (!), so I used half chilli jam and half onion chutney - this worked perfectly. I bet marmalade would be good too.), bay leaves, sultanas and mince and cook for 10-15 minutes until the meat is cooked.

I was a bit dubious about all those mixed flavours so I had a little taste - it's delicious at this stage and could be served straight away with rice. However, I decided to follow the recipe and mixed up the egg and milk and poured it over the top, after fishing out the bay leaves. Rather than sitting on top of the meat, as it did in the picture, my milky mixture sank straight to the bottom and mixed in with the meat. With hindsight, I don't think I had enough mixture so I'd use 2 eggs and twice as much milk next time so that it covers the meat. I don't think it really mattered though. (Another recipe version I saw online mentions adding bread crumbs to the egg/milk mixture, which would probably help it stay on top. Also, the Kitchen Trotter recipe suggests making this in delicate little individual ramekins - I decided to supersize it for a family meal !)

Time to put this strange-looking mixture in the oven at 220° for 15 minutes, until the egg is cooked. (I put a sheet of foil over the top after 10 minutes because the meat started to go a bit too brown.)

Time to move on to the yellow rice. Put one quantity of rice for two quantities of water in a saucepan, add the curcuma, cinnamon, sugar, salt and sultanas and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cover until the rice is cooked (about 15 minutes later). Mine didn't come out very yellow because I didn't have any curcuma and I'd run out of turmeric so my only other option would have been yellow food colouring from my baking cupboard !

Time to check on the Bobotie - yay, it worked !

I definitely needed more egg for it all to set properly and the mince gave off a bit too much liquid (not lean enough maybe?) but it still tasted really nice. It's not very spicy - you could add extra chilli powder if you want to hot it up - but this means it doesn't overpower the delicate flavours of the yellow rice. I love the fact that each mouthful has a different combination of flavours - the sweetness of the jam/onion chutney works amazingly well. 

For a quick evening meal with mince that is a bit more exciting than the usual cottage pie/spaghetti bolognese/mince and onions/chilli con carne options, I'd definitely make this again and stop before the eggy mixture stage. Add a sachet of microwaveable rice and you could have the whole thing on the table in 15 minutes !

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Kitchen Nomad Globe-Cooking Recipe : Mexico - Chilli Honey Crumble

Kitchen Nomad Globe-Cooking Recipe : Pakistan - Spiced Courgette & Aubergine Pakoras

Globe-cooking recipe : Aji de Gallina (Peruvian Spicy Creamed Chicken)