How to make perfect Bobotie

Golfing gourmands know that the choice of menu for the annual Augusta National Champions Dinner falls to the previous year’s Masters Champion. So the honour of picking the food for the 2009 event fell to South African sportsman Trevor Immelman. Our home-grown hero chose to serve the baked mince and savoury custard dish bobotie because he “wanted to show something classically South African”.

Photograph by Theana Calitz

 

Ja well, no fine – the problem is that ‘classically South African’ is such a contested concept. It is impossible for one South African to cook up a batch of bobotie without another South African turning up her nose. The fights and fury engendered around whether to add bread and the appropriate ratio of meat to fat make the Rumble in the Jungle look like a Sunday-school picnic.

And, if you really want to see otherwise amiable aunties tearing into each other, ask them about bobotie’s origins. Some say that it is derived from the Indonesian dish bobotok and that it arrived on the southern tip of Africa via the slave trade. Others argue that the recipe existed in Holland prior to European settlement of the Cape and that the dried-fruit filling is an indication of Middle Eastern crusading influences. As with everything South African, the gastro-politics of race are marinated deep into the bobotie battle. Let’s just say it; what the aunties are actually fighting about whether a black person or a white person ‘invented’ bobotie.

And in so doing they are so missing the point. Everyone and no-one invented it. Food culture is not static and great dishes almost invariably have multiple influences. Bobotie is a fusion food distinct from either of its proposed antecedents. Anywhere else in the world both Cape Malay and Cape Dutch culinary genres would probably be classified as sub-genres of a single creole cuisine. And if the tannies could stop boxing for a moment they might see that. They did it together and mixed all their spice, bitterness and sweetness into every mouthful.

My rule of thumb when looking for a South African recipe is, when in doubt, consult C Louis Leipoldt. The great man’s recipe is made with pork (rather than the more common modern lamb or beef versions) which makes it an ideal match for the fragrant generosity of a Chenin Blanc. Bobotie’s spicy, gingerladen, fruit-infused flavours understand the gingered notes in the wine while its floral aromas balance the violet notes in the saffron-infused custard topping.

And even in the midst of the battle of the bobotie we need to thank our lucky stars – at least our boy can pick a halfway grown-up meal. Tiger Woods chose cheeseburgers and milkshakes.

Bobotie
Serves four

Filling
300g pork mince (made from 200g pork fillet and 100g pork belly)
3cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 plump garlic cloves, grated
finely grated zest 1 naartjie or 1 lemon
1 red chilli, finely chopped
50g red onion, finely chopped and fried
2.5ml whole coriander
2.5ml salt
2.5ml black pepper, ground
5ml fresh marjoram, finely chopped
15ml tamarind
125ml white wine
15g butter
15g slivered almonds, toasted
100g dried apricots, diced

Custard
125ml (½ cup) plain yoghurt
1 egg
1 pinch of saffron soaked in a tablespoon of water
salt

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC. (Note: Bobotie is at its most delicious if it is cooked in a bain marie water bath because this allows the custard topping to remain smooth-textured.)
2. Soak the tamarind and white wine then pour through a sieve to strain out and discard the pips.
3. Mince the pork, the tamarind and wine liquid and all the spices.
4. Add all the remaining filling ingredients and work together very well with a wooden spoon. Pack
the filling into an oven-proof container and set aside.
5. Beat together the custard ingredients and pour over the mince.
6. Put your bobotie dish into  the water bath and bake gently until the custard topping is set and the mince is cooked through (about 30 to 45 minutes).

PERFECT PAIRING
Wine magazine recommends
FORT SIMON CHENIN BLANC 2009
    
NOTES: An abundance of fruit – bruised apple, peach, apricot, as well as some spice.

OTHER OPTIONS:
Douglas Green 2010, Jordan Barrel Fermented 2009.