Cooking Around the World: Bobotie {Lesotho}

Tonight we traveled to Lesotho in our Cooking Around the World Adventure. Dylan was my kitchen elf as we made bobotie.

Bobotie is a slightly sweet, spiced dish with ground meat in an egg custard with bay leaves floated on top. I've made bobotie before - for Brian's South African birthday soiree three years ago - and it was a hit. So, when I realized that this is also a traditional dish in Lesotho, I decided to bring it back to the table. I'm a more conscientious recipe recorder now; hopefully this post will be more useful to anyone who would like to try this delicious dish for themselves.

Lesotho is a small landlocked nation, completely surrounded by South Africa. It's about the size of Maryland and is mountainous - more than 80% of the country is 5,000 feet above sea level.

1 lb 96/4 grassfed beef, ground

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced
olive oil

1 T curry powder
1/2 t ground turmeric
1/2 t ground, smoked paprika

freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
3 T homemade ketchup*
3 T quince marmalade*

7 eggs, lightly beaten
2 T fresh chopped herbs

½ cup milk

bay leaves for garnish

*For these two ingredients, feel free to substitute with whatever you have on hand - something tomato based and something sweet...any kind of jam will do. I believe that apricot is traditional, but I didn't have any.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large frying pan, heat the oil and braise the fennel and leeks until golden.

Add in the meat and cook until completely browned. Season with spices and stir in the ketchup and marmalade. Spoon the mixture into a well-greased, oven-proof dish.

Combine the eggs with the milk and spices and beat well. Pour the mixture over the bobotie and arrange the bay leaves as garnish.

Cover and bake for an hour, or until the egg custard has set. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until golden brown.

We served the bobotie with a large green salad and roasted beets. Delicious!

These Global Table Ambassadors are signing off for now. We are halfway through the L countries of the world and we're headed to Liberia next.