I have been meaning to start the cooking section of my blog for a very long time, but it just did not happen. So today, I am taking the plunge. A big thank you to everyone who appreciates the stupidity I do in the kitchen and calls it creative cooking and encouraging me to write the this and to all those who have been asking me for detailed recipes, here goes.
Sometime back I posted a picture of a Bobotie that I made at home on FB and i was bombarded with requests for the recipe, so I am starting with that. It's a South African dish, but the beauty is that it can be made to suit any palette and I made it with an Indian twist. It has a simple three part cooking to it, you need to have cooked minced meat that you like, mashed potatoes and bread soaked in milk all used together, you need to pour a milk egg mix on top and step three, you need to bake it. So here goes
For the chicken mince
(this is what I do, but you can make the minced meat anyway you want, or even buy chicken keema from your favorite restaurant)
300 gms minced chicken
Chicken stock ( I use the Maggie stock cube for convenience)
Chives, chilly powder, one or two curry leaves
Fried onions
For the remaining filling
3 large potatoes
Some butter
Salt to taste and maybe some oregano (optional)
4 slices of bread
100 ml of milk
For the pie portion
100 ml milk
1 egg
A teaspoon of sugar
A pinch of salt
A teaspoon of nutmeg powder
You also need a baking dish and a convection oven. I use a 8" round dish for this quantity, but any cake baking dish should do.
First cook the chicken mince in the stock, add some chilly powder and cook till it gets done, but make sure not to let it dry completely, but remain a little juicy. Add the fried onions and mix well. Like I said, you can cook the chicken anyway you want, so if you are in the mood for Italian, then cook it with tomato purée and oregano and basil or if you are lazy,just use the cooked mince from last night or the one you bought from the restaurant.
While the chicken is cooking, I usually put a few holes in the potatoes and stick them into the microwave for it to cook till it gets soft enough to be able to mash. Take it out, add some butter, milk, salt and oregano and mash till it gets nice and smooth. Also soak the bread slices in milk while the mashing is going on. Now that you have the cooked minced meat, the mashed potatoes and the bread soaked, mix them all together. Arrange this mix on the bottom of the baking dish after buttering it up slightly.
Now pre heat the oven to about 180 degrees celcius. In a separate dish, beat the egg well and add the milk, sugar, salt and half of the nutmeg powder and mix well. Pour this mix on top of the baking dish, making sure there is at least 2 inches left on top. Sprinkle the remaining nutmeg powder on top. The dish now needs to bake for about 45 minutes and you should have some nice bobotee ready. This quantity will suffice as a side dish for two people (not the ones competing on man vs food).
If you try this out, do let me know how it went and how you have customized it. Now that you know of such a dish, look it up and also see if you can make it the way the Africans do.
- And hey people, if you enjoyed reading this, please share it.
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