Lentil bobotie
Local name : Bobotie
A South African bake of curried brown lentils with dried apricot and chutney, under an egg custard studded with bay leaves.
Photo : Olga Ernst · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total
- 80 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Method
- Boil the lentils for 20 minutes, then drain. They should still hold their shape.
- Soak the bread in 150 ml of the milk. Keep the rest of the milk back for the custard.
- Soften the onions in the oil for 8 minutes, add the curry powder and toast it for a minute to open up its aroma.
- Stir in the lentils, apricots, chutney, vinegar and salt. Mash the soaked bread through the mixture.
- Press everything into a buttered dish. Beat the eggs with the remaining 250 ml milk, pour it over and stand the bay leaves upright in the top.
- Bake at 180C for 35 minutes, until the custard is set and patched with brown. Serve with yellow rice.
Bobotie traces back to the Malay cooks brought to the Cape in the seventeenth century, which is where the pairing of curry and dried fruit comes from. The soaked bread is not a thickener but a sponge, holding moisture the lentils would otherwise release under the custard and split it. Squeeze the bread barely at all, keep it sodden.
