Bobotie

For those of you who are not of Seffrican descent, bobotie is/was the official dish of South Africa, much as the croissant is of France and crappy everything is of the UK. This is a relatively easy dish to make, unlike anything from France, and tastes really good, unlike anything from the UK. If you can get your hands on it, it goes best with Mrs HS Balls's chutney. If you can't, make your own, or find some in a supermarket. Can't help you there yet, but when I do, I'll let you know.

2 slices white bread (save up your stale offcuts, they work much better than fresh bread)

2 onions, diced

25g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg packet lean minced beef

2 tbsp curry paste

3 cloves

1tsp mixed herbs

1 tbsp allspice (this I got from the original recipe I used. I didn't know what it was, and if you're as ignorant as I was, it's a very common spice in Caribbean cuisine)

2 tbsp peach or mango chutney

3 tbsp raisins

6 bay leaves

300ml (full cream if possible) milk

2 large eggs

Heat oven to 180C. Soak the bread in cold water while doing the other stuff.

Fry the onions in the butter. Add the garlic and beef and brown the beef. Stir in the curry paste, mixed herbs, spices, chutney, raisins and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper.

Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish - about 23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep. Press the mixture down well and smooth the top.

For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat. Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.

The topping is rather very important. If it ain't there, you're doing it wrong.

Serve it with yellow rice: shove 1 1/2 cups of rice into a pot with water according to directions, along with 1/2 a cinnamon stick, 5 tbsp of raisins and 1 tsp of turmeric. If you want to be fancy, put some cardamon in as well.


This is an adaptation of a BBC recipe - who would have known the Brits could make good Saffer food?

Sex Chicken Pesto Pasta

This one was something a friend made for us one very cold winter's evening. Lovely stuff, very easy. It is magical stuff, and if you are using it for a date, it will work wonders (hence the name). I can't remember the exact details, but I've adapted it and changed it (probably) and it still tastes pretty good. And it's dead easy.

Ingredients: (this should feed 4)

500g chicken breast, in smallish chunks
3 cloves garlic
2 onions
150g sun-dried tomatoes diced
2 1/2 tbsp green pesto
(Optional) mushrooms, peppers, Worcester sauce, 400g tin of tomatoes
Pasta of choice (macaroni or fettuccine should be best)
White cheese (feta or otherwise)
Salt and pepper to season

Mix the chicken, one onion, garlic, tomatoes, and 1 1/2 tbsp pesto and put to one side, the longer the better, but for at least an hour. Chop up the other onion, mushrooms, peppers, etc, fry them up. Prepare the pasta as directed. When everything is ready, shove it in a bowl with cheese on top. Enjoy.