For the third attempt at the International Cooking I was going to let my future Mother in Law help me out, even pick the country if she liked. Her excitement for my project, has been great and I could not wait for her to experience what I am working on. when I asked her if there was a certain country that she wanted, she mentioned that she would like to try on of the African countries. Armed with this request I plunged my hand into the Project International Dish box to pull a name, ready to choose until I got a country that was in Africa. Luckily on my first pull I got South Africa.
When looking up South Africa to discover their national dish I was surprised to find that they also have a national vegetable. Well at least they have so many of them that it is a staple in many of their dishes. So this week to pay homage to the amazing butternut squash of South Africa I did 2 dishes. Bobotie which is the meat dish and Butternut Squash soup.
BOBOTIE
Ingredients
- 2 onions...or one super large onion.
- Cooking oil or butter. I used butter...DUH!
- 1kg Mince (or 2.2 lbs low fat ground beef 93/7)
- 1 slice of bread (I used white...but any kind will do)
- 250 ml milk (or 1 cup)
- 2 eggs
- 1tbsp medium or mild curry powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 10 ml salt
- 2.5 ml pepper
- 7.5 ml turmeric (yeah it is a lot, but it is needed)
- lemon (juiced)
- 1/2 cup seedless raisins (I was lucky I had some left over from the Afghani dish)
- 1/2 cup dried apricots
- 1/4 cup shaved almonds (I used sliced, I don't think it makes a difference)
- 2 Bay leaves (I used 4)
- Chutney (this can be found in most grocers)
Directions
PREP:
Chop your onions or have someone (like your MIL) do it for you. Using a food processor combine your meat (uncooked) and your onions to make your mince. Dear Santa: I would like a food processor for Christmas so I don't have to use this crappy blender attachment anymore. :)
On a plate place your piece of bread (crust removed). Place enough milk on the plate to soak the bread.
Boil you apricots in a small pot until they puff up. I didn't take a picture of this :( but you will know when they are done because they double in size. Drain and put off to the side.
DIRECTIONS:
In a large pan...and I mean LARGE pan. I had to switch to my wok because of how much stuff will go in this. Place your meat and begin to brown it. Make sure that it does not lump. NO LUMPS! Sidenote: The meat really does want to lump.
Once the meat is almost done, add the curry, sugar, salt, pepper, turmeric, lemon juice, raisins, apricots, and almonds. This will turn everything very yellow, and will clear up your sinuses.
Once the meat is browned and the spices have been mixed in
Add your piece of bread. It will look gross but it is a filler to make the meat thicker.
Place into your baking pan and add 1 egg.
Mix this egg (by hand) into your meat mixture. Pat the meat mixture down tightly.
Next in a cup mix your other egg and milk.
Pour the milk and egg mixture over the top of your meat mixture. It should sit on top like this.
Place your bay leaves on top.
Place in oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. It took 45 minutes in my oven, so just begin checking once you get to 30 minutes.
The finished product will have a golden look to the top.
Serve with roasted veggies. Something else you can make your MIL or other helper do for you. :)Serve the Bobotie with the Chutney as a garnish. Chutney=Delicious!
We were quite amazed at how good this dish was. Nance even quit being vegan long enough to have a few bites. It is basically fancy meatloaf without tomatoes involved. You must try it.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
I chose this recipe because it is by the Executive Chef at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town. For starters I have never made Butternut squash anything, and second I feel like whoever this guy was he had to be an ok cook to become the executive chef. So it was worth a try.
Ingredients:
- 1 butternut squash (it needs to weigh about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 2 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 2 Tbsp honey (I used organic local honey...yummy)
- 4 tbsp butter...or 1/2 a stick!
- 1 ripe banana. UNPEELED! DO NOT PEEL!
- 1/2 onion (medium sized)
- 1 large carrot
- 1 celery stalk (preferably the greenest one)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (if your nutmeg is whole-give you man a hammer and tell him to fix it. Marc had a good time "grinding" my nutmeg. :))
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup vegetable broth (Lies! you will need the whole can...actually just get a box of it!)
- Fresh Cilantro leaves
- Juice of 1 lime
- SALT (also not on ingredients list, but believe me you will want it)
Prep: Once again get your handy helper (aka:MIL) to take care of your cleaning, peeling, chopping and slicing. You will need the butternut squash to be cleaned, peeled, gutted, and chopped, but keep separate from the other veggies.
Peel and chop the carrot. Chop the onion and celery.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350'
Once heated place your chopped squash and your banana on a cookie sheet. Spray a little Pam on the cookie sheet to prevent sticking. Please take note the the banana is still in tact...I will let you know when you can peel it.
Drizzle the honey and 2tsp melted butter over the squash and then sprinkle the brown sugar over it.
Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
While that is roasting, use your other 2 tsp of butter to saute your onion, carrot and celery.
Once you get a nice browning to them, move them to a larger pan. I once again had to use my wok. Dear Santa: I would also like to request a deep pan with lid for Christmas...as this need is becoming ridiculous!
Once your squash and banana are roasted pull them out of the oven.
Your banana should look like a slug. You may now peel your banana. Note: Banana is freaking HOT! Some people would recognize the correlation between the banana coming out of the oven and the fact it may be hot, but not I. That sort of thinking is a little too much like right. :)
In your large pan (or wok) add your sauteed veggies, your peeled and sliced banana and your squash. Keep the temp on a medium-low heat. (I used 4 on my stove) Add the garlic, curry, coriander, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Cook for about 1 minutes stirring in the spices.
Now add the coconut milk and the 1 cup of vegetable broth. Simmer until hot and you have a product that resembles baby food/vomit.
Once you have reached this stage get out your blender/food processor.
Add the contents of the pan to the blender.
Sidenote: You do not have to spill it everywhere, I just happen to be very messy. I figured that you all would enjoy the goop running down the side of the blender...it makes me....well Human!
Add your fresh cilantro leaves. Note: How much you use is dependent solely on how much you like cilantro. 
Squeeze in your lime juice. Some of you may have a fancy juicer, but I only have a knife and my hand. Dear Santa: Please bring me a fancy juicer...I fear that I may have developed carpal tunnel syndrome from lime squeezing.
After blending....and adding a lot of vegetable broth to thin it out. We followed the recipe assuming that if you are an executive chef you will have pretty spot on measurements...sadly no. So from here on out I would like to be known as the Food Czar, as apparently one can have a fancy title without much back-up.Serve warm as an appetizer. And add salt to taste. We added salt and it was WAY better.
Asseblief geniet en gelukkig danksegging or the English version: Please enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving. We sure did!
