Served with a little chutney, it will lure you into eating food a little more spicy, you will have delicious left overs on toast for breakfast, and you will be left with the lovely warm and full feeling that only a good meal can do. Spicy, yet not hot. A curry, but not quite. Mince, but not a cottage pie. I love bobotie, it is one of the most tasty meals that you will experience.

Ok, now for the test: one of these was made with beef mince, and the other with vege mince. Which one is which? Leave a comment and guess.

To simplify, make a mince curry, mix in a few slices of bread, pour on an egg crust and bake.

Here’s my mom’s recipe

Ingredients:

• 375ml milk
• 2 slices of brown bread (no crusts), soaked in the milk
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves garlic (like I will only use 2)
• 25ml curry powder
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 25ml chutney
• 12.5ml apricot jam
• 12.5ml Worchester sauce
• 5ml turmeric
• 25ml vinager
• 500g mince
• 1 egg
• 2 bayleaves
• A few raisons (if you want)

Directions:

• Lightly brown the onions
• Add the mince and garlic and brown
• Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the milk and bread) and mix in
• Add the soaked break, but keep the milk & mix in
• Add a few raisons if you like (not for me though)
• Put the mince mix into a casserole dish
• Break the egg into the left over milk and mix
• Pour the milk and egg mixture over the mince, and place the bayleaves on top
• Back for 40 minutes

That’s it! While it sounds a little complicated, it is really easy to make, but oh so yummy! The almonds are not part of the recipe, but I love to add a few slivers on top before baking.

However, our contribution to the picnic was going to be a baby tomatoe tart with gruyere pastry, which Lois still made for lunch.

It is really simple to make and very yummy. Here is the recipe:

• Fry 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves chopped garlic
• Mix about 800 g baby tomatos with 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup chopped basil, 1.5t sugar, and a little salt and pepper
• Mix in the onion/garlic mixture
• Put the tomatos mixture into a ceramic pie dish
• Cover dish with puff pastry from the supermarket
• Brush some egg over the pasty
• Finally sprinkle about 1/2 cup finely gruyere cheese over the top
• Bake at 180 for about an hour, and leave to stand for a few mintues before cutting

Serve hot or cold. Yummy indeed!

I seem to be eating out awfully often at the moment, and try as we do to stay at home, there always seems to be a really good reason to go out.

Today, it was lunch at the River Café with my good friends Nick and Jeanne, who are at the moment sitting on a flight back to the UK, so it was out last chance to see them in a while.

The River Café is a lovely restaurant at the entrance of Constantia Uitsig Wine farm. Although I have not been there in a while, the service and food were fantastic. The staff managed to maintain the fine balance between being there when they were needed, and not quite getting in the way. While they have a simple and small menu, there is a good variety of tasty and interesting foods.

I started with Won-ton parcels, with a side-salad of veges stir-fried in peanut oil. While the parcels were a little oily, they were tasty and firm; and the veges were fantastic. You could have  ordered just the veges as a main course (they were that good!).

Now I know that a burger for main course sounds really boring, but in this type of restaurant you can be assured that you will not get a boring burger, and I was not disappointed. It was succulent, juicy and tasty. The home-made tomatoe relish was wonderful, and this was definitely one of the best burgers that I have had in a long time.

Lois had Gazpacho, which she proclaimed as very good, and both Nick and Jeanne had the fish, which was equally praised. On the downside, the restaurant is not the cheapest place to eat, but the food and service are good. While there are a few vegetarian options (for Lois), the selection is not huge.

However, if you want to go somewhere for a really good meal, this is a place to consider.

No doubt I will be blogging about another restaurant next week :-)

Nothing like an ice cold cider to quench your (well at least Lois’) thirst at Lunch (I had a beer). We had lunch on Sunday at Peddlars on the Bend, a wonderful restaurant that has both stood the test of time, and the test of a fire. The entire restaurant almost burnt down a few years ago. But thankfully it survived, and after major repairs has been open ever since.

The outside garden area at Peddlars on the Bend

They still have one of the best bars and outside seating in Cape Town, and a wonderful (but more formal) restaurant inside. We spent a leasurely afternoon with some friends enjoying a beer or two, and an amazing meal. The staff are attentive but out of the way, and at about R80-R100 for most main courses, excellent value as well. There is also something for almost anybody; a very well thought-out menu.

Stacked Aubergine starter

Roasted Eisbein, not a small meal

Here you can compare the size to a regular head of garlic.

You can get your own baby garlic from Ganics.

Baguette with fresh lettuce, camembert cheese, baby tomatoes & asparagus. Drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for lunch. Perfect for a lovely summer day.

Not only are they bigger than regular onions, they are “habanero onions”. They are the most frighteningly hot onions that I have ever eaten. Scary, but yummy!

Welmoed wines

Yesterday we took some friends winetasting and to lunch in Stellenbosch. We started off at Welmoed, an old favourite of ours. I love visiting this farm because they have a great selection of wines at great prices, and because the staff are always helpful and friendly. I have only had good experiences there, and I almost always have some of their wine in my fridge.

Hartenberg picnics

Then we went to Hartenberg for lunch. They also have some wonderful wines and a great tasting room (you actually sit down at tables and the staff come around and describe the wines and let you taste them). But Hartenberg wines are clearly of a different quality (and at over double the price of Welmoed wines) clearly in a different price range.

Hartenberg make a lovely picnic lunch which includes breads, cold meat, chicken, cheeses and dessert for R120 per person. You can sit outside the tasting room, or at one of the many tables scattered around the gardens. I have had a few picnics at Hartenberg and it is also a lovely experience.

A very civilised way to spend a Saturday.

The port entrance to Kalk Bay Harbour.

The morning started very wet and rainy, but it cleared up into a surprisingly lovely day. The upside of this is that the beaches were almost empty, and I was able to enjoy a couple of hours in Kalk Bay.

We had lunch at an old established venue, the Brass Bell, where I have had many wonderful meals. Alas, they did not have a good start to the year. The starters were great, but after they arrived the restaurant clearly was too busy for the kitchen, and the mains were a disaster. Some did not arrive, most arrived late, some were burnt, and some were undercooked. I must note that my tuna steak and Lois’ pizza were the only good main courses. The food took over an hour to arrive, and what did arrive only did so  after  several complaints (note that we had booked a table).

In their defence, the manager was very good at accepting our complaint, and gave us about a 75% discount on the meal (I think we only ended up paying for the starters). If I do not remember this as such a good restaurant, I certainly would not go back, but they did try to make ammends, and yes I will give it another chance, but not when they are so busy.

Day 106: Home made chicken burger, originally uploaded by Craig is shooting.

In a moment of inspiration, I made myself a home-made chicken burger for lunch, covered with a layer of avocado, and then topped with bree cheese and grilled.

It amazed me that to make the patties from scratch took about 10 minutes.

To make the patties, put the following into a food processor:

• about 300g chicken breast fillets
• 1 onion
• 1/2 red pepper
• about 2 teaspoons garlic
• salt & pepper

Blend into a mince-like texture, and form into four patties. Grill.

That’s it, enjoy!