Fish Bobotie

Mandi:

I smiled today, opening the cookbook again on the page with the recipe for this week.   As a child, I suffered with severe separation anxiety and my poor mother couldn’t turn her back without me clinging to her apron strings.  If mom wanted to go to Church or to a prayer meeting during the week, she would have to come up with some ingenious ways to hold my attention.  One of these was to decorate her cook book or to write out some recipes for her.  This could hold my attention span for at least an hour, long enough for her to enjoy her service and be home before I was too hysterical or had noticed she’d been gone too long.  The recipe this week is a perfect example of my artistic finesse at the age of 10, as I turned a glued recipe from a Pilchards tin into a “Chef”. (see Photograph)  I enjoyed making this recipe.  Will definitely do it again!  

Fish Bobotie:

2 Large tins Pilchards (plain or middlecut)

2 medium sized onions

1 dessertspoon sugar

1 dessertspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoons turmeric

Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown the onions in margarine, then add sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, turmeric, salt and pepper.  Soak 1 piece stale white bread in water.  Crumb, and add 1 beaten egg.  Add this with the turmeric etc. to the fish (finely mashed in a bowl).  Then beat another egg with a cup of milk and 1 tablespoon Maizena.  Pour over the fish mixture and bake in a 180◦/350◦ oven till golden brown.  Serve with rice.

I have added turmeric to my rice as well with sultanas.

I can see why mom used this recipe.  It’s fast, convenient and tastes amazing.  I think for the housewife generation, they went for recipes that were fast - the quicker the better.  So much easier to come home from church and throw the ingredients together. It took me about 15 mins to get all the ingredients into one bowl and then into the oven.  You could be eating within 45 minutes of starting your dish.

P.S.  this recipe was taken from the inside of a Pilchards tin label- 1981.

Deidrè:

I faced a serious challenge when I heard we were cooking fish bobotie for the blog… not only is it an iconic dish in South Africa, it had already been ‘pimped’ in a fashion.  Bobotie is traditionally made with minced beef.

I eventually decided to use the bobotie as a filling, either in a phyllo parcel or as a spring roll.  The spring roll won as it seemed to be the greatest challenge.  If you have not realised yet, I love a challenge and learning new techniques in any activity is something I enjoy.

So, here is my recipe:

Fish Bobotie Baked Spring Rolls:

450g Hake medalions (Or any other firm fleshed fish)

2 cups milk

1 tsp dried parsley

1 large onion, diced

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1 tbsp turmeric (Borrie)

50g tomato paste sachet

Salt & pepper to taste

1 slice stale brown bread (bread is eaten at such a rate in my home that there is never any stale bread – I used a fresh slice)

2 cups milk

1 beaten egg

Filling:

Poach the fish in the milk with ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp parsley until flaky

Remove the fish from the milk and place in a bowl – keep the milk

Flake the fish

Place the slice of bread in the milk to soak

In a pan, brown the onion.

Add the sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, turmeric, salt & pepper and tomato paste

Squeeze the milk from the bread and crumb into the onion mixture

Add 1 beaten egg and mix thoroughly

Add the mixture to the flaked fish and mix.

[Strain the milk into a new pot and keep for the custard]

Spring Rolls:

1 box phyllo pastry (defrost in the fridge overnight)

Olive oil/melted butter

Separate two sheets of phyllo pastry and place on working surface

Cut into 4 squares

Using the example below, place fish bobotie filling in one corner and roll the pastry to form a spring roll (I found that the corner wouldn’t stick to the pastry without brushing a bit of water on the roll and sticking the corner down)

Place on a rack in a baking dish

Brush with olive oil or melted butter

  

Bake in a preheated 220°C oven for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn and bake for a further 8 minutes

Check continuously that they don’t burn.  [Time dependant on your oven.]

Egg Custard:

The original bobotie has an egg custard which you pour over the bobotie prior to baking.  This custard (as seen on Mandi’s photograph)forms a coating over the bobotie.  I decided to make a curry flavoured egg custard to pour over the spring rolls thereby incorporating the custard from the original dish into the pimped version.

Left over milk from poaching the fish topped up to make 450 ml

Pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp Maizena

½ tsp curry powder (I used mild)

2 egg yolks

Bring the milk to just below boiling point on the stove

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, Maizena and curry powder

Pour the hot milk into the egg yolks and Maizena mixture, whisking continuously

Pour the mixture back into the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens

The mixture should coat the back of the wooden spoon.

Pour the custard over the spring rolls when serving.

I would use this recipe for a starter.  It is incredibly filling, so two should be ample for a serving.