A lovely blend of flavours accounts for the popularity of this well-know Cape-Malay dish. Using ground mutton instead of beef will result in a coarser texture. mutton mince should be browned with the onions before micxing the reast of the ingredients. Serves 6-8.
Ingredients
2 thick slices of tale white bread
15ml (1 tbsp) vegetable oil
50ml (4 tbsp) butter
2 large onions chopped
800g beef mince
15ml (1 tbs) masala
5ml (1 tsp) turmeric
10ml (2 tsp) ground cumin
10ml (2 tsp) ground coriander
3 whole cloves and 5 whole allspice
2ml (1/2 tsp) peppercorns
125ml (1/2 cup) sultanas (optional)
60ml (1/4 cup) flaked almonds
25ml (2tbsp) chutney
salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)
6-8 lemon leaves
250ml (1 cup) milk and 2 eggs (beaten)
Method
Soak bread in 250-300ml (1 to 1 and 1/4 cups) water.
Fry onions in oil and butter until just transparent. Keep aside.
Place all other ingredients except bread, lemon leaves, milk and egg in a large bowl and mix. Add fried onions in oil to mixture.
Squeeze water from bread, add bread to meat and and mix well. Spread in a greased ovenproof dish.
Roll lemon leaves into spikes and insert into the mixture.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.
Substitute bay leaves for lemon leaves if you have difficulty finding lemon leaves, but then only use 2.
Lightly beat eggs and milk together and pour over meat.
Bake until egg mixture has set.
Serve with yellow rice and blatjan.