LIFESTYLE NEWS - Whether you serve it on a bed of yellow rice, in a Jaffle or baked in deliciously golden puff pastry, South Africa’s classic bobotie is always a hit.
If you make a big bowl of bobotie for dinner and have leftovers the next day, you can even use that to make the phyllo pies to snack on for lunch.
Bobotie phyllo pies
Ingredients
Bobotie pies
- 8 sheets phyllo pastry (2 sheets make 4 x pies)
- 200g salted butter, melted
- Chutney to serve
Bobotie
- 500g lean beef or lamb mince
- 1 large onion peeled and coarsely grated or chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tsp medium curry powder
- 1 tsp hot or additional medium curry powder or garam masala
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs
- pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder
- ½ red or green pepper finely diced
- 1 large Granny Smith unpeeled green apple finely diced or coarsely grated
- 2 slices white or brown bread, crusts removed
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 – 3 tbsp apricot jam or fruit chutney (I used Mrs Balls)
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp beef stock powder (or one sachet of stock concentrate)
- 1/3 cup raisins or sultanas, soaked in hot water to plump up
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 – 8 coarsely chopped cashew nuts, optional
- lemon or bay leaves optional
Method
- To make the bobotie, place the meat, onion, garlic and spices in a larger non-stock frying pan and stir-fry over moderate heat for about 5 minutes or until the meat is loose and crumbly.
- Add the red pepper and apple and cook 5 minutes more until the meat is lightly browned.
- Pour the milk over the bread to moisten, and add this to the meat together with all remaining ingredients. Mix to combine, adjust seasoning to taste and spoon into an ovenproof dish of a suitable size. Press the mince down quite firmly and smooth the top.
- Beat together the ingredients for the topping and pour this over the meat. Scatter the nuts over the top and stick a few lemon or bay leaves decoratively into the meat.
- Bake at 170ºC for about 30 min until the topping has set and turned light golden brown.
- When you are ready to bake the pies, gently remove two sheets of phyllo pastry from the packaging – cover the remaining pastry with a clean, damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.
- Separate the pastry sheets and lightly brush one with melted butter, then place the unbrushed sheet on top.
- Cut the pastry sheets vertically/lengthways into four equal strips or, if you want to make smaller pies, five pieces.
- Brush the strips with butter leaving the bottom bit where the filling goes in unbrushed.
- Place a spoonful of bobotie (about a dessert spoon full) at the bottom end of each piece of pastry and fold over to form a triangle.
- Continue to fold the parcel over as you work your way up the strip of pastry, maintaining the triangle shape. Repeat with the other sheets of pastry.
- Lightly brush all sides of the triangle pies with melted butter.
To bake in an oven:
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C/350F and place the pies on a large lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown
To bake in an air fryer:
Preheat the air fryer to 180°C/350F and depending on the size of your basket cook these in 3 – 4 batches for 12 minutes until golden.
Serve with chutney on the side to dip the pies into.
Notes
- The bobotie can be made in advance (even a day or two before and stored in the fridge).
- These phyllo pies can be frozen before they are baked. Wrap in a plastic wrap and when ready to bake simply thaw, brush with melted butter and bake as per the instructions.
- If you freeze them after being baked, simply thaw and reheat them in the oven at 180°C for 8 minutes or in an air fryer for about 4 – 5 minutes at 180°C/350F.
*This recipe was sourced from www.drizzleanddipp.com
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