#7, #8 and #9 Bobotie, Yellow Rice and Apricot Blatjang

I made this meal for dinner with friends and it was absolutely delicious. I've wanted to try making bobotie for a while, and I wasn't disappointed. The rice and apricot blatjang made lovely accompaniments.

The bobotie is made from minced beef with added spices. I was a bit wary of adding whole allspice berries and cloves to the dish in case someone got a nasty surprise, so I made a little spice bag with some muslin and added this to the cooking meat. This means the flavour gets into the food, but that the cloves and berries are also easy to find and retrieve after cooking (and before someone bites into one). If you don't have muslin, then a tea infuser like this one would work just as well. Instead of mango chutney I also used Mrs Ball's Chutney for a more authentic flavour. Both the allspice berries and Mrs Ball's Chutney were available at my local supermarket (the former in the speciality ingredients' section).

The yellow rice and apricot blatjang accompaniments were also delicious and very easy to make.

If making this dish again, I would make the bobotie beef mixture a day ahead to help infuse the flavours, but it was absolutely delicious all the same.