Home Cooking: Baboutie Recipe

Photo by Christina Staalstrom

​Try your hand at this dish, it's simple and delicious.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef or lamb, or a mixture of the 2
1/2 stick of butter
1 onion chopped
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 slices bread crumbled
1/4 cup milk
zest and juice from 1 small lemon
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 apple cored, peeled and chopped
3 oz. dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
6 bay leaves

For topping:

1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 325C and butter a large casserole for baking.

Heat the butter in a saucepan and fry the onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Stir in the curry powder and turmeric and cook for about 1 minute until fragrant. Remove from heat.
Mix in the ground meat and the bread crumbs, milk, lemon zest and juice, egg, salt, pepper, apricots, raisins, apple and almonds.

Roll up the leaves and bury them at regular intervals. Seal with foil and bake for a 1 1/2 hours.

Increase the oven temperature to 200C.  Mix the topping of milk, eggs and salt, pour over the casserole and bake uncovered for additional 15 minutes until lightly browned.

Serve with rice and a salad of sliced tomatoes, shaved fennel and feta with olive oil.