We’re going to friends tonight for a party and I’m taking these along as an appetiser. Bobotie is a favourite traditional South African dish, basically a curried ground beef casserole, topped with turmeric egg custard and bay leaves served with “yellow” rice which is infused with turmeric and cooked with cinnamon sticks and raisins, served with a sweet chutney and tomato sambal.

It’s a great gluten free dish. As keto, I would serve it with cauliflower rice tossed with butter, mustard seeds and turmeric. It’s a terrific dish.

Here is my recipe as an appetiser instead.

To summarise, you will toast your spices, cook up chopped onion in butter, add toasted spices, add the ground beef, and then add chutney to the curried beef mince. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with cream, add some spices to egg mix. Spoon ground beef curry mix into muffin pan, pour in egg mix, muddle with a teaspoon and bake at 350⁰F for 20 minutes, until no egg is jiggling in the middle of each “muffin”.

There will be enough leftover ingredients (egg and curried mince) to bake your own mini Bobotie casserole for your next meal. Leftovers=win!

Ingredients

• 2 tsp chilli powder (more for spicier bites!)
• 4 tsp turmeric
• 4 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp hing (optional)
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• Toast these spices in a dry pan until just heated
• 1/2 stick of butter/ 4oz
• 2 small onions
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 3/4 cup keto chutney (I make my own green tomato chutney) or you can use keto apricot jam
• 9 cloves chopped garlic
• Ground pepper and salt to taste
• 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tsp turmeric added to eggs
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• Thinly sliced red pepper
• Curry leaves or fresh coriander leaves

Method

1. Toast the spices
2. Add butter to your pan in which you will cook your ground beef in
3. Add finely diced onion to butter when hot
4. When onion is almost cooked add the toasted spices.
5. Stir and combine onion and spices
6. Add ground beef and cook through
7. Add the chutney stirring in then add the garlic
8. Season with salt and pepper to your taste
9. Turn off curried meat let rest while you…
10. … beat the eggs, cream and spices
11. In a buttered muffin pan spoon in 1/4 cup ground curried mince into each muffin pan
12. Pour in topping with egg batter until almost covered curried mince
13. Muddle with a teaspoon
14. Top with red pepper or peppadew peppers, sliced (or small pieces of tomato, for the colour effect)
15. Add a curry leaf or cilantro sprig
16. Bake for 20 minutes in a 350⁰F preheated oven

I hope you also enjoy these! For the leftover ground beef and egg, make a separate small dish.

Time to head out and share these with our lovely friends!

On a side note: The photo below is proof that keeping vegetables out on the porch in the natural winter chill does not work. The squirrel ran off with a few apples, spurred on by a few crows in the wings for any snacks! I’m still trying to think of a way to safely store vegetables and fruit on the porch that is protected from critters but has ventilation.