My husband loves Bobotie. He will often order it in restaurants and believes that getting Bobotie is a good test of a restaurant. My mother uses Vanilla milkshakes for this.

I’m all for cheat methods and easier options especially when it comes to spices. It’s hard to make a recipe for the first time and you buy all of the spices that you need in big bottles and they might sit in your draw for the next 3 years without being used up. It’s just a waste. That’s why I really like the idea of the Nice ‘n Spicy range. You still do everything from scratch so it doesn’t taste like some other meal kits, but you get all of the spices nicely portioned with an easy recipe on the back.

The last Nice ‘n Spicy recipe that I tried was the Cape Malay curry which I didn’t enjoy as much as Indian style curries. This Bobotie however is really good and is great with yellow-raisin rice and lots of chutney on the side. The recipe is on the back of the spice packet and they don’t tell you what spices are in the packet, but one day I might invest in the spices and use a full recipe and let you know about that later.

I used lean mince and slightly more than required as the packages were all different weights and I couldn’t get the exact amount. I did add the slivered almonds which gives a nice texture change from the mince. My husband says that there needs to be a thicker egg layer on top so in future I will use 2 eggs mixed with the milk (and a couple of tablespoons extra) to pour over the top.

I served it with lots of peas and yellow rice. I didn’t have any saffron to make my rice yellow so I used half a teaspoon of ground turmeric. My method (first time I’ve made it) was to cook the rice as normal and add the turmeric and a handful of raisins a few minutes before the rice was cooked completely. Then drain the rice well. For those people who don’t like raisins, you are more than welcome to leave them out.

This would also be nice with brown or wild rice and a salad or other veggies. I used Mrs Balls Peach chutney in the recipe and on the side, but any chutney will be fine (homemade is super!).

The rice and peas helped to fill us up so there was a fair bit leftover:

…which my husband had for dinner the following evening when I was at another icing/baking course. It’s on the do-again list.