A turmoil … a pregnant brain … ready to breathe in and out… in labor for so long… but when it’s time to give birth… the thoughts prefer to stay in… and the words come out muted… why oh why?!

I feel I’m stuck in a rut by choice… I don’t push myself to do something… actually I don’t push myself to do the things that I should be doing…

My last post was in Ramadan and now it is way passed Ramadan, Eid and everyone’s schedules are nearly back to normal…

Only my schedule don’t seem consistent… nor do I stick to a semi-routine that will help me feel a little more organized!

For all this time that I haven’t posted a new entry, I don’t have a worthy excuse to even mention.

Not that I don’t like posting entries, on the contrary… I LOVE doing so… I just juggle too many things at once that by the end of the day I am so beat and I want to just sleep!
I have so many recipes lined up which need to be posted… I need to get myself out of this rut and into a proper routine!

I would also like to welcome my friends who have accepted to become contributors on my blog.
Check their links on the sidebar and the recipe page every now and then for contributions!
Welcome FatmaL, Figs&Saffron, and Washy! <3

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Since I haven’t posted in a while, I wanted this entry to be different.
I came across a South African dish called Bobotie and I felt it extremely fits what I want to cook. Bobotie consists of spiced minced beef and topped with an egg mixture. Due to South Africa’s mixed cultures, this dish portrays Asian and European cultures blended together.

I made some yellow rice to go with the Bobotie and it was delicious. @Niftee thought it had a lot of cardamom though.

The below recipes are adapted from BBCGoodFood

BOBOTIE

INGREDIENTS
2 Slices White Bread
2 Onions , chopped
25g Butter
2 Garlic Cloves , crushed
1kg Minced Beef
2 TBSP Madras Curry Paste
1 TSP Dried Mixed Herbs
3 Cloves
5 Allspice (Original recipe calls for Allspice Berries which I never heard of)
2 TBSP Mango Chutney
3 TBSP Sultanas (Next time I won’t use them, no one liked their crunching them)
6 Bay Leaves

FOR THE TOPPING
300ml Full-Cream Milk
2 Large Eggs

METHOD
1. Heat oven to 180C. Pour cold water over the bread and set aside to soak.

2. Fry the onions in the butter, stirring regularly until they are soft and starting to color.
Add the garlic and beef and stir well, crushing the mince until it changes color.
Stir in the curry paste, herbs, spices, chutney, sultanas and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

3. Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an ovenproof dish.
Press the mixture down well and smooth the top. (press hard so that when you add the topping the mince doesn’t float)

4. For the topping, beat the milk and eggs and season, then pour over the meat.
Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starts to turn golden

YELLOW RICE

INGREDIENTS

350g Basmati Rice
50g Butter
1 TBSP Caster Sugar (Heaped
1 TSP ground cinnamon or 1⁄2 cinnamon stick
6 Cardamom pods , shelled and seeds crushed
1 TSP Ground Turmeric

METHOD

1. Put all the ingredients in a large pan with 1 tsp salt and 500ml water (I added more water), then heat until boiling and the butter has melted.

2. Stir, cover and leave to simmer. Check on it so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Take off the heat and leave, still covered, for 5 mins. Fluff with a fork and tip into serving plate.

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