Instant Pot Bobotie

Bobotie is a traditional South African dish, which consists of spiced minced meat baked with an egg topping. It’s often baked with curry spices and served with plain or yellow (turmeric) rice. The first recipe for a Bobotie appeared in a 1906 Dutch Cookbook. It made its way to South Africa and was adopted by the Cape Malay Community. With its sweet and spicy meat mixture, perfect egg custard topping and fluffy white rice, Bobotie has become a favourite dish among many South Africans, each of them putting their own unique spin on it.

 

This Bobotie recipe is made using Cape Malay curry powder to give it an authentic South African flavour and it is made entirely in the Instant Pot. From the mincemeat, to the egg topping, down to the rice, each and every element is made inside the Instant Pot. The Instant Pot helps lock in the flavours of the mince, keeps it moist, creates a perfectly fluffy egg custard topping and cooks your rice to perfection. It also reduces the time you need to spend cooking and washing up. At the end you’ll notice we put it into the oven to crisp up. At this point the egg is set entirely (and can be eaten right away), but if you want a crisper and browned topping it’ll need a few minutes on grill.

 

 

As it is a recipe that involves many steps, to make it go faster and smoother, prep everything before getting started so you move easily from step to step. This means, cutting the onion, grating the carrots, soaking the bread and fruit, mixing the egg mixture and prepping the spring-form pan.

 

Instant Pot Bobotie

Dairy Free | No added Sugar | Nut Free

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

Serves: 4-5 people

 

Ingredients

Mince Mixture 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 tablespoon Cape Malay Curry Powder

1 teaspoon, dried mixed herbs

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

500g lean minced beef

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1/3 cup raisins

5 dried apricots

2 pieces of bread, crust off

½ cup coconut milk

 

Custard

3 eggs

¾ cup coconut milk

½ teaspoon corn starch

Pinch salt

2 Bay leaves

 

For serving

1 cup Basmati Rice

1 ½ cups water

½ teaspoon salt

 

You will also need

An 18cm springform cake tin

Tin foil

 

 

Directions

1. Prepare a 18cm springform pan, by spraying it and placing it on a piece of tinfoil large enough to go up the sides but not cover the top.

2. Soak your raisins and apricots in warm water for 3-5 minutes until softened. When soft, drain, chop the apricot into small pieces and set aside.

3. Add coconut milk to a shallow dish with the bread and let it soak.

4. Turn the Instant Pot onto Sauté mode and add the olive oil. Allow for it to warm up and then add in the finely diced onion. Sauté for 3 minutes, stirring often.

5. Add in the spices and stir to coat the onion, 1 minute

6. Add in the mince, break it up with a spoon and mix to combine with the onion and spices. Sauté for 8 minutes, stirring often, until the meat is fully browned.

7. Squeeze out the milk from the bread and crumble it into the mince mixture. Add the grated carrots and dried fruit into to the mince mixture and stir to combine properly. Sauté for another 3 minutes.

8. Cancel the Sauté mode to switch the Instant Pot off.  Then and add your cooked mince mixture to your prepared springform pan.

9. Using a cloth carefully remove the stainless-steel inner pot from the Instant Pot and set aside to cool slightly while you prepare the egg custard mix.

10. Whisk your eggs, coconut milk and corn-starch together in a bowl.

11. Pour a quarter of the mixture in the mince, mix it in and then flatten the meat mixture with the back of a spoon so it’s tightly packed. Pour the remaining egg mixture on top of the mince and set aside.

12. Wipe down the Instant Pot stainless steel inner pot and return to the Instant Pot

13. Rinse your rice and add it to the clean inner pot along with the water and salt. Mix to combine.

14. Place the steaming rack on top of the rice.

 

15. Place the spring-form pan with the mince and egg custard on top of the steaming rack. It must still be in the tinfoil as that will prevent it from leaking out onto the rice from the bottom of the pan. Do not cover the mince with tinfoil, or the custard won’t set. The tinfoil is there to cover the bottom to prevent leaks and it helps you lift it out once it’s cooked.

16. Place the lid onto the Instant Pot and cook on manual High Pressure for 5 minutes.  Push the Keep Warm button to unset this.  Remember the Instant Pot will take a few minutes to come up to pressure. While that is cooking, preheat your oven to it’s grill setting.

17. When the pressure cooking is complete the Instant Pot will beep to notify you.  Let it use natural release for 10 minutes before moving the steam release vent up to release the remaining pressure.  Once the float valve has dropped, open the lid.

18. Remove the spring-form pan with the mince. The egg mixture will now be set but may have a little liquid on the top. Add bay leaves to the top and put it in the oven to get browned and crisp for 5-10 minutes.

19. Add the rice to a serving dish and serve it with the Bobotie.

 

 

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