bobotie, noun

/bəˈbuːti/, /bəˈbʊəti/
Forms:
baboeti, baboetieShow more Also baboeti, baboetie, babooti, babootie, babote, babotee, babotie, bobootie, bobotee, boebooti.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African Dutch, MalayShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch boebooti, boboti, probably adaptation of Malay bumbu curry spices. N. Mansvelt’s Proeve van een Kaapsch-Hollandsch Idioticon (1884) traces the origins of this word to Malay boemboe ‘prepared curry powder’, while both the Patriot Woordeboek (1902) and S.J. du Toit’s Afrikaanse Taalskat (1908) acknowledge the word’s eastern origins.
a. A traditional dish (probably of Malay origin), made of lightly curried minced meat baked with a savoury custard topping. Also attributive.
1870 ‘A Lady’ in Cape Monthly Mag. I. Oct. 224‘Babootie’ and ‘frickadel’ and ‘potato-pie’ are great improvements upon the minced meats of England.
1883 O.E.A. Schreiner Story of Afr. Farm 62I will let my Kaffirs take you out and drag you, till there is not one bone left in your old body that is not broken as fine as bobootie-meat, you old beggar!
1891 H.J. Duckitt Hilda’s ‘Where Is It?’ 12‘Bobotee.’ (A delicate Indian minced curry. Malay or Indian. My mother’s Recipe.)
1891 H.J. Duckitt Hilda’s ‘Where Is It?’ 13One ounce of tamarinds soaked in half a pint of boiling water, then strained, and the juice used for Bobotee, Sasaties, and Curries instead of vinegar, gives a very pleasant acid flavour.
1900 Graaff Reinet Budget 23 July (Pettman)All the writing in the world will not induce Cape Colonials to forgo..their carbonaatjes, boebootis, and sassatjes.
1913 D. Fairbridge Piet of Italy 237He was dining contentedly on bobotie and rice, washed down with blue-bean coffee.
1950 Cape Times 6 June 16Something typically South African like babotie.
1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 363Babotie and rice, sweet potatoes and pumpkin followed by a milk tart and watermelon konfyt.
1969 D. Child Yesterday’s Children 33Exotic dishes introduced by Malay cooks from the East..such as bobotie (a delicate minced curry), bredie (meat stew with green beans or tomatoes) and sasaties (morsels of lamb or mutton soaked in curry sauce and then grilled on skewers), have become traditional South African dishes.
1973 Cape Times 11 July 101001 ways with mince — babotie, spaghetti bol., frikkadels, meat loaf, cottage pie.
1977 S. Afr. Panorama Dec. 35The first bobotie recipe was published as early as 1609. Thus this exotic dish from the Orient became a Cape Malay speciality over the years, and the basic recipe underwent many variations.
1981 Flying Springbok Sept. 54Bobotie is a mixture of minced mutton, curried, salted, with pepper and turmeric added and some chutney, baked with a sort of soft crust of milk and egg.
1983 Rand Daily Mail 16 Sept. 12The baboetie is excellent. The spicing was outstanding, slightly piquant but never fiery.
1986 Style Mar. 12The ethnic, spicy, Malay chicken curry and bobotie, rich with almonds and judiciously spiked with ginger and coriander and star anise.
1986 M. Van Wyk Cooking the S. Afr. Way 61Foreign visitors are often taken aback when they sample dishes like curry and bobotie for the first time. The curiously tasty mixture of sweet and savoury — achieved by adding dried peaches, apricots, raisins — is peculiarly South African.
1991 Argus 29 Aug. 19The recipes brought in by the Dutch pioneers had been vastly improved by the Malay influence — who introduced locals to boboties, bredies and biryanis, fruit and vegetable chutneys and atjars.
b. With distinguishing epithets designating various types of bobotie: fish bobotie, lamb bobotie, pilchard bobotie, sultana bobotie.
1964 L.G. Green Old Men Say 121Fish babotie, a baked fish pudding, or fish bredie, would not be out of place on an all-Cape menu.
1978 Daily Dispatch 2 Aug. 5The meal..started with pickled herring..and fish babotie.
1981 Fair Lady 9 Sept. 179A menu that included butternut soup, fish bobotie, tomato bredie and brandy tart and cream.
1987 Grocott’s Mail 25 Aug. (Coastal News) 4Fish bobotie...2 Large cans Pilchards (plain or middle-cut) 2 medium onions.
1890 A.G. Hewitt Cape Cookery 37Lamb Babotee...Cut the meat from a leg of lamb, mince, and put into a pot.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 23 Aug. 29Pilchard bobotie.
1984 L. Sampson in Style July 117Sunday lunch is a feast, snoek kedgeree, sultana bobotie, lamb tripe and trotters, roast suckling pig, yellow rice.
A traditional dish (probably of Malay origin), made of lightly curried minced meat baked with a savoury custard topping. Also attributive.
fish bobotie, lamb bobotie, pilchard bobotie, sultana bobotie.
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bobbejaantjie, nounn.bocchom, interjectionint.
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