If you’ve never heard of Bobotie, it’s a lightly curried lamb and beef mixture with a chutney sauce and almonds as the primary ingredients. This dish was also popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, after the Crusaders introduced Turmeric from the East. Bobotie was traditionally made with the meat left over from the Sunday roast.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients above except for the 2 eggs, 1/2 of the Almonds, the Olive Oil and Base Quiche Mix. Mix thoroughly. In a large skillet over medium high heat drop in the Olive Oil and when hot enough, add in the meat mixture and cook until lightly browned. Try to keep a few large chucks of the mixture together will help, but is not necessary. Remove, drain and allow to cool. Properly store until final assembly.
Final Assembly and Cooking
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Coat the pie pans lightly with oil (I like coconut oil for this) or butter. Place the meat mixture evenly into the two pie pans. Prepare the usual base quiche mix and add the two extra eggs. When fully whipped, pour gently over the mixture in the pans. Sprinkle the remaining Almonds over the fillings and transfer to the oven. Cook for 30 -40 minutes or until the egg portion of the dish is starting to brown. Remove from the oven and serve or wrap in foil to transfer to the rink.
While this one is similar to the one in the Real Me DO Eat Quiche cookbook it is a more authentic Greek Gyro Quiche primarily because it uses a different cut of lamb and adds in some beef and falafel as well. This one also can be done with either the pizza crust or a regular crust. I just haven’t figured out how to make a pita bread crust yet, but I’m still working on it. Also, this falafel recipe is really good, but as with most things good, it takes time. What I usually do is pick up 5 falafel from Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill just to cut down on the work.
Ingredients
Meats
1/2 lb. ground lamb
1/2 lb. ground hamburger
1 cup shredded onion
2-3 minced garlic cloves
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground marjoram
1 teaspoon ground rosemary
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Falafel
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained and dried for 30 minutes
1 tbsp. fine-grain bulgur
1/2 medium yellow onion – finely chopped
1 minced garlic clove
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Pinch turmeric, or more to taste (optional)
Pinch cardamom seeds (optional)
Vegetable oil to cook with
Extras
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
1 small shredded cucumber
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup loose chopped lettuce
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup feta cheese
2 teaspoon sumac
Preparation
Meats
Either in a food processor or a mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients listed above and mix thoroughly. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to chill. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and prepare a baking tray by lining it with foil and putting a grill on top of the foil. Remove the meat from the refrigerator and with damp hands either roll this into a long 1-1/2 inch tube or into 1-1/2 meat balls. I like the tube approach as the meat seems to loose less moisture when cooking. Put the meat on the grill in the baking tray and place in the oven for 30 -40 minutes. You want this to just start to get some crispness developing on outside. Another way to do this would be to cook this on your flame grill and that would be quicker. When done remove and allow to cool until you can chop this meat up into small chunks no larger than 1/2 inch. Refrigerate until ready for final assembly.
Falafel
Put the chickpeas in a food processor and grind them up until they are all like small enough that they are almost a powder. You should also be able to squeeze this together and it stick together. If it’s too wet let it dry some more. Put all of the other dry Falafel ingredients into a large mixing bowl and thoroughly mix. Then mix in the ground chickpeas until everything is completely mixed together. Then add 1 – 2 teaspoons of water and stir well. Cover and set aside, while you prepare a large skillet with about 2 inches of vegetable oil. Heat to at least 325 degrees. Taking enough of the falafel mixture from the bowl with damp hands, and form into a 1 – 1/2 to 2 inch ball. There should be enough to make about 6 – 8 balls. Then slowly add them to the oil and cook for about 3 – 4 minutes each. They should be brown and crispy when they are ready. Remove them and place on a paper towel to drain and cool down. When they are cool enough to chop, cut each ball into 4 pieces and refrigerate till ready for the final preparation.
Extras
To make the Tzatziki, skin and shred and de-seed the cucumber and place this on a paper towel to dry for a few minutes. In a bowl, mix the yogurt, olive oil and 1 minced garlic clove together. Then add the shredded cucumber and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate till assembly.
Chop up the lettuce and tomatoes and mix them together with a pinch of salt. Refrigerate this separately until ready for final assembly. You should also have 1 minced garlic clove left that you’ll want to refrigerate till assembly.
Final Assembly and Cooking
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare the base quiche mix and instead of the 1/2 cup of milk, fold in the Tzatziki yogurt and mix thoroughly. Get the other ingredients from the refrigerator and mix them loosely into the pie crusts. Pour the modified base quiche mix over that. Then top with some chunks of feta cheese, the remaining minced garlic cloves and a light sprinkling of sumac. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until the top starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and either serve right away or pack it up for the rink.
This Irish Stew Quiche filling that goes great with the Irish Soda Bread Crust, especially for your special St. Patrick’s Day celebration. This one takes a little effort but is well worth it because of the savory slow cooked filling base. As always, this recipe is enough for 2 quiches.
Serves: 16 – 22
Ingredients
1 pound lean boneless lamb
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1-1/2 cup peeled turnip cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 medium)
1-1/2 cup carrot cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3 medium)
1-1/2 cup peeled potato cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 medium)
1/2 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 cup quick-cooking tapioca
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
3 cups beef broth
1 cup of shredded Irish Cheddar Cheese
Directions
Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. In a large skillet brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Drain off fat. Then in a 3 1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker stir together turnip, carrot, potato, onion, tapioca, salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the beef broth and stir. Add the browned lamb and stir.
Cover and cook on the low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours.
Skim the grease off the top when this is all cooked, and save 2 tablespoons of the grease.
In a large pot, add the grease you saved in the previous step and add 2 tablespoons of white flour and stir on medium-high heat until the mixture is browned.
Add all of the contents of the slow cooker into the pot and stir. Reduce heat to a low medium heat and simmer uncovered to reduce until the gravy is thick.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. You should have 1 quart of stew.
Final Assembly and Cooking
Preheat your oven to 375 F.
Prepare the Base Quiche Mix and combine with the stew, mixing thoroughly.
Pour into your prepared pie crusts and top with 1/2 cup of shredded Irish Cheddar Cheese on each pie.
Into the oven the pies go for 40 minutes or until the cheese starts to turn a little brown.
