Bobotie

This is a famous South African dish of mildly curried mince meat with onions, spices, studded with rolled up fragrant lemon leaves and topped with a set custard.

The origins date back to the 1600s with the modern version heavily influenced by the so called Cape Malay population.

Brought to South Africa as slaves, their culture and culinary heritage is very much to the fore of SA cooking.

I was musing how such sad and unfortunate times still managed to leave their mark on the culture of today, when my Director of Education added the word zeitgeist to the conversation. I am, as always, indebted to her.

Brand conscious viewers will no doubt recognise the dish as a fine example of 1960s Corningware; in fact a P-309 9 inch pie dish.

The eponymous Mrs Ball's chutney completes the picture