Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

As I mentioned in the last post, the Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants, The Greenhouse and The Cape Malay Restaurant. We did not get to try The Cape Malay Restaurant but I did purchase the hotel's very own cookbook simply called The Collection Cookbook.

It turns out that the Cellars Hohenort is a member of a family of lovely boutique hotels all nestled in different parts of the South African Cape. The family calls itself The Collection by Liz McGrath, hotelier extraordinaire. Ms McGrath runs 5 restaurants inside the Collection and decided to compile some of their recipes into The Collection Cookbook.

The fish bobotie was the first recipe I tried. Bobotie is a cornerstone of Cape Malay cuisine and is usually made with minced (ground) meat but the chef decided to try it with fish. In some ways, I simplified it, leaving out the garam masala and mint. In others, not. I added shrimp, replaced the recommended margarine by real butter and soaked the bread in milk instead of water and added a bit of heat with some red pepper.
It turned out beautifully: the fish and shrimp took in all the flavors, the bread got crunchy in some spots and remained soft in others. I think I may have added one more recipe to the quick meal, mix-all-and-pop-in-oven-so-you-can-go-do-something-else category.

The book is divided in 5 sections, one for each restaurant and includes beautiful photos and pared down text. It is a mixture of (mostly) European and South African cuisine. The back includes a "Basics"section explaining how to make pestos, vinaigrettes etc... Given how well the bobotie turned, I feel encouraged to try some of the other recipes.

Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

• 4 slices of bread
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
• 300 g hake steaks
• 200 g shrimp
• A bunch of parsley
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 30 g of softened butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper (cayenne or something hotter)
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 pinch of turmeric
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 180º C (350º F).
2. Soak bread in milk for 5 to 10 mns
3. Steam the hake. This took about 3 mns in the microwave.
4. In 1 ovenproof dish, tear the bread into pieces, flake the fish and add all the remaining ingredients except the eggs
5. Bake until golden brown for about 30 mns
6. Remove and pour the eggs over the mixture and bake another 15 mns.
7. Ready

Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part III: In the Greenhouse

On Sunday, we drove 30 mns out of the city to the "country"to sample rural life in Constantia and spent one night at the Cellars Hohenort, a lovely hotel set in the middle of the winelands. It's small, beautiful, tranquil, perfect for a romantic weekend. The hotel was nicely restored and boasts many modern amenities but as usual, Sim and I focused on the restaurants and took walks in the magnificent gardens to help with digestion. We found the hotel through a web search and I have to admit, I was intrigued by why they would choose to highlight German Satellite Television as one of their services. I personally would have insisted on the French gardens but you may chalk that up to my bias in favor of our former masters. Hey, the French did bring some pretty great bread and cake to Senegal! And they let us eat it.

The Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants but we only got to sample the Greenhouse for dinner and we did share a truly memorable meal. It all started with great bread and butter (again, great restaurants tend to do humble items really well) and launched into the creamiest mushroom soup (without cream) for me and pan-fried foie gras with berry jam for Monsieur. I have to confess that I do not like foie gras. I am not sure why, it's not because I am pro-geese or anti-French, the concoction just doesn't speak to me.

We later had duck in ginger and honey and Oxtail roulade with what I call "magic" potatoes. Both the duck and the oxtail were incredibly tender and flavorful but I was most intrigued by the potatoes. The inside tasted like really smooth and buttery mashed potatoes but the outside was crispy as if fried. If you know how to make them like that, let me know.

As you would expect by now, we did order dessert: bay leaf-infused creme brulee with a pistachio wafer and some traditional malva pudding with white chocolate ice cream. As soon as I got home, I tried to replicate the malva and will tell you about that in the next post.

Overall, we had a great time at the Cellars Hohenort and can not wait to visit again and try the Cape Malay Restaurant.