Great Granny Annie’s Recipe
I take great pains with the authenticity of the Kydd books, visiting the locations in the tales for extensive on-site research, poring over charts and maps, checking technical specifications regarding Age of Sail seamanship and consulting experts in all kinds of arcane fields. It’s a big investment in terms of time and money but a part of the writing process that I find most pleasurable. And I particularly enjoy hearing from readers who in some way have a special connection with the Kydd books. This has ranged from a guide aboard HMS Victory to yachtsmen in the Caribbean who have recreated Kydd’s journeys, to a reader born and raised in Guildford, Kydd’s home town.
Sybil Galbraith painting outdoors
General Janssens
Sybil was intrigued with mention of Kydd attending the races in Cape Town in CONQUEST. ‘My ancestors bred race horses and my great Granny Annie would go riding every afternoon in her black riding habit!’
One of Sybil’s treasured possessions is Granny Annie’s recipe book, dated 1884, and she enjoys cooking many of the traditional dishes of the Cape. ‘The bobotie [a spicy minced meat dish topped with a savoury custard] you wrote about is to this day a very popular dish and I make it regularly when having visitors for a meal.’
In CONQUEST Renzi is offered a glass of liqueur after dinner by his host. ‘A Cape liqueur, made with the skin of the naartjie fruit …and named after Admiral van der Hum of the Dutch East India Company who did so admire it.’
Here is Great Granny Annie’s recipe for Van der Hum liqueur:
- 6 bottles brandy
8 small cups sugar (6 brown, 2 white)
30 cloves, 60 allspice, 2 sticks of cinnamon
1 wine glass of rum
1 small cup naartjie peel [a native citrus fruit, similar to a small mandarin]
½ nutmeg, grated
4 blaar foelie [blue figs]
This should be allowed to steep for a month or two in a cool place in a large stone jar and then decanted into glass bottles.
Cheers – or as they say in Afrikaans, Gesondheid!
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Copyright notices
Janssens: By Jan Willem Pieneman (http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/SK-A-2219) [Public domain, Public domain or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Every effort is made to honour copyright but if we have inadvertently published an image with missing or incorrect attribution, on being informed of this, we undertake to delete the image or add a correct credit notice
Julian Stockwin 
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Sybil’s recipe for the liqueur, would certainly lay one out – even before drinking it. Six bottles of Brandy! I just fainted at the cost, see.
The bobotie looks delicious. Would Sybil please share that recipe too?
Sybil has promised to share it in a few days. Watch this space…
So looking forward to the much requested recipe for BoBotie. You have really started something BigJules with this letter. But who asked for the annoying “survey : £75:00 Gift”? We found that to reply to this sort of “offer” only opened a door to unwanted SPAM.
The survey is nothing to do with me, I assure you George.
No problems there mate. I do not open those things . No such thing as a free meal anyway. The “survey” will never spoil my enjoyment of your wonderful Kydd series. “clear decks and up spirits”.
From Sybil – BOBOTIE
1 LB STEAK MINCE (OR LAMB)
SALT AND PEPPER
BEEF CUBE IN 1/4 CUP HOT WATER
2 ONIONS, CHOPPED
2 TABLESPOONS MANGO CHUTNEY
1 DESERT-SPOON CURRY POWDER, MILD
1 TEASPOON TURMERIC
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
1 APPLE CUT IN SMALL PIECES
2 TABLESPOONS RAISINS
1 SLICE BREAD SOAKED IN A LITTLE MILK
3 BAY LEAVES
1 EGG BEATEN WITH A LITTLE MILK FOR POURING ON TOP
COOK CHOPPED ONIONS IN A LITTLE OIL WITH THE CHUTNEY, CURRY POWDER, TURMERIC AND SUGAR. ADD MINCE, SALT AND PEPPER, STIR TO BROWN THE MINCE.
ADD IN BEEF STOCK, APPLE AND RAISINS
LEAVE TO SIMMER (STIR OCCASIONALLY) FOR 1 HOUR, IF TOO DRY ADD LITTLE WATER. (MUST NOT BE TOO WATERY.) PLACE IN OVEN PROOF CASSEROLE DISH. ADD MASHED BREAD, STIR, ADD BAY LEAVES.
POUR BEATEN EGG AND MILK MIX ON TOP.
COOK IN OVEN 180 DEGREES FOR 30 MINUTES. THE EGG TOP NEEDS TO BE SET AND SLIGHTLY BROWNED ON THE SIDES.
What would be great is to have seen her recipe for the “Bobotie”! I’ve long given up the traps of the “Spirits”, but the dish she describes would be interesting, indeed! – WKD
Morning
I have now read all of the Kydd series twice over they are still as fresh to read as the first time.
Earlier this week I was in Hampshire and visited Bucklers Hard where a number of the wooden warships were built Agamemnon and Euryalus to name but two, they have an area devoted to the manufacture of a number of the main wooden structures needed to build the warships, and showing how they selected the timbers and the very basic tools they used to do so. I would recomend any who enjoy Kydd to visit, it really puts Julian’s description of repairs and replacements following battle into true perspective and the remarkable feat of work carried out whilst at sea
Peter Pingree
How about auntie’s recipe for BoBotie? Something different to serve to the hungry yachtsmen after a long passage at sea.
George.