Fat cooks

The following dish shows I think the Afrikaner influence to some dishes so beloved by Zimbabweans, The Fat cook/Fat cakes that I remember from my childhood are called ‘Vetkoek’ in South Africa    and ‘Magwinya’ in Botswana. I haven’t done much research on them and the Boer influence leads me to believe that they are derived from the Dutch “oliebollen” which are a Dutch pastry similar to a doughnut but with raisins in them. That for me is a sign how food culture like language evolves as it goes along.  I remember my mother frying these as an alternative to Lobels bread or when there was a bread shortage and we would eat them while they were still warm with loads of golden syrup on them oh yummy yummy...

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

1 egg

120ml milk

Pinch of salt

*Sugar is optional

Oil for frying

Cooking method

1-mix egg and milk

2-mix salt with the flour

Mix 1 & 2 together until mix is smooth with no lumps and depending on the consistency you can add more milk or sometimes I sometimes even add cream just for richer dough.

When the oil is hot spoon the dough in the pan and when it is brown on the bottom, turn over and cook the other side until both sides are evenly cooked.

You can either deep fry, which makes the Fat cook puff up, and rounder but I prefer to shallow fry them, cooking on both sides for a flatter Fat cook, which is a bit like a pancake.