cooking yourself happy with foods that remind you of home

You know you’re missing home when you spend the whole weekend making and eating food from home! Last weekend, I literary survived on Maandazi and Masala Tea, I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday (totally a balanced diet 😂).

I’m yet to master the art of making the yeast expand the dough, so, my maandazi didn't rise as well and as much as I wanted them to. A good andazi has that airy inside, very soft and bread-like. I obviously didn't get that full bread-like inside judging from how compact the pieces look, however, they still tasted like I made heaven edible. Disclaimer, these little suckers are addictive 🙈😂 so make as many as possible.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1¼ or 1½ cups coconut milk (I guess you can use normal milk instead)

• 4 tsp dry yeast

• 1 tsp ground Cardamon (or more, I love cardamom)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup sugar (you can add or reduce)

• 1 tbsp oil (optional)

• oil for deep frying (depending on your pan)

PREPARATION:

1. Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup coconut milk in your mixing bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap until the yeast rises (should take 5-7 minutes or so).

2. Add into the mixture the sugar, 1 tbsp oil, cardamon and mix.

3. Add flour into mixture and mix. Gradually add the remaining coconut milk. If it gets too soft, you can add flour a little bit at a time if it’s too hard you can add coconut milk or water a tbsp at a time.

4. On a flat floured surface, continue to knead the dough for 10 minutes until it becomes elastic. Move the dough to a clean lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean cloth and let it rise.

5. Once it has doubled in size, knead the dough for an additional 2 minutes.

6. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to about 1/2 cm thin. Use a round cookie cutter or a similar utensil to cut the dough into regular shapes.

7. Deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.

When done frying, keep your maandazi on a paper towel to drain any excessive oil. When they have cooled it’s better to put them in a tight container or plastic to stop them from becoming hard. Voila! Go on and feed yourself gorgeous young lad!