Who said you don't need to know Indonesian in Zanzibar?

Some people don't always understand why I want to keep up the bit of Indonesian I know, when I live in a country where I don't actually know of any other Indonesian speakers.

Apart from the years of work it took to get the meager knowledge I have, and the fact that I could talk to lots of different folks and understand all those "tambal ban" signs in Java,

Look who's laughing now:

Fabric fragrance. But if you didn't know Indonesian, you'd just have to guess.

I got it for free, so I'm guessing the shopkeeper doesn't really know what it is.

Eat that, haters. My brain is slow to switch from Swahili to Indonesian when I'm trying to write, but at least I can read, and know how to use this pretty smell stuff, mothballs, and other imported goodies.

Ah I love languages! 

Remind me of that when my head is exploding from not understanding family tomorrow, okay? ;) and the next time I ask a patient if they have any problems with their door, when I mean to say back. :)

Ramadan noms #2: Vipopoo (tiny dumplings in sweet spiced coconut milk)

I was talking to some colleagues the other day when the conversation turned to food (as it does when you're hungry), and they started asking me if I knew vipopoo. I had no idea what they were talking about, and the best translation my dictionary could come up with was "butterflies" (sorry dictionary, vipopoo and vipepeo are not the same thing. It's Zanzibar, not Zambia;)

So I got a quick run down on how to make these special little dumplings in sweet spiced coconut milk, and I even managed to understand some of it, but to be sure I asked Dr Google for some help and quantities. 

Fat lot of good that did, we lost power most of the day, so I remembered the dough proportions but apart from that we winged it, and came up with a delicious sweet fast-breaking food with an Aussiebarian touch.

Behold, Aussiebarian vipopoo (mini dumplings in sweet spiced coconut milk)

Ingredients

2.5 cups plain (wheat) flour

3 cups water

0.5 teaspoon salt

1L (4 cups) coconut milk

0.75 C sugar (more than the recipe because I was winging it)

Cardamom pods, about 10

1 cinnamon stick (not traditional but totally worth it)

Vegetable oil, for rolling the dumplings.

Method

1. Bring the salt and the water to the boil

2. Add the flour bit by bit, mixing well (you might want to take the mixture off the heat for this. This recipe (http://www.alhidaaya.com/sw/node/2628) says to mix it like ugali until it's like really stiff ugali).

3. Knead it a little if you can to smooth out the dough, otherwise wait a while until it cools. Our dough was really ugly!

4. Moisten a flat surface and your hands with vegetable oil. Take handfuls of dough and roll them into long, skinny snakes (maybe 1-1.5cm diameter). Break off 1-1.5cm (or I think you could make them big marble size with no problems) pieces, roll into (hundreds) of little balls and set aside. You may need some daytime TV to help you here. Kids could do it too, I think their snake and ball making skills are more than up to the challenge.

Snakes!

Marbles!

Sauce time!

5. Bring the coconut milk, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom to the boil, making sure the sugar is stirred in well.

6. Add the little dumplings to the coconut milk mix and simmer. The recipes say 20 minutes or so.

7. Serve.

The sauce thickens and the dumplings soften up a bit: apparently this is normal. I'm sure you could substitute whole spices for ground ones with no trouble.

What you end up with is something with the taste and consistency of that yummy, gooey interface where the apples meet the pastry in apple pies. Sooooo good :)

Thank you Ramadan for sweet gooey goodness that doesn't taste like actual butterflies :) there's an upside to this fasting bizzo!

Ramadan noms 1: Aussiebarian Moroccan Spiced Tomato and Lentil Soup

It's Ramadan. And I saw an acquaintance had cooked up Harira, this delicious looking soup, and had to try it. But I was too lazy to bother with following a recipe and didn't know if we had the right spices, so this is what we ended up with, and we both liked it :)

Behold, Aussiebarian spiced tomato and lentil soup :)

Ingredients (serves 4)

1tsp coriander powder

1/2tsp cardamom powder

1.5tsp cinnamon powder

1tsp turmeric powder

2tsp cumin powder

1tbsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 onion, finely minced

2tsp grated ginger

4 large tomatoes, as finely chopped as possible

1/2 carrot, finely chopped (about a cup or so)

1/2 small green capsicum, finely chopped

1/2 sachet tomato paste

1 cup red lentils

4 cups of water (or more if required)

Salt, 2 heaped tsp or so

Pepper, 1-2 tsp or so

Method

1. Mix all the dry spices and add the to a hot large saucepan. Dry fry them for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the onion and garlic and vegetable oil and brown. Mix well with the spices and after a minute or two add some water if it smells like burning :)

3. Add all the veggies and the ginger and another 1/2 cup of water, simmer for 3-5 minutes.

4. Add tomato paste and 2 cups of water. Stir everything well then add the lentils, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for 30-45 minutes or until it looks ready.

5. Keep covered and serve when it's dinner time!

Notes: 

1. it looks like I do a lot of chopping but... I don't. I have a little Tupperware chopper (thanks mum!) that does most of the heavy lifting.

2. I was making little dumplings (vipopoo) so I chucked a handful in for fun.

3. If you have a non-stick pan you could probably omit the oil if you wanted to. But our saucepan catches every. Single. Time.

4. Most of our cooking successes seem to be flukes. It's basically a once only test kitchen, in Women's Weekly terms. So we can't accept any responsibility for things that don't work ;)

Enjoy!

Swahili 101: You're like the shell of an old coconut :)

And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Because apparently, when you put the shells of old coconuts in a fire, they blaze up all spectacularly. Or in Swahili terms, "they're happy even when they die".

So next time someone calls you a kifuu don't be offended. They're just complimenting you on how happy you are :)

Grating coconut, getting into the kifuu spirit.