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!

Maziwa. Or, why use coconut milk instead of real milk.

This is maziwa. Also known as milk.

I was wondering why so many breads use coconut milk here... An old coconut for grating is about TZS500 (500 shillings)  - about 30 cents. The box of coconut milk powder imported from Malaysia via the middle eastern market will set you back about $2.75, between TZS3500 and 4500. Ok so it doesn't have the nutritional value of an actual coconut but you also don't have to grate t, it keeps for a whole, and makes a decent amount of coconut milky flavoured stuff. 

BUT: this UHT milk from Kenya cost me TZS1200 for 250mL. Which is less than a dollar, but works out at 4800/litre. Which is more than $3.00/litre. Seriously???

Looks like it's powdered coconut, all the way. *has a little "it's cheaper in Australia!!" tantrum*

It's the little rorts like this that make me realize: living in Africa is expensive. I know I shouldn't cry over spilt milk, but it's more the fact that this isn't an isolated incident. Carrots are $2/kg and they're fairly common foodstuffs. Compare the wage I was on in Australia to the average income here... Poverty happens. Simple.