Nqobile Food Truck - NMU, Port Elizabeth

With stressful weeks and days leading up to my second test for postgraduate studies as well as my graduation, it's hard not to succumb to unhealthy and hearty meals. For me, succumbing from health regimen to hearty home cooked meals like this gwinya (english: vetkoek).

A vetkoek or igwinya (Xhosa/Zulu name) is a

typically delicious black South African snack. A traditional pastry both in Afrikaans and Nguni cultures (i.e Xhosas, Zulus, Swatis and Ndebeles), it’s basically a mixture of flour, water, sugar and salt which is made into small balls and deep-fried until golden brown. They are easy to make. The "difficult" may come in what to put inside. You could add in savoury mince curry such as in the picture above, burger patty for a twist in hamburger, polony (bologna sausage) and just about anything.

How to make it varies. I trust this method, since I've grown up making them that way.

Method

You will need:

• 500g cake flour (all purpose flour for Americans)

• 1 packet of dry yeast (or 1 tablespoon)

• 1/2 a cup of sugar

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1/4 of a litre of warm water

• enough oil to deep-fry them (perhaps 1 litre)

1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

2. Add the sugar, salt and dry yeast and mix.

3. Add some of the warm water.

4. Mix, adding a little more water until you have a very supple dough. It has to compensate for the additional flour you will incorporate into it in the kneading process.

5. Transfer your dough onto a thin bed of flour and knead, making sure the dough remains supple.

6. After ±10 minutes of good kneading, return the dough to a dish lightly powdered with flour.

7. Cover and allow it to rise for a good 30 minutes.

8. After 30 minutes , beat the dough down and stretch it. Cover again and allow it to rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the dough has doubled its size.

9. Heat up the oil at a medium temperature.

10. Break the dough into balls and fry until golden-brown. You can test if fried right through by pricking right through the vetkoek, if the fork/knife comes out clean, it's good, if comes out with bit of dough, deep fry a little while longer.

Hopefully everything is going well in your side xx