Food for the changing season.

The moment the temperature (and the rain) starts falling, you can’t turn around without bumping into a blog or magazine spinning tales about stews and soups or prattling on about pancakes. While we do like these (worn out) “winter – warmers”, we have a couple of fresh favourites for you to try this season.

As much as we love a “hearty stew” or a “nourishing soup” packed full of nutrients and vitamins to fight off the winter sniffles, we also believe there is magic in these downright delicious, slightly less nutritious but perfectly comforting South African classics.

Melkkos (milk food)

This is an intentionally textured (lumpy) creamy type of thickened milk dish. Served hot with unhealthy amounts of cinnamon sugar, it is comfort in a bowl. There are many variations, from a sago-based melkkos, to one with “snysels” which is a kind of doughy noodle. Our favourite is the plain, slightly lumpy one with the consistency of a thick soup, but with a light, milky flavour and the aforementioned overindulgence of cinnamon sugar.

We love this recipe for traditional melkkos from Hannah Lewry, Multi-Media Food Editor at Woolworths TASTE Magazine:

“Just do what feels right. Melkkos is not a science, it’s an emotion.”

The what:

• 100 g sugar
• 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 90 g cake flour
• Salt, a pinch
• 3 T butter
• 1 1/2 litres milk
• 1 cinnamon stick

The How:

Mix the sugar and ground cinnamon.

Rub together the flour, salt and butter with your fingers until it is nice and crumbly – the Afrikaans word for this is frummel (verb) or frummels (noun).

Add 3 T cinnamon sugar and continue mixing with your fingers. Pour the milk into a large saucepan and add the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil. Once the milk is boiling and frothy, reduce the heat and allow to simmer while slowly sprinkling the frummels into the milk, whisking.

Reduce the heat and simmer gently, while whisking continually, for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Hannah’s Top Tip: “Do not skimp on the cinnamon sugar – if you are cautious with it, you have no business making and serving melkkos.”

If you like your melkkos milkier, simply use more milk and less flour. Alternatively, if you want to have small lumps of cinnamon dough drifting like tiny islands in a bowl of milk, gently stir with a wooden spoon instead of whisking.

Here are recipes for the variations. Melkkos met snysels and Sago-melkkos

Pancake or flapjack?

Nope.

It’s Amagwinya for us…

Gone are the days of stodgy Vetkoeke the size of side plates filled with bland curry mince and left sweating under clingwrap at church bazaars.

Now its all about the Amagwinya! (but yes…it’s still basically a fat cake just somehow better). These perfect little dough balls are formed into smaller sizes, never bigger than a tennis ball, and deep fried until dark and crispy on the outside but deliciously fluffy on the inside.

We love this recipe for Amagwinya with a twist from Andiswa Skweza’s website, Andiswa’s Kitchen

The What:

• 600 g Cake Flour plus 1 tablespoon
• 125 g Greek Yogurt (This is the twist)
• 1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
• 10 g Instant Yeast
• 3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 3 g Sea Salt
• 350 ml Lukewarm Water
• Canola Oil for frying (about a litre)

The How:

In a large mixing bowl, sieve in flour, then add yeast, sugar and, mix well.

Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil, yoghurt then water, roughly mix everything using a wooden spoon and start kneading with your hands. Knead for 11 to 12 minutes until the dough gets less sticky (but still sticky as this is a sticky dough).

Transfer the dough into a floured surface (using the 1 tablespoon of flour). Wash the mixing bowl and slightly grease it with oil and transfer the dough in it. Cover with a cling wrap or kitchen towel and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours or until it doubles in size.

Roll the dough onto a floured surface and press down to form an even layer. Then cut equal size portions, roll the portions to form a ball. And let the balls prove for 20 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile heat up the oil, when the oil is hot enough, drop the dough balls into the hot oil and fry on all sides until golden brown.

“Cut amagwinya in half and add cheese and polony or any cold meat you like and serve.”

While Andiswa prefers the Amagwinya’s with savoury fillings, we love it with a sugary sweet twist. Tear open your freshly baked doughball while it is still hot, lump in enough butter to melt all over your plate or hand (it’s part of the magic) and then add one big teaspoon of golden syrup. The syrup will also melt and seep into the Amagwinya, and you can stuff the whole sweet mess into your mouth in one go. (Or be civilised and eat it with cutlery and a lappie nearby…whatever works for you!)

We hope these two recipes give you some distraction from the traditional soups and stews of this season!