Vetkoek Fried in Tallow
Before seed oils came along, South African kitchens fried their vetkoek in beef fat, and you could taste the difference: a crisp, golden shell, a soft and fluffy middle, and a clean, savoury flavour that never tastes greasy. This is the way Ouma made it. Fill them with curried mince for supper, or split them open with apricot jam and cheese for something sweet.
Ingredients
- 500 g cake flour, plus extra for your hands
- 10 g instant dry yeast (1 sachet)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- About 300 ml lukewarm water
- 1 to 1.5 L Tallow & Flame beef tallow, for frying (a 2 L tub covers it, and it can be strained and used again)
To serve
- Curried mince (see the tip below), or
- Apricot jam and grated cheddar, or golden syrup
Method
- Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the water bit by bit and mix to a soft, slightly sticky dough.
- Knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and stretchy. Cover and leave in a warm spot for about an hour, until doubled.
- Knock the dough back and divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each into a ball with floured hands, place on a floured tray, cover and let them rise again for 15 minutes.
- Melt the tallow in a deep, heavy pot to about 5 cm deep and heat it to 170 to 175 °C. No thermometer? A small piece of dough should rise and sizzle steadily straight away.
- Fry 3 or 4 at a time for 3 to 4 minutes a side, turning once, until deep golden. Don't crowd the pot: the fat cools down and the vetkoek soak up fat.
- Drain on a rack or kitchen paper and fill while warm.
Chef's tip
Quick curried mince: fry an onion in a spoon of tallow, add 500 g beef mince, brown it, then stir in 2 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp turmeric, a grated carrot, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a spoon of chutney. Simmer for 20 minutes and season.
Safety: never fill a pot more than a third with fat, lower the dough in gently and never leave hot fat unattended. Let the tallow cool, strain it through a cloth and keep it for the next fry.