African Bread

• ¾ cup water
• ½ cup maize meal
• ½ dessert spoon dried skim milk powder
• salt

Boil water. sieve maizemeal,dried skim milk powder and salt.Add sieved flour to boiling water.Cook for a few minutes stirring continuously.

serve with stewed meat

Baked Millet Roll (Vikate vya mtama)

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sour milk
• 1 cup millet flour
• A little honey to taste

Boil together the water and milk in a pan.Add flour,a little at a time,stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.work it all in well and cook until mixture is stiff.Turn mixture on to a floured board and form into a loaf.wrap in greased kitchen paper.Bake in a medium heat for about 1½ hours,till loaf is firm.

N.B. - This is the staple bread of Swahili people, and some housewives make it every morning for breakfast. It can be eaten cold or re-heated for dinner. It can be eaten with butter or without any accompaniment.

Mahamri (Swahili Bun)

Ingredients

• ½ kilo plain white flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 dessert spoons ghee
• 1 teaspoon yeast diluted in a little warm water
• 1¼ cups milk
• oil for deep frying
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds(optional)

Thoroughly knead flour, sugar, cardamom, ghee, milk and yeast solution to form a dough.Knead until the dough is smooth and blistered.Divide into eight balls.Roll each ball into a 6'' circle.Cut into quarters.Put well apart on a floured board or paper and keep in a warm room for about 2 hours or until the dough has risen and becomes light.

Deep fry both sides in oil till brown.they should be a light,golden brown,not too brown.

Serve with curry.

N.B.-This is the staple bread for the swahili people,and some house wives make it every morning for breakfast.it can be eaten cold or re-heated for diner.It can be eaten with butter or without accompaniment.

Vermicelli Bread (Mkate wa Tambi)

Ingredients

• 5 cups of coconut milk from 2 large coconuts
• 1½ cups sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom(optional)
• ¼ kilo vermicelli (Tambi)

Heat the coconut milk with sugar on medium heat,stirring constantly with a wooden spoon till it boils.

Turn to low heat and cook for 5 minutes.Add the vermicelli and cardamom.Cover and cook on low heat till dry,grill till brown.

Leave cool.

Remove from the pot and cut into squares.

Serve with fried or stewed meat.

Rice Bread (Mkate wa sinia)

Ingredients

• 3 cups ground rice
• 3½ cups coconut milk from 3 coconuts
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast dissolved in ¼ cup warm water
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ tea spoon cardamom seeds

Add together 1 cup and 3 tablespoons coconut milk to the ground rice and form into a dough.

Knead for 5 minutes.Blend together the rest of the coconut milk,milk,sugar and yeast.

With an electric blender,blend half the mixture at a time for three minutes on speed 5.

Pour the mixture on a pan.

Add cardamom seeds Mix with a wooden spoon.Cover and place in the sun or in a warm place till the mixture rises to double the size.

Place in greased saucepan,cover with aluminum foil.Cook on low heat.When it is cooked and firm, grill the bread to brown the top.

Leave to cool.

Remove the pan and cut into square.

serve with meat or fish.

Vitumbua

Ingredients

• 3 cups finely ground rice flour
• ¼ cup white flour
• ¼ grated coconut
• 1½ cups FEM and 1 cup SEM from 2 coconuts
• yeast
• 1 teaspoon
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon cardamom seeds
• ¼ cup milk(optional)
• 3 cups salad oil

Mix rice flour,grated coconut,and enough coconut milk to form dough.Knead for 10 minutes.Add yeast,sugar,cardamom seeds,mil and the rest of the coconut milk.Mix well to form a smooth paste.If using an electric blender,blend for one minute on a speed 2.Pour out and leave to stand for one hour.

On a low heat, pour a tablespoon of oil in a small karai (small basin),pouring half a cup of the mixture.

Fry for about 3 minutes and then turn on the other side (using a tooth pick or a thin pointed stick) poke at the center to check if cooked and cook for another 3 minutes until brown.

Remove the oil.

Continue pouring in the the karai another tablespoon of oil and half cup of the mixture and fry as above.

cook in this way until all the mixture is used up.

serve hot with stewed meat or tea.

Rice Pancakes (Vibibi)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon yeast
• ½ kilo rice flour
• Coconut milk (1/4 cup FEM and enough SEM for a heavy batter)
• 3 ground cardamoms
• ½ cup ghee

Dissolve yeast in a little warm water with a pinch of sugar. Keep in a warm place.

Blend rice flour with SEM to make a thick batter. Mix in sugar, FEM, Cardamoms and yeast. Cover and keep in a warm place till the mixture rises to double the size.

Heat a small- sized frying pan.Brush on a little ghee. When ghee is hot, pour in ½ cup of batter and spread out with spoon to form a small pancake the size of saucer, about ½" thick. Cover and leave for 1-2 minutes till one side is golden brown. Sprinkle 1 or 2 drops of ghee on the pancake and turn over.Cover again and leave to cook till golden brown.

Serve hot with fried meat, fish or tea.

Parothas (Mkate wa Kusukuma)

Ingredients

• 4 cups plain white flour
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 2 to 2½ cups hot water
• ½ kilo cooking fat (ghee)

Add 1 tablespoon fat to the flour and rub in till smooth. Add hot water to the flour and mix with wooden spoon to form a firm dough like bread.

Knead by folding dough and pushing with heel of hands in quick rocking motion.When a pliable dough is formed, fold and knead repeatedly.Repeat until dough is smooth and blistered.

Roll the dough with rolling pin into an oblong shape 15" x 9". Spread with 2 tablespoons fat. Roll up tightly, beginning at the wide side.

Seal well by pinching edges together.Even up roll by stretching slightly.

Cut roll into 2" slices.

Keep aside.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat.Take one slice at a time, roll it on a floured board and form a round the size of a bread plate, 0.25" thick.

Lift the bread gently and place it on the hot pan, taking care not to break or stretch it. Gently, with your fingers, turn it around in the pan. When one side is browning a little, turn it to the other side. When both sides are golden brown, spread 1 dessert spoon fat on each side and brown a little on both sides.

When both sides are brown and cooked, remove from hot pan. Place on a plate. Wipe pan of all remaining fat. Continue cooking the rest of the parothas.

Serve hot with curry or any type of stew.

Kaimati

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• 2 cups flour
• 1½ cups milk
• 2 tablespoon melted butter
• 1½ cups of water
• 5 cups cooking oil

Put yeast in a little warm water and keep in a warm place until dissolved.

Sieve flour and stir in milk, a little at a time, along with butter and yeast. Beat the batter, using your right hand, till smooth and thick. Cover and keep in a warm place to rise.

Make syrup

Put Sugar, water and cardamoms in a pan. Cook on a low heat till syrupy. Leave to cool.

Cook the drops

Heat cooking oil in a pan. Wash your hands well and keep a bowl of clean water near you.Wet your fingers in the bowl and dip them in the batter.Taking approximately 1 teaspoon of the mixture in your fingers each time, drop it in the hot oil. Cook on the low heat till golden brown, turning the balls around constantly.

Drop the balls in the syrup and turn them round till covered well in syrup.

Serve as dessert.