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FAILING IN THE KITCHEN IS REEEEEEAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
I have always very honestly spoken about moments recipes backfire on me. I detailed some of my fails on this post but trust me, there are many more LOL! The first time I tried making vitumbua, they failed their way straight to hot hell. They did not even hold together, they were just a pulverized, oily, cat-food-esq disaster. I was sad, not only coz of the backfiring, but because I wasted my afternoon and nothing fruitful came out of my effort. But you know what, my mama never raised a quiter y’all! I went through every little step I made and realized I made about 4 mistakes, not even 1, THREE mistakes hence the initial first disastrous recipe. I gave this another shot and they turned out pretty well! And here we are now! With a new recipe, a new video and plenty of lessons learnt. To you too, when you fail kidogo in the kitchen, get right back up. It happens to everyone and no one reading my blog should give up easily. No sir!
Without further ado, my nutmeg and clove vitumbua! <3
Check out the full video on YouTube and do subscribe:
PREP TIME: 1 HR COOK TIME: 20 MIN SERVES: 1
Vitumbua Ingredients
1 cup of rice
1/2 a cup of dessicated coconut
1/2 a cup of coconut milk
1/2 a teaspoon of clove
Egg white (from one egg)
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cardamom
1 teaspoon of yeast
Method
First step is soaking he rice. Give it a good wash and place it in your container. Add some more clean water until it is just covered and set aside to soak overnight.
Once the time has lapsed, drain all the water and let as much as can drip away for about 5 min.
Mistake One I made last time: I did not drain my rice and added the water it soaked in with the other ingredients . Sounds stupid? It definitely was 😀
In a blender, add all the ingredients: coconut milk, the soaked, softened and drained rice, the coconut, sugar, followed by the spices, yeast and egg yolk. Traditionally, only cardamom is used for this recipe, but I appreciated the additional warmth of the clove and the nutmeg. Because of these three dark brown spices, the batter got a brown hue. Blend for about 5 minutes or until the batter is COMPLETELY smooth. It should have the same consistency as pancake batter.
Mistake two from last time: I blended all the ingredients until they were just combined and not until the batter was completely smooth. It was still very course and grainy, and that contributed in everything falling apart the first time round.
Let your dough rest in a warm part of your kitchen for it to rise. Then after 45 minutes, come back and get it and let us get cooking! <3. But first, let us talk about this beauty of a pan that is used for making vitumbua:
Mistake 3: I used a regular pan and htought the vitumbua would shape up the same way drop scones do. Wrong! *Trump Voice*
That is the correct pan for making vitumbua. I got mine from Vitu Zote and you can get all information from their site as linked. It was kinda costly, but it is pure cast iron, and will last till 3020! You guys also gave me many options of other places I could check out for the same pan and I have listed all of them in today’s video description box. So check out all of them incase they get sold out in Vitu Zote.
Grease your vitumbua pan. I used ordinary vegetable oil.
Mistake no.4 from last time: I was freakin’ deep frying my vitumbua. In an ordinary pan. Y’all! There is no way I would have suceeded 😀
Ladle the batter 3/4 way up. We do not do it all the way up to give it room to rise. It you do it all the way up it will spill over and we do not want that! Keep your heat medium low, and once you start seeing bubbles on the surface, nudge them with your skewer from time to time and turn them over once they are cooked and golden on once side so that they cook on the other side.
Just a note, vitumbua ARE NOT the same as drop scones. Drop scones are made with regular wheat flour, they are cooked in a regular pan and they are deep fried. They have they own beauty and deliciousness, and so do vitumbua. Two amazing dishes that may look similar, but are as different as night and day.
Once done, serve.
Wow! Let me tell you, all the mistakes I made in the beginning were totally worth the golden beauties I ended up with. Kuteleza sio kuanguka! I am glad I pushed past my fail and did it right! How gorgeous are these?!
You can enjoy your vitumbua with some tea, coffee, milk or just on their own . I will def be making these often and they do serve as the perfect break from bread, maandazi and pancakes. For my gluten-free people, you can enjoy these too so that’s a huge plus as well!
xx
-Kaluhi
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Hey there! My name is Kaluhi and I love food! Through my blog, I am happy to share with you my self-taught recipes, steeped in nostalgia and the happiest of memories. I hope each recipe you try out is as addictive as the previous one and is shared on a table full of love and hearty laughs!
Love how candid you are and that you never pretend to always get it right. 💙💙
<3 <3 <3
Breakfast sorted. Looks simple but worthy it
<3
Lemme tell you K back home in Msa,there is this little frying pan we used to play with ( cha mama) while growing up pretending we cooking, that is what is used to make vitumbua, one at a time. Thank God for you,kumbe there is a faster and easier way to do this. Will def try this.
Hope you love it when you try it out <3
congrats i like them ,they look good,sweet,yea>can you afford to send me the recipe and the procedure to my email please..
thank you
my email-kephanjaramba @gmail.com
I trust that you read the recipe and procedure before you came all the way down to the comment section. There is also a downloadable copy and you need to get that and save it on your device. I cannot repeat doing what I have already very freely and very clearly provided in the blogpost.
I love this, but still thinking of the alternatives I will use because I am vegan. But I am definitely going to try to make this 😄.
Let me know how it all goes love!
I just want to understand why it’s a mistake to deep fry them? I mean, that pan isn’t an item you’d find in your everyday home? Can you at least bake them ?
I have listed all the shops you can get them in. It is not in your home at the moment, but you can go and buy it. Same way I never had one and I went and got one. When you don’t have a key utensil that cannot be substituted, you go and get it. Authentic vitumbua cannot be made with another pan.
Also, You CANNOT deep fry it because a rice batter will not hold the same way as wheat flour batters do. This was one of my previous mistakes and I have listed that down. Take it from me deep frying does not work at all for vitumbua, I have experienced the fail personally. You could probably bake, but then again, I am not certain about the outcome. They need to be turned, as they do not swell into the round shape on their own. This is the AUTHENTIC method of making vitumbua, all else will FAIL.
Hey Kaluhi! Love this blog. You’re so entertaining and your recipes are on point. Could I ask how much water you used when activating the yeast? Asante!
Just about two tablespoons. Not much is needed. Note the quantity will vary according to the quantity of yeasts you use
hey, Im just curious. I recently went to Mombasa and bought some on the street and they were being prepared on the spot, however they were being fried. Is this the version with wheat flour?
Were those Kaimati or vitumbua??? Coz Vitumbua re made form rice flour
Do you use egg white or the yolk? Your ingredients list the egg white, but in the steps you say to add yolk…. clarify please tusichanganyike 😀
white
Pls send add were to get vitumbua PAN I will be glad to have thank u
All comtacts in the blogpost and video description box