I made this vanilla sugar with vanilla pods grown right here in Tanzania - I try to support local products whenever I canThis is not a recipe as such, but just a simple way in which you can make your own vanilla sugar, and an interesting insight into a part of Tanzania which I have not really covered yet on this blog.
Some years ago I heard talk of a vanilla farm that was about to be started somewhere in the country – vanilla is not a crop I associate with Tanzania (for some odd reason !), despite the fact that the spice island of Zanzibar (where vanilla is grown) lies just off our coastline. Imagine my surprise (I tell you, ‘never say never’ in Africa !) when a couple of months ago I was in my tiny, local, dimly lit ‘supermarket’ and I spied neatly bundled packets of fresh vanilla beans on the shelf – oh my ! I was so excited that I bought several packets (which was just as well, as I have not seen anymore since.)
These particular vanilla pods are being grown in Bukoba, which lies on the western shores of Lake Victoria, which is situated in the north west of Tanzania. (Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, the second largest freshwater lake in world and is well known for it’s Tilapia fish, which can weigh up to 2 kg’s.) If you’d like to read more about Bukoba, and see some photo’s of Tanzanian life & some stunning scenery in that area, you can click here.
I love using the seeds, freshly scraped from the vanilla pod (bean) and adding them to milk, homemade custard, puddings and sugar. Vanilla sugar is great and aside from being used in tea and coffee you can use it on pancakes, for baking (sprinkled over hot biscuits just out of the oven !) or in any other recipe that calls for sugar.
As we cannot get white sugar here I managed to find some imported white caster sugar and I simply took 2 vanilla pods, slit them down the middle, scrapped the gooey seeds out & mushed them up with the sugar (my daughter had fun doing this with me !). Then I placed the ‘empty’ vanilla pods into a clean glass jar, poured the sugar over them and closed the lid tightly.
The jar sits on my tea and coffee tray and making this vanilla sugar has given me an idea for homemade Christmas gifts to give to teachers etc at the end of the year … topped with a round of colourful Tanzanian cloth and containing genuine Tanzanian vanilla …. and I bet my daughter will enjoy all the squishing and mushing that goes along with making them !
Some years ago I heard talk of a vanilla farm that was about to be started somewhere in the country – vanilla is not a crop I associate with Tanzania (for some odd reason !), despite the fact that the spice island of Zanzibar (where vanilla is grown) lies just off our coastline. Imagine my surprise (I tell you, ‘never say never’ in Africa !) when a couple of months ago I was in my tiny, local, dimly lit ‘supermarket’ and I spied neatly bundled packets of fresh vanilla beans on the shelf – oh my ! I was so excited that I bought several packets (which was just as well, as I have not seen anymore since.)
These particular vanilla pods are being grown in Bukoba, which lies on the western shores of Lake Victoria, which is situated in the north west of Tanzania. (Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, the second largest freshwater lake in world and is well known for it’s Tilapia fish, which can weigh up to 2 kg’s.) If you’d like to read more about Bukoba, and see some photo’s of Tanzanian life & some stunning scenery in that area, you can click here.
I love using the seeds, freshly scraped from the vanilla pod (bean) and adding them to milk, homemade custard, puddings and sugar. Vanilla sugar is great and aside from being used in tea and coffee you can use it on pancakes, for baking (sprinkled over hot biscuits just out of the oven !) or in any other recipe that calls for sugar.
As we cannot get white sugar here I managed to find some imported white caster sugar and I simply took 2 vanilla pods, slit them down the middle, scrapped the gooey seeds out & mushed them up with the sugar (my daughter had fun doing this with me !). Then I placed the ‘empty’ vanilla pods into a clean glass jar, poured the sugar over them and closed the lid tightly.
The jar sits on my tea and coffee tray and making this vanilla sugar has given me an idea for homemade Christmas gifts to give to teachers etc at the end of the year … topped with a round of colourful Tanzanian cloth and containing genuine Tanzanian vanilla …. and I bet my daughter will enjoy all the squishing and mushing that goes along with making them !
