School Day Memories ... An Easy Melkos Recipe

Taking me right back to my boarding school days - a steaming bowl of Melkos, topped with cinnamon sugar. Delicious !

Do you have a food (or foods) that take you right back to your childhood ? A food which, if you were to eat it again today, takes you right back to the time when you last ate it – no matter how long ago ? One such food for me, is the South African pudding (dessert) known as Melkos.

I spent the final years of my senior schooling at a boarding school (‘hostel’) in Vryheid, South Africa. At that time, over 20 years ago, it was a predominantly Afrikaans town and the hostel was run by a group of Afrikaans “tannies” (an affectionate name which means “Auntie”) and boy, those ‘tannies’ could cook ! One of the dishes they used to make for us was Melkos. I had never eaten it before and my friends had to explain what it was to me, the first time it was served to us.

It is basically homemade noodles cooked in milk and served with cinnamon sugar. (Rather like a cross between hot porridge and a milky, custard type pudding ?) The floury noodles thicken the milk into a custard type delight !

Anyway, we used to be served this as a light dinner. Not after dinner … no – for dinner ! I remember always feeling a bit naughty eating ‘pudding’ as a main meal (“What would Mum say if she knew ?!”)

My husband refuses to eat Melkos. Or to even try it. He makes gagging noises turns his nose up when he sees it simmering away on the stove. “Yuck !” he proclaims “All that is, is just raw egg and flour boiled in milk. How can you EAT that stuff ?!?!” My daughter also doesn’t enjoy it …. but the dogs do, so they usually share half the pot with me. Put it this way, it’s probably an acquired taste. I mean, I wouldn’t serve it for pudding if you came around to enjoy a meal with us. Which got me thinking – who would I serve this Melkos to ? The only person I could come up with ? My (Afrikaans) brother-in-law, Dawid - I know that he’d enjoy it !

So, here is my favourite Melkos recipe which comes from the book “Cook and Enjoy It” by S.J.A. de Villiers -:


Melkos

Noodles:
3 eggs
½ tsp Salt
1 cup cake Flour
Water

Boiling Milk (I use 1 litre)
2 pieces stick Cinnamon (optional)
Cinnamon Sugar

Beat the eggs & salt lightly. Add the cake flour & mix well. Add sufficient water to make a stiff dough. Knead the dough thoroughly until elastic. On a floured surface, roll the dough out until 6 mm thick. Cut into thin strips with a sharp knife. Cook these strips in boiling milk, using 1 cup of Milk per person. Add 2 pieces of Cinnamon sticks if desired. Simmer for 20 – 30 mins until cooked through. Spoon into soup plates & sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Notes - This recipe serves 4 generously. You could cut the noodles a bit finer than the ones in the photo above (as they do expand & swell during cooking). The Melkos I remember eating had noodles as fine as spaghetti in it.

Dutch Supplies Mean Christmas Came Early In Tanzania This Year - Woo Hoo !

Some of the items which arrived in the container from Holland yesterday - it was like Christmas in June !

Every year, the Dutch company which my husband works for very kindly sends us a “stock list” of items which we can order from Holland, which they then purchase on our behalf and ship to us on one of the company containers which comes across the ocean to Tanzania on a regular basis containing seed, chemicals and spares.

This stems back to the days when very little could be purchased in the shops here. Even ten years ago, when we first came here, there were simple things you just could not find – items deemed “luxury” such as sauces, mustards, toiletries, chocolate, fabric softener, breakfast cereals, nappies (diapers). Speaking to people who lived here before that time, I have been told that even toilet paper had to be imported at one stage. Imagine !

It’s very easy to forget those times …. it is just a distant memory to me, when we would go on holiday and return with our suitcases loaded with odd “necessities” such as good quality toothpaste. How much we take for granted now !

The things that we bring back home to Tanzania with us now ? Top of the list (but heavy !) are books, then magazines and DVD’s, CD’s. (My husband and I are both avid readers.)

Next would be make-up & hair products (me, of course !) and quality medicines, clothing, shoes, décor items for our home – curtains, loose rugs, bath towels, lamp shades, throws. Lamp shades & cushions ! Those are things we still cannot get here easily. Especially good quality ones. Oh, and picture hooks – of all things !

Low fat, fat free, sugar free, wholegrain items ? Forget it ! I have a special order for Fat Free Yogurt with a local supplier who imports it from Kenya for me. You can find sugar free jam and artificial sweeteners. But that’s about it.

It breaks my heart that we can’t get rye, whole grain or whole wheat flour in this country – only white ! (I wouldn’t risk ordering that from Holland as it could be on the container for months ??) Boo hoo … maybe times will change, as the country is developing at a rapid rate – the economy is booming and there is lots of foreign investment, and more and more new products and services are appearing every day.

My parents own their own courier business in South Africa – which is very handy, as they have sent us countless parcels of “necessities” over the years. There is a company based in the UK which ships luxury items to Expat’s the world over which we order from about twice a year, too. (I’m addicted to Caramel Snack-A-Jack’s although my husband says they taste like polystyrene – ha ha !) Then, of course, there is Amazon.com – a lifesaver ! (Bless them, they even deliver to remotest Africa … well, the bigger cities at least. It takes around 3 months to receive a parcel - but better late than never !)

So, anyway … back to the luxury items we get from Holland each year. A lot of these items we can get here now, but some (like e.g. good quality shampoo) are supplied erratically. So I usually just like to order these in bulk (a case of 12/24 units at a time). Yesterday our annual “order” arrived and as my husband had to go in to the city to collect urgent farm spares (which were also on the container) he collected our order – and here some of it is sitting on my kitchen table above. So .. do you want to know what was in my order, and why ?

Shampoo and Conditioner (as explained above)
Children’s Toothpaste (erratic supply)
Wet Wipes (we get poor quality ones here, that go moldy once opened?!)
Creamed Honey (local honey is great, but this is extra special !)
French Jams (ditto)
Tinned Liver Pate (YUCK - that’s for my husband. Oh, & a treat for the cats but shhhhhh don’t tell a soul !)
Pickles - Onions, Gherkins and Hot Relish (hard to come by quality ones here)
Kechap Manis (I just wrote about this recently ! I got 2 cases of it today - woo hoo !)
Peanut Satay Sauce (1 kg buckets – I usually make my own but it’s a fiddly job !)
Apple Sauce (for healthier baking options & great winter puds !)
Quality Herbal & Flavoured Teas (difficult to get here)

So, think of me the next time you go to buy shampoo and you have a whole aisle of different types to choose from – and if you ever see a woman standing awestruck and open mouthed in the toothpaste aisle, battling to choose between “Fresh Mint” or “Spearmint” and looking as if she’s just seen a ghost – it’s probably me. On holiday in the civilized world somewhere, rejoicing in the sheer delight of different flavoured toothpastes ;)

Individual Pizza "Swirls" - Great For Kids Lunchboxes !

These make a great lunchbox snack for kids, or served with a side salad as a light lunch for peckish adults !

I have a busy day ahead of me in the kitchen today. As I mentioned recently, it is my daughter’s school Sport’s Day tomorrow, and I have offered to take a tray of savoury snacks and a tray of sweet snacks for the children.

After much pondering, I’ve decided on Chocolate & Raspberries Muffins as my “sweet” snack (you can find my recipe for those here), and for my “savoury” snack I’ve settled on another version of my sister, Colleen’s Savoury Swirls (you can find the recipe for those over here).

The Savoury Swirls are being altered a little to become Pizza Swirls (or mini Pizza coils … or Pizza snails ?!) as I have decided that instead of a Bolognese/ meat filling, I am going to do a cheese, tomato and herb filling instead.

This filling, I must just add, was inspired by the recent influx of jars and jars of “pasta” and “pizza” sauce on shop shelves in the city. I have rarely seen this product here before, now everywhere I look – there it is ! Several consignments of food items have obviously just arrived in the country and been cleared and obviously they contained cases and cases of the stuff, as every shop I’ve been into is stocking them – in all sorts of varieties ! (So I had to nab myself a couple – ‘cause once the stock has run out, we’ll probably never see them on our shelves here ever again !)

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this particular brand has either a.) expired -fiddling & forging expiry dates is common place here or b.) been removed from shelves in the “first” world due to a recall because of dodgy product ingredients & has ended up here c.) has been donated by an overseas charity to feed the starving and has somehow ended up being sold on shop shelves. (How else would you explain thousands of jars of the stuff ?!)

As I have never made the “Pizza” version of these before, and also because I was itching to open a jar of this magical pizza/pasta sauce and test it - I did a trial run earlier this week (pictured above) and they turned out really well !

So, enough of my waffling as I have to get cracking in the kitchen now …. here is the recipe I used this week - the same recipe which I will be using today -:


Pizza Swirls

Dough:
250 gm Butter / Margarine

250 gm Grated Cheddar Cheese

375 gm Flour

5 ml Baking powder

pinch of Salt

Filling:

375 gm jar Pasta/Pizza Sauce (I used Tomato & Garlic)
1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
10 ml mixed dried Herbs

First make the dough - mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough. Gently roll the dough out onto a well floured surface (or a sheet of wax paper/plastic wrap) into a rectangular shape.

Now spread the dough with the pasta sauce, top with the grated cheese and dried herbs and gently roll up lengthwise into a sausage shape. Thinly slice the dough into rounds and place on a greased baking tray. (Leaving the dough in the fridge for around 20 minutes before cutting makes it a little easier).

(You can also sprinkle a little extra grated cheese and herbs on the top of each slice before baking if you like.)

Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes at 180 °C/350’F/Gas Mark 4.