Tanzanian Doughnuts

Being nourished with a mishmash of Indian, #African, and British food has all my life, allowed me to connect and experiment with the culinary cultures of all these cuisines. In other words, I’ve been spoilt and have loved every minute of it. Hell, I’ve been rabbiting on about it to you all since 2009.

For my generation, it feels like the Indian influence on East African cooking is a hush-hush camp, with recipes hidden away inside the spirits of expat grandparents, parents, aunties, and uncles. As sad as it may sound, I’m a 23-year old girl worried that Zanzibar Trail Mix, Malindi Halwa, and Ugandan Kasodi will one day be forgotten by my Indo-Chinese-obsessed peers – and that’s deep, bro.

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Hello Vitumbua

In the name of doing my bit to preserve the East African cuisine my family is so proud of, I’d like to introduce you to Vitumbua. These Tanzanian rice flour doughnuts are a favorite of my saintly Bapu, Gunwantrai Modha and I completely understand why. Born in Tanzania, my dad his brothers think of these dishes as fuel food – they’re good for the soul and all that.

Vitumbua should be golden and crunchy on the outside and like a delicate morsel of cardamom-scented cloud on the inside. The batter is made with coconut milk which makes these cakey baked doughnuts pure white and melt-in-the-mouth.

If you have a Vitumbua or Appam pan, please use one. I don’t (shock, horror) so a cupcake tin is a great substitute. Being a Yorkshire lass at heart, I faked it and made my Vitumbua, in the same way, I’d make my Eggless Yorkshire puddings. I guess you could say Vitumbua cooked in this way are neither nowt nor summat, but they’re damn delicious all the same.