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Bread · In Afrikaans: Vetkoek met maalvleis

Vetkoek with curried mince

Yeast dough deep-fried until golden, split open and filled with mild curried mince. Crisp outside, airy inside — the street food every South African knows.

Vetkoek means fat cake in Afrikaans. The same thing is called amagwinya in the townships, sold from street stalls in the morning, often with nothing but sugar or apricot jam. The savoury version with curried mince is what you find at school fêtes and sports grounds.

Prep
40 min
On the fire
30 min
Serves
10
Effort
medium
A vetkoek split open and filled with curried mince
NJR ZA · CC BY-SA 3.0

When it goes on

Done beforehand

Made in the kitchen. On the table before you light up.

Equipment: Cast-iron pan

This line

Trekboers and Voortrekkers1652 to about 1900Shisa nyama20th century to today

The three-legged pot, sausage as a way of keeping meat, bread without an oven.

Method

  1. Make the dough

    Mix flour and yeast, add salt and sugar. Work in the water gradually and knead for ten to fifteen minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky.

  2. Let it rise for an hour

    Shape into a ball, cover, leave somewhere warm. After about an hour it will have doubled. That hour is why vetkoek is never a spur-of-the-moment decision.

  3. Start the mince

    Soften the onion over medium heat for five to six minutes. Add the garlic and every spice and fry for two minutes until fragrant — this is where the flavour is made, not later.

  4. Finish the mince

    Pour in the stock and coconut milk and reduce for three to four minutes. Stir in the mince, breaking it up with a fork until no pink remains, about six minutes. Add chutney, tomato paste, vegetables and salt and cook uncovered for seven to ten minutes until thick enough to hold on a spoon.

  5. Shape the dough

    Knock the dough back and divide into ten pieces. Press each into a flat oval a good centimetre and a half thick. No thinner — vetkoek should stay soft inside.

  6. Fry them

    Heat five centimetres of oil in a heavy pot to 170–180 °C. Without a thermometer: a scrap of dough should rise and bubble straight away without darkening. Fry in batches, four to five minutes a side, until golden and puffed.

  7. Drain and fill

    Drain on kitchen paper, let them cool briefly, then cut in from the side — not all the way through — and fill while hot.

Tips

  • Oil that is too cool soaks in; oil that is too hot browns the outside before the middle cooks. Those 170–180 °C are the whole difference between good and greasy.
  • Sweet version: no filling, warm, with butter and apricot jam. That is how half the country knows it.
  • Reheat leftovers in the oven, not the microwave, or they go leathery.
  • The mince can be made the day before and is better for it. The dough cannot.

Vetkoek is the South African answer to feeding a lot of people on very little. Flour, water, yeast, oil — and you have something you can fill with whatever is in the house.

At a street stall it is called amagwinya and costs a few rand. At a church fête it is called vetkoek and comes with curried mince. It is the same thing; the only difference is who is selling it.

At a braai it belongs at the start. Vetkoek needs hot fat and a pan, not a fire — you make it before the wood is lit and put it on the table. Light the fire first and you are running two jobs at once.

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Total time
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Serves
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