Dombolo (Dumplings or Steamed Bread)
South Africa
Rédacteur en chef
Abuja, Nigeria ·
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Abuja, Nigeria ·
Dombolo is South African steamed bread, and it occupies a particular place in the country's kitchens because it is bread that never sees an oven. Where a loaf is baked in dry heat, dombolo rises under a lid over water, and the result is soft, dense and slightly damp in a way no baked bread achieves. It belongs to the stew. Dombolo is not eaten alone and is not a side thought about separately. It arrives with chicken stew, beef stew, oxtail, lamb or tripe, and its job is to take up the gravy that the meat has spent hours building. In Zulu households the same technique produces jeqe, and the distinction between the two names is one that South Africans hold firmly even when it is drawn differently from one family to the next: broadly, jeqe is steamed as its own loaf, while dombolo is the dough set to rise over the pot the stew is already in. It is Sunday food and gathering food, made in quantity, cut into wedges at the table, and eaten with the hands.
Steamed leavened bread is documented across southern African households as a domestic staple, and the isiZulu name jeqe is recorded for the loaf steamed separately from the stew. Its earliest documented date is uncertain.
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Sift the flour and mix in the maize meal, yeast, sugar and salt.
Mix the beaten egg into the lukewarm liquid.
Add enough of the liquid to the dry ingredients to form a soft but pliable dough.
Knead for 10 minutes.
Cover the dough and leave to rise until doubled in size.
Knock the dough down and place it in a greased enamel bowl.
Leave to rise a second time until doubled.
Bring water to the boil in a pot large enough to hold the bowl.
Lower the bowl into the pot so the water comes a third of the way up its sides.
Seal the pot tightly and steam gently for 1 hour, topping up the water as needed. Do not lift the lid while it steams.
Turn the dombolo out and cut into wedges to serve.
Notes personnelles de Amarachi Irobi8 avis
Had to hunt down maize meal in the world food section at Sainsbury's for this. I used half milk and half lukewarm water for the liquid as suggested and the steamed dumplings turned out wonderfully fluffy, though they needed about 10 extra minutes of steaming on my hob to cook through completely.
I tried substituting the maize meal with fine cornmeal from the Safeway near my house since I cannot easily get proper mealie meal in Seattle. Letting the yeast proof properly for two full hours yielded a wonderfully spongy bread that picked up my beef berbere stew almost as well as injera.
Herh, that 1 cup of maize meal made the bread a bit too heavy and dense for my liking, chale. My friend from South Africa always uses pure flour for her dombolo so it stays soft paa. Next time I will use all white flour instead.
Kneading this dough for 10 minutes no be small thing o, my arms were tired! But mixing that beaten egg directly into the lukewarm milk made it so soft and pliable. We ate it steaming hot with rich stew, e sweet sha.
I love the Zulu dumplings when cooked on gravy meat.
Wonderful creatively designed menus. Excellent
Why does my dombolo come out dense instead of light?
Two usual causes. The dough has not proved long enough, or the water went off the boil. Dombolo steams rather than bakes, so it needs steady steam for the whole time; lifting the lid to check drops the temperature and the dough sets before it has risen. Let the dough double properly, keep the water at a firm simmer, and do not open the pot for the first forty minutes.