Vetkoek (Amagwinya) and Beef Mince Curry
Overview
To make vetkoek and mince, you fry rounds of proved yeast dough until they're golden and light. Then you split them and fill them with a South African curry mince of beef, potato, tomato and warm spices. Vetkoek en mince is a cheap, complete meal you eat with your hands. Vetkoek is fried bread, and its names tell you most of its story. Vetkoek is Afrikaans for fat cake, and amagwinya is the isiZulu and isiXhosa name. It's usually traced to the Voortrekkers, who needed a bread that travelled and kept on the long trek inland in the 1830s. Filled with curried mince, it sits in the same family as the kota and the bunny chow: bread holding something hot. Curry mince is the filling you'll see most often, and this one is built on whole fennel, aniseed, cardamom and cloves fried first, then cumin, coriander, turmeric and fenugreek once the onion has softened.
AFN Heritage Note
Vetkoek takes its name from the Afrikaans for fat cake and is known in isiZulu as amagwinya, reflecting its adoption across South African communities from its origins in Dutch and Afrikaner fried dough. The spice profile of the curried mince served with it derives from Cape Malay and Indian South African cooking.
Ingredients
Directions
- 1
Weigh the flour into a large bowl.
- 2
Add the yeast, sugar and salt and mix well into the flour.
- 3
Pour in the water, milk and butter and mix until it just comes together.
- 4
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before kneading.
- 5
Dust with a little flour and knead for 5 to 8 minutes. The dough will be sticky at first and will come together as you rest and knead it.
- 6
Cover the dough in a large bowl and prove for 30 to 40 minutes, until doubled in volume.
- 7
Cut the dough into 50g pieces, shape into balls and flatten slightly.
- 8
Prove again for 30 to 40 minutes, until significantly doubled in size.
- 9
Fill a large frying pan halfway with neutral oil and heat to medium high.
- 10
Fry the amagwinya 3 or 4 at a time until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes a side. They should feel light and airy once cooked. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- 11
For the curry, heat neutral oil in a pan to medium high and fry the mince until golden brown, seasoning lightly with salt. Remove the beef from the pan.
- 12
Add the fennel, aniseed, cardamom, cloves, garlic and ginger and fry for 30 seconds.
- 13
Add the chopped onion and pepper and fry for 2 minutes over medium heat.
- 14
Add the remaining spices and salt and cook for 30 seconds.
- 15
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until soft.
- 16
Return the beef to the pan with the potatoes and enough water to just cover the potatoes.
- 17
Cook until the curry thickens and the potatoes are soft. Adjust the salt.
- 18
Cut a vetkoek in half, fill with the curry and serve.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Chef Donkey- Use strong bread flour, not plain. The dough needs the gluten to hold its structure through two proves and the frying, and plain flour gives a dense, heavy vetkoek.
- The dough is meant to be sticky. Resist adding flour to make it easier to handle, because resting and kneading will bring it together and extra flour makes it tough.
- Both proves matter. The second one, after shaping, is what gives the light airy interior, and skipping it produces something closer to a dense fried scone.
- Rest the fried vetkoek 10 minutes before filling. Straight from the oil the inside is still setting and will go soggy under the curry.
- Amasi in place of the milk is a genuinely South African variation and gives a slight tang to the dough.
Questions cooks ask
What is vetkoek in English?
Vetkoek is Afrikaans for fat cake, and it's a round of yeast dough fried until golden, a bit like a doughnut without the hole. In isiZulu and isiXhosa it's called igwinya, or amagwinya for more than one, and in Setswana it's legwinya, or magwinya for more than one. Vetkoek and amagwinya are the same food under different names.
How do you make South African curry mince for vetkoek?
Brown the mince in hot oil with a little salt and lift it out. Fry the fennel, aniseed, cardamom, cloves, garlic and ginger for 30 seconds, then the onion and green pepper over medium heat for 2 minutes, then the rest of the spices for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft, return the beef with diced potato and just enough water to cover, and cook until the curry thickens and the potatoes are tender.
Why is my vetkoek dense instead of light?
Usually the dough was under proved or made with the wrong flour. This dough needs two proves, and the second one after shaping is the one people skip. Use strong bread flour rather than plain, and don't add extra flour to the sticky dough while kneading, because that makes it heavy too.
How hot should the oil be for vetkoek?
Medium high: hot enough that the dough sizzles and puffs as soon as it goes in, but not so hot that it browns in under a minute. Aim for 2 to 3 minutes a side. Too cool and the dough soaks up oil and goes greasy; too hot and the outside colours while the middle stays raw.
What else can I fill vetkoek with?
Curry mince is the classic savoury filling, but polony and cheese, chips and cheese, atchar and chakalaka are all common. Sweet is just as traditional, especially apricot jam or syrup, and plenty of people eat vetkoek plain with butter. Think of it as a bread roll rather than a fixed dish.
Reviews
2 reviews
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Used amasi instead of plain milk like my late mama used to do, dough was sticky maar after that 10 min rest it came right. Minced beef curry smelling like Sunday morning in Mitchells Plain! My broer ate four vetkoeke sommer in one go.
Herh chale, this dough is very sticky at first oo! I thought I ruined the yeast and water ratio, but after resting for 10 minutes it became smooth paa. Reminds me of Ghanaian bofrot but with the savory mince inside. Good stuff.