When a recipe specifies only 4 ingredients and 4 steps, one would deem it as easy peasy. Or so I thought about this Kashata recipe (a street food from Tanzania). The process started smoothly and smelling wonderfully when the desiccated coconut and peanuts hit the pan to bind with the caramel.Β The whole cooking process didn’t smell of disaster until the end – the moment I tried to shape the mixture into a walnut-sized ball. As you can see from the photos, I could only manage to shape about 3 balls and the rest of the mixture wasn’t shapeable for being far too dry.
{Mine}
{Troth Wells’}
{The remains of dry mixture π }
What could have happened was I let the mixture cool for too long to the extent that the caramel hardened and became toffee-like. Honestly, I waited until the temperature was manageable – perhaps my heat tolerance was much lower than Troth’s. π Anyway, once I stopped obessessing over how they should look like , I realised that the dry mixture resembled granola. After all, the mixture tasted like granola, looked like granola and so I thought why not treating them like granola instead.
I suppose it wasn’t all bad newsΒ as I knew what I’ll be spooning over my yoghurt and ice cream tomorrow. π
(p/s: there’s no reason my photos should suffer the same fate as the recipe. Here are the rest of the photos. Enjoy!)
Kashata
(adapted from The World of Street Food by Troth Wells)
Makes 8 – 12
Ingredients:
3/4 cup / 55g grated or desiccated coconut
1/2 cup / 55g peanuts, roasted and coarsely chopped (or you can buy already chopped peanuts)
1/3 cup / 55g sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Method:
1. Sprinkle the sugar on to a frying pan and cook it over a low heat, stirring, until it melts and begins to brown.
2. Add in the coconut, peanuts and cinnamon. Mix well.
3. When the sugar begins to set, remove the pan from the heat. (To test for setting, put a drop of water into the pan when the sugar is beginning to turn golden brown. When the drop sets into a hard ball, remove the pan from the heat.)
4. As the mixture cools, remove from the pan while it is still soft. Shape into walnut-sized balls and leave to cool.
{Sigh… cooking disaster π )
A similar thing has happened to me recently. I tried making vegan corn fritters and without the egg to bind most of them fell apart when I started to fry them. That was ok though, I just fished it all out with a ladle, tried to drain out the oil, and we just ate it with a spoon. π They didn’t look the way they were supposed to but they were still as delicious as ever!
I suppose the moral of the story was nothing has gone to waste. π I was thinking of making this for a party, like a quick snack if needed but now I’ve to look for another standby dessert recipes (not that these are lacking in blogsphere….). I still feel a little bumped out that the mixture is too dry…Hmm, I need to make something I’m good at to massage my bruise confidence, π
I would think the same when I see 4 ingredients and 4 steps! How hard would it be right? Some dishes look easy to make but it’s actually hard while some look difficult but turn out pretty easy.
You’re so smart to turn kashata to granola! I would probably eat it as is and maybe throw it away without thinking further that i can turn to something else.
I have probably jiinxed the recipe for thinking it’s too easy….damn it! But you’re right, some of the more difficult recipes I’ve tried turned out ok. Maybe because I did with caution every step of the way, I was overconfident with this one. π
Well, I was going to make this on the same day as the party that is coming up, but then a little voice inside me told me I should try it yesterday. Man, that was a close one, imagine the disaster happens before the party, I’d have been freaked….So I thought if that actually happens what would be my options and it came to me that I can spoon it over vanilla ice cream like toppings. That reminds me, I needed to get some vanilla ice cream, as my backup dessert….just in case as you’ll never know…hehhe!
OMG you are genius…I would have thrown it out!
Hmm, I can’t say that thought didn’t cross my mind, but I feel guilty every time I have to throw food away. Therefore, I’ll try my best not to, if possible. π
They still look close to the picture in the book actually.
Enjoy your breakfasts or yogurt snacks π It looks good to me. Who cares if they are not in ball shape!
I don’t know how my guests feel about me serving granola on the table, hehehe! I wanted these to be part of my entertaining dessert, but obviously the plan fell through…. Normally, I don’t really care how they shape as long as they taste alright, but when it comes to entertaining guests, different standard applies. π
I tried making something similar but it’s another recipe…I ‘ll give it anyway as it’s a winner…you should try make it as it never fails and I bet your guests will love it…
I melted 200 g of dark chocolate (85% cocoa)with a teaspoon of butter, then added like 100-150 g of crushed cornflakes or wheat flakes,some sliced sour cherries, rum extract and a few raisins….make little balls, let cool in the freezer for 2 hours (this is the secret), then dip them in another 200g of dark chocolate…it’s a very easy recipe, can be made when you have extra chocolate bits laying around, it’s a tasty snack for the kids, too.
The outer layer is crispy and the inside is soft…i just love them,I have these in my fridge all the time. Pictures on email.