Menakely

Ingredients

Dough

• 400 grice flour
• 200 gplain flour
• 100 gsugar
• 10 gdried yeast
• 1/2 teaspoonsalt
• about 350 ml warm water
• or warm coconut milk
• 2 tablespoonsoil

Sometimes added

• 1egg
• a little vanilla
• zest of 1 lemon

To fry

• oil, for deep frying

To serve

• warm, with coffee
• at a roadside stall
• in the morning

Directions

1. Warm the water or coconut milk gently. Stir the yeast and a spoon of sugar in. Let it stand until it foams up. Give it about ten minutes to foam. Put both flours in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the salt to them.
2. Stir them together thoroughly. The two flours must be evenly combined. Whisk them together before adding liquid. Make a well in the middle of the flours. Pour in the foaming yeast liquid. Add the oil to the well as well. Bring it together into a soft dough. It should be soft but hold its shape.
3. Knead it for about five minutes. Five minutes is enough for this dough. Put the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover it and leave it somewhere warm. Let it roughly double in size. Give it an hour or a little more.
4. Divide it into even sized pieces. Roll each one into a smooth ball. Turn the ring around your finger steadily. Make the hole larger than seems right. Make it generously wide from the start.
5. Set the rings on a floured tray. Cover them loosely with a cloth. Let them prove for about twenty minutes. That gas expands in the hot oil. Pour the oil into a deep heavy pot. Fill it no more than half full. Heat it to about one hundred and seventy degrees. It should rise and sizzle steadily.
6. Keep a lid nearby to smother a flare-up. Never put water on an oil fire at all. Keep children well away from the pot. Frying them takes care and batches. Turn them over with a slotted spoon. Give them another two minutes.
7. Break the first one open to check. The inside should be cooked and light. Lift them out onto a wire rack. A rack keeps them from going soggy. Let all the excess oil drip away. That softens the base within minutes. Pile them into a basket or a bag. Serve strong sweet coffee alongside. They are best within the first hour. Warm them briefly to revive them.

Technique

• Rice flour has no gluten and cannot form an elastic dough alone, so wheat flour goes in alongside to hold it together; the proportion varies between cooks, and versions made with rice flour alone give a batter that is spooned rather than shaped into rings.
• Make the hole considerably wider than seems right, since it shrinks as the dough proves and again as it puffs in the oil; a small hole closes up entirely.
• Rice flour browns paler than wheat at the same point, so judge them by texture and feel as well as colour; and they go stale faster than wheat doughnuts, which is why the stalls fry them fresh through the morning.

Substitutions

• Warm coconut milk in place of water enriches the dough.
• Mofo gasy and mofo baolina are the round and ball-shaped members of the same fried bread family.

Variations

• An egg, a little vanilla or lemon zest go into the dough in some versions.
• They are sold with strong sweet coffee in small glasses at roadside stalls.
• Drain them on a wire rack rather than paper, which traps steam and softens the base.

History

Fried doughnuts sold with coffee at roadside stalls, part of the mofo family of fried breakfast breads.

Frequently asked questions

What is Menakely?

Menakely is a snack from Madagascar: ring-shaped fried rice-flour doughnuts, market staple. Fried doughnuts sold with coffee at roadside stalls, part of the mofo family of fried breakfast breads.

How long does Menakely take to make?

Menakely takes 25 minutes plus rising of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 20 rings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Menakely?

Yes, within limits. Warm coconut milk in place of water enriches the dough. Mofo gasy and mofo baolina are the round and ball-shaped members of the same fried bread family.

What is the most important thing to get right in Menakely?

Stir them together thoroughly. The two flours must be evenly combined. Whisk them together before adding liquid. Make a well in the middle of the flours. Pour in the foaming yeast liquid. Add the oil to the well as well. Bring it together into a soft dough. It should be soft but hold its shape.