Mikate

Ingredients

The batter

• 600 gplain flour
• 120 gsugar
• or to taste
• 7 gsachet fast-action dried yeast
• 1 teaspoonsalt
• half a teaspoon grated nutmeg
• optional

The liquid

• about 380 ml warm water
• or warm milk
• 1egg, beaten
• optional
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• optional

For frying

• 1 litrevegetable oil
• or palm oil
• or enough for 8 cm depth

To serve

• hot, on their own
• with sweet tea or coffee
• sugar, to dust, optional

Directions

1. Put the flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar and yeast to one side. Add the salt to the opposite side. Add the nutmeg if you are using it. Stir the dry ingredients together. Warm the water until just warm to the touch. It must not be hot at any point. Heat kills yeast and nothing rises. Pour most of the liquid into the flour.
2. Add the egg and oil if you use them. Mix with your hand or a wooden spoon. This is a thick batter, not a dough. Add liquid if it is stiff like bread dough. Add flour if it pours like pancake batter. Beat the batter hard for three minutes.
3. Use your hand or a stout wooden spoon. Cover the bowl with a cloth. Leave it somewhere warm for about two hours. It should roughly double and turn bubbly.
4. Use a deep heavy pot. These need depth to turn themselves. Fill the pot no more than one third full. Oil bubbles up sharply when batter goes in. Never leave hot oil unattended. Keep a well fitting lid within reach. If it catches fire, turn off the heat.
5. Heat the oil to one hundred and seventy degrees. That is moderate rather than very hot. Take a handful and close your hand. Squeeze upward so a ball emerges at the top. Scoop it off with a wet spoon into the oil. That takes practice.
6. Drop five or six in at a time. Do not crowd the pot. Turn them with a spoon if they do not. Fry them for five or six minutes. They should be deep golden brown. Break it open and look inside. It should be light, bready and cooked through.
7. Lift them out with a slotted spoon. Drain them on a rack over kitchen paper. A rack keeps them far less greasy. Let the oil recover between batches. Serve them hot, within minutes. The batter is sweet enough already. Dust them with sugar if you like. They keep a day in an airtight tin. Let it warm before frying. Reheat them from frozen in a hot oven.

Technique

• The atlas holds several entries for this snack — bofrot in Ghana, botokoin in Togo, amandazi in Burundi, mikate here. The recipes are not meaningfully different. Fried sweet dough is made across the continent and every language has its own name for it; recording it under each reflects that reality rather than inventing distinctions.
• The consistency decides everything. This is a thick batter, not a dough — too wet to knead, thick enough to hold a rough shape and drop reluctantly off a spoon.
• Beat the batter hard for three minutes before rising. That works air in and develops the gluten, and both make the finished balls lighter.
• Do not knock the batter back after rising. The bubbles are the lightness.
• Fry at 170 degrees. These are thick and need time inside; hotter oil browns the outside while the middle stays raw doughy, which is the commonest failure. Break the first one open and check.
• Use deep oil, about eight centimetres. In enough depth they roll over by themselves and come out evenly round.
• Deep-frying rules apply: fill the pot no more than a third, never leave it unattended, keep a lid within reach, and if the oil catches fire turn off the heat and smother it. Never throw water on burning oil.
• Give it the full two hours. Sugar slows yeast considerably, and raising the heat instead makes the batter taste of raw yeast.
• The liquid must be only just warm. Hot liquid kills the yeast outright.
• Do not taste the raw batter to judge the sugar. Raw flour can carry E. coli and raw egg carries its own risk — measure instead.
• Drain on a rack rather than paper alone, which lets them sit in the oil they absorbed.
• The traditional shaping squeezes batter up through a closed fist so a ball emerges at the top, scooped off with a wet spoon. A wet spoon or ice cream scoop does the same with less practice.

Substitutions

• Water replaces milk and is what most stalls use.
• The egg and oil both enrich the batter and both can be left out.
• Nutmeg, cinnamon or a little vanilla flavour the batter; plain is equally normal.
• Palm oil replaces vegetable oil for frying and gives a distinct colour and flavour.
• Mashed ripe banana or plantain worked into the batter makes a fruit version.
• Grated coconut can be added, which is more common nearer the coast.

Variations

• Bofrot in Ghana, botokoin in Togo and puff puff in Nigeria are the same snack under other names.
• Amandazi in Burundi and mandazi in East Africa are the kneaded, often cardamom-spiced relatives.
• Yovo doko in Benin and Togo carries a name that means white person’s dough ball.
• Beignets de banane in Guinea add mashed banana to the batter.
• Magwinya and vetkoek in southern Africa are often savoury and split for a filling.
• A version with grated coconut is made along the Congo river towns.

History

Fried dough balls sold by the bag from street basins, the Congolese branch of the West African beignet tradition.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mikate?

Mikate is a snack from DR Congo: puffy fried dough balls sold from morning stalls. Fried dough balls sold by the bag from street basins, the Congolese branch of the West African beignet tradition.

How long does Mikate take to make?

Mikate takes 20 minutes plus 2 hours rising of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 24. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Mikate?

Yes, within limits. Water replaces milk and is what most stalls use. The egg and oil both enrich the batter and both can be left out. Nutmeg, cinnamon or a little vanilla flavour the batter; plain is equally normal. Palm oil replaces vegetable oil for frying and gives a distinct colour and flavour. Mashed ripe banana or plantain worked into the batter makes a fruit version. Grated coconut can be added, which is more common nearer the coast.

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

Put the flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar and yeast to one side. Add the salt to the opposite side. Add the nutmeg if you are using it. Stir the dry ingredients together. Warm the water until just warm to the touch. It must not be hot at any point. Heat kills yeast and nothing rises. Pour most of the liquid into the flour.