Cape Malay dhaltjies (chilli bites) recipe

Posted by Sarah Duff on 8 May 2012

A lot of non-Cape Malay people have never heard of dhaltjies, which is rather a shame for them. I must admit, I was one of them before I started research on a story on Cape Malay food for Getaway. I was introduced to these delicious deep-fried savoury snacks by Zainie Misbach, who runs cooking lessons out of her home in the Bo-Kaap.

Dhaltjies are made from chickpea flour with spinach, onion, and turmeric, which forms a dough. Ball-shaped pieces of dough are formed and then dropped into hot oil to deep fry. They go really well with dhania (coriander) chutney – available from some butchers in Cape Town – or sweet chilli sauce.

Dhaltjies are surprisingly easy to make and are a great party food because you can whip up a huge batch without much work. And what party crowd doesn’t love a deep-fried snack?

 

Zainie Misbach’s dhaltjies

Makes around 20 dhaltjies

  • Sunflower oil for deep frying
  • 250 ml self-raising flour
  • 250 ml chickpea flour
  • 10 ml baking powder
  • 10 ml turmeric
  • 10 ml masala
  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 5 leaves of spinach, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 5 ml salt

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the onions and spinach and mix together well. Make a well in the centre of the dough, add the egg and mix. Add around 200 ml to 250 ml water to form a dough. Mix the dough until the texture has an ‘easy drop’ consistency.

Fill a pot halfway with oil and heat so it’s medium-hot (not boiling). Use a dessert spoon dipped in oil to scoop up enough dough to make one dhaltjie (a golf-ball size). Drop the dhaltjie into the oil and fry until cooked in the centre (use a skewer stick to poke the centre of the dhaltjie to check if it’s cooked). Drain the dhaltjie on paper towl. You can cook around four or five dhaltjies at once, depending on the size of your pot.

 

The Bo-Kaap Cooking Tour with Zainie Misbach

Zainie Misbach started South Africa’s first Cape Malay restaurant, Biesmiellah, as well as the Noon Gun Restaurant, currently run by her sister. On her tour, Zainie takes you to the spice shop (‘to take the fear of buying spices out of you’) and for a short walk around the Bo-Kaap, chatting about Cape Malay history and culture. After learning how to make chicken curry, butter lentil curry, rotis, samoosas and dhaltjies in her kitchen, we devoured the feast in her peaceful turquoise courtyard.

A three-hour tour and class costs R600 a person, cell 074-130-8124, email [email protected], www.bokaapcookingtour.co.za.

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