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Melkkos
Melkkos is a comforting milk and cinnamon dish that can be served as a light breakfast, lunch or evening meal. The name "melkkos" (which means "meal made from milk") doesn't do justice to this wonderful dish that will warm up even the most dismal of winter days.
There many ways to make melkkos.
One method reminds of making pasta: you roll stiff dough with a rolling pin, sprinkle it with flour, fold it double, sprinkle with more flour, fold it again, and slice it into thin slivers. These slivers are then cooked in cinnamon-infused milk that's enriched with butter.
Marietjie's mother's version was to simmered sago in cinnamon-infused milk.
Marietjie's own recipe, which is simple and very flavoursome, involves infusing a cinnamon stick in milk on the stove-top for a while to develop the flavour. You can use a microwave oven to speed it up, but it won't be quite as good.
Ingredients
(for 3 people)
- ¾ cup (190 ml) flour
- 2 tablespoons butter
- A pinch of salt
- 4 cups (1 litre) of milk
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Cinnamon sugar to serve
Method
- Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour and salt.
- Bring the milk (with a cinnamon stick) to boil on the stove.
- Add the butter and flour mixture a little bit at a time while stirring.
- Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until cooked. Stir regularly.
Serve the melkkos steaming hot in soup plates. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste.
Comments
Great recipe - haven't made melkos in years and recently suffering from heartburn (8 months pregnant) I was craving it so gave it a go! and man i was not disappointed:-)
I used to get really depressed on Sunday afternoons when I was a kid. School the next day just didn't appeal to me. Luckily my mother often made melkkos for dinner on Sundays, and that always made me feel much better.
I didn't know it's a cure for heart-burn though :-)
Melkkos gives me heartburn but who cares!
I have a different variation. I make 'frimmels'. I spray water on the flour and mix it with a fork until I have 'frimmels'. Don't mix all the flour with water - you must still have some dry flour left when you pour it in the slightly salted milk. You can also whisk an egg into the water. A blob of butter and a cinnamon stick in the milk will just add to the taste! As for quantities: Use about 2 cups of flour for a liter of milk.
Melksnysels takes more skill to ensure that the dough strips don't stick together - but this is the recipe for it
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups milk
2 cinnamon quills
Heat the milk with the cinnamon and allow the cinnamon flavour to infuse the milk.
Whisk the eggs. Sift the flour and salt together and mix well with the eggs. Knead into a dough until it is elastic. Sprinkle flour over a surface and roll the dough out thinly into a rectangular piece. Sprinkle flour over the rectangle of dough. Roll the dough from one side up and cut into very thin strips. It is important that you use a sharp knife because a blunt knife would flatten / press the dough together. Sprinke flour over the "snysels"
Get the milk to boiling point and add the "snysels" gradually to the milk. Stir with a fork to ensure that the "snysels" don't stick together. Work with a light hand. Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Dish up in soup plates and serve with a knob butter and cinnamon sugar.
Prepared it earlier for my 5y-old who never tasted Melkkos. She is hooked... Dankie!