Matobosho - Step by Step
Matobosho are a Coastal Kenyan delicacy and can be described as tiny dumplings cooked in a sweet creamy coconut sauce. It is best served cold and many people from Mombasa enjoy this dish during the Holy month of Ramadhan.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Dough
- 1 1/4 cups plain/all purpose flour
- 1 cup water
- pinch of salt
- some oil as needed
Ingredients for the Coconut Sauce
- 2 cups light coconut milk
- 1/2 cup heavy coconut milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Instructions
- First, prepare the dough. Bring the water to a boil with the pinch of salt, then add the flour all at once and stir in swiftly then turn the heat off but leave the pan on the hot stove so that the remnant heat from the stove keeps the mixture warm as you mix. Keep mixing as much as you can, it will be a very heavy dough and difficult to mix but stick with it and put in some arm muscle.
- STEP 1: Turn the dough out while still warm and knead it well. You can oil your hands during this process to avoid the dough sticking to your hands.
- STEP 2: Divide the dough into 4 pieces.
- STEP 3 & 4: Roll each of the 4 pieces of dough into long thin ropes.
- STEP 5, 6 & 7: Cut small pieces out of each rope.
- STEP 8: Dip your finger in some oil and press each tiny piece of dough to form an indentation so it is sort of ‘bowl’ shaped.
- STEP 9: Keep going until all are done.
- Now set aside while you prepare the sauce.
- Put the light coconut milk in a pan and add the sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer while stirring continuously until the sugar is dissolved. Now add the prepared dough pieces all at once into the sweetened coconut sauce. Simmer on low heat until the dough is cooked through, about 10 minutes. The sauce will be reduced but should not be completely dry. Add the heavy coconut milk plus the cardamom powder and stir it in. Simmer gently while stirring for about 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and transfer the matobosho into a bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled. Serve cold. Enjoy!
Dear Auntie Fauzia… Wish
Dear Auntie Fauzia… Wish you happy and blessed ramadhan .. All your recipe’s are just Wow mashallah and whoever tries them never go wrong.. My question was regarding light and heavy coconut milk.. Where to get them and what are the diffrence in their contents?? I appreciate your response..I really want to make matobosho.my father in law is from mombasa and wants me to make it for him..
Thank you so much! Being from
Thank you so much! Being from the coast, we have to remove our coconut milk from freshly grated coconut. Heavy milk is the first creamy milk that we squeeze out of the coconut, light is the second batch that has some water added to it before squeezing. If you are using the store bought kind of coconut milk, use as is from the can as the ‘heavy’ version, and then dilute the rest of the coconut milk with equal amounts milk or water to make the ‘light’ version. Hope that makes sense!
Aslm.fauzia am ur new fan.
Aslm.fauzia am ur new fan..today i jointed.u.i always.look ur recipes .but now will be morr close to u..inshalah n will try this vipopo..we call vipopo in tanzania
Slm…hpe al well…have tried your recipes mashallah very nice..iv been making matobosho every Ramadan but sometimes the matoboshas break..please advice what could have gone wrong…we normally make using rice flour..thankyou
W/Salaam, am not sure why they break. Could be the rice flour, try it using my recipe and see if the results are better.