Discovery scones
Michelle Phetlhe | Tuesday May 10, 2022 06:55
Once in a good while, a mistake in the kitchen might be for the greater good. One might actually make a discovery that’s worth making note of. What happened was, I went into the kitchen knowing full well that I was short of ingredients to whip up probably the most basic of meals. So my mind wasn’t settled and I didn’t take the greatest look around. I kind of just glanced, I saw one, two things and figured. Scones. There’s no store bought bread, there’s no Nutriday plain yoghurt so I couldn’t make my favourite SOS 2 ingredient dough to create any type of bread.
I had some inkomazi in the fridge for a minute and was honestly scared to look at the BB date. I thought I’ll just open it and see what we are working with. A scupu as well as a box. I got to bring the ingredients together in a bowl. I love how simple scones are; you don’t even have to get your hands dirty. I brought the small box out of the fridge, shook it and poured half a cup out as per instructions. Upon pouring the contents of the box out, I thought to myself with a slight tilt of the head. Ah, gompieno this inkomazi looks different. I decided it’s because it stayed too long in the fridge. It wasn’t giving me that sour milk, madila, butter milk thing. Seemed a bit thin. I carried on and greased my baking tin. I chose to use a cupcake tin to create 12 identical mini scones.
The 20-minute step in the fridge after brushing the scones with milk is optional. I often include the step if I need a little time out from the kitchen. But if you need the scones hot and fresh, 20 minutes in the oven is perfect. The scones came out fresh, soft, just the way I had expected.
It’s one day later and there is just but a handful of scones left and my husband asks me gore so that inkomazi ntse e teng. This is where I get to explaining that I discarded the box after pouring the half cup out because I was not convinced with the consistency. Shocked, he wants to understand how it is I baked the scones with the product but discarded it same time. I explain that I really wanted to see and taste the outcome of the scones, which I thought might need discarding too. I vaguely looked at the BB date and it said two days later. I figured it was the way it was because it was in the fridge so long. At this point he is confused at my rationale. I continue to describe what I poured, it was thin, almost opaque, loose....almost like that other stuff I say. Mageu he asks? As I answer yes I realise that I might have very well used a box ya mageu. The bag I discarded the box in still hung by the trash, I felt for the box on the outside of the bag and when I looked through the bag. Lo and behold. Chellzkitchen made scones using Mageu. The scones were delicious. The craziest thing about the whole situation has to be that I have never drank mageu before. This was an interesting introduction.
The lesson to take home here is that not all mistakes are terrible in the kitchen. Play in your kitchen, experiment and be confident in doing things differently from the norm.