Gato Zinzli

Hi Foodies! Hope you have a great weekend and started Monday on a positive note. This weekend, we harvested fresh cassava from our garden and we thought of making Gato Zinzli, a Sino-Mauritian treat. Typically, Gato Zinzli are made out of sweet potatoes and this was quite an experience for us. 

Our Gato Zinzli with cassava turned out really well and were very indulging. We had them at tea time and since winter is there, we served them piping hot. They work so well with tea, coffee or even a mug of hot chocolate. 

Since we used cassava, they are very filling and after 2 of them, I couldn’t eat more, no matter how tempting they looked. 

Here’s our recipe for Gato Zinzli:

Ingredients

• 1 cup boiled cassava 
• 1 cup water (reserve the water you used to boil the cassava)
• ½ cup ground rice
• ¾ cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup self-raising flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar (or more if you want it sweeter)
• 1 cup sesame seeds 
• Oil for deep frying

Preparation

1. Remove the roots from the boiled cassava and mash the cassava.
2. Add the ground rice, all purpose flour, self-raising flour, sugar and half cup of cassava water. Mix until well-incorporated. You should get a soft and sticky dough.
3. Next, rub a little oil on the palm of your hands so that the dough doesn’t stick. Take a spoonful of the dough and form a ball. Repeat with the remaining dough.
4. Dip the balls in the remaining cassava water and coat with sesame seeds. The water will ensure that the sesame seeds stick to the balls when frying. This is a very important step.
5. Deep fry until they turn a rich brown colour. 
6. Serve while still piping hot.