Caramel Maputi

One of the best things in life: Maputi. Maputi are a snack made with maize(corn).

Now I am not 100 percent certain of my maputi history, so can not quote me. Up until the nineties(at least as far as I know) people used to make maputi using by dry roasting dry maize in a pan. As you can imagine these are hard. Then came maputi that looked like popcorn and you would buy them in the shop and it is not something you can make at home. Why? Popcorn has water inside it that when heated creates “pressure and causes the corn to “pop”. Maize does not have this property so you have to create the pressure externally. The little research I did revealed it was the Chinese who invented the machine; which is a drum that is rotated over a fire with some water added to the maize to creature the moisture to enable the maize to pop. I don’t know how or when the technology made it to Zim but I sure am glad it did.

By the time I went boarding school, maputi were a staple snack. They are yummy and very affordable! I love them straight from a pack, some people eat them for breakfast with meal. Now you can find them in other flavours as well. So I decided to experiment with caramel sauce like you would with popcorn.

I learnt how to make caramel last year and I am sure am glad I did. It is not necessarily difficult but you do have to pay attention to what you are doing. My first two tries were a disaster but now I am comfortable.

After making the caramel sauce I then drizzled it over maputi and baked them in the oven for about twenty minutes and then I was done.

Maputi are salty so the final dish is sweet and salty. If you like that sort of thing I think you should go on ahead and try this.