TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU,(MAIZE AND AFRICAN BEANS)

In my country maize is the number one staple diet, it's used to make so many different kinds of meals. I love everything made from maize. Besides the fact that maize is nutritious and very good for your health. This is the kind of food we grow in our fields at home, and would eat as dinner or breakfast

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Today on the African Menu I will be serving African beans with maize .it is called( Inkobe )

INGREDIENTS 

 The amounts  used depend on the number of people you are serving .Today I am serving six people.
1. 400 g of small  African Sugar Beans
2. 400 g of sun dried maize grains

PREPARATION METHOD


mix the maize and the beans into a big pot .
Add two spoons of salt
Add one litter of water to start the cooking process

Cook on the stove or fire for 3 hours, keep adding water until it cooked.

Serve hot with a nice cup of tea or coffee.
 

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU WE HAVE,(GOAT LIVER,WITH FRIED CABBAGE AND PAP)

Eating goat meat is not something most people do every day or even more than twice a week.  It also depends on which part of the goat you are eating. I personally love goat meat, particularly the liver. We used to eat goat meat each time we visited my grandmothers in the village, they would either kill a goat or a road runner for us to eat as lunch before heading back home in the city.

  Most people like serving liver as a breakfast dish. I will be serving it as the main meal with pap.

WHATS ON THE MENU TODAY

Today on the African menu I will be serving goat liver mixed with fried cabbage and pap

INGREDIENTS

The amount of liver you use will be determined by the number of people you are serving

600 g of goat liver

Two whole tomatoes

One whole onion

¼ of a whole cabbage

1 Tea spoon of salt

3 spoons of cooking oil

100 ml of water

PREPARATION METHOD

Strip the liver of its layer skin

Cut the liver into big chunks or pieces of meat

Take a good size pot or pan

Place on the heated stove

Put one spoon of cooking oil

Put 100 ml of water

Add ½ a teaspoon of salt

Let it cook until all the water is gone and then the liver begins to fry

Add one more spoon of cooking oil into the pot and begin to fry the liver until it turns a darker shade of brown.  

Chop the whole onion into very small pieces

Place it into the pot with frying liver and continue frying the two together

Until the onion is golden brown

Cut your two tomatoes also into small pieces and mix them with the onion and liver, continue frying until the tomatoes are soft and start turning into a gravy

Chop the cabbage into small thin stripes; add the third spoon of the cooking oil to make sure the cabbage gets enough oil to cook without burning it.

Mix the chopped cabbage into the pot and add the ½ teaspoon of salt remaining

Fry continuously until the cabbage is well mixed with the liver, onion and tomatoes.

Close the pot and let it seamier for 3 minutes.

   

SERVE HOT WITH PAP

SWEET POTATOES, ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Sweet potatoes are easy to find in almost every country, but what I discovered about these easy to find sweet potatoes, is that they are grown through genetic modification process and that takes away the original natural taste of the sweet potato.  Every year during planting season, my family and I used to plant sweet potatoes the natural way and dig them up during the harvesting season. That was so much fun for me as child . I remember digging looking for the biggest potato, talk about being greedy.

We would dig them up and wash them and my mom would cook them and we would have them for breakfast with a nice cup of tea. Even later during the day or evening as a snack with a cup of tea.

WHAT’S ON THE AFRICAN MENU TODAY?

Today on the AFRICAN menu I am serving hot sweet potato, the AFRICAN way.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet potatoes

3 spoons of sugar

1 spoon of salt

PREPARATION METHOD

Place the washed sweet potatoes into a good size pot.

Pour two cups full of water

Put sugar and salt on the sweet potatoes at the same time

                OR

Place the washed sweet potatoes into a food steamer and let them cook for 30 minutes with sprinkled sugar and salt on top

When done you can serve them hot or cold, with a nice cup tea or coffee.

CATERPILLARS AND PAP, ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Here is something that you don’t find in your everyday market, ‘’caterpillars’’. In my country you find them in places where there is plenty of rainfall and Mopani trees. These caterpillars feed on the Mopani leaves and grow bigger and bigger. As a health meal they have high protein, which is good for repairing damaged skin and covering open wounds etc.

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Today on the AFRICAN menu I will be serving Pap with Caterpillars (amacimbi)

INGREDIENTS

Take 2 hands full of dried caterpillars

One whole tomato

Two spoons of cooking oil

A pinch of salt

One whole chili pepper

PREPARATION METHOD

Put the caterpillars in a pot or frying pan.

Add a cup full of water into the pan with the caterpillars and a pinch of salt, let it cook until there is no water.

When all the water has finished let the heat of the pan begin to dry the caterpillars, add two spoons of cooking oil, and begin to fry back and forth until the caterpillars begin to harden a bit.

Cut the tomato into small pieces add to the frying pan, mix it all together and let the tomato cook for two minutes, cover the frying pan with a lid.

Crush the cooked tomato and mix it around with the caterpillars add the chopped chili pepper and sprinkle it around the whole pan.

Cooking time should be 15 or 20 minutes.

SERVE HOT WITH PAP

      

ROUND AFRICAN BEANS AND NUTS, ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Here is a perfect winter meal, that you can serve during breakfast, lunch or dinner, it's all up to you. My family and l used to have it as dinner sometimes and eat the left overs as breakfast with a nice cup of Tea or coffee.
It's a perfect vegetarian dish .The only down side about this meal is that it takes too long to cook, you need at least 3 hours on the fire.

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Today on the AFRICA menu I am serving a dish called iNKOBE meaning mixture of nuts.


INGREDIENTS
500 g of ground nuts
500 g of African round beans (iNdlubu)
1 spoon of salt



PREPARATION METHOD

Mix the ground nuts and the African round beans together, place them in a good size pot.
Pour as much water as you can ,to get the cooking process started.
Make a big fire adding lots of fire wood.
Place the pot on the fire and let it cook, keep checking the water levels and add more water as to prevent the food from burning.
Cook for 3 hours add salt and let it mix well for 10 minutes and the dish is ready to serve, with its thick salty soup.If you don't like the soup you can drain it out

MIX THE AFRICAN ROUND BEANS WITH GROUND NUT

AFTER COOKING SERVE THIS DISH HOT WITH A CUP OF TEA ON THE SIDE

DESSERT ON THE AFRICAN MENU, BAOBAB ICE LOLLY

You know being a child growing up experimenting was one of my favourite thing to do. Mixing different colours of juice or making strange sandwiches .But best of all was creating my own kind of dessert using African berries, that I would have gone looking for in the bush next door to my parents house.

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Today on the African Menu I will be sharing a recipe on making dessert with baobab fruit seeds.BAOBAB ICE LOLLY

INGREDIENTS
Take one baobab fruit from the tree or buy one from the fruit and vegetable market
Take 4 teaspoons of sugar
400 ml of boiling water

stage 1 remove seeds

PREPARATION METHOD
Take all the seeds out of one baobab fruit and and place them in a bowl.
Boil 400 ml of water and pour it into the bowl with the seeds.
Stir the mixture until the fruit on the seeds is completely dissolved in the hot water.
Add the 4 teaspoons of sugar to the mixture and continue mixing until you get a thick pastry
Pour out the thick baobab juice into your desired plastic container and make sure you remove the seeds, put a wooden or plastic holder in the middle and place it in the deep freezer for a couple of hours until it completely freezes .
When ready to serve place the container in hot water and the ice- lolly will slide out .

stage 3 add hot water and sugar and pour into a container

stage 2 put seeds in the bowel

final stage freeze and serve frozen

THE BAOBAB ICE -LOLLY

CHILI OKRA WITH PAP ON THE AFRICAN MENU

I remember growing up in a home where our staple food or every second day meal was pap and some other kind of vegetable with beef.We would eat the other kind of fancy meals on Sunday. So you will find that most of the African meals I am going to share with you have pap.

TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

Today on the AFRICAN menu I am doing my father's favourite dish.  Chili Okra with Pap.


INGREDIENTS FOR OKRA DISH

Take 1 kg or 500 g of okra.
A half teaspoon of bicarbonate soda.
One whole tomato.
One whole chilly pepper.

INGREDIENTS FOR PAP AND PREPARATION METHOD

When making pap you need to  measure the quantity by the number of people you are preparing it for.
Take a good size pot.
Take 250g of mealie meal and mix with water.

Take 350g of mealie meal.
Take 2 L of water,boil the water and add the 250 g mixture of mealie meal into the boiling water
stir until the mixture is thick and starts to bubble like its boiling.
Leave it covered for 5 minutes.
Take your 350 g of mealie meal add to the bubbling mixture stir and mix real hard with a flat wooden cooking spoon.
Keep mixing and mixing as it is cooking, and monitor the heat levels.
Close the pot and let it seamier for 5 minutes and stir real hard for at least 2 minutes close the pot and let it seamier some more for 5 minutes .
Stir the mixture until you can see and smell that it is cooked and ready to serve.

PREPARATION METHOD FOR OKRA

Take your okra cut it into pieces.
Take your whole tomato and cut it into pieces.
Take your chilly pepper and cut it into pieces.
Boil 250 ml of water on the stove, put 1/2 a teaspoon bicarbonate soda into the boiling water
Place the okra into the boiling soda mixed water.
Put enough salt to taste.
Let it cook for 2 minutes then add the tomato and The chopped chilly and let it cook for 20 minutes.
Keep stirring to make sure that the okra does not burn.

READY TO SERVE HOT WITH HOT PAP

YELLOW WATER MELON,WITH SUN DRIED MAIZE( UMXANXA) ON THE AFRICAN MENU.

This is one of my favourite meals on my African menu. It's very easy to prepare and very tasty.
To put these meals together you must be a passionate chef cause I must warn you most of these meals take hours to cook .That's why they are prepared on the fire instead of the stove, but if you don't have  issue,s with wasting electricity or gas then you can cook on the stove.


TODAY ON THE AFRICAN MENU

This meal is called uMxanxa in my language which is Ndebele. I believe there is no English word for this meal .

INGREDIENTS 

The quantity of the ingredients will vary on the number of people you are serving. because of the amount of time it takes to prepare this meal and the tastiness of the meal, most people will make enough to serve the whole family three times, because people always come back for more.

take 1 big or medium size yellow water melon  (called iJodo in my language)
take 500g or 1kg of sun dried maize grains
take 250 g of sugar

PREPARATION METHOD

STAGE ONE
1) Take your sun dried maize grains place them into a pot with as much water as you can depending on the size of pot you are using.
2) Place the pot on the fire, let it cook, until water finishes and you pour more water until the maize grains are very soft .keep tasting until you are satisfied that the maize is done.
This cooking process will take almost 2and half hours
If you want it to take less time, you must soak the maize in water over night, then it will be soft when you cook it and that will take you an hour.

STAGE TWO

1)Take the yellow water melon and slice it into big slices like how you would do a red water melon
take all seeds out of the sliced pieces .
2) Remove the skin of the yellow water melon
3) chop the melon slices in to big chunks and place them in the pot, pour 250 ml of plain water
4) Place on the stove or fire for 30 minutes and let it cook .
5) When its all cooked and soft, use an egg beater to stir the until it becomes watery .

STAGE THREE
1) Take the cooked maize drain all water and mix the maize with the cooked yellow melon, mix the two into a big pot that will accommodate both.
2) Add some sugar to taste 250g of sugar
3) Put the mixture back on the fire and let it blend and mix until it is done for just 15 minutes

Now it is ready to be served. This meal is ideal for winter time because it is served hot .You may add more sugar in your bowl just to have it taste to your satisfaction.

UMXANXA (YELLOW  WATER MELON SOUP)

WHAT'S ON THE AFRICAN MENU? (1) ( PUMPKINS)

The African menu is serving pumpkin grown naturally from my African field with no chemicals added.The pumpkin is very easy to cook not much work is required. Although there are so many methods of serving the very nice vegetable.

Growing up my family and I used to love pumpkins served with tea. We used to place more value on the pumpkin leaves and eat them with pap, but that's a recipe for another day.Today we are looking at the beautiful pumpkin.


INGREDIENTS

1 Whole pumpkin

PREPARATION METHOD

Cut the whole pumpkin into slices and place the pumpkin slices into the pot.
Add 500ml of water into the pot
Add1/4 of sugar, sprinkle it on the pumpkin slices
place it on the stove or a food steamer for 30mintues

pumpkins have their own natural sweet taste,but if you want to serve it with other foods, such as rice and macaroni you don't have to add sugar.
Add sugar if you are going to have it the African way as a tea snack.

STAGE ONE -TAKE A WHOLE PUMPKIN

STAGE TWO- CUT IT INTO SLICES

    YOU COOK THE  PUMPKIN FOR 30 MINUTES AND SERVE IN ANY WAY YOU LIKE

STAGE THREE -SERVE THE COOKED PUMPKIN ON A NICE BED OF LETTUCE READY TO DRINK WITH TEA

WELCOME TO THE AFRICAN MENU

Growing up I have always loved traditional African food . It seemed more interesting to me the way the food is prepared. The methods are so different from your ordinary conventional way of cooking.

In my culture we grow all traditional foods over the rain season because these foods grow naturally in the ground with out any interference ,your occasional, weeding and watering of these crops .

my family owns a big field where we grow all these traditional crops during the rain season.I must say it's quite interesting to watch the whole process of clearing the land getting a tractor to plough the land, planting seeds behind the tractor.

Growing up we used to plant a section of maize, a section of ground nuts, pumpkins, water melon's, more beans and sugar cane. The fun part for me was during the time of harvesting. Eating that rich food

In this blog i endeavour to share with you the different menus and recipes  of my people