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