So in honor of Heritage Day, the last two days I decided I would take a shot at traditional Zulu cooking. If cooking in a kitchen with a [very] low-powered stove, a tiny toaster oven, and humongous pots [the smallest almost-usable one having a hole in the bottom] wasn't difficult enough, I decided that I wanted to cook food from another culture.
I don't really know how to cook. It is sad, yes, but I happened to grow up with a mother who did a great job cooking my food and then go to a school with a fantastic dining hall system. But, tell me this: if I have a pot of beans on my stove top at the highest heat level for three hours... is it normal for them to still be crunchy? I was supposed to "cook until tender," but "tender" never happened. Same with the potatoes-- they weren't raw by any means, but trying to mash them with a fork became a pretty difficult task even after they had been cooking for hours. Maybe I had too much water, who knows.
Anyway, after eating spaghetti and hot dogs [a.k.a. "meatballs"] all week, I had finally made myself a full-on meal! I looked in the store for measuring cups so I could follow the recipe, but they had NONE. Really? So it was all guesswork, which was also pretty fun.They say that baking is a science and cooking is an art, so I don't know what these things were supposed to taste like but it was a very edible and enjoyable meal. I made sweet potato soup, isisphuphulu sikabhontshisi namazambane (mashed potatoes and beans), yaskehaya ephekiwe (cooked chicken), and isithwalaphishi (beans and mealie meal mix). So I will admit that I bought the chicken already cooked from the heating rack in the grocery store and that the beans and mealie meal mix was a disaster because I didn't want to wait another three hours for the beans to cook [and I have no idea what maize meal is like when it is actually cooked]. But, I liked the mashed potato and beans, and I made the most delicious sweet potato soup. I loved it. Maybe I will try to make the more complicated stuff soon. Despite the fact my fingers still smell bad and my eyes are still stinging from chopping all that onion, cooking was a lot of fun! I enjoyed it.
I adore you, and you always bring a smile to my face. Maybe when you return you can come for a holiday and cook with the Smith kids- they have a lot of fun in the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed! My husband enjoys looking at your blog- he served in the Johannesburg Mission.
ReplyDeletewell done, to avoid waiting 3 hours for the beans to be tender you could soak them in water the previous night, about dry maize meal(uphuthu) it's a tough one I know many S. African still struggling to cook it. the trick is put the maize on boiling water in a cooking pan, you put little and stir at the same time (so that it's well cooked) until the maize is softer and finer. also it is best to use the 3 legged pot or non stick pot,the meal is well cooked when it doesn't scatter when you roll it between the palm of your hands, some people test it by rolling it in a ball and bounce it on the floor if it bounces you can then eat. Uphuthu is nice with Amasi (sour milk) especially in summer time. good luck and your contributions are well appreciated. God bless
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