To Braii

Happy Africa Day!!  This day falls on America's Memorial Day, so I get the good luck of having two great reasons to celebrate!  And speaking of celebrating... experiencing some beautiful weather today as we celebrate has put me in the mood for one of the most popular southern African past times one can find... the braai.  In South Africa and Zim, the word braai is one of the most beloved words in existence.  As both a verb and a noun, braai refers to the act of grilling meat outside.  And boy, is it an act.

Learning to braai is a right of passage for the upper classes of southern Africa; when we had asked contacts in Zim about what to move with us to the continent the first piece of advice was to go out and buy the best grill possible.  Any get-together that does not involve tea seems to involve alcohol and braaing meat in a situation in which the words "lean" and "still hungry" have no meaning.

Many of the Shona we met were fascinated with this style of cooking raw meat over the fire's heat in the way that we do, either on a grate or in foil.  My housekeeper was fairly horrified -even when it was just in the oven or on the stovetop- as one of the first rules of cooking in her village was to never eat meat that was not boiled first.  I am sure this was a lesson that proved very important for sanitary purposes, but was difficult to get out of her entrenched view despite our refrigeration and washing methods.  We had a number of Harare Shona ask us to teach them how to cook meat over a fire, and I have to be honest- we were surprised! Though fires are used all the time for a variety of foods, including meat, the formal act of braaing was seen by many of the economically challenged Zimbabweans we met  (not trying to overgeneralize here- I'm sure some people don't fall into this category) as being something fancy that was done by upper classes.  Huh, who knew!

Many of the meats used in southern African braais come already seasoned and spiced from the local butcher.  That can be hard to replicate from other parts of the world.  But other meats, like sirloin steaks, come undressed and begging for a little tropical taste.  Here is one of my favorite braai recipes, excellent for plain steaks or chicken breasts alike. It combines the tropical heat of a spicy rub with some sweet pineapple juice perfect for tenderizing.  In celebration of the holiday, I invite you to bring a little Zimbabwe to your plate!

It takes a little ahead-of-time preparation, but it is well worth it...

Cheri's Tropical Heat Meat, Zim Style

4 plain chicken breasts or steaks
1 1/2 cups pineapple juice

1/8 cup brown sugar (Don't want refined sugar?? Try 1/8 cup maple syrup instead!)
1 1/2 tablespoons cayenne pepper (Don't like spice?? Replace this with 2 tablespoons of paprika!)
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt & pepper (I'd say "to taste," but you don't want to taste at this step! I use 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.)
1 tablespoon garlic powder

1. Stab the meat with a fork and drizzle half of the juice over it; let it sit for twenty minutes. Flip the meat over and drizzle the other half of the juice on the second side; allow it to sit for twenty minutes also.  This adds sweetness, but also tenderizes the meat.

2. Throw away any extra juice run-off.  Mix all of the remaining ingredients in a bowl and then put into a plastic zip bag with the meat. Make sure to squish the meat around in the bag, getting all sides covered with the rub.  Allow this to sit in the bag in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours... Or even overnight if you like!  

3. Cook the meat over the a grill the same way you would grill any other meat.  Make sure to cook the meat properly and thoroughly.  There may be some juice left in the bag after the meat has been removed. You can baste or pour this on the meat during the last half of cooking to add some extra flavor.  Enjoy!!

Ndebele Dolls

Though the smaller Ndebele population is often overshadowed by the larger Shona population when it comes to Zimbabwe, the Ndebele people's presence stretches far into the countries of South Africa, Zim, and Botswana.  I recently had the amazing joy of sharing a few pieces of my Zimbabwean Shona and Ndebele experience with a local kindergarten learning about Africa. I had no problem filling all the time I could get with pictures and stories. But the teacher had requested I bring in a few craft ideas for my time, as well... and suddenly I was stumped.

The arts and crafts presence of the Shona Zimbabwean tends toward beaded necklaces made from drilled seeds, carved wooden objects, imported fabric sales, and soapstone and metal sculptures... not extremely colorful, and not exactly what I should be doing with the average kindergartner!  Then I remembered Ndebele Dolls: These unique dolls are colorful and unique treasures just like their makers, the Northern and Southern Ndebele people.

While dating, it is traditional for a Ndebele suitor to place a doll outside of a young woman's home to indicate his intention to marry her.  The young woman names and cares for a Ndebele doll while preparing to marry, then names her firstborn after the doll.  These dolls are now found exported all over the world, and serve as a huge source of income for some Ndebele people. 

My Ndebele doll is one of my favorite colorful finds from my time in Africa.  You can see why!

Nyimo Bean Supreme

Here is something you will never hear me say: "Mmm.  I feel like eating some beans right now."  

I eat lots of so-so tasting foods because they are good for me. I'm talking about not-so-terrible-tasting-food-but-not-what-I'd-pick-if-I-had-any-choice-in-the-world food.  Beans fall into this category.  All, that is, except for one.  

When it comes to a little gem called the nyimo bean (pronounced like the famous fish Nemo), you can consider this one of my happiest Zimbabwean discoveries.  As I was reminded when boiling not-so-yummy lima beans this past week, the tantilizing treat of the nyimo bean is one of Africa's best kept secrets.  Nyimo beans are the easiest, cheapest thing to cook, and terribly tasty as part of a meal or anytime-snack by the handful.  

Known as an earth-pea, ground-bean, hog-peanut, Congo-goober, and a number of other things, these morsels of many names are considered a "grain legume" of valuable protein.  Full of affordable protein accessible to any class, these nutrient rich legumes are known for growing in (and improving) marginal to poor soil and are strong against low or inconsistent rainfall levels and high temperatures.  Pretty ideal!  

I was first introduced to nyimos by a teacher visiting an orphanage with me in Harare, who would boil a big pot of them and hand out handfuls to the children.  Pretty soon I had adopted the habit.  As a delicious way to pass out desperately needed protein, nyimo beans and bananas became my method of choice for healthy snacks of starch and protein.  (Both of these foods were especially good because they are kept clean inside of their skins until being eaten!)

The nuts can be eaten fresh from the ground (cracked out of their shell much like a peanut), shelled and roasted, or boiled in slightly salty water- my favorite!  When boiled (usually for about an hour), the salt seeps into the shell and adds just a little flavor around the bean.  When the beans are cooled, the woody-gelatinous shell slides off easily, allowing the beans to be popped straight into the mouth. 

'Tis the season for nyimos right now... If you can find some, do indulge in these goodies.  And then, mail me a few!

 

 (Terrible pictures; sorry.)  Here in a kitchen hut during Shona tea, a large pot of nyimo beans are 
passed around with a tea cup for scooping and serving a tasty pile onto the plate!  

I miss you, nyimo beans!

The Rise of African Superfoods

A friend reading about the super foods of Africa sent me an article recently that I couldn't agree with more.  Though the continent gets a bad wrap from those who may not fully understand the cuisine, Africa is chocked full of tasty things to eat and undiscovered nutritional treasures. While it's true a number of Africa's little gems are considered hard to harvest on a large scale, modern growing and harvesting methods are slowly opening up the world of African cuisine to those all over the world interested in taking the plunge.... check some out now:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/12/africa/african-superfoods-gastronomy-cuisine/

Milk Tarts II

Well, I finally did it. Surrounded by an out-of-control Connecticut winter and the promise of another snow storm, I finally took the plunge and made an attempt at our favorite southern African tea-time goody in honor of a little Zimbabwean tea with friends: the Milk Tart.  I've talked about these tasty treats before; though seemingly common, they are a special taste of southern African cuisine that we simply will not allow a little ol' thing like geography to get in the way of .

Well loved and made with easily accessible ingredients, these tarts quickly became a familiar flavor in our African household.  Known also as a "melktert," this gentle, custard-like pie arrived in South Africa via Dutch Settlers in the 1600s. The family recipes that create these treasures can be considered family heirlooms in their own right.

 Here's my own personal recipe I have whipped up. Though not 400 years old, it does combine the best characteristics of three milk tart recipes and a little trial n' error into one delicious dessert. Do give them a try to bring a little South Africa into your kitchen.  Five year old assistant for hire!

 

Milk Tarts- This recipe makes 36-40 muffin-sized tarts (Wow, that's a lot of tarts! Halving the recipe works well, too!)

Crust

10 ounces butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

5 1⁄2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

Filling

4 1⁄4 cups milk

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons cornstarch

3⁄4 cup sugar

3 (beaten) eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

To sprinkle on top:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For crust: Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs, then flour, salt and baking powder.

Press dough into tart/muffin tins that have been buttered and slightly sprinkled with sugar.

Prick the shell of each tart all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes.

No further baking is required.

For filling:

Melt butter in pot on stove, then add flour and stir in to make a roux.  Poor in 4 cups of milk and keep stirring. (Use other 1/4 cup of milk to dissolve cornstarch with.)

Once milk is boiling in pot, add cornstarch/milk mixture. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients (sugar, eggs, and vanilla), stirring well.

Whisk until custard thickens a bit.

Spoon into baked shells and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Place the tarts in the fridge (or freezer to speed things up!) to solidify and then serve.

  

The key to a good milk tart is having a good sprinkler.

Yum!  Enjoy!

African Sweet Potatoes

Perhaps I'm inspired by the plethora of root vegetables always around US groceries at this time of year. Or maybe it's the chilly weather that makes it feel like the season.  Or perhaps I'm just craving one of our favorite dishes from our Zim days....  'Tis almost the season to start harvesting these terrific tubers once again!

Meet a vegetable that is out of control in Zimbabwe: the sweet potato.  This crazy plant could just about save the whole country... for a few months anyway.  These giants can grow to well over a foot long and are abundant beyond belief.  Last year our first harvest tackled about a twelfth of the sweet potatoes plants growing in our garden... and we filled a large laundry basket!  My housekeeper, Ziwone, taught me the key to keeping these veggies fresh for a long time: never wash them!  Keeping the dirt on their outsides makes them last in a dark pantry forever....

 
It is a terribly arduous task. Digging up sweet potatoes is no joke and usually requires a long pick-axe or hoe.  Here Jonas tells Kurt where he should be searching for these goodies.  You can tell sweating Kurt appreciates it.


The easy part is replanting sweet potatoes, though.  After the potatoes are dug from the ground, the greens -no matter how torn- are simply covered with a little dirt and watered; they will grow a whole new (always larger) crop the next year!


(Above) my sister Caryn eats a plain, boiled sweet potato during our harvest celebration.  Typical Shona eating involves few ingredients.  Cook a potato.  Eat a potato.

The sweet potato of Zimbabwe is different than any other potato I've ever eaten; it is like no American potato, for sure.  Full of excessive starch and rock-hard white flesh inside, this potato took my child from loving to hating "sweet potatoes" in one taste. I admit that I hated them at first, too.  Even when cooked until they are almost liquid, they maintain a dry, chalk-like texture that can be hard to swallow. Then we realized we just needed some great recipes that did not treat them quite like the potatoes we were used to, and boy did we grow to love these monsters.  Below is one of our favorite recipes, which we often made over the campfire (not required) when our ZESA/electricity went out:   (Check out how you can make them in America, too!)

African Sweet Potato Pancakes

3 eggs

½ cup millk

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ¼ cup flour

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon dried thyme

12 oz of finely shredded African sweet potatoes

2 onions, sliced very thinly or finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste (~3/4 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper)

Mix all ingredients together well.  Place in a hot shovel, skillet, or pan that is greased with either butter or oil. Allow first side to brown before flipping.  Brown second side.  Eat as a savory pancake: plain (my favorite!) or topped with sour cream (creme fraiche in Africa) or plain yogurt. 

Note: Give it a try even if you can't get African sweet potatoes... This recipe is great when you use American sweet potatoes and leave out the thyme, or when you replace the African sweet potatoes with a starchy white potato (Idaho or Russet) instead!

Yum!

Simple Silver

I'm not mad at Africa for many things, but I could have done without the loss of my husband's wedding ring.  It now sits under the waters of a lake just outside of the village of Ruwa in northeastern Zimbabwe. It was more of a sentimental loss than financial, as I quickly found out upon entering Zim that there is nothing foreigners love more than buying silver while in the country. Silver is remarkably cheap -startlingly cheap- in this part of the world, and many tourists love to jump on the opportunity to buy their loved ones shiny precious things during their visit to southern Africa.

My husband's original wedding ring, purchased while we were still in school, was no giant expenditure.  At only a few hundred dollars, we thought it was already an affordable piece of jewelry, given the fact that it was intended for all of eternity and whatnot.  Imagine my surprise when three year old Jonas and I went to pick out a new ring for our anniversary later that year and found out that, despite buying one of a higher quality, the ring just cost us... thirteen dollars!  Shh, please don't tell my husband.  They weren't kidding.  Cheap, cheap silver...

Coca-Cola, Taking Over Africa One Street at a Time

I have mentioned before that the status symbol of having Coca-Cola is great.  If ever we wanted to treat our staff to something special, buying them a few liters of Coke was the ultimate. Notorious for indicating wealth, it was common practice in Harare for people to carry used Coca-Cola bottles around with them, typically filled with water, but giving the appearance of having means.

If I would have started collecting pictures of Coca-Cola ads when we first arrived in Africa, I would have had thousands by now.  Coca-Cola pervades Africa.  (Ask anyone if they know what a Pepsi is and they will give a blankly confused stare.) And because Delta Beverages is happy to make signs for other companies that sell its products, you can find it on the fronts of hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, butcheries, stadiums, street signs, stores, investment companies, and even a few churches.  While I may eventually put some elbow grease into writing a blog on how the Chinese appear to actually be taking over Africa, Coca-Cola is a very, very close second...

The Popular President

I heard it was Obama's birthday this week.  It reminds me, this guy has no idea how popular he is in Africa.  He is everywhere in Zimbabwe as a symbol of pride, and enthusiasm for democracy.  Most often he can be seen on imported American shirts and US election paraphernalia, but something about the flare on this shirt Jonas and I came across one afternoon tells me the fabric may be authentically from Africa...

Really, Rice Krispies?

  

At least in America they pretend they fill the box up by providing a big enough bag... 

Yes, I shouldn't be complaining.  There are Rice Krispies in Africa!

Bananas for Banoffee

Word has it that if I introduced American readers to pavlovas last week, I should not wait too long before also getting to another coffee shop classic in Zim, the banoffee pie.  Again tied to colonial roots, this dessert adopted in Zim was actually only developed in the 1970s in Britain but quickly made its way here by popular demand and a never-ending supply of bananas!  Made from gooey toffee, fresh bananas, whipped cream, and a crumbled biscuit or pastry base, I am convinced it may be impossible to find a better pie out there... Meet another dessert in The Bubble: the irrepressible, irresistible banoffee.

Pavlova, Please

So for those of you reading this blog from a place with British ties, you will think this is old hat.  But I have to introduce my American friends to this amazing food that I have discovered only since moving to Africa.  It is not hard to see that merengue is everywhere in my country, found on grocery shelves in a number of colors and shapes as a clear sign of my country's previous colonial ties.  (For those of you Americans that -like me- think this sounds weird, let me clarify that we are not talking about the type of merengue found on top of a lemon-merengue pie, but rather a cooked, crunchy piece of heaven that dissolves like sugar in the mouth.)  And the best use for this merengue?  A beautiful thing called a pavlova... A slice of merengue on the bottom is covered with whipped cream or a granadilla/lemon curd mixture, then topped with fresh fruit.  I just can 't say no...

The Bargaining Thing...

I was disgusted.  

Our third day in Zimbabwe, we sat with new colleagues, all American, and gabbed about our backgrounds and prior travels. As the conversation strangely turned to a few loud men discussing their bargaining techniques, I became less than impressed.  These over-confident men bragged about their skills lowering the dollars and cents they paid to people living farther below the poverty line than they could ever get coming from a country like America. I felt like I was listening to a conversation of Wall Street CEOs figuring out how to scrape even more cream off the top.  What difference did an extra dollar or two make to them, while a dollar could buy that vendor’s entire family dinner?

People back home ask me all the time how we shop and how we deal with "the bargaining thing." It's a hard question to answer, and I have certainly evolved.  At first I approached the markets differently than many of our new, well cultured, colleagues.  Though Kurt and I were scraping by with student loan debt and an unexpected mortgage payment that followed us to Africa at the last second, concepts no market vendor could possibly understand, I just decided that I would either pay what the vendor asked, or move on. No hemming and hawing, no sly negotiation, no insulting their products.  Just a yes or no. It seemed decent. And I was happy.  And it worked.  The problem was, I usually never bought anything.

After I’d been in Zim long enough, it became clear.  As my housekeeper and a number of others have explained to me, there is a Shona price.  There is a white person price.  And if you open your mouth to let them hear your accent, there is an American price.  “Americans are the most guilty, so that is why this works on them,” my housekeeper Ziwone had laughed.  Racial complications aside, she went on to explain that it was insulting to someone when I did not bargain, but just asked a price, said “okay,” and walked away.  “No one will accept a price that will make them go broke.  Bargaining is in our culture. It is more rude to ask and walk away than to try to negotiate.” Meanwhile, I watched as I came home with tomatoes twice the price of my neighbor’s, and one head of cabbage when the housekeeper would have gotten two. And forget about souvenirs.

Two years later things are different.  I’ve lived in a bargaining culture that has slowly worn me down and subconsciously evolved my thinking while I have been busy looking at chotchkies and curios.  I now have a method, which usually involves asking for the price of two other things before I find out the price of what I really want.  I know what things cost from the source, and what the mark-up is.  And I know how to unapologetically ignore the pushy vendor that will not get out of my face. Somehow when I wasn’t watching, I went from being the “guilty” American to being a savy shopper proud of saving a dollar here or there.  I patted myself on the back for being thrifty while living on one income… And suddenly I realized it was quite the same way I had done while living in the US.

I’ll admit it.  When I lived in the States, I would occasionally drive to Walmart or a different grocery store across town, all to save a dollar.  Though I always preferred to support smaller businesses and local (often more high-quality) products, there were times my wallet spoke louder than my ideals.  I was happy to find a bargain.  And it was how I made ends meet.

But recently our visiting guest, Kyle, unintentionally reminded me about something very important that I had nearly entirely forgotten after living in an African bargaining culture for two years. I watched as Kyle, absolutely uninterested in buying a product, chatted with vendors about their process and goods.  I watched as he kindly negotiated, and I remembered what it was like to be a soft skinned American wanting to remember my privilege. And I remembered once again that a dollar does make a huge difference to someone who has very few. 

The bargaining thing is more personal; I have to say no to someone’s face instead of to a numb Mega-Mart shelf.  There is inherently more guilt associated.  But there is also more humanity.  The Mega-Mart shelf is eternally more comfortable; there is a price and you take it or leave it. But what we forget when we shop like that is that there is still a little man or woman making the item. He/she’s just a few more steps removed, so the potential guilt at knowing someone is being paid pennies for their hour of work is farther away from our conscious thought.  The Mega-Mart shelf may be an easier option, but as Kyle so wonderfully reminded me, there is also something very powerful about the human interactions and learning that come from the process of bargaining face to face.

I’ll be honest.  As with so many things, when it comes to the bargaining thing I am still uncomfortably dancing around to find my footing on a happy medium.  It is easy to become desensitized when you find yourself in a different geography and, over time, evolve for better and worse away from your original values.  Wanting to represent your family’s budget smartly in contrast with wanting to give a small local vendor their fair share can feel challenging… But the more I think about it, the challenge exists anywhere I live…  whether in America or Africa.  

Monkey Apple Balls

Called the "monkey orange" or "matamba" in Zimbabwe, I laughed when I recently heard the South African name for this fruit for the first time. "Monkey apple balls," as they are called, are a gently sweet and sour fruit found throughout the country in a number of places, but usually not on a grocery shelf.  Though I've introduced these matamba fruits before in their mucus-y edible state, they are actually much more commonly seen as a decorative item.  Here are a few of their uses once dried:

decorative candleholders

 

salt and pepper shakers with a re-used plastic lid as a stand/refill plug

filled with small gravel and attached to sticks to make musical maracas

painted, carved, and polished as decorative balls or Christmas ornaments