Ugali, Chapati, Nikorogo. Yum
One night sitting around the kerosene lantern at home we
began testing each other with riddles. “I am in every house and have my mother, sister and
grandmother all together. Who am I?” said Eunice. I had no idea.
Eunice laughed in the girlish enchanting way she often did
and said it was easy. I couldn't say.
“The cooking fire! One two three stones-
the mother, sister and grandmother who cook our food!”
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| This is your Maasai, Kenyan stove. |
Every house I went to cooked like this. Every one.
Regardless of how big the family was, how much food was to be cooked. Three
stones, laid one on top of the other two with a space in the middle for the
fire. Pots and grills rest on top and the cook has to monitor the fire
simultaneously with the cooking.
I did a lot of the cooking while I was there.
I learnt how to make chapatti and ugali- two starch staples that are then
paired with sukuma (cabage), Sukuma-wiki (a type of kale/collard greens),
beans, peas or meat.
How to make Chapati: (as described by Eunice)
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| First stage of making chapati: mix the dough |
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| Eunice and Amy Sall mixing the dough (www.amysall.com) |
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| Cooking Chapati- I became an ultimate expert =P |
Another Recipe by Eunice- UGALI- The African Cake
Experiment
-Aim: How to prepare an African Cake (Ugali)
-Items: Maize flour, water, a pan or sufuria fire, stirer
-Procedure (process)
- Put water in the pan or in sufuria
- Put on fire and make sure the sufuria (pan) is comfortable
- Wait until it boils
- While boiling, put maize flour and use the stirer to stir
- Wait until the smoke come out of it
-Observation: you will observe a very nice smell
-Ugali can be served with greens or cabbages or chicken (chicken was Eunice's favorite)
Kanyor Shai!
My first Kenyan specialty that I tried was shai. The last Kenyan specialty that I had was Shai. Kenyan tea.
To prepare the tea, first you boil milk on the fire, taken, in our case, straight from David's cows. Either Eunice or I would walk to his house early in the morning with a bottle and would get fresh milk that Solomon or Saruni would have just milked.
After the milk boils, you add the tea leaves, then the water and let it return to a boil. Then you add the sugar and strain the shai through a sieve into the teapot.
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| Sometimes they would use goatsmilk also. |
When you go to a house, shai is always offered, and even if you are only there to drop something off, you'll more often than not end up sitting for a half an hour chatting and sipping tea. No complaints there.
Jookee Ankare!
Let's go get water!
Water. That life substance that comes out of taps when we turn them and that we buy in fancy plastic bottles with an array of labels to choose from at the supermarket.
Well, in Maasailand, and most of Kenya, if not most of Africa, this was our tap
To get water families have to walk to the closest water tank to fill up their jerry cans. We were lucky enough to be able to use William’s donkeys but many families carry them or use wheel barrows.
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| Maasai Women Walking back home from the well |
Bathing is limited and every bit of water is used and reused. After bathing, it's saved and you use it to mop or clean the house. If you are cleaning dishes, the clean rinsing water will then turn into the dirtier scrubbing water. To heat it, we use the three sisters and wait for it to boil. I got used to just using cold water and taking bird baths most days.
As much as water is recycled, drinking water is, naturally, very valued and I found that as much as other aspects of the daily life there isn't the cleanliest, you make sure you have clean water to drink. At least to drink. "The floors and the dogs can use dirty water" as Eunice once told me.
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| Jonathan preparing the donkeys |
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| Bertille and I doing housework |
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| Washing dishes with Jonathan's sister, Grace |
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