Well, life is moving along here, as usual, as it is everywhere else. By they day I am trying new cooking recipes. Gosh, if I had known how easy and fun cooking was I would have started years ago!
Wednesday is my usual market day. Yes yes, the one I love to hate sometimes. Peter was a trooper and came with me, on chain of course. I still get a kick out of how people ask me “galu?!” Of course he’s a dog, come on! At times I think Peter is more well known in my village than myself. “Peta, peta!” I hear from adults and children alike when we trek through town. I laugh inside at the dogs and goats that try to pick fights with Peter because, little do they know, give him a few months and he’ll tower over them.
At any rate, market day...market day. It’s great when people come from surrounding villages to sell food goods I don’t see on a regular basis. Biringanya (eggplant) I can only find in the boma (bigger town) and kabichi (cabbage) is a rarety. It’s funny, though, because before coming to Malawi I had NEVER cooked with either of these food items. Talk about new things and what I’ve been missing out on!
As we get closer to town I veer to the left after crossing the train tracks towards the produce area. I was engulfed in a sea of red tomatoes. You’d imagine people thinking “well, there are so many tomatoes for sale, what else can I grow?” but it’s an easy crop and people take well to it. I sift through people asking me to come to their little square to buy tomatoes. On a mission today for eggplant! A pleasant surprise, as I purchase 4 lovely purple and green biringanya’s for 20 kwacha (a steal!). I remember back in the states a few weeks before I left for Malawi, I bought some eggplant with the intention of trying something with them. To be honest, I think they were thrown out never having been used. Contrary, here they are a rare commodity and can be enjoyed in so many ways!
One way I have witnessed cooked eggplant thus far is doing a curry. Oh, so delicious!! Cubed eggplant, tomatoes, onions, curry spice, dash garlic (I’m finding I use it in a lot of dishes!), salt/peper, oil...mmmmmm goodness. Put over rice or with potatoes and you have yourself a delicious meal! Don’t forget the protein of course...hardboiled eggs sliced on top. Yum!
Anyways, next I eyed the kabichi, woohoo!! At Justine’s house over the weekend we put some oil and balsamic vinegar over the sliced cabbage...so I had the brilliant idea of making tuna salad. You wouldn’t think salad is such a big deal to make, but again that no refrigerator thing puts a little damper on such meal ideas. I approach a young man, early 20s I would say, and ask him how much the cabbage for sale. “Uh ahhh” I say (which if you spend any time in Malawi you will learn that there is a difference in “uh ahhh” = negative, and ohhooo = positive). He quotes 50 kwacha and I feel that is too much, hence the “uh ahhh!” so he directs me to the 40 kwacha cabbages. Perfect! I could see the salad taking form before my eyes!
Picked up a bunch of 16 bananas, which I snack on throughout the day and also enjoy with peanut butter for breakfast. Before your eyes go all googly when I say 16 bananas, they’re only about half the size of what you’d find in the states. No potassium overdose here :-P “Ku nyumba!” I tell people when they ask where I’m going. Home, of course! To make my salad!
I wash the cabbage in my cleaned and filtered water. I'm hasty but careful with my thin slices of cabbage because my mouth is watering simply at the prospect of salad. Into the biggest container I could find (being my pot with no handles I cook with) I threw in the sliced greens. As I opened the tuna packet sent by my mother, my senses come alive and I can't wait to get the oil and balsamic vinegar on top. Dash of salt and pepper...mmmm!!!
Tuna salad is something that will always remind me of mom. Thus, as I sat on my front veranda with book in hand (“Attonement”) I wanted so much to call her and tell her of my creation. Peter looked up at me but I assure him it's not something he will enjoy, and take my first bite. Nostalgia hit me when I flashed back to enjoying salad with mom and family friends, Dan and Cyan, simply days before heading to Philadelphia before coming to Africa. Those flashbacks are a joy :)
I managed to down half of the cabbage (glad I only bought the 40 kwacha one!) and lazily chopped up the rest and put into my thermo containers, hoping it would still be good to cook with in the morning...
...18 hours later I checked it and it was good to go! Looks like cabbage has it’s own internal fridge! I searched through my Peace Corps cook book for anything to do with cabbage. Another thing I’ve never cooked in my life is stir fry. Ok, I have, but it came in a frozen package and all I had to do was add it to a wok in the order instructed and - voilà! - I’d magically made stir fry! But today I decided that I was really going to give it a shot.
Chopped up an onion I bought behind the tuk shops on my morning walk to town, and some oil to fry. Sat down on my kitchen stool and sautéd them for a few minutes while trying not to burn the onions on the one-temperature-fits-all mboula. Recipe called for fresh garlic and ginger...neither of which I had. Side note: as I’ve mentioned, I’m a baker, and not a cook. The idea of following a recipe to the T soothes my soul very nicely. However in this circumstance that was not an option. Ooohh, watch out! Mary’s breaking out of her shell! So, yes, I improvised (gasp!) with garlic and ginger powder, adding what I thought might be an appropriate amount (gasp!).
Threw in the cabbage and stirred quickly with my wooden bamboo spoon, realizing again I had no idea what I was doing. When it “looked good” I added the soy sauce mixture, as laid out by the recipe. Mix, stir, taste, mix, add some garlic, mix, definitely need some salt and pepper... Of course taste tests are a necessity when being a chef ;) Delicious!
Before it burned (yes, this is always a top avoidance while cooking for me) I picked the pot off the fire and placed in on the concrete floor in my house. It’s been quite windy here lately and thus I’ve found it enjoyable to cook just inside my front. I’m toughening up my hands, wanting to become more and more Malawian by the day being able to take pots off the fire. Sometimes the pot is hotter than I imagined but that’s just part of the fun. Surprise! Hot potato! I carry it to the door-turned-table in my back room and set it next to the rice I cooked just before. My mouth was watering.
With a scoop of rice and a pile of cabbage, I look at my creation and impressed myself with what I had actually made. I wish I had company for lunch, as I was only able to shock myself!. Goodness! I’m a cook. Not quite a chef, but maybe I’ll get there. It sure is awesomely amazing the delicious food one can muster up with such simple ingredients. What my pallet has been missing out on!
As far as the eggplant goes, it’s still sitting on the counter waiting for creation in the next few days. What’ll it be? Eggplant fitters? Eggplant Parmisiano (powdered Parmesan cheese would help)? Curry eggplant? Who knows, only the chef will decide.
Tuna cabbage salad!
Stir Fried Cabbage creation with scrambled eggs :)
Back to basics... for the first time :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll have plenty of good recipes in no time!