In Search of the perfect Nshima

Currently this a favourite place of mine for nshima. They are really friendly and are just opposite the gallery where I spend a lot of my time these days.

The nshima was not as good as the first time, when it was soft and yielding with no dryness, but they give you a huge piece of chicken and 2 relishes. This huge meal costs K15,000 which is about $4 I think!

But the search for good places to eat nshima in Lusaka continues!

Zam Eats: The Nshima Obsession

It is shameful that I have been back in Zambia so long and not really given traditional Zambian fare some coverage. To be honest, the cuisine is far from varied as things go, outside of the capital it is difficult to get more than meat pies, sausages and of nshima!

Nshima is a commone food staple throughout sub-Saharan Africa and has other names such as gari or foo foo. If you are familiar with polenta then it is more or less the same thing, except that nshima is white and is made with water only - no butter, cream or anything else. Like polenta, nishima is made from maize and particularly now during the rainy season, maize can be seen growing eeverywhere. It is stiff and comes in a large hot mound that you then break pieces from and roll into a ball. This ball is then dipped into sauce or vegetables. It's hard work to make and I confess I have never really cooked it myself because it requires so much elbow grease to mix it well!

Despite its blandness it is surprisingly addictive, both my husband and I love it and most Zambians will eat nshima twice a day. With nshima usually comes some vegetables like cabbage, rape (a type of kale), pumpkin leaves or eggplant and this is called relish. In addition might be some protein like chicken or beans and sometimes there is beef or fish.

Many people in the Lusaka area complain that it is difficult to find nshima restaurants and when you do find it, it's very expensive. This is usually because people are looking at lodges and hotels. We have found that if you are prepared to do a little searching, you will find lovely nshima and usually less than $4.

Fringilla Farm and Butchery

Fringilla Farm and Lodge is about 40 km from Lusaka out on the Great North Road, a decent enough distance to make us feel like we are escape the big smoke for a while but not too far.

We were told about this farm by a friend and we were very impressed, the complex is very big, with beautifully kept grounds, a restaurant with excellent service and a well maintained farm. We were especially excited by the butchery that sells everything from beef to game meat and the staff were attentive. Unfortunately they were out of pork spare ribs but we did leave with a leg of lamb – lamb is very rare in Zambia, and some lovely free range chicken. We can't wait to go back and stock up, the meat is of such good quality because the animals clearly live happy lives, being allowed to roam free and are well fed.

Orecchiette Zambian Style

It's funny the things you find in supermarkets here. You cannot imagine how excited I was to find orecchiette. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a type of pasta native to the Puglia region of southern Italy and means 'little ears'. It's quite a dense and creamy pasta when cooked and is traditionally served with broccoli sprouts or 'cime di rapa'.

Cime di rapa isn't available here, but another, similar green vegetable 'rape' is. As you can see, it's a lot like spring greens or kale. It has an irony, mustardy taste and is a common dish here. You can use in salads as well, though I doubt many Zambians ever eat it raw.

For this quick pasta dish, simply cook the orecchiette in lots of well-salted water while you fry a little garlic in oil (preferably olive). Add to this a finely sliced tomato (I use a cheese grater) which you fry until it starts to soften, then add a good handful of slice rape – it shrinks like spinach so add quite a bit, season with salt. Wilt in the pan, conserve some of the water from the pasta to add when draining and add to the rape, you can spritz with some lemon juice for a bit of a kick, but it isn't essential. Return the pasta to the pan and add the vegetables, add pecorino or parmesan if you have it, but it's good without too. Enjoy!

Aubergines

Vegetables are plentiful and cheap here and I am happy to finally buy aubergines again. I didn't in the UK very often because they were expensive. Aubergines are so versatile and because of the porous flesh, are great to marinate. I marinated these slices in a store bought marinade, which was really a waste of time and should have kept to my own concoctions.

Try:

White miso paste, dashi, rice vinegar and spring onions.

Ketchup, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, honey , sesame oil and five spice powder.

Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and parsley.

I haven't given measurements as I usually just keep adding until I get the taste I want. You can slice the aubergines lengthways and marinate them in larger slices, or cut them small like I did here. Then, either grill, roast or fry.

Zam - Eats

Learning to Cook in Zambia – again!

Mykitchen, for the moment.

Coming back to Zambia has required a re-awakening of my culinary memory. A trip through the main supermarket here revealed what I had forgotten: if you want Western food, be prepared to pay Western prices. Tinned goods, which in the UK are seen as basics are luxuries here, a tin of tomatoes costs over £1 as opposed to as little as 9p back home. So we need to reassess our eating habits a little, pasta, rice and potatoes are fine so that's a good base to start from.

Another problem is that we are in temporary accommodation, so as you can see from the picture, my cooking area is rather basic. I have two cooking rings but no surfaces to speak of or an oven and not cooking utensils, those soufflés and roast dinners are on hold for the moment!

My next aim is to start frequenting the 'Tuesday' market where fruits and vegetables are cheap and plentiful – so I hear. There is a large Indian-Zambian community throughout Zambia and therefore spices are plentiful and cheap as they come from neighbouring Tanzania.

When I lived here before we were not in the capital so my diet was much more traditionally Zambian, meaning – nshima, staple starch eaten here made from maize. It has little nutritional value but fills you up quite efficiently. Ironically now we are in capital, nshima is harder to come by as Lusaka is more cosmopolitan. If you do want nshima, it is quite expensive because many restaurants cater to tourists.

There is however an array of restaurants serving Western style food and also Indian and Chinese restaurants. Again though, prices are about the same as in the UK, fine if you're on an ex-pat wage, but the average Zambian wage is ...

Zambia Here I come!

Market and village life in Zambia.

Top picture: Kapenta, dried fish

Middle picture: cooking oil for sale

Bottom picture: shelling maize to make mealie meal (flour)

I am flying out today to join my husband in Zambia. I hope my next blog post won't be too far behind this one, but we don't have internet yet because we don't even have a place to live! Still there are internet cafes so I hope to make good use of those.

Stay tuned.