Aussiebarian life hack 2: instant pasta sauce

Thanks to my terrible susceptibility to supermarket sales strategies, today I came home with a jar of green Genovese pesto.

Lack of refrigeration had killed my leftover pasta sauce (which was completely awesome FYI: garlic, onion, thyme, tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, a splash of vinegar and salt and pepper), and I was heartbroken until I realised I had pesto! Added to an equal amount of tomato paste, it turned into an awesome stir-through sauce. Nom!

Not what I thought I'd learn in Zanzibar, but I'll take it :)

It doesn't look like much but trust me on it's deliciousness :)

Aussiebarian Savoury Mince

I don't think my childhood would have been complete without good old savoury mince. In our case, mince, onions, frozen peas/corn/carrot mix, a bit of Worcestershire sauce (later to be joined by barbecue and soy), maybe a stock cube, and a heck of a lot of gravy. AWESOME the next day (or 3) on toast for brekkie, and unparalleled as a jaffle filling.

So I've been on a sambusa (samosa) kick for the last few days, and I thought I could kick the habit by figuring out how to make the meaty goodness inside. 

I didn't manage to get over my sambusa cravings but I did come up with something edible that I think is the Aussiebarian answer to savoury mince (no gravy powder here :( ). Next time I want to sauce it up a bit with more liquid and a bit of flour.

You will need:

250g beef mince

2 onions (about as much onion as beef is ideal)

1 small carrot

1 clove of garlic

1/2 inch of ginger

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Juice of 1 lemon

1 large tomato

1/2 dessertspoon garam masala

1/2 dessertspoon curry powder (I ended up with Zanzibari curry powder: no tumeric, the colour comes from mango powder).

Method:

Prep: finely chop veggies, make ginger and garlic into something approximating a paste.

1. Fry the onions until just soft and set aside.

2. Fry the ginger, garlic, garam masala and curry powder in a little oil with a little lemon juice.

3. Add the mince and remaining lemon juice and cook until meat is brown.

4. Add carrot, tomato and coriander and simmer until carrot softens.

5. Add onion and cook until warm.

6. Serve. We had it with bread.

Shemegi!! Reasons to love live-in in-laws #1

Recently my brother in law came to see if he would like to be our watchman at home. Enslaving your younger siblings (including cousins, extended family, in-laws, etc) appears to be a Zanzibari tradition I am yet to fully wrap my head around. But if Shemegi Aussiebarian is typical, they are worth their weight in gold.

Reason 1 to love your live-in in-laws: cooking!!!

They can teach you how to make deliciousness like this:

Saturday's Urojo Day feast :)

NB: Urojo Day isn't an official holiday, but hey, let's start a trend: every last day of May I can cook urojo in memory of the first time I learnt to cook Urojo, King of Zanzibari food :)

Home-made urojo... I think I'm obsessed..

And they cook dinner!

Rice and mchuzi wa mbatata

Nom!!!

Asante sana bwana shemegi!!!!

Glossary:

Shemegi: brother in law. Also applies to cousins and close friends of husbands, or wives of siblings in certain circumstances.

Brother: also applies to first cousins.

Mchuzi: sauce/vegetables in sauce

Mchuzi wa mbatata: potato sauce

Asante sana: thank you very much. See the bird in The Lion King.

Mchicha week!

Ok so for my beloved Aussies, mchicha is a kind of spinach. Amaranth greens according to Wikipedia. And also the name of the dish you get when you cook it in coconut sauce (what is it with all the coconut sauces Zanzibar?!??) But it's nothing like the big silverbeet I grew up thinking was spinach.

It's a staple here. Great with rice and bread and I'm sure it would go super with ugali but hey, we're trying to be proper Zanzibari here, and for now this house runs on rice. Ideally mbeya. But that's another story.

So this week, mama mzungu (that would be me ;) has been making Aussiebarian mchicha, or mchicha wa mzungu. And it's been win so far. Both Mr Aussiebarian and little brother approve :) Woo!

So here we have it.

Aussiebarian Mchicha

Ingredients:

Mchicha, a bunch.

Garlic (I use about 5 cloves, or more. Helps keep the vampires away)

Onions.

Tomatoes.

Ginger. I like an inch or an inch and a half, but don't tell the Swahili folks cos they don't think ginger goes in mchicha. But I think it balances things out and frankly they don't seem to notice so much.

Coconut milk powder (yes I know this is cheating, but the only mbuzi in the house is me when I'm cheeky. So no grating coconuts for milk for now).

Pepper (again, don't tell the locals. They'll taste it and then realise the goodness).

Salt.

Capsicum, carrot (cut up until barely recognizable: super fine): optional, but good! This kind of works as a hidden veggie recipe

Wheat flour for thickening (I'd use something else but we have wheat, so that's what we use).

Method:

1. Get your minions (husband, brother in law, anyone but you) to tear up and wash the mchicha and cut up the stems while you cut the veggies up and grate the ginger.

Minion at work.

2. Soften the onion and garlic in a touch of oil on high heat in your big pot.

3. Add the mchicha and other veggies and some coconut milk powder mixed up with some water.. I start with 3/4 of a bowl and add a bit later if required but the veggies all release a bit of liquid. Add a little ginger, salt and pepper.

4. Bring to the boil, adding the rest of the mchicha leaves as the others wilt down to make room in the pot, mixing and stirring as you go.

5. Add the rest of the ginger, cover and simmer for a few minutes.

6. Just before serving thicken with a paste made from pan juices and a little cold water added to what seems like a ridiculous amount of flour. It makes it like a yummy coconut tomato gravy :) not Zanzibari but the boys aren't complaining. If you have too much, you can mix the leftover mchicha juice and flour paste with some extra water and fry it into what I like to call mchichapati!

7. Serve!

With just onion and tomato

Hidden veg version

Glossary:

Mzungu: European/white person (not derogatory)

Mchicha: Swahili spinach

Mchichapati: what you get when you cross mchicha with chapati: see step 6.

Mbeya: a type of rice. The favorite for eating plain as a.. I'd call it a side dish but it's really more like a spoon. Also a city on the mainland but I'm yet to find out if there's any connection.

Ugali: kind of a cross between powdered potato, bread and porridge. Corn meal or cassava meal cooked into a thick ball. A better spoon than rice. Zambians call it nshima.

Mbuzi: 1. A coconut grater - needed to get coconut milk out of an old coconut. 2. Goat(s). 3. Slang for a cheeky person.

Maziwa. Or, why use coconut milk instead of real milk.

This is maziwa. Also known as milk.

I was wondering why so many breads use coconut milk here... An old coconut for grating is about TZS500 (500 shillings)  - about 30 cents. The box of coconut milk powder imported from Malaysia via the middle eastern market will set you back about $2.75, between TZS3500 and 4500. Ok so it doesn't have the nutritional value of an actual coconut but you also don't have to grate t, it keeps for a whole, and makes a decent amount of coconut milky flavoured stuff. 

BUT: this UHT milk from Kenya cost me TZS1200 for 250mL. Which is less than a dollar, but works out at 4800/litre. Which is more than $3.00/litre. Seriously???

Looks like it's powdered coconut, all the way. *has a little "it's cheaper in Australia!!" tantrum*

It's the little rorts like this that make me realize: living in Africa is expensive. I know I shouldn't cry over spilt milk, but it's more the fact that this isn't an isolated incident. Carrots are $2/kg and they're fairly common foodstuffs. Compare the wage I was on in Australia to the average income here... Poverty happens. Simple.