If you thought we’d be eating Nshima (a hard porridge made from maize eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner here in Zambia and much of Southern and East Africa) and tomato relish everyday for a year you’d be pretty mistaken. I’m definitely surprising myself by my new found fondness of the kitchen. Before coming to Zambia my baking habits just about stretched to carrot cake, banana cake and some pretty poor attempts at veggie lasagne. This past week alone I’ve managed to add pawpaw scones, home baked pita bread, pizza (from scratch i.e. no ready made base), tomato and mushroom stuffed aubergine, home baked chapattis and scotch pancakes to my repertoire. Henry’s become the master of the chip pan since creating some really tasty sweet potato chips and home made curried nut burgers and his banana cake went down a treat at last weekend’s party.
I was so excited last Saturday when I saw avocados in the market for the first time since we arrived. No…that’s not quite right I spotted some one day last week but the lady selling them told me I couldn’t have one until the next day. Some smarty pants later pointed out to me that she was probably saying that they wouldn’t be ripe until tomorrow not that I couldn’t take one home! Note to self – must hurry up and learn chiNyanja!
The market is one of my favourite things about Chipata. Every stall has at least tomatoes, onions and one or another variety of spinach stacked high. But there are so many hidden gems, huge aubergines, piles of bright green chillies, and every kind of bean you can imagine. I tried making hummus with one type the week before last but decided to use peanut butter in place of Tahini – it just didn’t taste the same! Mushrooms are a little scarce at the minute but we’re told that as the rainy season kicks in massive ones, as big as dinner plates, will start appearing at the market. Never thought I’d say this but hurry on the rain!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment