A Foreigners guide to Malawian Cooking

We had a short 'formal' language lesson today and hit the markets to give me a chance to show off my newly aquired language skills. ahem ...panic! With the visual cue of a language helper at my side, people were coming ot of the wood work (ok- market alleyways) to greet me...unfortunately not all in Chiyawo- there was Chichewa and who knows what else thrown in the mix- but the experience got me off my 'Im doing great' high-horse and reminded me that I need to actually speak this language with comprehension one day...and that will require more than the 2-3 hrs a day I've been putting in this week. Time to ramp it up.

Anyways, we came home and cooked up a feast to provide maximum opportunities for Mama Swabila to state the obvious in chiyawo for my benefit ( I am chopping the tomatoes, you are washing the pot, we are cooking...) I am amazed at her patience.

I am also amazed at the Malawian womens ability to make delicious meals from simple ingredients. If you had asked me a month ago to make a 3 dish meal using only milly meal, oil, salt, tomatoes, onion, green and eggs- I probably would have cooked you 3 omelet’s. You may not be interested in cooking- but just in case you are, I have put ‘recipes’ (I use the word very loosely) below.

‘Greens’
Finely slice required quantity of green leafy vegetable (keeping in mind it will shrink lots). The locals love the bitterness of the dark green outside leaves of Chinese cabbage as well as pumpkin leaves (de-strung) so don’t be scared to branch out. Steam in a pot with a little water and salt. Finely dice 1 large tomato and place on top of steaming greens. When the tomato looks really soft, stir through the greens and serve hot with Ugali.

‘Eggs’
Hard boil enough eggs for 1 or 2 per person. Shell.
Heat about ½ cup oil in a pot and add finely diced onion (they use small, purple salad onions) and a finely diced tomato or 2. Stir well until the mixture resembles tomato soup. Add salt to taste.
Place whole boiled eggs in ‘soup’ to heat through before serving.
I know there is gobs of oil in this- but it tastes so good its actually my favourite ‘relish’ so far.

‘Ugali’
Ok- this is a hard one to describe, so if this ends up being incomprehensible- google it. Works for everything else!
Buy yourself some maize or white- millet meal (in Perth you can get it at Kailis Brothers in Northbridge or Kailis Sisters in Freo).
Half fill a medium-large sized pot with COLD water. As it heats, stir in 2-3 handfuls of the flour with a strong wooden spoon. It should be like thick soup. Let it boil and glop for about 10 min or until it starts kinda sticking to the bottom. Put on an apron, put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign and stir firmly with one hand while adding more flour with the other hand. This should take the mixture to quite stiff and separating from the sides of the pot - but still moist with no lumps. The stirring method is systematic, repetitive and built into the genome of every Malawian woman. Its easy and obvious- just like carrying water on your head- but for the rest of us, I’ll try and describe cos it is the difference between ‘good ugali’ and ‘inedible’.
Stir from 12 o clock clockwise to 6 o clock (simultaneously moving the porridge off the sides and the bottom of the pot) , then back through the middle to 12 o clock, then anti clockwise back to 6 o clock. At this point, you repeatedly smush the porridge with the spoon against the front of the pot- then resume the stir sequence… for 5 - 10 min until the porridge holds its own shape and is thick enough to scoop into large almond-shaped serves (use a big serving spoon).

Eating
The trick to eating is to leave your hands wet after washing - before the meal so the ugali doesn’t stick to your fingers- thereby minising burnage. Place a serving or 2 of ugali on your plate, along with some of the relishes outlined above. Break off pieces of ugali with your RIGHT hand, dip into the relish and enjoy a simple, delicious and filling meal.