Traditional Foods

Maize

Maize (called corn in some countries) features more prominently than any other food in the lives of Kenyan subsistence farmers.  Children grow up on shambas, and by the time they reach adulthood, the skills and knowledge needed to farm have become second nature.  Along with various other crops, maize is always grown on the shamba.  From the time at which the seed is sown, just after the long rains until it is harvested, the ground must be cared for, and weeds removed. 

Once harvested the maize is placed on a storage platform above the cooking fire in the house, and left there to dry.  Once it has dried out, the maize is removed from the cob, and pounded in a pestle and mortar.  After this, it is left in the sun to dry.  Finally, to make flour, it must be ground.

Most of Makwasinyi’s residents seem to own a simple hand-powered machine to do this.  They pour the pounded maize in at the top, turn the handle, and flour comes out at the bottom.  In the local tongue, this simple but very useful machine is called a mutambo.

Instead of grinding it into flour, maize can be roasted on the cob simply by placing it over an open fire for a few minutes.  Another alternative is to boil the maize.  Taken off the cob and boiled for a few minutes, it is sometimes eaten by school children.

Water

Water is piped down the mountain, from a spring high up.  Villagers pay 20 Kenya shillings (Ksh) per month to visit a tap and fetch water.  The money is used to make repairs to the pipe.  Most people seem happy to drink the water straight from the tap, untreated, and not boiled, although they typically fill large plastic containers and carry the water back to their homes.  Each village has one source of water. 

 Milk

Although small cartons of UHT milk are available in the villages, those who have goats or cows normally use the milk from their animals, and those who don’t often drink their tea black.  The locals generally seem happy to drink milk fresh from the animal, though when it is used for tea, it is boiled as part of the tea-making process.

Milk and other liquids are often stored in simple gourds, known locally as kishere.  They are often corked with a maize cob. 

Cooking Utensils

For as long a most people can remember, the basic tools for cooking have remained the same.  Although one or two people in the village of Makwasinyi have a coal burner, or jiko, most just use an open fire.  In the village of Rukanga, especially in the brick-built houses, kerosene burners are popular, but not so in Makwasinyi.

Three stones are laid out so as to form a triangle, and wood is placed in the centre, often protruding out one side.  This forms the basis of the fire, so crucial to life in Makwasinyi.  In most houses, above the fire, at around head height, a storage platform holds food.  Maize, and sometimes other crops, are stored above the fire to dry them out, and because insects are not likely to get at them, because smoke from the fire keeps them away.

Many years ago clay pots were used for cooking, though metal ones are now preferred.  They are placed on the three stones, which are just far enough apart to provide maximum exposure to the fire, without letting the pots fall onto it.  A ladel, called a lwei, useful for spooning foods, is made from half a shell of a coconut and a stick of wood.  The stick is simply pushed through holes in the coconut shell, and is then ready for use.   Before the lwei was used. a spoon-like object was carved from a large piece of wood.  A handle and hollowed out area for scooping were made, but the bisau, as it was known, is much more cumbersome than the simpler lwei.

Used for stirring porridge, and in the early stages of making ugali, the iriba is a stick with two pieces of wood on the end arranged in the shape of the letter ‘x’.  If the ‘x’ was lying flat on the floor then the stick would stand vertical.  It is in this position that it is used.  The stick is rolled between the hands at a high speed, and used to whisk the flour and water when making porridge or ugali.  It is quite effective in preventing lumps from forming.

Finally, the third member of the utensils drawer in the Makwasinyi kitchen, is the closest neighbour to our own wooden spoon.  The luficho is a large wooden spatula, used for stirring ugali and other foods.  In school kitchens a large-scale version of this is used, and it closely resembles a paddle or an oar. 

Ugali

The staple food of the Wa-Kasigau people is undoubtedly ugali, a dough-like substance made from finely ground maize flour, which is eaten with the hands and flavoured with whichever vegetable, bean or meat is readily available at the time.  Other traditional dishes are largely maize-based and are also commonly eaten, although the failure of the maize harvest in recent years is likely to mean that the diet of the Wa-Kasigau people will become more limited as hard times approach. 

Making Ugali

Pre-packaged maize flour is sold in 2kg bags, and in the villages costs about 50 Ksh per bag.  It is the principal ingredient in ugali, the main staple food in the Kasigau area.

To make Ugali, boil water, then add some maize flour.  Pour enough in to obtain a porridge-like consistency, and whisk vigorously using the iriba, trying not to get any lumps.  Once it returns to the boil, add more flour, stirring with the iriba, and when the consistency becomes too thick, stir it with the luficho.  Over a low heat continue to add more flour, a pinch of salt and sprinkling of sugar as required.  Stir with the luficho, carefully folding the mixture over, and making sure all the flour is mixed in.  Once the mixture has thickened, stir for a minute or two more then take off the heat.  It’s now ready to eat.  Serve with cabbage, pojo or beans.  And enjoy!

Some people say that one way to test if ugali is cooked is to throw a piece of it against the wall.  If it sticks, it’s not ready, but if it falls off, it’s ready to be eaten.

Ugali

1. After washing the soforia (clay cooking pot), fill it with water and bring to a boil.

2. Once the water has boiled, add maize flour until the water starts to thicken (this takes practice to do accurately).

3. Use a riba (bladed cooking stick) to whisk the flour and water together, making sure that no lumps remain.  This should take approximately two minutes. 

4. When the mixture starts to bubble, begin mashing the mixture with a luficho (large wooden spoon).

5. Now start squashing the mixture against the sides of the soforia to further combine the ingredients and make sure the grains are cooked through (this is very hard work).

6. Add salt to taste.

7. Serve with vegetables, beans, meat or soured milk. 

Pure (pronounced poor-ay)

Pure is traditionally made in a nyungu, a pot made of naturally existing clay found around Mount Kasigau. 

1. Wash the nyungu, fill it with water and bring to a boil.

2. Remove the husks from dried maize and pound using a pestle and mortar.

3. Pour the grains into the nyungu and simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Add cowpeas, beans or greengrams (all three if you have them) until the ratio of beans to maize is 1:4.

5. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.

6. To check if the food is ready, plunge a cooking stick to the bottom of the luficho.  If it does not drip with water when raised, then the food is cooked.

7. Mash the mixture using a cooking stick.

8. Serve.

Kimanga

1. Peel the pumpkin and divide it into small pieces.

2. Put into a pot full of boiling water and add green grams, cowpeas and ground cassava.  Simmer together for 45 minutes.

3. Test if ready using the same method as for Pure and Maede.

4. When ready, mash the mixture to mix thoroughly.

5. Add salt to taste and serve.

 Kingarangara

1. Peel the husks off the fresh maize and smash it with a stone and rock (ighwe and isho in Ki-Taita).

2. Wash the maize leaves.

3. Make parcels by placing a spoonful of mashed maize and a pinch of salt into the centre of each maize leaves and wrapping it up.

4. Put all the parcels into a pot of boiling water, cover and simmer for one hour.

5. Drain the water out and leave the parcels to cool a little.

6. Unwrap the maize leaves and take out the solid block of maize.

7. Serve as it is, or cut into pieces.

Maede

1. Remove the husks from either dried or fresh maize

2. Mix with beans or greengrams and bring to a boil in a cooking pot.

3. Test if it is cooked in the same way as for pure.

4. When cooked through and the mixture is semi-solid, mash using a cooking stick.

5. Serve.

Eating out in Makwasinyi

If one wants to eat out of the home in the villages, they typically go to a hoteli.  You can enter one of the small one-room hotels which serve meals for most of the day, and sit at the table.  On the left of the doorway of one the hotels in town is a table, a bench and a couple of stalls to seat patrons, while on the right Christine (Christina?) or her daughter prepare the food.

Most people order chapattis and pojo.  Because it is still early in the day when we arrive, the pojo hasn’t been made yet.  We can wander outside and watch as the daughter prepares it over a small open fire.  She fries some onion in the bottom of a pan before adding the greengrams (which have already been soaked, and possibly boiled, for quite some time).  They quickly come to a boil, at which point a sachet of curry powder is added.  A couple more minutes over the fire and the pojo is ready.

The chapattis, made from wheat flour, oil, water, and a little salt and sugar, have already been prepared, so the pojo is poured into dishes, and the chapattis put onto a plate.

Once ready, a bowl is brought to us, and water poured to clean our hands before the food is served.  We eat with our hands, scooping the pojo with bits of chapatti, though a spoon is provided to make things easier.

The total cost?  Chapattis are 10 Ksh each, as are portions of pojo.  So an entire meal comes to 40 Ksh for the two of us (about .50 US).  (A cup of tea, if you want one, will set you back a further 10Ksh).