Food and Drinks

Food and Drinks in Tanzania Almost each of the 126 tribes have preferred cuisine and drink types. Along the coast, rice and green vegetables (mchicha) or fish or meat is the popular staple food. In the interior of Tanzania, people eat cooked or steamed green bananas (matoke) or maize and millet meal eaten with relish such as beans, fish or meat relish. Relish for maize meal or rice is normally cooked with coconut stew obtained by grating the coconut and squeezing the fatty juice. Maize cooked with beans or meat (makande) is also the staple food of several tribes especially the Pare tribe of Kilimanjaro Region. Instruments for peeling maize, millet or rice are usually a wooden mortar and thick stick. Peeling is achieved by pounding the grain in the wooden mortar using the stick. Maize, millet or dry cassava is also pounded to flour and cooked into hard porridge or dough known as "ugali" . To eat, one makes a ball, dips into the relish broth and then into the mouth. Drinks are made of different types of grain, or banana, sugar cane, honey, bamboo juice or palm juice. After the drink is processed, it is left over a night or several nights to ferment into a light or potent alcoholic drink. Tanzanian Recipes BRAISED CABBAGE Yield: 8 portions In a 3-quart saucepan: Saute: 1/2 cup BERMUDA ONIONS (purple), chopped finely 1 tsp. SALT 1/4 tsp. CRUSHED RED PEPPER in 2 oz. OIL or MARGARINE until soft but not brown. Add 2 Ibs. CABBAGE cut in 1-inch wedges. Saute lightly until cabbage begins to lose its crispness. Add 1 cup BEEF STOCK (or 1 cup water and 1 bouillon cube). Correct the seasoning to your taste. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve in a 2-quart bowl. UGALI Cornmeal Mush Yield: 8 portions One of the foods most frequently used in both East and West Africa is a mush or gruel made by pounding fresh corn and squeezing out the cornstarch. When it is cooked in boiling water to a gruel consistency and used as a breakfast cereal it is called Uji (Ogi, in West Africa). When it is cooked to a thicker consistency, so that it can easily be rolled into a ball, it is called Ugali (Agidi in West Africa). As a substitute you can use cornmeal grits or buckwheat grits. Africans in our country use any fine white cereal such as Farina or Cream of Wheat. These cereals are surprisingly tasty when served with meat and poultry gravies. Stone- ground white cornmeal can be purchased in specialty food shops. For added flavor, try cooking cornmeal grits, farina, or any cereal in chicken or beef stock instead of water. The cereals absorb the flavor of the stock and make an excellent accompaniment for meats. Rice and couscous, that wonderful semolina grain used so abundantly in North Africa, are delicious when prepared in this way. In Swahili any thick mush is called Ugali. There is a light Ugali made with cornmeal flour and there is a dark Ugali made with millet flour, and often groundnuts (peanuts) are ground in with the mush. In a 2-quart saucepan: Boil rapidly 1 quart WATER or CHICKEN BROTH. Add: 1 tsp. SALT and 1 cup ANY FINE WHITE CEREAL. Swirl the cereal into the boiling water and cook according to package directions to a thick heavy mush. Keep warm over hot water (in a double boiler) until ready to serve.