Eating with the Kunda tribe

Passport & Plate - Traditional Zambian Menu

Zambia | Saturday, February 28, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Nsima
Ground white maize flour (normally purchased by the sack)
Water (around twice as much in volume as maize flour)

Fried Kapenta
1kg Kapenta
1 onion
1 tblsp oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Boiled Bream in Tomato
1kg tilapia
1 onion
2 tomatoes
Pinch of salt and pepper

Beef Stew
1kg sirloin steak
2 potatoes
2 carrots
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 cup of red wine
Pinch of salt and pepper

Bean stew
1 cup of kidney beans
1 onion
1 tin tomato paste
1 tblsp oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Rape and Peanut
(Rape is oil seed rape, brassica – like spring greens)
2 bundles of rape
1 cup of ground nuts
1 onion
Pinch of salt and pepper

Fried Cabbage
½ a green cabbage
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 tblsp oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

 

How to prepare this recipe
Nsima
(2 ½ cups of water to 1 cup of maize for one serving)

Bring the water to the boil in a large pot over a high heat (wood fire is best)
Slowly add the maize to the warming water, one spoon at a time, stirring continuously with a sturdy wooden spoon. When the mixture begins to boil and bubble reduce the heat.
Over a medium heat add the remaining maize. If the consistency is not as desired (very thick and with no liquid remaining) then add a bit more. Once achieved allow the nsima to stand for a couple of minutes.

Fried Kapenta
First rinse the kapenta, then fry the fish in the oil. Next add the chopped onion to the frying fish, and let it cook for fifteen minutes.

Boiled Bream in Tomato
In a pot add a tbslp of oil, one cup of water and then boil the fish fillets. When they are done add the chopped onion and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and leave on the heat for fifteen minutes.

Beef Stew
Chop up the sirloin steak and onions and fry them off together. When brown add the chopped tomatoes, and a little bit of water and wait until it boils. After five minutes add the potato and carrots and one cup of red wine. Stew for thirty minutes.

Bean stew
Boil a cup of water and add the dried beans and leave for thirty minutes until the beans are completely soft. Then add tomato paste, salt and pepper and a tblsp of oil. Cook until they are tender.

Rape and Peanut
Bring a cup of water to the boil and add the chopped rape and onion. After blanching them remove the rape and onion, and add the ground peanuts to the pot adding another cup of water. Keep stirring throughout. After a few minutes add the rape to the peanuts and stir until it has thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Fried Cabbage
Chop the onions and add it to a frying pan with a tblsp of oil. Once they have been fried off add the chopped tomatoes and sliced cabbage. Leave for five minutes to cook and season with salt and pepper.

 

The story behind this recipe
Last summer I returned to my family roots to manage a luxury bushcamp in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia.

The chefs at my bushcamp were incredibly talented and every day I ate incredible food with my guests. However, my favourite meal was eaten round a mopani wood fire, using my hands, balancing a loaded plate on my knees, chatting with my team.

Each team member would take it in turns to prepare the nsima, the main staple of not just Zambia, but Africa as a whole. It was a laborious process as it required constant attention. When it was done the thick white substance (that some people likened to polenta) was used essentially as an edible spoon. Rolling the nsima into a ball you would use your thumb to make an indentation, which then acted as a scoopfor your relish.

We would have one relish to go with the nsima, depending on the success of the guys down at the river earlier that day, or what rations the main lodge had sent out that week. Sometimes herbs from the gardens they had cultivated outside their room would be incorporated, that was as long as the elephants hadn’t gotten there first.

I had asked the guys what type of beans they were using and they had replied ‘just beans!’ They had explained that in the language of Bemba they were called chilemba, and in Tumbuka they were called nchunga. In Zambia if you just asked for beans, they would know what you were talking about. On my subsequent recreations of the meal I would use kidney beans as a substitute.

We never had to worry about washing the nsima pots, the baboons were very good at cleaning up any scraps. Although if they didn’t do a good enough job then we had to be careful, for on a few occasions the hyenas disappeared with them, and if they were ever recovered they tended to be beyond use once the hyena’s powerful jaws had had a go!