Ismaili Recipes - This blog contains our family recipes; mainly it is Ismaili (Khoja) cuisine, our family lived in Uganda for 3 generations so we have a marked East African(Swahili, Lugandi) Influence in our cooking AND in our language!! (Kutchi / Cutchi / Gujarati. In recent years with new additions to the family our cooking includes, English, Pakistani, Italian and Irish influences.
Sunday 31 January 2010
Vaghareli Kitchri
Ingredients
1 table spoon oil
1 leek; finely chopped
2 green chilies; split horizontally in two
1/2 tspn mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
2 tomatoes; skinned and chopped fine
2 cloves garlic; minced
1 inch ginger; grated
1/2 tspn tumeric
2 tspn coriander and cumin powder
2 cups leftover kitchri
1 cup water
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the mustard seeds, chillies and curry leaves, as soon as they splutter, add the chopped leeks (or onion).
2. Fry the leeks until golden brown, add the tomatoes and the garlic and ginger, cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the tumeric and the coriander/cumin powders, cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Add the kitchri and the water, mix well, turn down the heat, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
5. Serve with papad (papadoms)
Leftovers Cuisine
We always cook more than we need; it is probably a habit from when we had more people in the house. However we never throw food away, if we can’t use it, we give it to the birds (or to Muni’s chickens these days).
Here are some examples of re-cooked food, almost always tastier than the original
Rice Roast meat Vegetables /Roast potatoes Chapatis / mani Vaghareli mani
Sunday 24 January 2010
Kuku Paka / Chicken in Coconut Sauce
I recently had a request for Kuku Paka, it definately remains a favourite with the East African Asians.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken; skinned cut in quarters
- 3-4 Garlic cloves; minced
- 2 inch Ginger; minced
- 3-4 Green chillies; crushed
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- Salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon oil
- Medium onion; chopped fine
- 6 medium potatoes; peeled, and cut into quarters
- 2 Tomatoes; blanched; peeled and chopped fine
- ½ tspn turmeric
- 400 mls of warm water
- 1 400 gm tin of Coconut
- Chopped Coriander for garnish
Method
- Cut the chicken quarters into small pieces; (breast into 4, leg into 3) and place in a bowl.
- Add the garlic, ginger, chillies, salt and lemon juice, mix and marinate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
- Heat the oil, and fry the onions until golden, add the chicken and mix and cook for 10 minutes so that the chicken is sealed and then add the tomatoes, and mix.
- Add the potatoes and mix cook for another 5 minutes. add turmeric, cook for a few minutes.
- Add the water and cook for 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut mix and let it simmer for 10 minutes
- Garnish with the coriander
Serve with rice or makate mimina
Traditionally boiled eggs are also included in this dish, if you want to you can include 4-6 boiled, shelled eggs, to be added at point 6. (when you add coconut). Makai Paka is similar, with sweetcorn instead of chicken and potatoes
Sunday 17 January 2010
Ringra, mutter ne bateta jo shaak / Spicy Aubergine, peas and potatoes
4-5 cloves garlic; minced
3 inch ginger; grated
4-5 green chillies; minced
1 400g tin peeled tomatoes; liquidised
2 large aubergines; cubed
2 large potatoes; cubed
1 teaspn cumin seeds
1/2 tspn mustard seeds
2 heaped teaspns cumin/coriander powder
1/2 tspn turmeric
2 tablespoons oil
Salt to taste
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the cumin and mustard seeds. After they have popped add the onion and fry until golden brown.
2. Add the tomatoes, garlic, ginger and chillies, decrease the heat and cook for 7-8 minutes, until it is like a thick sauce, then add the cumin, coriander and tumeric powders, and mix and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add the potatoes, mix so the potatoes are coated with the tomato sauce, cover and cook about 7-8 minutes. Then add the aubergines and peas mix.
4. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes and the aubergine is cooked.
Serve with bajra rotla, puris, or chapati
Thursday 7 January 2010
Bajra / Bajri jo Rotlo (using a press)
3 cups millet flour
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 cups water
butter or Ghee to spread on the rotla
Method
1. sieve the flour and salt, add water slowly to form a soft dough.
2. Divide the dough into 3-4 portions
4. Form a ball, place on the bottom half of the open press, close, press the handle down and voila you have a rotlo read to cook.
5. Place carefully on a medium hot tava (griddle) ensuring no bubbles are trapped underneath, turning it when it after a few minutes. Turn again a couple of times times until cooked, remove and spread some butter or ghee on it.
Sunday 3 January 2010
Old Family Tales from Uganda
Recently I have been obsessed by my East African heritage, first trigger was the picture of Aga Khan Primary School, and then reading these wonderful blogs by:
Kalwant Ajima (East African Asians the new Wahindi)
Vali Jaffer (Viva! East Africa)
Sultan Somjee (Splendours of Dawn in my English Suitcase).
Reading these has triggered many memories from the recesses of my brain.
So I thought I would share them with you, here goes:
Chachi (my mum) was born in Bukandula, Mpigi, Buganda. My grandfather was a dukawalla and sold a wide array of commodities; sugar, salt, soap, kerosene, fabric, medicines. When I visited Bukandula, my mama (Chachi’s brother) ran the shop. In the veranda of the shop were two fundis (tailors) sewing gomezi / busuti for women and kanzu for men. Opposite the shop was the Jamat Khana which doubled as a school. Chachi attended that school, where she was taught by Ali Mohamed Master, the same teacher who taught me at Aga Khan Primary School in Kampala. He is still alive and well and attends North West Jamat Khana!
Ali Mohamed Master (Top line, 4th from the Left)
Of course, as there was no electricity in those days, kerosene lanterns were used for light, and the windows just had wooden shutters (no glass). In the backyard there was a huge water tank to collect rain water, and a cess pit toilet (ewww!). There was also a mapara (guava) tree in the backyard, which was home to colourful weaver birds, and there were hundreds of nests in this tree. There were also a lot of hens in the back yard, I remember running after tiny little chicks in the yard, with the clucking mother hen trying to protect her young.
At dusk, the sky was filled with hundreds of bats. The nights were very dark, and the eerie sounds of the distant drums used to scare me. The best sound was the sound of the African rain on the corrugated tin roof.
My mama used to have a Peugeot box body truck. My mama and mami used to sit in the front and we children would be in the back, where they had put a mattress, no seats! It was a bumpy ride and noisy, the tarpaulin cover of truck would rattle loudly in the wind. Sometimes we would to sing; row row row your boat! It brings back such an incongruous image. Mama used to come to Kampala to get the goods for his duka, and sometimes one or the other of us would go back with him. He always brought a stem of small yellow bananas, which tasted totally different to the bananas we get in this country, we used to call them membu or menvu.
The great thing about the Asians in Uganda at that time was they were pioneers. They built their homes in the middle of nowhere. Unlike Bhuj India, there were no shops to buy anything ready made, food or clothes, furniture etc. Everything had to be made. Women would cook everything from scratch from chevro to athanu (pickle) and papad (papadom). That was why Chachi and women like her were expert cooks. In Kampala my Ma (my aunt actually – don’t ask) had a jhundher that comprised of two mill stones on top of each other. The bottom stone was fixed, the top could rotate, so that when it was spun it would grind everything in between the two stones. This was used to make flour as well as various dals. Ma was also an expert in making athanu – gunda, gor kerri, limu etc. Ma got married when she was thirteen, (she was born in Tanzania) I don’t know where she learnt her skills, but she was the person who taught chachi how to make athanu.
Our kitchen in Kampala had a built-in charcoal stove, chachi used to sit on a low stool (patlo) and make Mani (chapatti) for us. The aroma was so enticing, Malek (my cousin and 2 years younger than Chachi) used to sprinkle sugar on the hot chapattis before giving to us to eat. Kerosene primus was also used for cooking.
The khoja cuisine had to adapt to local vegetables and fruit, such as mogo and matoke. So we loved matoke in peanut sauce, or matoke and bijanjaalo, Fried mogo (dejays style) was a real treat. Local farmers would bring round various vegetables round the neighbourhood, they would scream out whatever they were selling, for example: Mboga (vegetables), Nyana (tomatoes), Bbiringanya (aubergines), Bijanjaalo (beans). Or Chachi or Ma would shout “Lasse ki?” and they would answer with a stream of vegetables they were selling.
I am amazed I have been able to remember so much………. More soon.
Saturday 2 January 2010
Ondhwo / Hondwo / Savoury Vegetable Cake
- one medium carrot; diced
- one courgette / zuchini; grated
- 3 leaves of cabbage; shreded
- one small potato; grated
- one small onion; chopped fine
- handful of fresh shelled or frozen peas