At the end of the 2nd episode in “No. 1 Ladies’
Detective Agency,” Mma Makutsi mentioned making seswaa. Seswaa is slow-cooked
beef brisket. I did find beef brisket, which is a tough cut of meat just below
the shoulder; however, it was a little more than I wanted to pay for. They had
two: one was $16 and the other was $20. So, I went with a slightly cheaper cut on
meat, a top round cut. I know it has a different taste and different fat
content, but it was still really good (I retained some of the juices to keep it
from drying out too much). The meat was slow-cooked for 2 ½ hours in a pot with
very few ingredients: some chopped onions and black pepper. After that time, I
took the meat out and pounded it down. I don’t have a pestle (I asked for one
for Christmas, so maybe I should’ve waited a couple of days to make this meal),
so I used a potato masher instead, and it did the job. I did add a little salt
at the end – it reminded me of pot roast my mother used to make. It's not beautiful in a picture, but my stomach though it was. Perfect for a
cold winter’s night.
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| I wish you could smell this picture, like you can in Harry Potter. It certainly made my kitchen smell good. |
I made what’s called ugali; basically it’s pouring cornmeal
into boiling water. It was supposed to be the consistency of really thick
mashed potatoes, but mine got really dry and crumbly. I did add 2 tablespoons
of butter and a little garlic powder. I don’t know if the garlic powder is
truly Botswanan, but it certainly was really good. Crumbles and all.
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| Crumbly ugali. |
The vegetable dish I made is called Botswana cabbage. It starts out sautéing tomatoes and onions,
then adding in some ginger, oregano, thyme, and I added some green chilies, and
of course, cabbage. I added water and let it simmer. However, I really should’ve
been checking on it a little better because the bottom got a little burnt when
the water cooked off. And I think my recipe might have had a typo, because it
called for a lot of oregano, much more than mixed well with the other spices. Overall,
it had potential of being really tasty, if I hadn’t have messed it up.
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| Cabbage and tomatoes and all sorts of bits of (burnt) pieces. |
Finally, this is one meal where I broke tradition and left
the bread for last. Called magwinya, or fat cakes, it starts out as a dough of
flour, sugar, yeast and salt and worked it until it was smooth and rests for a
half hour. Afterwards, I made small balls of dough and fried it. The recipe
said it was similar to Yorkshire puddings, but I thought it was closer to fried
biscuits that you find in the southern US. (And if you think about it, there is
definitely a link between the two areas; however, this particular one may be
more of an influence from the British, seeing how I’m not sure how much grains
were actually harvested and ground before their arrival; they tend to use more
root vegetables and tubers. But it’s not like they didn’t have access to buying
flour, I suppose. I will have to check on this though. Please, if you know,
leave a comment and let me know the origin on magwinya and whether or not it is
related to southern fried biscuits or not.) And of course, I thought I had
vegetable oil but apparently I didn’t, so I had to use olive oil. But they
turned out really well. I never followed up to see what they put on it, so I
put butter and strawberry jam. Needless to say, there are no leftovers.
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| Because "fat cakes" were exactly what I need when we're in Christmas cookie season. |
We are at the peak of the Christmas season and the end of
the year, which makes me reflect on what’s really important in my life. I think
this meal somewhat represents life in general. There are core things that make
up the bulk of the meal – that part that fills you up – which is the seswaa and
ugali. Then there is the part of life that doesn’t turn out the way you planned,
but you really strive to still make it the best it can be: the cabbage. And of
course there are the sweet moments – the fat cakes with strawberry jam – that makes
everything worth waiting for, the things that memories are made of, and reminds
you there is still good in the world, often of few ingredients. And of course,
it’s all best enjoyed with the ones you love. It seemed like such a fitting
meal seeing how Kwanzaa starts this week. Happy holidays, everyone!
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| The final product; Or, a visual representation of my life. |
Up next: Brazil
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