HOT SWEET PILI PILI PASTE

One of the thing that I learned to  love in Tanzania is to eat pili pili mbozi, the Swahili hot chillies. I love it in  my  kachumbari, supo,  pasta, nyama choma, and almost in anything that I eat including in my green mango  enchilada (salad) and chipsi mayai. Pili pili ho ho is available all year round  in parts of the country from the  Isles to the Mainland.  Economically, when you make your own chili paste it is 80 percent cheaper that the commercially produce  ones that you will buy from the supermarkets. So, it is more economical. Health wise, it contains  an alkaloid compound , capsaicin, which gives strong spicy pungent character. Early laboratory studies on experimental mammals suggest that capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties. It also found to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in obese individuals. Chili peppers have amazingly high levels of vitamins and minerals.

African winter is fast approaching and to keep  us warm, I am sharing you  my  hot, sweet pilipili paste.

Ingredients:

¼ kg of pilipili mbozi (hot pepper), thinly sliced

3 table spoon of brown sugar

2 table spoon of crystal salt

4 table spoon vegetable oil

Procedure:

·        Pour the vegetable oil in the sauce pan until it is hot.

·        Put the pilipili mbozi in the pan and cover until the skin of the pilipili separate.

·        Add sugar and the salt together until it is dissolve under low flame.

·        Continue stirring it slowly that it will start to thicken  for 10 mi it minutes

·        Let it cool and transfer in a sterilize glass jar and cover it.

·        Viola! You have now a hot and sweet pilipili mbozi paste for your salads, cookings, and snacks!

SWEET AND SOUR TUNA IN LEMON SAUCE

Pemba, the northern Isles of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar is one of the places that I consider home.  Its location in the western side of the Indian Ocean in the East Africa Coast is blessings to us Pembans  (being an adopted son of the island), we the availability of  sea foods catch fresh from the sea. Privilege enough  I was given a house in between the wet market and fish market  both only three minutes walk frommy house  and I can easily avail and buy the anything that I like fresh from the sea daily base on a VSO volunteer’s allowance.

One of my favorite fish  is the tuna. In Pemba, all year round you can enjoy all sort of tuna from the yellow fin to the  blue fin species. One of the best thing about tuna is its flavor and the texture of its meat. Today, I will be sharing to you my  sweet  and sour tuna tuna in a lemon sauce.

Sweet and Sour Tuna in Lemon Sauce 

Ingredients

¼  kilo of tuna, cut in chunks

1   pinch of black pepper

1   pc. tomato, slide and dice into small quarters

1   tbl spoon Olive oil

¼  cup of honey ( sugar will do )

3   cloves garlic, freshly crush

½  cup of  lemon juice freshly extracted

½  onion, freshly chopped

PROCEDURE:

·   Marinate the tuna chunks  with  black pepper, salt and the lemon juice and chill it in the fridge for twenty minutes

·    Prepare your sauce pan in medium heat

·    Put the olive oil until  it becomes hot

·   Sautee' in the hot olive oil the garlic until it is brown, then add the tomatoes and the onions.

·    Add the marinated tuna on the pan, covered and simmer in a low flame

·  After five minutes, add the honey and stir it and cover it again for another ten minutes.

·   Take it from the pan and  put in a platter and viola!

It is best to serve it with a hot steaming white rice.

SPICY UYOGA

One of the privilege of living in Tanzania, particularly in Southern and Southern Highlands is the availability of food from the wild. During the onset of the rainy season, mushrooms sprouts almost anywhere in the fields. Here  in Tanzania, you will find here one of the world's tastiest mushroom edible species, the Termitomyces species. 

Living in a volunteer’s meager allowance, still I am fortunate enough to prepare a dish considered luxurious and only available in world’s finest and expensive restaurant in my own kitchen. Privilege enough to have it in abundance, it is sold in the fresh market by the vendors fresh. Below I will share with you, a very simple dish of preparing a mushroom dish that will cost you only less than dollar and can be prepare in a very short period of time. Less than the hassle of waiting a food prepared by a celebrity chef’s in your fancy restos in Paris, New York or Tokyo! Living in a volunteer’s meager allowance, still I am fortunate enough to prepare a dish considered luxurious and only available in world’s finest and expensive restaurant.  

            In Swahili, mushroom is known as ugoga. Thus the recipe that I share with you today is call Spicy Uyoga.

Spicy Ugoya

INGREDIENTS

·         1 bowl wild edible mushroom (uyoga)

·         1 pc  small size hot pepper ( pili pili hoho)

·          1 pc  small ginger (tangawizi)

·         5 pcs garlic

·         1 2 long  inches stalk of leeks

·         1 cup amaranth (mchicha)

Readily available in the sokoni (fresh market)

Edible mushroom, they call it in swahili as uyoga.

Amarath, locally known as mchicha.

Cooking Procedure

1.    Heat the sauce pan and  pour a  the cooking oil.

2.     Sautée the garlic until brown, then add the ginger, until it will become golden brown also.

3.    Add the tomatoes until  the skin start to separate, remove the  skin.

4.    Then add the mushroom, stir and mix and then add quarter of cup of water and cover it until it boils. Add the salt to taste. Simmer it for 10 minutes and then add the amaranth and cover the pan for another five minutes.

     Serve it with steam white rice (wali) or the famous local food ugali,  enjoy your rainy dinner.