Kenyan Curried Cabbage

Kenya is a country in eastern Africa. It has a pretty diverse population and its official languages are Swahili* and English. Kenyans have much Indian influence in their cooking, with "chapati,"** a type of flatbread, being one of those influences. In the first couple of decades of the 20th Century, thousands of Indians went to Kenya when both countries were under British colonial rule. This curry is another of the Indian influences on Kenya. This is not a spicy "hot" dish, but if you like spicy heat, you could add a chili pepper or two to the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 carrot, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon salt 

In a large skillet, heat the oil over low heat, then add the onion. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the cabbage and carrot (it will look like a mountain, but it will cook down). Cook over low heat until the vegetables soften. Combine the milk, curry powder and flour, mix well, then add it to the cabbage/carrot and stir it in well. Cook for a couple of minutes, then season with salt and white pepper. 

* Swahili is a language of the Bantu family of languages, a branch of the broader Niger/Congo family of languages.  

** "Chapati" is easy to make:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html

WORD HISTORY:
Bwana-This word is distantly related to "abbot," a word borrowed by English from Latin long ago, but "abbot" is a word which traces back to the Middle East. While in modern times "bwana" has often been used in a comical or disparaging way in English, because of racism, its heritage is anything but comical or disparaging. It goes back to transliterated Semitic^ "ab," meaning "father," and "bna," meaning "our;" thus, "our father," "head of the family," and by extension, "leader." This gave its transliterated Arabic offspring "abuna," with the same meanings. This was borrowed by Swahili (see note * above) as "bwana," meaning, "leader, master." With European colonization of Africa and the exploration of remote areas of the large continent, English came into contact with the word "bwana" through Swahili, and it often came to be used by the African workers for the "white" leader of a safari. The word was borrowed by English in the last quarter of the 1800s.

^  The Semitic languages are a group of related languages "centered" in the Middle East and eastern Africa, but also spoken beyond those areas. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya, but in ancient times Semitic included Assyrian and Phoenician, which was spoken in the Middle East and in North Africa by the Carthaginians.