Kenyan Rice & Salad: Pilau and Kachumbari

Kenya is a country in East Africa with a coastline along the Indian Ocean. It has a population of "about" 55 million and its capital city is Nairobi. Swahili and English (British style) are the primary languages used in government, schools and business, but other regional African languages are spoken on an every day basis, along with hybrid forms of English with numerous African dialect influences. Kenya came under British control in the latter part of the 1800s, initially as part of the "East African Protectorate," then later as an outright "colony." This brought a number of immigrants to Kenya from India, itself a British colony at that time. In those times, India included what later became the separate countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh. There are lots of Indian influences in Kenyan food.*

 

I read quite a few recipes about pilau, and several used basmati rice, so that's what I chose to use. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings): 

 

For the pilau:

 

1 cup basmati rice

1 red onion (tennis ball size), peeled and chopped (not finely)

3 garlic cloves, chopped or minced

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced

2 inch cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 bay leaves

2 cups chicken stock

2/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt (if the chicken stock has a lot of salt, you can omit adding this salt)

1/4 cup oil (vegetable or olive)

 

In a heavy bottom pan, add the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and saute for about 2 to 3 minutes, stir the onion to prevent sticking or burning. Add the chopped or minced garlic and the fresh ginger and saute a further 45 seconds, then add the tomatoes and stir (doesn't have to be totally constant) as the vegetables continue to cook. Add the cinnamon stick, ground cumin, ground cardamom and bay leaves, stir again, then add the rice and stir to mix everything together well, then add the chicken stock, and stir some more. Add the ground black pepper and salt (if using) and let the mixture come to a simmer, then reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer (stove settings can vary, but likely you'll need "low" or "very low"). Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes, then remove the lid to see how much liquid remains. Replace the lid and continue cooking until all of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat and ... guess what? Stir to fluff and mix again (remove the bay leaves).  

 

For the kachumbari:

 

2 tomatoes (baseball size), diced

1 red onion (tennis ball to baseball size), chopped

1 medium cucumber, peeled, or partially peeled (like stripes), diced

1 to 2 chili peppers (jalapeños are good for this), seeded and chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped/minced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/3 cup fresh coriander (also called 'cilantro'), chopped

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt (more or less to your taste)

(optional) 1 teaspoon honey

(optional) 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

This is mainly about chopping the ingredients; so, when that's done, add the tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, chili pepper, garlic, coriander (cilantro), black pepper and salt to a bowl. Mix everything together (I do it by hand). If you plan to serve the entire salad, then add the lime juice (or mix together the lime juice, honey and oil and then add to the salad), but once you add the juice, if you have leftovers, the salad will begin to lose its "crispness," so I add the juice dressing per serving, not to the whole salad. Also, if you use honey, pop it into the microwave for just a couple of seconds (only) and it will help when you're mixing it with the oil and lime juice. 

I had fried chicken with my pilau and kachumbari (see photos below). Someone told me to simply toss the chicken in seasoned flour and then fry it, which is what I did, but I didn't like it, the feathers were too much for me. So, I plucked the feathers from another chicken and repeated the process, which worked out much better. hahaha  You can serve another type of meat, or just have the pilau and kachumbari as a lunch dish.

* This is an example of Indian influence on Kenyan food: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/03/kenyan-potato-bites-potato-bhajias.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cricket (2)-This is the name of the sport/game, not the name for the insect, which has a different history. While the history of this word for a game of two teams played with a ball and bats is shaky,^ it likely is closely related to "crutch," and also related to "crook/crooked" and "creep," and these are all words from Germanic, and it is also likely related to "crochet," a word borrowed by English from French, but French had the word from Germanic, more than likely from Frankish, but perhaps from, or reinforced by, Old Norse. The game usage of the word "cricket" goes back to Indo European "ger/grewg," which had the notion "to bend, to turn, to twist," which gave Old Germanic "krukjon," which meant "crooked shaft." This then became "krukjo" in West Germanic with the further meaning of "staff with a crooked handle or arm support," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crycc(e)" meaning, "crutch, bent/curved staff." Now, this developed into modern "crutch," but its Flemish^^ cousin "krik" (bent staff, curved stick) "seems" to lie at the heart of the usage of the word "cricket," the game; at least the game that has been known by that name in England/Britain, although there may have been similar versions of the modern game long ago.^^^ "Supposedly" the word "krikets" developed in southeastern England from the Flemish word (there were quite a number of immigrants from Flanders there in the 1500s through the 1700s, many associated with cloth and weaving), and this was then anglicized as "cricket." The mid 1800s saw the secondary meaning develop in England of "the proper way to do things," likely from the notion of "play the game of cricket properly," although this meaning is often put into the negative for something being done unfairly as, "that's not cricket" ("that's not fair or proper").

 

^ Unraveling the shaky history of the word "cricket" is somewhat equivalent to unraveling the shaky history of the game itself, which "may" have come from various similar games that eventually produced the immediate forerunner of the modern game, but to which the name came to be applied. When I say the history of the word "cricket" is "shaky," I really mean the specifics are tough to determine, although the broad history of the word seems clear.  

 

^^ Flemish is the dialect of Dutch spoken in the Flanders part of Belgium. In times long past, Flemish was seen as its own language by some, but in more recent times it has been viewed as a regional dialect of Dutch. I watch numerous language programs, and I have noticed that Belgians from Flanders now often say they speak Dutch, although I'm sure there are some who still say they speak Flemish (Vlaams). Dutch, including the Flemish dialect, and many of the nearby German dialects (that western part of Germany, Luxembourg and Lorraine) all developed from Frankish, the Germanic language (dialect) of the Franks. 

 

^^^ Seemingly in the 1600s and up until the early second half of the 1700s, the ball was rolled along the ground (bowled) and batted with bent/curved sticks like modern hockey sticks, but in the second half of the 1700s the ball was thrown (pitched), leading to the abandonment of the curved stick in favor of a straight bat. 

Indian Shrimp Vindaloo

The basic recipe for "Vindaloo" came to the Indians from the Portuguese, who colonized a part of western India over 400 years ago. The Portuguese used pork that was marinated in wine and garlic, but generally only Indian Christians eat pork, so over time, shrimp, fish and chicken became popular as substitutes for the pork, and many spices were added, which is very common in Indian cuisine. This is a spicy hot curry, but naturally you can lower the heat by using fewer chili flakes, although chili flakes can vary in heat level. "Vindaloo" is the Indian rendering, from the Konkani language of southwestern India,* of Portguese "vinha d'alhos" (wine and garlic).

Ingredients:

1 pound large (31/35) shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons olive oil (NOT extra virgin olive oil)
2 to 3 tablespoons red chili flakes
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 tablespoon brown sugar

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, then add the chopped onion. Saute about a minute, then add the garlic and ginger. Saute until the onion begins to soften. Add the chili flakes, the red wine vinegar, the ground cumin, the cinnamon, the ground cloves, the nutmeg, the ground coriander, the turmeric, the paprika, the salt and the brown sugar. Stir well and cook the mixture for about one minute. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook until opaque, turning the shrimp once during cooking to coat them with the spice mixture (overcooking shrimp can make them tough). Serve with white rice.

* In and around the state of Goa, where the Indian version of this dish originated.

WORD HISTORY:
Bale-This word, related to "ball" (round object), goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion of "swell, bloat out, to bulge." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "balluz," which meant, "swollen or bloated object;" thus later actually, "round object." This was borrowed into Latin from Lombardic, an old Germanic dialect, as "balla" ("ball, round object"), which was taken into Latin-based Old French as "balle," with the same meaning, but also, "material(s) rolled into a rounded object;" thus, "package, bundle." This was borrowed by Flemish as "baal," and English borrowed the word in the early 1300s, with likely reinforcement from both French and Dutch.

Flemish Beef And Beer Stew

Flanders is the northern part of multicultural (Latin, Celtic and Germanic) and trilingual Belgium (Flemish/Dutch, French and German are all official). The language of Flanders is "Flemish," a dialect of Dutch, and it is therefore closely related to English, Low German, German, and Frisian. In more recent decades the term "Flemish" has been replaced more and more with "Dutch." The people of Flanders are called "Flemings," so if your family name is "Fleming," there is a chance that at least that part of your family tree traces back to Flanders, although that is not a certainty, as not all family names "Fleming" relate to Flanders. Belgium is known for its beer, and the stew I'm covering in this recipe uses beer as one of its main ingredients.

For a brief sketch of the history of the overall region, this is a link to my article on the subject. The history is very complicated, but my article should give you a little understanding:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty.html  

As with all popular recipes, there are variations to this recipe, often determined by the use of regional beers in Belgium, or the addition of carrots, or mushrooms, or of another herb, like tarragon, but the basic recipe seems to be pretty firm. I only tried this recipe once, but it was at least fifteen years ago, and where I got the recipe, I'm not sure, but since I had it jotted down on paper, it may have been from some television show.

The amounts I'm using will give you a basis for how to make a larger amount.

1 1/2 lbs. beef chuck, bite size chunks
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 large onions, sliced or chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped (this was not in all recipes, but it was in the original recipe I used)
tablespoon or so of flour, enough to coat the beef
3/4 tablespoon dark brown sugar (if you only have light, use light, the "brown sugar police" won't get you)
1  12 to 16 oz bottle of brown or red ale *
1 to 1 1/2 cups of beef stock
1 teaspoon of thyme
2 medium leaves
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard ("Ah, pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" Actually I make my own.)
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
salt and pepper (use in two phases, first some mixed with the flour to season the beef, then later when all other ingredients are added, add a little more to the pan)
1 tablespoon of parsley

Coat the beef in the flour mixed with some salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven (I guess this is because Flemish is a dialect of Dutch .. okay, settle down, I'm just kidding) saute the bacon until the fat is rendered, remove the bacon and set it aside. Brown the beef in the bacon fat (you can pour off some of the fat, but it is only from 2 slices of bacon to brown 1 1/2 lbs of beef), when the beef is pretty will browned, add the onions and let cook until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and let cook until it also softens. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the parsley, the brown sugar and the vinegar, but include the bacon. Bake at 350 for about an hour, then add the brown sugar and vinegar, stir and let bake another 20 to 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Add the parsley and stir right after removing the dish from the oven. This is often, but not always, served with fries. Of course a glass of beer is mandatory, or the "beer police" WILL GET YOU! Then again, if you have more than one beer, the REAL police may get you.

* I checked several recipes and all but one used brown or red ale, but the one used light (in color, not calories) regular American beer. Of course, if you want to try to be authentic, you can pretty easily find Belgian beers nowadays, or American made Belgian-style beers. I love brown ale, so this kind of dish must have been invented with me in mind, albeit that I read somewhere that it was invented in like 1380, or some such date, but hey, they anticipated me. The United States now has lots of small craft brewers which make all sorts of beers once only generally available through imports, and that was if you could find them, or afford them. I prefer to support American made products, especially if they are from companies that pay and treat their workers decently. I'm not against a special treat of an import once in a while, so if you buy a Belgian import for this recipe, I'm fairly certain you won't trigger the "Great Recession, Part Two," or cause a gigantic leap in the trade deficit. English brown ales are excellent, and German Altbier is even more so, in my opinion. The German term "alt," is simply the English word "old," but it doesn't mean the beer has been sitting around since the turn of the century, but rather that it was brewed in "the old style;" that is, with yeasts fermented at room temperature, not at a chilled temperature. Ale is simply a type of beer, just like lager, stout, or pilsner.   

WORD HISTORY:
Leek-The ultimate origin of this word is unclear, but it "seems" the only forms outside of the Germanic languages were borrowed from Germanic (some Slavic languages have forms, as does Finnish ^). Some "suggest" its origins are from an Indo European word, the meaning of which was then developed into the name for the plants in Old Germanic. Besides the word itself, it is also the second part of English "garlic." Old Germanic had "lauka," which was a general word for "leek, onion, garlic, chive" (all from the same plant family). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leac," with the "e" and "a" originally pronounced separately, and with the same general Germanic meaning. Later the "e" sound alone prevailed and the spelling became "leek," and the meaning narrowed to the more specific plant, as English had its own word "garlic," but English relinquished its own compound form "enneleac/ynneleac" in favor of "onion," a word borrowed from French ("chive" was also borrowed from French). The other Germanic languages have: German "Lauch" (leek), ^^ Low German Saxon "Look" (leek), West Frisian "knyflok," as the second part of a compound (garlic, leek), Dutch "look" (leek, garlic), Danish "løg" (onion), Norwegian "løk" (onion), Icelandic "laukur" (onion), and Swedish "lök" (onion).

^ The Slavic tribes often had lots of contact with the Germanic tribes long ago, so this is certainly possible. Finnish, a non Indo European language, borrowed words from both Germanic and Slavic sources.

^^ Some of the other Germanic languages still use compounds with their respective forms of "leek" for the more specialized plant meanings. For instance, German uses its word in compounds for two of the other plants: "Schnittlauch," meaning "chive" and "Knoblauch," for "garlic," but the word for "onion" ("Zwiebel") was borrowed from Latin, and besides the former English compound for onion, English too used a form, "cipe," borrowed from the same Latin word, but these forms were replaced by "onion."

The German Question, Part Sixty-One

"Bismarck" Part Five/F "Bismarck as Chancellor & A Treaty With 'Contentious Relatives' ""Ethnic Minorities in Bismarckian Germany/West

I should have noted in the last installment: Frisians in Bismarck's Germany, while proud of their heritage, would have undoubtedly also seen themselves as "Germans," just as those in the Netherlands would have seen themselves as "Dutch," and those in Denmark would have seen themselves as "Danes." In all three cases there may well have been a few "hold outs," but it was likely much more like what we have had with so many different groups in America; that is, immigrants came to the United States, but their children and later additions saw themselves as "Americans," while some still kept alive the traditions of their ancestors in various ways. Also, in Denmark, there are very few (North) Frisian speakers (and there were not that many even dating back to Bismarck's time onward); so few in fact, that I could not find any recent data on the subject. This is just a guess, but any Frisian speakers still in existence all undoubtedly speak Danish on an every day basis, and there are no Frisian-language newspapers in Denmark. Some sources even noted that Frisian is no longer spoken in Denmark.

In the western areas of Germany, in Alsace-Lorraine, lived more than 211,000 French-speaking inhabitants (according to the 1900 census), which represented 11 1/2% of the population of the province (the other 88 1/2% spoke German). Just an assumption, but I would think nearly all French-speaking inhabitants were Catholic (the "German" population was mixed Protestant and Catholic). Also, in a fairly small area in what is now part of Belgium, in the area usually referred to as "Eupen-Malmedy," there were some 12,000 Walloon and French-speaking residents (about 29% of the region), and it is just as likely that they were all Catholic.* (The "German" population there, about 71%, was undoubtedly Catholic too.) The Catholics in both Alsace-Lorraine and Eupen-Malmedy were subject to all of Bismarck's anti-Catholic policies mentioned previously in this series. Since there was no actual "Poland" (as a nation) at that time, the Polish population in Germany was certainly different from the French-speaking population in Alsace-Lorraine, since France was very much in existence, a major power, and the ties of the French-speaking part of the population to France were strong. The French-speaking residents were always "suspect" (to the Germans), but not even all of the German speaking citizens were always solidly committed to Germany, especially those of the upper classes, where people tended to be fluent in both French and German, but where French was often preferred to German. Interestingly, the German government permitted French to be used in schools in French-speaking areas, but German was used in all governmental affairs (not that this is necessarily unreasonable).*** Perhaps the main difference between the German residents of Alsace-Lorraine and the Germans in the rest of Germany is something that is difficult to gauge, but it had to do with the fact of French rule in the area for a couple of centuries, but most importantly, the French Revolution, and the participation by many people in the area in that revolution. In the German states, their own revolutions had not been successful, and they had lived under autocratic rule, so there was more of a lighter democratic tradition in Alsace-Lorraine. Time gradually favored the German point-of-view, as younger generations did not feel the same connection to the previous French rule.****

Next, "The Jewish Minority in Bismarck's Germany".... (A Word History is below the notes)

* Take your pick, Walloon is either a separate language closely related to French, or a dialect of French, based in part of modern Belgium (the other main linguistic group of Belgium being "Flemish," see note **) Linguists have had disagreements over its official classification. Whatever the case, it is Latin-based, but it has had many influences from the nearby Germanic dialects/languages, specifically Flemish, Dutch, and German (including German dialects in the area, like Luxemburgisch). For decades now, the debate is essentially only of historical importance, as Walloon is almost extinct, with only a handful of people actually being fluent anymore, since in the early part of the 20th Century, "standard" French (I'll use that term) was used in all schools in the Walloon region.

** Belgium is one of those countries where there is more than one language spoken by significant portions of the population. As I have attempted to show in some of these articles on the Germans, until the 1800s, territories were conquered, annexed, sold, or inherited, without regard to the "background," including language, of the local population. "Nationalism" among various "ethnic groups" began to spread, especially during the 1800s, and it became a serious problem for Austria, which possessed a wide variety of non-German populated lands. "Ethnically/linguistically" modern Belgium is about 39% Walloon (French speaking), most living in the "Wallonia" southern part of the country, and about 60% Flemish, most living in the "Flanders" northern part of Belgium. There is a German minority (the area discussed in this article) along the German border, but it numbers just less than 1% of the population, and an even smaller (less than half a percent) "Luxembourgish" population, believe it or not, located on the border with Luxembourg (imagine that). The relationship between the various groups has been contentious at times over the last century or two. Some linguists in just the last decade or so have declared Flemish to be a dialect of Dutch, rather than a separate language in its own right, but not everyone agrees.

*** There were fairly strong elements of the population of Alsace-Lorraine that were very pro-German, and I don't want to lead anyone to believe that this element was not influential.

**** It also should be noted that about 100,000 "pro-France" residents left Alsace-Lorraine for France after the German annexation. As these people were obviously the most "French," that must have lessened pro-French activities in Alsace-Lorraine.

WORD HISTORY:
Lore-This word, perhaps more common in the compound "folklore," simply means "knowledge, accumulated learning." It is closely related to "learn." It goes back to the Indo European root "leis/lais," which had the notion of "to follow a track or path." This then gave Old Germanic "laizo," which was passed on to its offspring, West Germanic, as "laiza,"^ and then also with the advanced meaning of "teach, instruct." (I suppose in the sense, "teach people to follow a path or course.") This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "lar," with a long "a" sound, and meaning "knowledge, things that are taught." The Middle English period gave us the modern spelling. So, "folklore" means "the accumulated knowledge of the people through the course of time." German has "Lehre," Low German has "Lehr," West Frisian "leare," Norwegian and Danish have "lære," Swedish has "lära," Icelandic has "laera," and Dutch has "leren," all with the basic meaning of "teach, instruct (instruction, for nouns)." 

^ These forms with 'z' came to be rendered with 'r' due to rhotacism; that is, a tendency to convert some consonant sounds, usually 'z,' to 'r.' This happened with the Germanic forms "laizo/laiza" that took the course about "teach, instruct," but another branch maintained the "z" sound (altered a bit to the similar 's') and the basic meaning "track, path," which gave German what eventually became modern "Gleis," the rails of a train track. This same Old Germanic form gave English some forms of "last," including the verb meaning "to endure, hold out" (from the notion of "continue on a path").