Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew: Maharagwe

Some people make this as a soup (more liquid), while others limit the liquid content somewhat and make this as a stew. It is often served with "ugali," a very thick kind of porridge of white cornmeal and water (it seems a few add some salt, and even fewer add butter or oil). I use a 2 to 1 ration of water to cornmeal, but I've seen recipes that use 2 1/2 or 3 to 1 ratio, but on the other hand, I've also seen a couple of recipes with a slightly less than 2 to 1 ratio. The cornmeal and water is cooked and stirred until the mixture is no longer fluid and essentially you can stand a spoon up in it (it requires LOTS of stirring). In this way it is very much like some recipes for Italian polenta or American cornmeal mush used for frying, and both of these are also made from cornmeal, although often yellow cornmeal. There are many names for this basic cornmeal dish across Africa, with "fufu," "nsima," "nshima" and "pap" being just a few of the names.  

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

 

2/3 cup chopped white onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil + 3 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium jalapeno or serrano chili pepper, chopped

1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces) with juice

2 cans (15 ounces each) kidney beans, drained

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

1 can coconut milk (14 to 15 ounces)

1/2 to 1 cup water

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (also called coriander by some)

 

In a heavy bottom pan or pot, add the oil over medium heat, and when it's hot, add the onion and saute for about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and ginger and saute another minute. Now add the 3 tablespoons of water followed by the chopped red bell pepper and the chopped jalapeno or serrano chili pepper. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and add the dry spices (ground coriander, ground turmeric, ground cumin, ground cardamom, ground black pepper), stirring to mix, then add the diced tomatoes with juice. Put the pan back onto the heat and let cook until the vegetables are all softened, stirring often. Add the drained kidney beans, honey and salt; cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the coconut milk and 1/2 cup water, and stir to mix. Let the stew come to a simmer (adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer, not a full boil). Simmer the stew for 6 to 7 minutes, and add the other 1/2 cup of water if the stew is too thick (if you want more of a soup, add the amount of water to make the consistency you want), return to a simmer and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chopped cilantro (coriander) and stir. Serve hot.     

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Anvil-This is a compound word, with the second part of the word related to "felt," the noun for a type of fabric, which is from the Germanic roots of English, to "filter," a word with a Germanic base that was borrowed and expanded by Latin and then borrowed by English from Latin, with Latin-based French reinforcement, to the main body of "appeal," a Latin derived word borrowed by English via French, and to the second part of "compel, also Latin-derived and borrowed by English via French. The first part of "anvil" goes back to Indo European "an/(h)an/(h)aen," meaning "on, onto, above." This gave Old Germanic "ana," meaning "on, onto, upon." The second part of "anvil" goes back to the Indo European root "pel" (there were several forms of "pel," with varied meanings), with the idea of "beat, hit, beat down;" thus also, "compress." This gave Old Germanic "filtan/feltan," meaning "to beat, to hit, to strike," and gave the West Germanic compound form "anafalt(a)/anafilt(a)," meaning "a place to beat metal into various forms." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "anfilt(e)/anfealt," with the same meaning, and this then became "anfilt/anvelt," before the modern form "anvil." Forms in the other Germanic languages: German had "Anafalz," and Low German had "anfilts, and Dutch had "anavilt" (also "anevilt?"). NOTE: Modern German has "Amboss," Low German has "Ambolt/Ambeld," Dutch has "aambeeld," West Frisian has "ambyld" (also "aambyld"), Danish has "ambolt." These all came from other forms of "anvil," with these forms going back to the Old Germanic ancestor of "bolt." (The German form "Amboss" is spelled with double s because of a sound shift in the high Germanic dialects long ago that made many 't' sounds into 's' or 'ss;' for example: English "water," but German "Wasser," English "kettle," but German "Kessel," English "vat," but German "Fass.")      

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. 

Kenyan Potato Snacks: Potato Bhajias

This is an appetizer or snack that shows the Indian influence on the food culture of Kenya, although such a recipe as I have done here would not be out of place in India, where there are a number of terms used for this dish, including "aloo bajji" and "aloo pakora" (aloo=potato). This dish uses chickpea flour, a common flour used in cooking within the Indian subcontinent, and which has passed into the Indian influenced cuisines of other areas of the world.* Chickpea flour, also called "gram or besan flour," is gluten free.

There are two key things about making this potato snack. First, the batter cannot be too thin, nor can it be too thick. When I first made this, I made the batter too thin and it didn't adhere to the potato slices, so I had to thicken it up. The next time I made the batter, I added 1/2 cup of the water and mixed it in, then I added more water slowly, mixing it into the other ingredients as I went. That way I was able to tell how thick the batter was and I could then add an appropriate amount of water to achieve a kind of pancake batter thickness. Second, if you slice the potatoes too thick, it will be hard to cook the potatoes through without burning the coating. Some people don't make a batter, but rather they mix the chickpea flour together with some herbs and spices, but with no liquid component, except that the potato slices are rinsed and left damp. They then add the potato slices and toss them through the flour mixture to coat them and then fry them. I tried this method, but I didn't find the potatoes to be as good as with the batter. 

Ingredients (about 4 to 5 servings):

2 potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup chickpea flour, also called gram flour
1/4 cup rice flour, or you can substitute 3 tablespoons of cornstarch 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaping teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 to 3 serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (also called coriander)
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 to 3/4 cup water
oil for frying

To a bowl add the chickpea flour, rice flour or cornstarch, ground cumin, ginger, garlic, chili peppers, coriander/cilantro and salt. Add 1/2 cup water and mix until it is absorbed. Gradually add more water, stirring to mix, until the batter reaches the consistency of slightly thick pancake batter. Let the batter sit while you heat the oil to 350 F over medium heat (you can use a deep fryer, or you can use a skillet with a minimum of 1/2 inch of oil. Naturally, you'll need to turn the potatoes to make sure they cook and brown properly. Add the potatoes to the batter and transfer the slices individually to the hot oil (I just do it by hand, no spoons, forks or tongs), and let them cook until browned, turning the slices. The potatoes should have a kind of crispy outside. You can drain the potatoes on paper towels. Serve with tomato chutney** or ketchup.   

* 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.

** For Kenyan Tomato Chutney, here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/03/kenyan-tomato-chutney.html


With tomato chutney ...

WORD HISTORY:
Colony-This word is closely related to "culture," a word borrowed by English from Latin, and it is the source of the name for the German city "Cologne" (German: Köln), which long ago was a Roman settlement. It goes back to Indo European "kwel," which had the notion, "move around, to turn or turn around;" thus also, "upend, revolve." This gave Latin "colere," meaning, "to till the land" ("move and turn the land over for planting"); thus by extension, "to cultivate, to farm;" thus also by extension, "to settle, to dwell." This produced the Latin noun "colonus," meaning, "settler, farmer;" thus also, "tenant farmer." This then gave Latin the noun "colonia" meaning, "settlement, large amount of cultivated land;" thus, "an estate," then also used for "land conquered, settled and occupied by Roman soldiers beyond Rome." This then broadened beyond the military settlement by soldiers. Borrowed by English circa 1400.

Kenyan-Style Tomato Chutney

Kenya has been influenced by the foods and flavors of the Indian Subcontinent going well back in history, from trade and by the settlement of people from the Indian Subcontinent in Kenya. I'm calling this "Kenyan Tomato Chutney," but it is really a recipe I devised myself, but it could certainly be similar to recipes from others, including by people from the Indian Subcontinent, as there isn't really any one thing that makes this "Kenyan."

Ingredients:

1 can tomato sauce, 15 ounces 
3 green chilies (jalapeño or serrano chilies are good for this), seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (also called coriander)
 
Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or two before serving. Kenyans serve a similar tomato chutney with fried potatoes. (Note: for a type of fried potato recipe common in Kenya, and heavily influenced by people from the Indian subcontinent, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/03/kenyan-potato-bites-potato-bhajias.html  

WORD HISTORY:
Kitchen-This word is related to "cook," a word from the Germanic roots of English, but it was an ancient borrowing by Old Germanic from Latin. "Kitchen" goes back to Indo European "kwekwo," "perhaps" a variant form of "pekwo," which seems to have meant "to ripen;" the notion being to prepare inedible raw food until it is 'ripe;' that is, ready to eat. This gave Old Italic "kekewo," and this gave Latin "coquere," meaning "to cook," which gave Latin "coquus," a noun meaning, "the act or process of cooking" and thus, "a person who cooks." This gave Latin the adjective "coquinus," meaning, "about cooking or a cook." This produced "coquina," often rendered in Latin as "cocina," both meaning, "room or area for cooking." Apparently West Germanic (not Old Germanic) borrowed "cocina" as "kokina/kukina," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cycene/cicene" (kitchen), which then became "ky(t)chyn/kychene" before the modern version. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Küche," Low German has "Köök," but some areas seem to have "Köken,"^ West Frisian has "koken," Dutch has "keuken," Danish has "køkken," Norwegian has "kjøkken," Swedish has "kök." The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish forms are all from Low German, one of the West Germanic languages, along with English, German, Dutch and Frisian. As noted above, the ancestor of "kitchen" was borrowed by West Germanic, which explains to some extent why I could not find any reference to a form in Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch. Icelandic, a North Germanic language still often close in forms to Old Norse, and somewhat distant from its continental Germanic cousins, does not have a form either. This also explains the borrowings of forms of "kitchen" from Low German by Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, as all are from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic family of languages. 
 
^ Low German has no standard form and it is a series of dialects; thus, there are often various forms of words. 

Nowhere In Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika)

"Nowhere in Africa" (German: "Nirgendwo in Afrika") is an absolutely wonderful film. It was released in late 2001 in Europe and in late 2002 in the United States. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is in German, but with very good subtitles, so please don't let that stop you from missing this great picture. The main characters are a German-Jewish family (the Redlichs) of husband ("Walter," played by Merab Ninidze), wife ("Jettel," pronounced as if "Yettel," as German "J" is pronounced like English "Y," played by Juliane Köhler) and little girl ("Regina," pronounced like "re-geenah," played by Lea Kurka as a young child and by Karoline Eckertz as a teenager), and their Kenyan cook ("Owuor," played by Sidede Onyulo), who really becomes a part of their family. The movie is based on a book by the same name written by Stefanie Zweig, the real life name of the little girl, with many of her real life experiences incorporated into the book. The DVD, available in the U.S., has an interview segment with Stefanie Zweig, who is now about 80 years old (UPDATE: Stefanie Zweig passed away in the spring of 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, age 81). There is much to this movie, but here are a few things:

What would you do if your homeland were turned into hell? That's the first question of the movie. Germany, the homeland of the Redlich family, has been taken over by the Nazis, who are turning it into a living hell for German Jews and others.* Walter Redlich leaves Germany in 1937 to take a low income job managing a farm in Kenya, an East African nation, then under British rule. He doesn't want to leave his homeland, and he had been an attorney, but survival demands it. He later sends for his wife and young daughter, but he can never convince his father, his sister and his in-laws to leave too, as they believe the Nazi terror will all soon pass. Walter is living on the farm with a tall, thin Kenyan named "Owuor," who is an employee of the English owner. Walter and Owuor become close friends and Owuor begins to teach Walter the local language, Swahili, as Owuor speaks no German. When Regina meets Owuor he picks her up and hugs her and she feels his hair, which is different from her own. This scene is the scene that sticks with me about the picture and it comes into play again later. Jettel is then shown sitting and admiring the scenery when a young Kenyan boy runs up behind her and feels her hair to the delight of his friends. While Regina and Owuor become almost inseparable and he teaches her the language and customs of the local people, which she wholeheartedly welcomes, Jettel misses Germany, her family and familiar surroundings and wants to return "home." She often snaps at Owuor when he tries to help her understand the local customs and she once tells him to learn German if he wants to talk to her (remember, she's in HIS country). She and Walter begin to quarrel, but Walter has been given a radio by another German Jewish farmer who left Germany right when the Nazis took power in 1933, and he has heard the news on a Swiss German station of the infamous "Kristallnacht," a night of terror for Germany's Jews, as Nazi thugs burned and looted synagogues and Jewish shops, beat and arrested Jews, with some Jews being killed. In one argument between Walter and Jettel, he tells her that her treatment of Owuor is awful and comparable to some people back in Germany to whom she would not want to be compared. All of this begins to sink in with Jettel and she finally begins to adopt to her new home.

When the war begins, the British send troops to arrest the male German/German Jewish residents, as they are "enemy aliens;" sort of a supreme irony, as the Nazis had revoked the citizenship of its Jews. They finally release Walter, but he's lost his job, as the British farm owner says he can't have an enemy alien running the farm. Walter and Jettel get another farm job and Owuor tracks them down to join them. The couple send Regina to a British run "white" school. The first day at an assembly, the headmaster tells all Jews to move to the side of the room so that the rest of the students can say a Christian prayer. Later, as Regina does very well in her classes, the headmaster calls her into his office, where, upon her entering he says, "So you're the little Jewish girl." He then wants to know why she is learning so well, to which Regina responds that her father has little money and can't afford for her to fail, so she studies hard. The headmaster then wants to know if it is some Jewish custom to always want to talk about money. So, even in Kenya, far from the Nazis, and among some  "supposed" Christians, anti-Jewish sentiment and bigotry is present.

Both Walter and Jettel receive letters from "home," which stirs their anxiety about the safety of their families back in Germany. Jettel's mother later tells her that she's being "sent to Poland," and Walter tells Jettel it is a virtual death sentence. This sets off a fit of denial by Jettel, but Walter tells her that at least she's lucky in a way, and that he suffers every day, because he doesn't know what has happened to his father and sister. (He finds out later, but I'll let you see the movie for the answer.) Regina becomes a young teenager and asks her mother why people hate Jews so much. Jettel, now fully acclimated to Kenya, tells her that some people can't accept differences in others, but that Africa has taught her that differences are good and that it would be silly if we were all the same.

Walter joins the British Army to find some sort of purpose in his life at that time; a way of striking back at Hitler and the Nazis. When the war ends, Walter is offered a judgeship in Germany, and he and the family must now decide if they want to leave "home" again, for their former "home," filled with so many memories, including the memory of hatred by the Nazis. I'll end it there, so as not to spoil things, but I hope you'll watch this superb film which will leave you feeling good. If you know an "Archie Bunker," have them watch this film. We can't change the world all at once, but we can change it one person at a time.

* The film uses Regina as a sometimes narrator and she tells early on that her father had been an attorney, but that the Nazis then forbid Jews to hold positions in various professions, thus depriving Jews of their means of earning a living. 

Photo is of the Columbia Tristar Special Edition (2 disc) DVD   

WORD HISTORY:
Churl (Churlish)-This word, closely related to the names "Carl/Karl/Charles," is no longer a common word, at least in America, although its adjective form "churlish" is still used. The ancient origin of "churl" is uncertain, but Old Germanic had "karlaz/karilaz," which meant " grown man, mature man." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ceorl," which had numerous meanings tied to "man/male," like "male peasant, common man, layman, husband." This then became "cherl," before the modern version. The adjective "churlish" in Old English was "cierlisc," and simply meant "having to do with churls." The idea of "peasant or rustic behavior" as opposed to "educated, refined behavior" led to its meaning "rude, surly behavior or disposition," the meaning which still exists today. The other Germanic relatives of "churl" are: German "Kerl," which means "guy, fellow;" Low German Saxon "Keerl" (also guy, fellow); Dutch "kerel" (man, fellow); West Frisian "tsjirl" (guy, fellow); Icelandic and Swedish "karl" (husband, man); Danish "karl" (male farm worker, guy); and Norwegian "kar" (man, guy, fellow).