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.

Visit the Riviera at Home: Socca/Farinata

"Socca," also called, "farinata" in Italian, is a flatbread made from chickpea flour and it is a specialty of the Liguria region in northwestern Italy and also across the Franco-Italian border into the city of Nice in France. "Nice" in French, and "Nizza" in Italian, the area was part of Italy (actually the Kingdom of Sardinia, the forerunner of the modern united Italian nation) after Napoleon's defeat until 1860, when a treaty allowed it to be annexed to France, then under Napoleon III. The modern Italian border lies a little less than 25 miles away. This flatbread has its roots in the Liguria region of Italy, the coastal area of northwestern Italy, also known as the "Italian Riviera," which has Genoa as its most prominent city, as well as its capital, but it is also a specialty of Nice. The outside is crisp, but the inside should be soft and kind of creamy. You can eat the bread with a little salt and olive oil, or you can use any number of toppings on it, even making it into a pizza, which if you use the Italian form of Nice, you could call, "a Nizza pizza," and you could say, "Give me a piece o' Nizza pizza."

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup barely lukewarm water
1/2 tablespoon olive oil (more for pan & topping)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 teaspoon salt

Mix together the ingredients (a whisk is good to use), slowly adding the water while whisking, taking care to eliminate any lumps. Cover the batter and let it stand for about 45 minutes. Turn on the broiler of your oven. Also turn on the large burner of your stove top to medium high. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a 9 inch to 10 inch cast iron skillet.* Heat the skillet on the stove top until it just begins to smoke. Swirl the hot oil around in the pan, so that it coats part way up the sides of the skillet. Add the batter into the hot skillet, swirling the batter to form an even layer over the entire bottom of the skillet. Once the batter is "set" in the skillet and the edges begin to sizzle, remove the skillet from the stove top and place it on the oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler. Broil until the top is brown and it has some dark brown to even blackened spots on it. Serving: cut into wedges, sprinkle each with a little salt and pepper, then add a few drops of extra virgin olive oil onto each wedge.   

* In the Riviera region they have special pans for making socca/farinata, which are typically cast iron pizza pans. 

WORD HISTORY:
River/Riviera-These words are distantly related to "riven" and "rift," both of North Germanic origin from the Germanic form from Indo European. "River" goes back to Indo European "reip," which had the notion, "to tear, to tear through, to tear apart, to cut into." This gave Latin "ripa," meaning, "seashore, embankment/bank of a river," both from the idea of "land forms made by water 'cutting' through or into land." This then produced the Latin adjective, "riparius," meaning, "of or from a (river)bank (and also, 'a seashore?')," which then produced the noun  "riparia," meaning, "a riverbank, a seashore," but also the idea of "riverbank" began to be applied to the "flowing water that formed the banks;" thus, the meaning, "river." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "riviere," meaning, "river, riverbank." This was taken to England by the Normans as "rivere," meaning, "river," and this was borrowed into English in the first part of the 1200s. The Old French word was taken by Italian as "riviera," with the idea of "embankment/bank," taking the meaning, "shore, coast" in Italian, "seemingly" especially applied to the coast of the Genoa area by the mid 1600s, including in English, but then expanded to mean the coastline in northwestern Italy and into southern France in the 1800s, as this overall general area was a retreat many well to do Europeans used in winter.  

Brazilian Salted Tapioca with Ham & Cheese Filling (Tapioca Salgada)

First, "tapioca" is a starch made from cassava root. Cassava is a plant commonly grown in tropical and subtropical parts of South America, especially Brazil, parts of Africa and also southern Asia. Americans and Canadians, also likely the people of Britain, would almost surely think of pudding upon hearing the word "tapioca." The pudding is sweet and usually made with vanilla and pearl tapioca, a form which looks like fish eggs, and the pudding is even commercially produced for sale in supermarkets, typically sold in little tub-like containers. In some parts of the world, however, tapioca is an important starch, often used as flour in cooking. Unlike wheat flour, tapioca is gluten free, an important dietary consideration for people with digestive reactions to gluten, which is a protein in wheat and many other grain products. Tapioca flour, also known as tapioca starch, can be found in Latino markets, or in many supermarkets, often in the Latino/Hispanic section, although I found it in the "gluten free" section of one supermarket.

This recipe is from Brazil, where Portuguese is the language. This is unlike the other countries of South America, and Central America, for that matter, where Spanish is the common language.* The second word of the name of the dish comes from the meaning "salted," from the ham, which like true "country ham," tends to be dry cured by salting, and not necessarily by smoking of the ham. In fact, the Portuguese word for ham, "presunto," is from the same Latin source as "prosciutto," the Italian word for "ham." These are not difficult to make at all, as making the crepe is the only real work to it, and it's not much.

Ingredients (4 servings):

9 to 10 tablespoons of tapioca flour (depending upon your skillet size)
a pinch or 2 of salt
3 to 4 tablespoons of water
8 thin slices of ham (I used the very thin deli sliced ham, and it was smoked, but finding dry cured ham, like prosciutto, is not always easy, and it can be expensive, but if you have it, use it)
4 slices of mozzarella cheese or you can use it shredded
4 teaspoons of ricotta cheese, thinned very slightly with some milk (Brazilians have "requeijão," a type of  creamy cheese
slices of tomato
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

Put the tapioca flour/starch into a bowl and mix in a pinch or two of salt. Add 1 tablespoon water at a time and mix lightly, until a sort of crumb or streusel mixture forms. Not all of the starch has to be in one of the clumps, which can vary in size. No rocket science here. It should not be wet or runny AT ALL. Heat a small skillet over medium heat, do not add any oil! Brazilians do the next step right into the skillet, but I used a separate large plate. Use a sieve with relatively small openings and rub the starch clumps through the sieve to reduce the clumps to about the size of fine cornmeal or grits. Add about two + tablespoons or so of the starch mixture to the skillet, making sure to even it out in a round thin layer. Within about 30 seconds, the mixture should begin to meld together into a crepe or thin pancake. Layer on 2 thin slices of the ham, then a slice of mozzarella, then some tomato slices, then drizzle on a teaspoon of the thinned ricotta, and sprinkle on a little oregano. The mozzarella should be melting slightly by then. Fold the crepe over in the skillet. Ready to go. Repeat the process for the others. Serve warm.

* Portuguese and Spanish are both Latin-based languages from the Iberian peninsula in southwestern Europe. They are similar in many ways, and mutually intelligible to "some" degree, more so in writing, and I'm sure speakers of each find it pretty easy to learn the other language. Actually, Portuguese is much closer to Galician, a language of northwestern Spain, although it is perhaps thought by some to be a Spanish dialect.

The top picture shows more of the filling, and the bottom picture a bit more of the tapioca wrap.

WORD HISTORY:
Crepe/Crêpe/Crisp-These closely related words go back to the Indo European root "sker/skre," which had the notion of "bend, turn, twist." This gave Latin "crispus," which meant "curly, wavy," and this was "seemingly" borrowed into Old English directly from Latin, as "crisp," and with the meaning "curly, wavy." Later the meaning began to change to the modern sense of "crackly, brittle," "perhaps" from the idea of some foods being grilled or fried to the point where they, or the skin of meat, "curled, became wavy," which often then resulted in them being "crackly." In England later, the noun form, "crisp/crisps," was used for what Americans call "potato chip(s)." In the meantime, going way back again, Latin "crispus" was inherited by Latin-based Old French as "crespe," with the "curly" meaning. The French later used the term for a thin pancake which "curled" when fried. English borrowed the word as "crepe," still the preferred spelling in American English, but it later also borrowed the modified French form "crêpe," with the "^" mark, called a "circumflex," which is a modern way of showing that there is a missing letter from the original spelling of a word, often an "s."