Cooking Lessons

These pictures are of some common dishes the people of Zambia enjoy. Mrs. Mary Chiona, the wife of our contact here was kind enough to give us cooking lessons so we could learn what to make from the local foods we find in the market.

Impwa (also known as African Eggplant) is found at the local market and this variety had a bitter aftertaste (they do not all have a bitter taste but we don't know how to tell the difference). We cooked it with onions and tomatoes in a skillet with a little oil. Adding salt to taste. We hope to find the non-bitter variety in the future. I was told that people who have malaria sometimes prefer the bitter variety.

Kepenta are small, dried fish found in the lakes around the province. This specific species was from Lake Mweru (far north/west of Zambia). This fish must be vigorous washed multiple times to get out bits of sand (the fish are laid out on the sandy beaches of the lake shores to dry). After washing you just put them into a skillet with a bit of oil, add some onions, tomatoes, and salt. They have a very fishy taste and odor so John and I prefer to spice them up with pepper, garlic, and lemon.

We ate these two relishes with nshima (the mashed potato looking stuff) which is fine-ground corn meal. The dinner was very filling! We had too much- we ate it for dinner, reheated the impwa for breakfast and had the kapenta with eggs for dinner the next night! We have also enjoyed some raw cassava (there are sweet varieties that do not contain cyanide). Cassava also fills you up really fast and sticks with you. People eat it as a snack with salt (I like to put peanut butter on it- kind of like celery sticks). We also have local sweet potatoes to try.

We are certainly expanding our culinary horizons and are learning about the food here in Zambia. Even though we do still have our 'American tastes'and always welcome pizza, peanut butter, and ice cream!