How to Make Nshima - A Cooking Lesson from Alyda

Nshima is the staple carbohydrate in Zambia. It's so central to their diet that if you ask someone if they've eaten and they've had anything to eat other than nshima they'll say no. On Christmas day, as a 'special treat' instead of being given nshima and beans like they have twice a day, every other day, the doctors served the patients chicken and rice (I was meant to be serving on the paeds ward but couldn't because I had an emergency c-section just over lunch time). Unfortunately this did not have the desired effect, and caused a bit of an uproar with patients demanding where was the nshima!

So having seen how much Zambian's love this dish, it only seemed right to learn how to make it. So on Saturday my friend Alyda from the 'high cost' restaurant gave me a cooking lesson...

Ingredients:

- Mealie meal - Alyda recommends superfine breakfast mealie meal for a nice smooth nshima (ground corn)

- Water

- Your chosen accompaniment 

Method:

1) Prepare a nice hot fire

2) Boil your water

3) Take your mealie meal from the sack... (Yes, I'm really dragging this recipe out...)

4) When the water is boiling add about half a cup and let it simmer for ~15 minutes

5) Add the rest of the mealie meal - it seems about one big cup per person

6) Stir vigorously until it becomes a thick paste, then leave it to steam with the lid on for a few minutes

7) Spoon onto your dish in the traditional shell shaped lumps

8) Remember that the chickens are still alive and that you'll have to wait until tomorrow to have your favourite chicken and nshima...

9) Prepare your chicken with tomatoes and onions, because literally the only way to cook anything in Zambia is with tomatoes and onions

I go to high cost quite regularly, so often see my meal sat beside the restaurant alive the day before I eat it! I literally ate one of those chicken's legs today... which is a slightly strange thought, but really if you're going to eat meat it's a bit hypocritical to not be able to accept the realities of where it comes from. Having said that I would never eat my own chickens!