Hi friends! I hope you enjoyed my video on how to cook sadza! Thanks so much for the positive feedback I have already had. If you have not seen the video yet, please check it out here!
All across Southern Africa, our wonderful corn meal or mealie meal dough known as pap, sadza or ugali is eaten with meat, that is “nyama” or “nama” in Shona and Setswana respectively. In impoverished areas however, beans would be substituted for the meat. The meat could be beef, sausage, chicken, fish… you name it. To give you an idea, here’s some sadza and oxtail that I made some time ago.
Sadza with oxtail
It is also almost always served with some form of vegetable relish made from spinach, cabbage, spring greens, kale, or my all time favourite, covo, which is a leaf from Zimbabwe. Unfortunately I do not know the English name for it but I absolutely love its flavour. In Botswana I remember greens called chomolia or rape were a favourite too. Ooooooh and then there’s pumpkin leaves ooooooh!
Well, ok. I will run through typical dishes which would make up one of the most loved, homely meals across southern Africa over the next few days so stay tuned. Oh, and yes, they are all videos!!!!!!!!
6 Comments
Mai Shami
May 30, 2012 at 2:22 amOooh I LOVE pumpkin leaves!! I haven’t had it in ages! Really wanting some now *sigh*
So the other day I was really craving sadza ne nyama…so I made some for dinner. It just occurred to me now that the reason is probably cos I saw your video on fb earlier that day *lol*
MyBurntOrange
May 30, 2012 at 2:43 amHi Mai Shami! Thanks for stopping by. Pumpkin leaves are the best and I just can’t believe to this day I have no idea what they look like and have never cooked them. I don’t even know what I would need to do to grow them. Perhaps I need to go on a mission of discovery. Thanks for watching my video too. I think it is a hobby gone wild but I love it. It feels like rediscovering my inner child. I used to talk to “an audience” when I cooked as a child. 🙂
Akidah Nayeli Felder
May 24, 2014 at 3:14 amYou are making me miss Harare
MyBurntOrange
May 26, 2014 at 8:54 pmAww shames babe. Thanks for stopping by.
mai darr
June 22, 2014 at 12:07 pmKkk MBO(MyBurntOrange), pumpkin leaves or butternut leaves umm yummy. its just the ordinary pumpkin plant taht you know so we cook the leaves, you may cook them with buttercup margarine and then add a bit of fresh cream. make sure yr water boils first so that they remain green , avoid lots of tomatoes. They just need a touch of tomato and onion. Sadza has to be thin and hot not rock solid. But nyama anda sadza with rape or covo is the bomb, if well cooked l think its the best meal in AFRICA, South of the Sahara. have u tried madora(caterpillars). By the way the pumpkin leaves are called MUBOORA!!!!!!
MyBurntOrange
June 27, 2014 at 9:06 amThank you so much Mai Darr. I would love to try the pumpkin leaves with cream, yumm!!! I have tried madora, but am yet to cook them.