If you were having coffee with me, we would be sharing a plate of Sadza.
Sadza is the staple food of Zimbabwe but growing up I kept asking myself why my dear ancestors could not have come up with a yummier staple food, like pizza or lasagna or something….. Children find Sadza one of the most uninteresting dishes ever created and adults cant live seven days without it, it makes one weak apparently……
Sadza is cooked from mealie meal (upfu) which is like a type of flour made from ground maize. I think it’s similar to what is known as corn flour.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that cooking Sadza is almost an art. The instructions are simple enough
>Boil water
>add mealie meal
>whisk to mix
>add more mealie meal
>whisk some more
>bring mixture to a boil and leave to simmer (kukwata)
> stir and mix with a wooden cooking stick (mugoti)
>add mealie meal
>stir to 
mix
>add more mealie meal
>stir to mix, when its thick enough and doesnt smell like raw mealie meal it is done.
serve with a relish of your choice…… from plain vegetables, to a stew….
Seems easy enough, but there are no precise measurements like how much water to how much of the mealie meal. You know in the way recipes for rice call for one cup of rice to two parts water. When you are cooking Sadza, you pretty much just eyeball it and your gut tells you when you have added enough mealie meal…..
I confess I struggle with it, sometimes its too thin and sometimes adding that next cup of mealie meal changes it from beingjust right to much too thick like a concrete brick….. you don’t want this nobody wants that, unless you are builder….
If you are having coffee with me I would tell you that traditionally Sadza is served for lunch or supper but we are having it for breakfast because we have a long day ahead of us, we might even attend a Harare International Carnival
~B
PS day 8 blog every day challenge
Oh yeah clean all the utensils immediately after, otherwise you will end up having to scrap clean your cooking stick using a knife and possibly break it….. I have done this.
Becoming The Muse 
Your description of sadza reminds me of the Cream of Rice hot breakfast cereal of my childhood. Also, of grits, which is what I buy these days. Versatile…easy to turn into concrete. 😀
People have “misconceptions” also about North Dakota, the state in which I live, expecting to find the Old West and “Wild Indians” and cowboys.
Thanks for the visit and best wishes for your week!
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easy to turn into concrete!!!! I am today years old and I have just turned it into concrete… this is one of those arts that I just cant seem to get the hang off.
~B
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We call it semo , or tuwo here. Interesting to know . Pretty much the same method of cooking and the soup to go with it. Yes that too some people can’t afford to go three days without eating it. Smiles.
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It grows on you!!!
~B
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I bet you can describe sadza as something you would rather live without but can’t.
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Possibly!!!!!
~B
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Hahaha, this is what we call Ugali in my country.
I asked because I could not believe there are other people apart from us, that eat Ugali. The white meal goes well with green leaves and those hooves.
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The meal is never quite complete without vegetables and some soup hahahaha I am beginning to suspect that we have far too much in common across the continent, there almost nothing that is only and truly uniquely yours, mostly its just having different names for things and sometimes even some of those sound almost similar hahahaha
Is the cooking method similar too?
~B
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Yes, it is. Boiling water and maize flour. Stir, beat turn until it cooks. hahahaha.
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I still havent quite learnt the perfect way of cooking it, sometimes it comes out perfect other times its not so good, or maybe you cant really make it taste nice so you make sure the alongside perripherals are on point…
~B
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Hahaha. I literally burn mine to bring out the smoky aroma. Sometimes it is a little too soft.
Time and practice makes it perfect.
🌺🌺
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hahaha at smoky aroma…. do you sometimes scrap up the toasted crust that remains at the bottom of pot and eat it? oooh that reminds me of this post https://becomingthemuse.net/2019/07/29/of-coffee-with-crust-and-sadza-foundation/
~B
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Hahahahaha. I always eat it when I am very hungry.
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