Tanzania recepies

One afternoon, on the University of Dar Es Salaam campus, I asked Anne Shakelaga to tell me how she prepared the wonderful authentic Tanzanian food. Earlier that week, our team was invited, nine people at a time, to Dismus and Anne's house for dinner and fellowship. They live in a tiny apartment on the sixth floor of an apartment building. The view from the roof was quite amazing, as we viewed the downtown building and had a birds eye view of the soccer game down bellow. (I mean football.) It was humbling to gather in their living room and eat the wonderful food that Anne had prepared (it most likely took her all day to make) and hear Dismus tell of the miracle of Joshua's birth. So between follow up meetings, and a bible study, that turned into a prayer for exams time, and on the dala dala (bus) on the way home, Anne explained to me how to prepare the various tasty dishes as I scribbled down everything she said. Here is what I wrote down in my notebook:
Anne's passion fruit juice
Ingredients*:
Mangoes
Passion fruit (black or green)
Sugar
Optional: carrot
Directions: Peal the fruit (use ripe ones) and put in the blender. Add water to the fruit, so it's not so thick, and blend until smooth (no chunks). Pass mixture through a sieve to remove the fibre bits. Add sugar according to taste. Keep cool in the freezer/fridge. I particularly liked the frozen chunky bits that sloshed out of the oil container, in which the juice was kept, as Anne poured the juice in our glasses.
Side note: If you really like this juice, sit beside Brittany. Because she can't drink this juice, I got a double portion- even on the refill.
Samosa -Called Sambosa in Swahili
Ingredients* for the filling:
minced meat (I suggest some good ground beef or ground chicken)
onions
garlic
ginger
green pepper
carrot
spices- from Zanzibar
(I bought some Royca powder in Dar)
Salt
lemon
To make minced meat filling, mix into the minced meat lemon, garlic, ginger and salt. Add a little water (no oil) and cook this until it boils. Keep adding more water so it boils until the meat is cooked. Chop the vegetables into very small pieces. To the meat, add the chopped onion. Then add the chopped carrot and chopped green pepper. Don't cook the vegetables too much, just want to steam them. Taste and add salt if neccesary. Add spices. Anne said to use Royco cubes or powder. Boil again and let water evaporate, so the spices soak into the meat and vegetables. Remove from heat and let cool.
To make samosa, prepare chipati dough, flour, salt and water dough that is well kneaded. Make a paste solution of water and a little bit of flour and boil it a little until it becomes thick to make a paste. Roll out the dough into a circle or rectangle shape. You need to end up with a long rectangle. Place filling in the middle of the rectangle and then fold the ends over to make a triangle (fold it into a samosa shape). Use the paste solution on the edges of each fold to make it stick. Then use the paste solution to fold over the edges. Heat oil in a pot, or use a deep fryer. Dip the samosas in the oil (Anne uses sunflower oil) and boil. Remove when they turn brown. Enjoy!

Chipati dough
Ingredients*:
Four
Salt (small amount)
Oil (Anne uses sunflower oil)
Water
Mix flour, little salt, and oil, with your fingers, until it becomes a crumble consistency. Add water. Kneed dough until it is soft and pliable. Cut into small pieces, about the size of a small fist. Roll out each piece into a flat circle. **
With frying pan on high heat, without adding oil, heat chipati on both sides, so it dries out. then add about one teaspoon of oil around the edges of the chipati and brown on both sides. This whole frying process takes about 30-40 seconds.
Side note: When I was in Tanga, the ladies taught me how to make chipaties. They added an extra step in this process. ** After the chipati dough is rolled out into a flat circle, a tablespoon full of oil is smeared onto the dough. Then fold the circle in half and roll up. Stick the open end into the centre to make a round ball. This new ball is rolled out again and then fried. I think they also let the dough sit a bit before they rolled it out, for the first time. Also, after the chipati had been heated on both sides, they folded it in half (in the pan) and added the oil around the circumference of the folded chipati. Then it was fried on the other side.
Rice
The dormitory residences were not allowed to cook in their rooms, but many did. I observed one of the girls in my hall make this over an electric burner on the floor, under the table. I was surprised to see her adding the rice to the cooked water and stirring it before it was completely cooked! This is what Anne told me:
Coconut Rice
Ingredients*:
Rice (long grain)
Water
Coconut milk
Salt
Wash raw rice. (I think they eat long grain rice. It’s definitely white, and not brown rice, as Anne didn’t know what brown rice was.) Boil water, coconut milk and salt. Add rice and stir until cooked.

Coconut milk is very versatile ingredient. Add coconut milk to beans, peas, fish or meat and cook to give great flavour. Coconut milk is not the liquid part of coconut- that’s the endosperm! I buy coconut milk here in a tin can, and it’s pretty good.
Peas
Ingredients*:
Peas, fresh from the pod (I’m using canned peas)
Water
Fresh Tomato (any kind)
White onion
Carrot
Green pepper
Coconut milk
Oil
Directions:
Boil fresh peas in water with out salt. Don’t overcook! Chop vegetables very small. (This combo of onion, tomato and green pepper seems to be in every Tanzanian dish.) Place the onions into a pot with a bit of oil in it. When the onions start browning, add the carrot and green pepper. When these are cooked, add coconut milk. Boil and stir the mixture. When it comes to a boil, add the peas and boil a little bit longer. Serve over rice or eat with chipati.
Beef Stew
Ingredients*:
Beef
Salt
Water
Lemon
Ginger (crushed and squeezed)
Onion
Tomato
Green pepper
Carrot
Optional: Irish potatoe or mashed potato or (left over) spaghetti
Boil beef in a little water with salt, lemon and ginger (crushed and squeezed). Boil for a while and keep adding a small amount of water. Prepare stew ingredients: chop the onion, tomato, green pepper and carrot into not too small pieces, so they’re visible in the stew. Add to beef and cook. In Tanga, the lady cooking the beef stew added tomato paste, one spoonful at a time, to the water in the beef to make a nice sauce. Serve over rice or eat with chipati
*(quantities of ingredients are at your discretion!)