On how to make coconut milk….

I have learned a lot about cooking here in Tanzania and at the same time I have taught my mama some things as well. To make coconut milk: First grate coconut (kuna nazi). Here in Tanzania they use the same grating device that they do in South India to grate coconut. A wooden block with a sharp serrated blade protruding out of it. Put the grated coconut in a bowl and add enough warm water to make a paste with the coconut. Then take put a colander over a bowl and put the coconut in the colander. Squeeze the coconut into the colander, what falls into the bowl is the coconut milk. Add more warm water and repeat squeezing the coconut into the colander. Interesting enough huh? Some other useful things is to using a mortar and pestle to mash garlic and ginger. Also, cutting a tomato in half and then using a plastic grater to make a tomato sauce by grating the side without the skin. That’s it, there is your Tanzanian cooking lesson for now. I find that a lot of Tanzanian cooking has no measurements- like most cooking around the world. I find that my taste buds are the true measurement here. Here is my favorite recipe so far in TZ, so simple yet so flavorful:

Peas (njegere) with coconut milk.

You need peas, coconut, tomatoes, and onions.

Make coconut milk as above. Grate the tomatoes to make a liquid, like a tomato sauce. Cut onions into thin rounds. Add oil, and onions into a sufria (saucepan). Add peas with tomato sauce. Cook till peas seem cooked (these are much firmer peas than what is found in America). Then add the coconut milk and heat till warm. Fresh coconut milk tastes better than that canned stuff in the States..it is also a lot more watery than the canned stuff.