Choroko

Monday, January 21, 2019

The electricity was off for most of the day. Interestingly, this was true for a large section of Tanzania, even as far as some outer areas of Dar. Mazo didn’t know what might have caused such a large outage but said it was highly unusual. For us the effects were the usual: no viable internet, an inability to charge our phones and computers, and melting food in our dinky refrigerator. In mid-afternoon, John got out the little carton of Azam ice cream and divided the contents between us so we could eat it before it completely melted. That was an unexpected treat, as we each had double what we normally would have had for a serving. Around 5 p.m. the power came back on and everyone rushed to plug in their electronics.

The focus of my day was choroko, the tiny green grain I had bought on Saturday. Mama and Beatrice had both told me that this could be made into a very nice stew with onions, garlic, carrots, green peppers, or even other add-ons. Mary Lou discovered that choroko was a favorite food of Henry Stanley, an early African explorer, the guy who found Dr. Livingstone. So, I sorted and winnnowed my grain, prepared my vegetables—no green pepper—and, once the electricity returned, cooked my stew.

Beatrice had said that it would take 30 minutes of cooking for the grain to soften enough to eat. During that time, I was to cook the onions, garlic and diced carrots separately. Then, when the grain was soft enough, I was to drain off the excess water and mix the vegetables into it. I could also add some coconut milk if I wanted to. I did everything as directed, but the grain was not soft enough after 30 minutes, and I had to cook it another 5 or 10 minutes. I also semi-burnt the onions and garlic because I became distracted by a lizard darting around in front of our terrace. However, I deemed the onions okay and used them as planned. I also made rice, which was perfectly done, and once everything was complete, we sat down to eat. The stew was actually very good. John really liked it, and I was pleased that I have found a very inexpensive meatless stew to make. I don’t know why no one had ever told me about choroko before, and I wonder what other common Tanzanian recipes I am missing out on.

Winnowed and washed choroko.

All ingredients ready to go.

Enjoying the stew on rice.