Author: Sophie

A food enthusiast and home cook celebrating the fusion of Ugandan food. Cooking and writing about it at akitcheninuganda.com

Firinda Soup

~ Sophie ~ 11 Comments

Firinda - A Kitchen in Uganda-5

Firinda had never really been a common food in our home. And this is because it is a delicacy. It is until recently that we all fell in love with its loveliness. My grandmother told me of the history of this amazing soup. Firinda comes from the far western part of Uganda and was a special soup prepared only on weddings because of its laborious preparation. It requires soaking the beans till the skin is soft (preferably overnight) and then peeling them one by one. Now before you close this post altogether, just know that despite the hard work that comes with making this soup, you will not be disappointed later on. I have discovered that the peeling process is the most tiresome but relaxing as well (if that makes sense at all!) After the peeling, everything else is relatively easy.

Here is a short video on peeling:

What you will need:

2 C. Beans (pre-soaked and peeled)

3 Large tomatoes

1 Small onion

1/2 C Spring onions(chopped)

1 Clove of garlic

1/2 Tsp. Ground ginger powder

Salt

Cooking oil

Curry Powder

Black pepper

 Method

In a pot, combine the peeled beans with water and let them boil over medium heat for thirty minutes. While the beans are boiling, chop the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Set aside. After the beans have boiled for thirty minutes, Remove from fire. In another pot, pour cooking oil and after one minute, add the salt, ginger and garlic. Keep stirring to keep from burning. Add onions and tomatoes. stir for three more minutes. Add the beans(with the water used for boiling them) and cover. Let them cook for another 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally till the beans are flaky(read: slightly disintegrating and tender). Remove from fire. Using either a wooden ladle, a pestle or potato masher(or anything that can mash really), mash the soup until it has a creamy consistency. Add the black pepper and sprinkle the chopped spring onions in the soup and serve.

Firinda - A Kitchen in Uganda-11

The great thing about this firinda is that it is basically a clean canvas to work with. You can totally flavor it the way you desire. As much as peeling the beans is the most annoying part of preparing this soup, it is also what makes it unique. The best way to have fun with this is to call friends over so that you can have real conversations while at it or you could just watch a movie. But if you still think it is too much of a job, you could have a peeling party of about five Kilograms of beans (just kidding…less than that of course) so that you can store the rest in the refrigerator because you will want to eat it again. I personally find this method effective.

So, are you ready to try it now? Let me know how everything turns out in the comments below

🙂

Sophie

 

Pan-Fried Cookies

~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

Hi there! The other day my little sis had a project to do and the requirement was to make cookies. I was excited because it was an excuse to bake (yey!). So we set out to make sugar cookies. The day came to finally bake the cookies and halfway through the process, a blackout happened (…or rather electricity went since it was daytime). We were frustrated because this is a common phenomenon and when doing anything that involves the use of electricity, one has to simply pray and hope… The situation was completely hopeless since we had made the dough already (we even thought of freezing it and then we realized a refrigerator too uses electricity)! Then out of the blue my sis was like “let’s just fry them” and I told her that is the worst idea ever. I mean seriously who fries their cookies? (!?!) Guess we did (ha!). I have to say this is one of those ideas you don’t think will work out but then in the end you realize its way better that you hopped!

What you will need:

2 ½ C all-purpose flour

½ Tsp. baking powder

1 C butter/margarine (melted)

¾ C sugar

1 Large egg

1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

¼ C.Milk/Water

Method

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together starting with the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar).

Next, add the wet ingredients (butter, egg and vanilla extract and milk). Keep mixing till the mixture is coarse but well blended and has formed a firm dough.

Next, shape the dough into cookies of your desired size and place them in a large non-stick pan.

Set the pan on low fire (really low) to prevent them from burning and cover.

Let them cook for five minutes. Using a spatula, flip them and let the other side cook for another five minutes.

Make sure they don’t burn. Remove from pan and let them cool down.

So there you have it. A pan-fried cookie. The taste is amazing (duh!) and it is super crunchy. I used to feel sad when I realized I couldn’t try out all these amazing recipes because I lack an oven but slowly by slowly I am discovering hacks that make it fun(ner) to be in the kitchen. Guess that is the joy of cooking. Now go cook some cookies (no pun intended)… hmm now that I am thinking about it, maybe that is why they are called cookies in the first place. Maybe they are meant to be cooked people! Ha!

🙂

Sophie

PS:BTW the second batch burnt because I was busy doing other things. Shame!

Sukuma Wiki+ Rice Rolls

~ Sophie ~ 3 Comments

Hello friends! Sorry for the week-long hiatus. There are circumstances that are just unavoidable! Anyways I hope you had a great week. So lately I have been craving kim bap…so much that I wish we had seaweed here! I realize I am digressing.

I am a veggies person, at least I think so (ha!) but there are times when eating a certain kind of food the same way over and over again starts to somehow get boring. I feel that is my relationship with kale/collard greens (By the way I went online, Wikipedia to be exact, to search for the difference between kale and collard greens and surprisingly after reading the articles, the lines were still blurred! So for now, let us just call these darling greens collard). So I set out to find a different way of enjoying the greens and so this recipe happened. I am really glad they turned out amazingly than I expected since this was the second trial. The first trial was without rice and this time I wanted to experiment with rice. So basically this is my recreation of kimbap but with a Ugandan twist because Collard greens(A.K.A Sukuma Wiki) are readily available…sort of!
What you’ll need:
6 large collard leaves
1 large carrot
1 large purple onion
1 Egg
2 C rice (cooked)
Salt
Method
First off, we will whisk the egg till frothy and then fry it. Make sure you add salt and any other seasoning you would love to have in your roll. After the egg has cooled down, cut it into strips of about one inch’s size in width.
Next blanch the collard leaves in boiling water for two minutes. Remove from hot water and soak in cold water for another two minutes. They should be having a bright green color. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel (or a paper towel).
Next cut the carrot and onion into thin long strips and set a side.
Now to assemble the rolls:
Using a sharp knife, cut the collard leaves (one by one) in the middle to remove the stalks. This will give you two sheets from each leaf. Make sure not to tear the leaves.
Lay the sheets inside out (with the veiny part facing up and the smooth part down).
On the sheet arrange a tablespoon of rice as a thin base. Leave an allowance at the beginning of the sheet and at the end to make rolling easier.
On top of the rice layer, add the strips of onion, two strips of carrot and one (…or two depending on your taste) strip of egg. Sprinkle with salt.
Carefully roll the arrangement firmly starting from one end of the sheet making your way to the other end while making sure nothing falls out( it can be intimidating at first but after much practice perfection will be achieved…I still think mine are messy!)
After rolling the arrangement, using a sharp knife, cut the roll into small bite size rolls.

Another labor of love! As you can see some of the rolls’ shapes and sizes vary but that’s cool because they are tasty (seriously!). I have more practice ahead so that the perfectly round shape can be achieved. Go try this  and let me know how it turns out by commenting below. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to realize you have conquered the sukuma wiki? Hi5!

Have a great week

🙂

Sophie

PS: Short grain white rice is advised