Tag: katogo

Classic Katogo: Irish Potatoes, Yams and Sweet Potatoes with Beans

~ Sophie ~ 10 Comments

If  ever there is a list of comfort foods here in Uganda, katogo must be first on that list. Katogo basically means  adding whatever ingredients available in a sauce pan and putting them on a stove until everything is cooked. It is that simple.  Aside from the tedious task of peeling the potatoes and yams before hand, katogo is the kind of comfort food that is effortless. I decided to combine three tubers; sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and yams (the purple kind). The tubers give the meal a warm earthy flavor while the beans add richness making it ideal for  gloomy weather.

What you will need:

Onions, chopped

Garlic cloves, finely chopped

Tomatoes, chopped

Yams, halved

Sweet potatoes, halved

Irish potatoes, halved

Beans, boiled

Green onion(as garnish), finely chopped

Cooking oil

Chilli oil, a few drops

Curry powder

Salt

Method

On high fire, Add cooking oil to the a sauce pan and let it get hot. Add the garlic and onions and wait for them to become translucent. Add the tomatoes, chilli oil, curry powder and salt and stir. Add the Irish potatoes first, then the yams and then the sweet potatoes. Top with the beans and cover pan for about 10 minutes. Add half a glass of water and stir so that the beans are evenly distributed. Let the Katogo cook till the Irish potatoes are soft and tender.  Remove from fire and serve warm.

To make a soupy katogo, add more water. I did not put any specific measurements to the ingredients because when making katogo, we don’t measure. Instincts are used depending on how many people are to be cooked for. Clearly I was cooking for a full house and thus the large tray.

 

I hope you enjoy making and eating this katogo because it is comfort food and the weather allows so. Also, what are your favorite katogo ingredients?

 

Have a great week.

 

🙂

Sophie

 

 

 

Lemon Grass Palm Oil Pan-Fried Potato Wedges

~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

I fell in love with potato wedges in my fourth year of high school. We were lazing around and decided to go to yellow cab and order pizza. The pizza came with potato wedges as sides and up to this day, they are the best wedges I have ever had. Believe it or not, I have tried several times to recreate this recipe and I think I am a lot closer than when I first began.

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Have you heard about palm oil? It is the red semi-solid oil that is popular in West Africa and the western region of Uganda. In almost all my childhood, we always had palm oil and I can recall it being cooked quite a lot. It is recently that I have really learned to appreciate the benefits of palm oil. It adds a rich orange-reddish color to food, it has a great unique taste too and I just read on Wikipedia that it has zero cholesterol. Also I have been using it for my hair for the past one year and the benefits are amazing. But hey, this isn’t about hair. This is about how pan frying potatoes in palm oil is probably one of the best things I have ever done! As you can see, I had a hard time naming this dish! It has a variety of flavors, from lemon grass roots, palm oil, garlic and also the crunchy touch of green beans.

What you will need:

I Kg. Irish Potatoes, washed and cut into wedges

2 C. Green beans, julienned

2 Large onions, thinly sliced lengthwise

3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 Tbsp. Lemon grass root, finely chopped

½ C. Palm oil

Ground black pepper

Salt

Method

Add the palm oil in a clean and dry saucepan and put it on high heat. Wait for the oil to fully cook. This might take 5-7 minutes or until the yellow foam on top of the oil is gone. Add the lemon grass root and let it brown a little. It will release a sweet flavor. Next add the garlic. Let it brown a little and then add the potatoes. Stir occasionally. After five minutes, add salt and stir the potatoes. After another five minutes, add the onions and black pepper and stir well. Cover the pan and let the potatoes cook on high heat. Don’t forget to stir occasionally. Once the potatoes are starting to become tender, add the green beans and stir well. Let the potatoes cook till soft when a fork is inserted. Remove from fire and Let them cool a little. Serve

 

Observations:

  1. I skipped peeling the potatoes though you can peel them if you prefer to.
  2. Lemon grass root can be obtained by uprooting a mature lemon grass plant which is crazy really because it took almost a year for that little bush to grow (the things we do for flavor!). Make sure that the lemon grass root is tender.

How do you use palm oil? Lets discuss in the comments.

🙂

Sophie

Katogo

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

This week, I would like us to talk about katogo . What do yo love most about it?  I googled katogo and found a Wikipedia page dedicated to it. That is good news. I’m sure we all have grown on eaten katogo at one point in our lives.  Katogo is one of the dishes that define Uganda. But then the thing is that you can absolutely customize it to your preference. It is also quick food. You know, chopping up things and throwing (not literary) them in a pan and letting them boil, right? When I made this katogo, people were hungry and needed to eat thus the simplicity though they still bore with me as I took a few snaps of it before it was devoured.

What you will need:

Irish potatoes, peeled and halved

Tomatoes, diced

Onions, sliced

Groundnut powder

Salt

 

Method

In a pan, add all the ingredients with enough salt and water and let the food boil. Stir occasionally to make sure it does not burn (because groundnuts burn easily) while checking the water content. Let it boil till the Irish potatoes are tender. Remove from fire and serve hot.

What katogo combination do you prefer or like cooking the most? What totally radical combination would you like to try or make? This is a basic recipe but I would like to make tilapia, cassava, sukuma wiki and whole roasted groundnuts in beef stock.  That is still edible. No?

Comment below to let me know.

 

In other slightly related news, there will be major changes to the blog from now on wards. There will be rebranding, a change in the domain name and other small things to improve the blog. The changes are for the greater good.  The content will still be the same though. I wanted to mention this beforehand so that you are all aware. Thanks for reading.

 

🙂

Sophie

 

PS: I did not put any measurements on this katogo recipe because I believe we have different serving sizes and the number of people we are cooking for varies greatly.

PPS: You can use groundnut paste instead of the powder.