Introducing Our Food Stories Podcast

December 8, 2021 ~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

Welcome to Our Food Stories: A community podcast by Ugandans for Ugandans sharing food stories from all over the country. Our Food Stories is a show, hosted by A Kitchen in Uganda, about our food and owning and telling our stories of it. It is about how food is not only fuel for the body but a means for most to build community, culture and even identity. As a way to preserve our indigenous foodways, each episode will have a unique guest who will talk about food stories passed down to them by generations past.

Ever wanted to know more about Ugandan food? Ever wanted to hear food stories of generations past and how some of your favorite foods came to be? I am so excited for you to finally listen to Our Food Stories! This podcast was born out of a need to dig deeper and learn more about the food that bonds us as a country. After many months of planning and reaching out to you, it is my greatest joy to finally share this podcast with the world.

The purpose of this podcast is to share food stories, educate, share knowledge and inspire foodies. This podcast is for story lovers and tellers, food historians, foodies, anthropologists and everyone in between. New episodes will be released every two weeks. You can binge listen to the first 3 episodes right now by clicking here.

Because this is a community podcast, any and everyone that is Ugandan and has an interesting food story to share can contribute to the podcast by sending an email to: contact@akitcheninuganda.com with the subject line: My Food Story so that we can share details on how to contribute. You can also send us a DM to @akitcheninuganda on Instagram to contribute to this podcast.

Connect with us on the socials using #ourfoodstoriesUg and let us know what you think of the podcast so far.

Listen to the podcast on:

Afripods

Subscribe to the podcast and stay tuned for more stories coming your way. Don’t forget to leave us a review on Apple podcasts!

Things are Changing Here…and A Kitchen in Uganda Needs Your Help

November 18, 2021 ~ Sophie ~ 6 Comments

It has been a minute! How are you doing? I have been away for most of this year and it has been intentional. Let me explain.

I spent the first half of 2021 critically thinking about the blog, its longevity, its future and most importantly its purpose. I have been writing A Kitchen in Uganda for 7+ years and within that time period I have grown as a person and so has the blog. In writing this blog, I have come to an understanding that I am just one person sharing my own perspective and experience of the food that I have grown eating and loving. But one person can only do so much. It was very intentional of me to name the blog “a kitchen in Uganda” because it is meant to be one among many, not the first and certainly not the last one there will be.

With this understanding and a desire to be more equitable in my food storytelling a lot of things aligned for me to explore an idea that had been on my mind for some time. I spent a lot of time with family last year and there was a lot of storytelling from my father who was reminiscing his childhood and young adulthood. Stories of some of my favorite foods and how they came to be what I know now. With that precious time spent with family came a lot of clarity for this blog.

All this to say that I have a great idea that I would like to explore further. I cannot share a lot about it right now because it is, after all, still an idea. But in order for this to come to fruition, it is going to take a community of food lovers like yourself who have continued to come back and read these words for 7 years! To make it work, I need your help and am requesting your assistance.

Given that there is a limited amount of written works about Ugandan food (both past and present) as a collective, I need your help in telling these food stories. These can be food stories from your childhood, stories from your parents, grandparents and elders within your community.

So if you are Ugandan and are passionate about the food that raised you and your relatives, please send me an email : contact@akitcheninuganda.com with the subject line: My Food Story so that we can talk more and I can share with you details of what I have in mind.

To my non-Ugandan reader, I have so much in store for you. Subscribe to my newsletter to be the first person to hear about the idea drop here I am so excited for this new chapter of A Kitchen in Uganda! Watch this space.

Make Spicy Chips Masala + 9 Year Blogging Anniversary

July 7, 2021July 8, 2021 ~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

Spicy and vibrant Chips Masala made out of chips/ fries and a spicy tomato masala base that is sure to tantalize your taste buds.

WordPress notified me this week that I signed up for a blog 9 years ago! 9 years is a long time and I cannot believe I am here still writing in this space. Clearly there has been a lot of memories, stories, experiences, trials but most of all growth. Tremendous growth. In fact you are going to be seeing that in the follow up posts where I want to shift my focus to incorporate more storytelling and research. I always feel like I am just scratching the surface when it comes to Ugandan food and culture. This storytelling and research will include a mix of written, photo and video essays. So watch out for those by subscribe to my YouTube Channel. I am also going to be sharing a few lessons I have learned for the past 9 years regarding food photography in a follow up post. So watch out for that as well. I am so excited for what these next months have in store. For now let us get into this tantalizing dish of chips masala.

It has been gloomy and rainy here a lot and I have found myself craving the comfort of potatoes but with the spicy kick of masala, hence chips masala. And because I could go on and on about how this dish makes me feel, I do not want to waste any more of your time so here is the recipe and an accompanying video.

Chips Masala Recipe

What you will need:

4 Large potatoes,

2 Medium tomatoes, chopped

2 Small onions, thinly sliced

4 Garlic cloves, minced

2 Green chilies, chopped,

1 Tsp. Tomato paste

Juice of half a lemon/ lime

1/2 Tsp. Cumin seeds

1 Tbsp. Curry mix (cumin, coriander, turmeric, cloves, paprika)

1/2 Tsp. Smoked paprika

1/2 Tsp. Black pepper

Salt

A pinch of sugar

Oil for frying

Observations

When you combine, tomatoes, tomato paste and lemon juice, they tend to be sour. Use the pinch (or more) of sugar to cut through the sourness.

I opted to not peel my potatoes and thoroughly washed them instead.

You can see a variation of this recipe using sweet potatoes here.

If you want your chips masala to be more soupy, add water or stock accordingly

You don’t have to use all 4 garlic cloves especielly if you are not a fan of garlic

Method

Wash and slice your potatoes into thin chips. Place the chips in water and let them soak for about 20 minutes.

Chop, slice and mince your tomatoes, onions and garlic respectively.

After 30 minutes, drain the water from the chips well.

Place a pan with oil enough to fry the chips on high heat and let it heat up.

Fry the chips till golden brown. Remove from fire and set aside.

Place a separate pan on fire and let it heat up. Add the cumin seeds into the pan and let them toast for about 10 seconds. Add about 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan.

Add garlic and onions to the pan and let them cook till soft.

Next add the tomatoes and let them cook till soft. Keep stirring to avoid burning

Add the tomato paste into the tomamto mixture and mix well.

Next add your chilies, spices, salt and sugar and mix well.

Add the lemon juice and mix well.
Laslty add the fried chips into the tomato mixture and mix (for about 5 minutes) well till they are all well coated.

Remove from fire and serve hot