Kenyan Staples

Githeri

Ingredients

• 1 kg beans of choice (njugu mawe, rosecoco, nyayo e.t.c
• 1/2 kg green maize grains
• 5 medium diced carrots
• 4 medium sized tomatoes
• 2 medium sized onions
• 5 medium diced irish potatoes (red Meru variety)
• salt to taste

Sort the maize and beans to remove chuff and clean well.

Mix maize and beans and cook till soft.Ensure all the water is used up. Fry onions and tomatoes. Add diced carrots and irish potatoes. Cook soft.Season to taste.Add the beans and maize mixture.

Stir, simmer for 5 minutes and serve warm.

Githeri is referred to as 'nyoyo' in dholuo, and 'kamaengele' in Luhya (Bukusu)
Atap Cassava staple - finger millet ugali

Ingredients

• 1 cup cassava flour
• 4 cups finger millet
• 6 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix the two flours thoroughly.

Heat the water in a cooking pot.Remove 1 cup of boiling water and put aside. Add lemon juice into the remaining boiling water.

Add flour into the boiling water little at a time stiring vigoruslyto break the lumps.Add the earlier removed boiled water into the mixture, little at a time mixing thoroughly. Lower the heat, cover the pan and light cook for 5 minutes, mix again.Mix thoroughly till the ugali is well cooked for 20 minutes.

Place on a serving platter. Dip the wooden spoon 'mwiko' in warm water and use it to mould the ugali smooth.

Serves 4 people.

Bada staple - Cassava Ugali

Ingredients

• 3 cups cassava flour
• 1 cup maize flour
• 5 cups of water

Boil water in a cooking pot.

Mix the two flours thoroughly and add into the boiling water little at a time and stir vigorously. Keep adding flour until it solidifies. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes.Stir three times and cook for 25 minutes.

Mould it and serve with fish or vegetables.

Populary eaten during lunchtime by Digo community as it is a high energy food

Mukimo

Ingredients

• 1/4 kg green maize grains
• 1/2 kg njahi or any other beans
• 5 large sized (Irish potatoes)or 1 kg (pumpkin fruit) or 10 (green bananas). It should be washed and peeled and cut
• 300 gms kahurura or mabaki or stinging nettle or amaranthus(terere) or pumpkin leaves
• Salt to taste (optional)

Sort the beans and clean well.

Boil green maize and beans together. Add irish potatoes or any other starch and cook well. Add the vegetable of your choice and cook for 15 minutes. Mash the mixture to a soft consistency using a wooden spoon.

The mashed food can also be fried.Serve warm with stew or tea.

Serves 6 people.

Caution: stinging nettle leaves should be handled with gloves as they have prickly hairs. Leaves should be soaked in water for 5 minutes to remove prickly hairs then cooked

Mushenye

Ingredients

• 1 kg beans
• 5 large sized sweet potatoes ( red variety)
• Traditional salt

Sort and clean the beans well.

Peel and clean the sweet potatoes. Boil beans and sweet potato separately. When ready mixand season to taste. Mash the mixture to a soft consistency.

Serve with any stew or tea. Provides 6 servings.

Green maize can be cooked in the mixture (optional)

Kimanga

Ingredients

• 2 kg cassava tubers
• 1/2 kg of dried pigeon peas
• salt to taste
• 2 cups of thin coconut milk
• 1 cup of thick coconut milk

Cook pigeon peas till soft.

Peel and slice cassava and put them into the pigeon peas. Sprinkle them with salt and then thin coconut milk, cover them and continue cooking until the cassava softens and most of the liguid is absorbed.

Add thick coconut milk and mash.Continue cooking on low heat, stirring constantly until the milk is absorbed.The mixture should be thick.Serve warm with vegetables or meat stew.

Serves 4 people.

Muthokoi

• 1/2 kg dehusked maize (muthokoi)
• 1 kg beans
• 3large sized tomatoes
• 2 medium sized onions
• 300 gms vegetable of choice
• Salt to taste

Dehusk maize using pestle and mortar or a dehusking machine.

Wash the dehusked maize. Boil dehusked maize for 20 minutes then add beans and boil till well cooked. Season to taste and serve or fry the mixture with vegetables.

Provides 6 servings.

Muthokoi is dried maize whose coverings have been removed. Popular with the kamba community.

Pea Pilau

Ingredients

• 2 cups of rice
• 1 cup of garden peas
• 2 medium sized irish potatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 1/2 cup of ghee
• 2 cloves
• crushed garlic
• 2 pieces of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cardamom
• 1 tsp cumin seeds

Pick the rice and wash it and peel the potatoes.

Pound the cinnamon, cardamom and cumin together in a mortar.Heat the fat and fry the onions until light brown.Add all the spices and cook for 10 minutes.

Stir well; add irish potatoes, peas and salt. Continue frying for 20 minutes. Add the rice and fry lightly for 5 minutes.Pour in 4 cups of water, cover and simmer until rice is cooked.

Serve warm with kachumbari.

Kenyan Relishes

• 500g mitoo leaves
• 2 bunches mlenda leaves
• 2 cups of water
• 5 tbsp traditional salt
• 1 cup fresh milk
• salt to taste

Pluck leaves from the stalks of both vegetables.

Wash the mitoo and mlenda, drain and cut.Mix traditional salt with 2 cups of water.Add salt with 2 cups of water.

Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.Add the mixture of mitoo and mlenda leaves into boiling traditional salt.

Cook for 10 minutes while stiring. Ensure the vegetable doesn't spill over as mlenda foams when cooked with traditional salt.

Add fresh milk , stir gently and simmer for 5 minutes.Serve warm with ugali.

Serves 4 people.

Use the same recipe for cooking the following:

• Cowpea leaves mixed with mitoo
• Mitoo mixed with pumpkin leaves
• Pumpkin leaves cooked alone
• Cowpea leaves mixed with mlenda
• Nderma mixed pumpkin leaves

The above vegetables can be fried and other additives like sesame paste, groundnut paste, peanut butter, coconut milk cream or sour milk to mask bitterness or enhance their taste.Traditional salt makes the vegetable tender and fixes the green colour

Mlenda

Ingredients

• 500g mlenda leaves
• 2 medium sized tomatoes (diced)
• 1 medium sized onion (diced)
• 1/4 cup lemon (juice)
• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 1 cup coconut milk
• salt to taste

Pluck the leaves from the stalks.

Wash thoroughly and cut the leaves into small pieces.Sprinkle lemon juice.Heat the ghee, fry onion lightly, add tomato and season to taste, stir.Add the leaves, stir and cook for 10 minutes.

Mix groundnut powder with coconut milk and add in the cooking vegetables.Simmer for 5 minutes and serve with rice.

Season to taste and serve while hot.

Lemon juice removes the slimy consistency from the vegetable.The vegetable has a slight lemon taste

Matembele nyaya -Sweet potato leaves

Ingredients

• 500g young tender thin-leaved sweet potato leaves
• 1 medium sized tomatoes (diced)
• 200g spring onion diced
• Vegetable cooking oil
• salt to taste

Pluck the leaves from stems and wash thoroughly to remove soil.Boil water in a pot add the leaves, salt to taste and boil for 5 minutes.

Fry the onion and tomatoes lightly.Add the boiled vegetable, stir and cook for 5 minutes.

Seve with ugali.

Matembele is a soft vegetable. Same recipe is used for cooking mabaki.

Kenyan Meats

• 1 whole chicken cut into pieces
• 1 cup tamarind juice
• 2 cups thick coconut milk
• Traditional salt
• Enough water for cooking

Boil the chicken pieces in salted water until well cooked.

Mix tamarind pulp in water and squeeze the juice. Prepare 2 cups of coconut milk.Mix tamarind juice with coconut milk.

Pour over boiled chicken.Simmer the chicken for 20 min.

Serve with ugali or rice or chapatti or bananas or cassava.

Luhya smoked chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole smoked chicken
• 3 medium sized onions diced
• 4 medium sized tomatoes diced
• 3 tbsp traditional salt
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Remove feathers from chicken.

Clean it well, sprinkle salt & leave for 5 min, then smoke it using firewood or charcoal.When it's well done, chop into pieces.

Fry onions lightly, add tomatoes and then the chicken pieces.Add traditional salt and very little salt.

Serve warm with ugali.

Tsisindu or Alar (Quails)

Ingredients

• 3 (quails) birds
• 2 tbsp traditional salt
• 2 medium sized onions diced
• 4 medium sized tomatoes diced

Remove feathers from the bird when still alive, leaving the feathers around the head.

Hold the bird by the neck with a V shaped stick & roast it on fire.Make perforations on the bird's body to facilitate entry of traditional salt.Put 3 cups of water in a cooking bowl or sufuria, add traditional salt and table salt to taste & boil for 15 min.

Put the birds in the cooking bowl and cook for 30 min ensure some sauce is left.

Serve with ugali or fry the meat first.

Tsisindu are birds popularly eaten by the Luhya community. They're usually cooked whole, One eats the flesh and bones as they're soft.

Tsitswa (Termites)

Ingredients

• 4 handfuls of tsitswa
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups water
• 3 tbsp sesame powder

Harvest the insects when still alive and put in a pot with salted water on low heat and stir.

Let them cook while stirring till the water dries up.The wings will have detached.

Winnow to remove wings.

Dried fish luhya style

Ingredients

• 3 dried fish
• 3 medium sized onions
• 3 medium sized tomatoes
• 1 garlic pounded
• 4 tbsp traditional salt
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 ltr cold water

Cut 3 fishes into 3 pieces each.

Wash the fish pieces thoroughly.Put cooking oil in a frying pan.Heat oil and put in fish pieces fry till golden brown.

Fry onions, garlic and tomatoes together for 5 min. Add salt to taste.

Put in the fried fish.Cook for 5 min.Add traditional salt, simmer for 2 min.

Remove and serve warm with ugali.

Sitenyi (Dehulled split bean sauce)

Ingredients

• 1 kg beans especially rose coco
• 1 cup traditional salt
• Salt

Sort the beans and clean them well.

Roast beans like groundnuts.Remove from fire & dry them in the sun for 2 hrs.Remove the outer coverings.

Mix 10 cups of water and traditional salt and boil.Add beans and cook till soft.

Add salt and serve or fry with tomatoes & onions.

Serve warm with ugali.