Home Girl

As we bid farewell to the month of  September .....which is the most beautiful and heart warming month before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We call it Heritage month here in South African(On the 24th of September we were celebrating Heritage Day here in South African. It was so beautiful to see our Nation embracing their roots and Heritage, wearing Traditional attires or embracing the next person's heritage), some call it Spring month, Birth of new things month and New Year in some of our sister African Countries.

This year on Heritage Day I  was wearing this Nigerien attire, which by the way reminds me of Half The Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is  an Nigerian Author.

For me September  however has made me miss home.The South Coast( Mkomass in Amahlongwa Mission) that's where my heart is and my roots get watered. Eating my Granz's food and just listening to her stories, hahaha yes she knows everything that happens in the whole village.

On a serious note though.........I always find knew strength when I visit home, the atmosphere is filled with so much love and life. Each breath I take in feels like I am taking my life back.
There is just something so wholesomely  and spiritual about being home. It's like all my worries are taken away just by setting my foot on the ground. It's a place of no judgement, a place of emotional and spiritual nourishment. Sitting on my Granz veranda and looking at the beach from afar has to be the best view I have ever set my eyes on since my childhood,

Being in my Granz home is like receiving a emotional revival. Knowing that I away a home to run to gives me so much peace and I am truly grateful to have my family. I would be the first to admit that I can keep to myself and sometimes it may seem that the city life is winning me over but I am a Home Girl. I wouldn't trade my Home for anything.

Home is where the heart is


xoxo
Samke
Sugar&Spices

Sigwaqane served with Beef curry and Salsa

Isigwaqane(Savory Bean Pap) has to be one of my ultimate favorite traditional dish. It always takes me back to my Granz  planting fields and to her plan cooking that had no color to it but amazingly tasted delicious......I still wonder to this day how her plan food tasted so good but had no color.

When making this meal, my Granz would boil the sugar beans and when soft and tender, she would add maize meal and mix together till it cooked. She would serve it with mfino(Spinach) or curry.


Today we are keeping it simply yet flavorful.

Ingredients 

4 cups Sugar beans
1 large onion
Ginger and Garlic
2 Knor Vegetable Stock Pot
50 ml Oil
Black Pepper



Method

*Wash sugar beans and put it in the pot with 4 cups of water(preferable hot water, this will help cook in a shorter time)
*Let it boil and add more water if need be.
*Add Knor Vegetable stock pot, ginger and garlic, oil, onion and black pepper to the Soft tender beans and let it cook.
*Add 2 cups of maize meal and stir together with a wooden spoon( wooden spoons are magic )
*Stir for the next 3/4 times till it's cooked

Tip:You can always serve Isigwaqane with Curry, Vegetables, Grilled/ Roasted meat and gravy, it's always up to what you feel like eat on that day

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices