Be Patient with me

I am still learning. I know it’s hard to believe or understand but I am still learning.

I am still learning how to be passionate again without any fear

For I had forgotten how to think with my heart because it’s not acceptable in our society

I am learning how to embrace my roots and my origin without any apologies

I am still learning to love myself without makeup and well styled hair

I am still learning how to love that girl I see in the  mirror without acting overly confident

I am still learning how to love me with my Afro

I am still learning that Vulnerable doesn’t always mean Weak

I am still learning that it takes strength to be delicate

I am still learning that walls don’t always protect you

I am still learning that those very same walls hurt you sometimes

I am still learning that behind them you hurt all by yourself in darkness

I am still learning how to let people in

I am still learning how to eat food that my grandparents enjoyed

I ask again……..Be patient with me

I am still learning that Zulu dancing is a part of who I am and if it makes me look uncool Sorry This is who I am

I am still learning that no matter how much you speak the next person’s language it doesn’t mean you will be acceptable to them

I am still trying to grasp that freedom of speech has less to do with freedom, for regardless of your freedom this society expects us to sugar coat everything so you can be adored and accaptable to them

I am still trying to understand where the freedom in that is

I am still learning that sometimes you have to stop caring before they see that you cared all this time while they were still blind

I am still learning how to pour my heart out without any fear of judgement and scrutiny

Pants                                     - Gift from my Cousin
White Long Sleeve Top        - Edgars
Purple Neck-piece                - free market
Colorful head wrap              - Gift from a friend
African Design Sandals        - China Mall

xoxo

Samke 

Sugar&Spices

Savory Jeqe( Steam Bread) with Peri Peri Beef Livers

Today I was having one of my crazy moments with is like an almost everyday for me....hahahaha. Which brings me to today's Food Post.

I made  Savory Jeqe( Steam Bread) Served with Peri Peri Beef Livers

Ingredients 
Jeqe(stream bread)

4 cups of Flour
2 Teaspoons of Yeast
1 Spoon of Oil
1l Warm Water
Black Pepper
Pinch of Salt
Half A hand of Chopped of Coriander
BBQ Spice


Method 

*In a dry bowl: Mix all the dry ingredients
*Add warm water and mix together
*Add the chopped herbs
*Let it rest for 30 minutes or so
*Coat a round metal or steal bowl with a teaspoon of oil and add your Jeqe mixer in.
*Put your bowl in a big pot with hot water, make sure that the water in the pot doesn't cover the Jeqe mixer/ bowl in it( because youir jeqe/ stream bread will not cook well and it will be soggy) 
*Let it cook for an hour or so( check if it's cook through but poking a fork in the middle)


Ingredients
Beef Peri Peri Livers

Stripped 4 Thick Slices of Beef Liver(steaks) 
3 Big Onions stripes( not chopped)
Oil
Ginger and Garlic
Black Pepper
BBQ Spice
Cayenne pepper
Peri Peri Sauce  

Method 

*Preheat the pan, when hot add Oil
*Add onions and when onions are soft add ginger and garlic
* Add beef liver, black pepper,bbq spice,cayenne pepper
*Add peri peri sauce and let it cook to your preference  

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

My Soul Cries

My African soul is crying out

Crying out to be nourish

Nourish with its own food

Food that is planted in its own soil

It cries out” what are you feeding me?”

Feed me Amadumbe and Ifino

My roots cry out to be watered

Not with chemical water

With water of the African rivers

"Quench my thirst with Amahewu and Amarul"

My hair is crying out

Crying out to be left alone

My hair screams!!!!!What are all this chemicals?

"Why are you burning me?"

"Are you trying to kill my strong black strength"

"Why are you using glue on me???"

"Am I shoes?"

                                                    

I cry out!!!

Feed me with my own

Nature me with my own

Spoil me with my own

Write songs for my soul

Please me by talking to me in my own language

Touch my heart by pleasing not my body but my soul

I want  to be Kissed by the African Sun"

Mother Africaby BenHeine

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

Creamy Sigwamba(Creamy Spinach Pap)

 As Africans we have numerous ethnic groups and within each tribal group we still differ from each other. Those from the South might differ in language or cultural customs from the Northern although they are all from the same ethnic group. 

 Which brings me to today’s Recipe, which I originally got from my Granz but I put a little modern twist to it.

Originally in this recipe you boil the spinach/mfino but not today

Ingredients

2 Bunch of Spinach( finely chopped)

2 Cups of Maize Meal

1 Onion( finely chopped)

Garlic

1Table Spoon of Oil

Feta Cheese

Black Pepper

Salt

Method

·         Heat up the oil in a pot.

·         When the oil is hot add your onion

·         Add garlic to the  onion, keep string to prevent the onion and garlic from burning.

·         Add the finely chopped spinach, Black Pepper and Salt for seasoning. Close the pot lid and let the spinach cook through

·         Add Feta

·         Add a cup of maize meal and mix together (without removing the pot from the stove)and add more maize meal if need be

      Let it rest for a few minutes and stir again and repeat for 3/4 times until cooked 

I

I   I served my Creamy Sigwamba with BBQ chicken and roasted vegetables, do share what you served yours with.

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

Cinnamon ISijingi (Pumpkin/ Butternut Porridge)

Cinnamon ISijingi (Pumpkin/ Butternut Porridge)

Isijingi is a traditional porridge which is originally made out of pumpkin/butternut and maize meal.

My granny used to make this delicious healthy porridge for us whenever we visited her at the South Coast. I would be the first to admit I wasn't always a fan of it reason being; I grew up hating vegetables……hahaha but don’t all kids do!

I recently found out that Isijingi is a known meal even outside South Africa, it’s known in Zimbabwe as Nopi.

I also found out that some Nguni tribes have it as a main course and they eat it at any time of the day.

Today I twisted my Granz original recipe by adding Cinnamon which goes so well with butternut or pumpkin and I will be eating mine with Pineapple Syrup(I can’t let this Pineapple I’ve garnished with go to waste now hey….. wink wink)

Ingredient

1 medium sized butternut (Cubed into small pieces)

4cups boiling water

2 cups maize meal

Table spoon of Cinnamon

 Pinch of Salt

Method:

1.       Cook pumpkin/ butternut with Cinnamon and a Pinch of Salt in boiling water until soft.

2.       When soft smash without removing it from the stove

3.       Add maize meal and mix well with a wooden spoon on a blow before pouring it into the pot

4.       Simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes, stirring continuously until cooked.

Tip : a Pinch of salt always enhances the sweetness of the pumpkin or butternut 

N.B. I had my Isijingi with Pineapple syrup……So do let me know what you served yours with.

Xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

About

AfricanistaFab

Africanista Fab is a platform where we are embracing our African Roots and attesting that, as much as, we are living the modern life we can still clinch who we are and nothing about our heritage is tedious. We are a generation that distinguishes everything technology. Therefore, we have shied away from being original.

Some may ask “why African Food, Fashion and Lifestyle? Well the answer is simple “Why Not, what do I know more than my own roots?”

I am and will forever be a lover of food, fashion, art and whatsoever that touches my soul. You can call me Sugar and Spices if you like…

I have to admit that I have certainly not been much of a cook or a domestic person to begin with, however, being a first born of 5 children, you are obligated to step up to the plate “no pun intended” and visiting my grandparents during school holidays didn’t help either. For instance, cooking for everyone in our household, 20 people to be exact, since all the grandchildren will always go to the South Coast to visit Granz “that is what I call her”. Funny how life is hey…for the longest time I detested traditional food, cooking and the entire experience of going to the engraining fields with Granz; but years later there I was studying to become a Chef and In love with cooking “Thank you Granz”, and then fast forward to now… here I am “Blogging” about food.

•     Food is art and my own expression of love.  So whenever I serve you a plate, I am simply serving you my heart. You will find African Soul Food, African Food with a “Modern Take”, from using African Ingredients and cooking them in a modern way to establish recipes and Restaurant reviews.

•     Fashion is communicating one's self and to me it is not what is trending right now, but what works for you as an individual. You can expect to find “Street Style / Mix and Match Fashion, Traditional Wear and African Glam and everything in between.”

•     Lifestyle is countless things from the way one live their life and the manner of which they choose to live. Under this Category you will find Art, which is a big part of our Heritage from the Ndebele Art, Tribal Face Painting to San Rock Painting and everything in-between. You can also anticipate to see how our nowadays Youth embraces being African with a “Modern Take” of course. You can likewise expect a snick pick at my personal Lifestyle from exceptional occasions with my heart held friends and family to everything in between.

 All in all though this is a Platform where the old meets the new and the African Tradition/ Heritage meets Modern. It’s all about having fun, but not forgetting who you are and where you are coming from.We want our young generation to know their true African origins.

Thank you for dropping by

Sugar and Spices 

Samke

xoxo