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

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