TRADITIONAL CUISINES IN BOTSWANA: February 2012

INTRODUCTION

Food in lame man terms refers to any substance that can be eaten by people to give energy and build body tissue. Food is a very integral or important part of every culture all around the world, from India who are known for their spicy food, china known for their noodles and sushi to Italy who are second to none when it comes their great pasta and pizza. Like suite Botswana has its own traditional cuisines unique to this landlocked country located on the far south of Africa. The purpose of this blog is to sensitize or make people across the world aware of our food, and not only for people in other countries but also for Batswana. This blog will aim to provide the following;

Information on the various food dishes, traditional beverages and wild fruits in Botswana.

Provide recipes on various Setswana dishes.

It will also provide the readers with information on the nutritional value of the foods.

And lastly take readers back in time to learn about the origin and history of some of the food

MOROGO WA SETSWANA

Morogo wa Setswana is one of the unique attributes that identifies Botswana cuisines. Morogo wa Setswana varies as it only generalizes the different “merogo” which are indigenous to the Batswana. These “merogo” range from morogo wa dinawa , thepe and also rothwe. Focusing on morogo wa dinawa, which is usually seen in the kraals, remote areas (the lands), as seen on figure 1

Fig.1

In preparing this delicious “morogo”, great care must be taken to insure that its taste is as delightful as it is to the indigenous people of Botswana.

METHOD

· The leaves only are firstly collected from the plant, making sure that the plant, making sure that the plant is not destroyed while collecting the leaves.

· The leaves are then placed in a pot and water added, so as to soak the leaves (water must be above the leaves).

· Then the pot is placed on a stove or on fire so as to heat the contents of the pot.

· Then the pot is left until the water within is boiling and the leaves have become very soft.

· Then a small amount of cooking oil and a pinch of salt are added to the pot and stirred until the leaves crushed and become to be in a form of porridge.

· Then the pot is left for about 10 minutes after which, it should be taken off the stove or off the fire in order to cool.

· Then the mixed up leaves (in a porridge form) are then shaped into small little balls not bigger than a golf ball.

· The small little balls are then placed on a tray or a flat surface and then they are placed outside in the sun to dry.

· After the small balls of the morogo have dried, can be eaten directly even though they are very dry. But for a more pleasant injoyment of the morogo, the small balls can then be put in a pot, and then a little bit of water added in order to soften the balls.

· Then stir steadily with a spoon to combine the balls into a porridge form then add some cooking oil and salt to the desired quantity.

· Leave for 5 minutes.

· The morogo is now ready for serving

LOGALA

INGREDIENTS

· 2 cups of fresh milk

· ½ cup of water

· ¼ cup of maize meal/sorghum

EQUIPMENT

· medium sauce pan

· small mixing bowl

· wooden spoon