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    Home » Recipes » Cornmeal

    Published: Sep 30, 2014 · Modified: Oct 1, 2020 by Usha Rao

    Zambia - N'shima & Fried Rape

    For the final day of the marathon, we travel to South African country of Zambia. Maize is a staple diet and is eaten as a thick porridge called N’shima, which is similar to grits or polenta. It is eaten with beans, green leafy vegetables, and dried fish or meat gravies. Common vegetables in Zambia are rape, cabbage leaves and pumpkin leaves. Rape is a dark green leaf similar to Swiss chard with a slightly bitter taste. These vegetables are cooked with tomato, onion and sometimes with peanuts.

    Zambian Cuisine, Zambian Food, Blogging Marathon, Around the world in 30 days with ABC cooking,

    When I first made N’shima, I made some V’sachy. V’sachy is prepared by cooking pumpkin leaves with tomatoes, onions and peanuts. I substituted pumpkin leaves with collard greens. I added some green chilies to spice it up but I did not like it. That day my photos did not come out well and was going to prepared it again. The second time I was going to tweak the recipes a little, the order in which the ingredients go into the preparation to suite my taste. Then I found fried rape more appealing and made it instead.

    Zambian Cuisine, Zambian Food, Blogging Marathon, Around the world in 30 days with ABC cooking,

    I was glad I tried fried rape. It is similar to any Indian green leaves stir fry but the order in which the ingredients are added is different. Nevertheless, it was pretty good.

    Zambian Cuisine, Zambian Food, Blogging Marathon, Around the world in 30 days with ABC cooking,

    Source: Femonomics
    Cooking Time: 20 – 30 minutes
    Serves: 1 – 1 ½

    N’shima
    Ingredients:

    • ½ cup Cornmeal
    • 1 ¼ cups Water
    • Pinch of Salt (my addition)

    Preparation:

    • Bring one cup of water to a boil in a sauce pan. Mix ¼ - ⅓ cup of cornmeal & salt in ¼ cup water.
    • When water comes to a boil, reduce the heat and pour the cornmeal mixture into the saucepan. Stir constantly to avoid lumps.
    • Turn the heat to medium – medium high and sprinkle remaining cornmeal stirring it constantly. Once all the cornmeal is added to the porridge, cover and simmer until the cornmeal is cooked. This would take about 7-10 minutes. Stir it in between. Once the cornmeal is cooked, it should come together to form a lump of cooked cornmeal.

    Fried Rape
    Ingredients:

    • ½ bunch Rape Leaves (I used Red Swiss Chard)
    • 1 – 2 tsp. Oil
    • ½ Tomato chopped
    • ¼ cup medium Onion chopped
    • 2-3 Green Chilies chopped (This is my addition and adjust to taste)
    • ¼ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)

    Preparation:

    • Wash and remove the thick stalk of the chard. Chop the leaves.
    • Heat oil in a sauce pan and add chopped leaves. Cover and cook for 1 minute.
    • Remove the cover, turn the leaves, and add onion, tomatoes and green chilies. Cover and cook for few minutes.
    • Stir, cover and cook until the chards and onions are cooked and soft. Keeping stirring the chards in between until it is cooked.
    • Serve with N’shima.

    Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

    « Yemeni Ka'ak
    Recap of Around the World in 30 Days with A-Z Cuisines »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. cookingwithsapana says

      November 21, 2014 at 4:48 am

      Very interesting combo and nicely presented..

      Reply
    2. Chef Mireille says

      November 03, 2014 at 7:59 pm

      what a rustic looking meal

      Reply
    3. Manjula Bharath says

      October 28, 2014 at 10:31 pm

      Oh wow thats an delicious meal to end this fantastic mega marathon 🙂 looks very inviting !!

      Reply
    4. Ammaji Kitchen{Sree} (@sreevallie) says

      October 15, 2014 at 1:35 am

      Very tasty plate there.. Looks inviting.

      Reply
    5. themadscientistskitchen says

      October 13, 2014 at 11:45 pm

      Delicious and yummy. I loved the marathon with you,

      Reply
    6. PJ says

      October 09, 2014 at 6:20 am

      That is a very interesting dish and the fried greens does look like our keerai porriyal! Lovely clicks.
      It was great doing this marathon with you Usha and you had me drooling over all your pics in this series as well 🙂

      Reply
    7. Suma Gandlur says

      October 08, 2014 at 7:05 pm

      That is an interesting name for greens. 🙂
      Did that greens work well with that nshima? Somehow I prefer a semi-liquid side dish for these kind of dry meals and so just checking.

      Reply
    8. Pradnya says

      October 05, 2014 at 5:50 am

      ohh you didnt mention whether you liked the nshima, coz i went about a million times in my head thinking about whether to make it or not...your presentation looks beautiful and the dish does look like indian style stir fried

      Reply
      • MySpicyKitchen says

        October 05, 2014 at 7:50 am

        Nshima as it is was bland but with the stir fry it was good. I finished all of it for lunch with fried Swiss chard.

        Reply
    9. Pavani says

      October 02, 2014 at 9:51 pm

      That is such a homely and comforting meal. Loved all your posts in this marathon Usha.

      Reply
    10. Sushma Mallya says

      October 02, 2014 at 9:40 am

      quiet a unique dish,simple and yum

      Reply
    11. Jayanthisindhiya says

      October 01, 2014 at 11:37 pm

      A very new dish for me,nice clicks

      Reply
    12. Harini says

      October 01, 2014 at 7:03 pm

      Hmm I was wondering how Nshima would taste. Neat idea to use red swiss chard!!

      Reply
    13. Vaishali Sabnani says

      September 30, 2014 at 11:36 am

      I love the way you have plated the meal...and can't miss that plate..looks perfect for this meal. Usha it has been great running the marathon with you. .your pics have always pulled me in spite of some non veg dishes..I was attracted by the clicks and the way you compose your pucs..great effort . fantastic.

      Reply
    14. Varada says

      September 30, 2014 at 8:00 am

      A very different combination with n'shima instead of bread. I tried it too and we liked it a lot. Lovely pictures.

      Reply
    15. Srivalli says

      September 30, 2014 at 7:14 am

      That's one interesting set of dishes you got there Usha...and you have excelled yourself with each of your stunning pictures and the dishes you went out to make..very good ones..thank you and thank Mr. U for trying out as well..:)

      Reply
    16. Priya says

      September 30, 2014 at 6:12 am

      Wow, lovely dishes Usha, love the way to went for collard greens instead of pumpkin leaves, inviting plate there.

      Reply

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    Hi, I am Usha! Welcome to my space. I am the content creator and photographer here. I love cooking and all the recipes on the site are tried and tested in my kitchen.

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