Cooking with Friends

Last week my roommates and I invited some of our Ugandan friends over to have a cultural cooking exchange. We have been wanting to learn how to make Ugandan food, and they like to learn how to make American food, so it seemed like a good trade.

After everyone arrived, we got right to business. All of us pitched in and took part in making the different food items, so we could all have the experience.
For our meal we made:
*chapatti (similar to a tortilla)
*pilau rice (rice with pilau masala seasoning and other things)
*beef stew (which is really pieces of beef cooked in a broth)
*kalo (a dish made by tribes from the north; it is made by mixing
millet flour into boiling water)



Cutting up vegetables




Me, rolling out my chapatti




Holly stirring the beef stew



Kate pouring the millet flour for the kalo





Megan stirring the kalo








Cooking and hanging out together was a lot of fun, full of laughter. When everything was ready we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and boy was it tasty!

For dessert, we taught them how to make Apple Pie (can you get more American than that?). It turned out nicely too.



Dorothy, Shammah, and Holly putting together the apple pie






Some things I learned about the Ugandan cooking style that differs from Americans.
*Ugandans usually cook using a charcoal stove
*Ugandans cook wearing a wrap around skirt they call a “lesu” –this is specifically a work skirt.
*They don’t use recipes that are written down. They have the ingredients and measurements all up in their head, learned from experience.
*American measuring devices (1/2 cup, teaspoon, tablespoon, etc.) don’t match with Ugandan, so we used regular spoons and drinking cups to measure things out.
*Ugandan recipes are never call for exact amounts; they just eye things and add in more as needed.





Me, Kate, Dorothy, Miriam, Megan, Shammah, Holly