Day Fourteen - Botswana

Dumelang! Tonight, we travel to Botswana, a southern African nation that was one of the first countries that I picked when planning out my tour stops for this month.  Featured in Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Botswana is a country that has seen its share of strife and hardship along with many other sub-Saharan countries.  But it is also a place with a rich cultural heritage, and their food identity is no exception.

Now, with that said, when sailors used to travel around the world with only the wind to carry them along, they often hit points where their sails failed to fill.  Where their momentum dropped out. Where they became adrift on the seas, stuck in one place.  They called these points the doldrums.  After the one two punch of Egypt and Botswana, I believe that's where we find ourselves now...

Seswaa

1 pound stew beef

1 onion, chopped

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Water to cover

I set about this traditional mashed/pulled beef dish without the aid of a roaring fire and large three legged pot (which is what most people in Botswana use to cook their seswaa). Fun fact, it's also usually cooked by men because of the need to mash and pull the beef.  Really getting your mouth watering, right?

I first browned the beef in a skillet, then added all ingredients to a crock pot. I set it on high for about an hour.

After the hour, I separated the beef from the onions and started to mash it and pull it. Lacking a proper meat mallet, I had to improvise, and used a rolling pin instead.

I put the beef back in the crock pot while I finished the rest of the meal.

Pap

1 cup cornmeal

1 quart beef broth
1 tablespoon tumeric

Salt and pepper to taste

This is a traditional side dish that is very much like a softer polenta.  To make this, I boiled the broth and then slowly added the cornmeal.  I stirred until it got to the consistency that I wanted.  This was the last dish I made, as the pap can harden quickly and needs to be served right away.

Sauteed Greens

1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch chard
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

I've made greens as a side dish for several of the tour stops this month, and for good reason.  They are rich in essential vitamins, versatile, and easy to cook.  I sauteed the greens in olive oil again, but this time, I tried to pep them up using spices that I had seen in several of the recipes for the area (the ginger and clove).

The result...

...looked alright.  But as I mentioned in the introduction, tonight was just not one of our favorites.  I forgot that Elizabeth is not a huge fan of cloves, so that put the greens right out.  The pap was a mass of corn meal boiled in broth...so that wasn't the best tasting either.  The beef, while chewy, was at least flavorful.  We ate it, but I don't think that we'll be trying this cuisine again anytime soon.

It was simple food because of the region (Botswana, like it's sub-Saharan neighbors, is drastically impoverished).  There were things that I could have done to improve it's flavor. Had I more time, I would have cooked the seswaa on low for longer.  I would have added more spices to the pap, and I would have used different spices for the greens.

This culinary trip around the world was not going to be all gold.  It was about exploring new places and trying new things, and when you do that on a nightly basis, you're bound to run in to some things that are not your cup of tea (or your cup of pap, whatever the case may be).  We've hit two nights in a row like that, but I'm confident we'll rebound and the wind will catch our sails again soon.