Botswana - Home cooking

I actually expected I'd find a restaurant which served food from Botswana in London, even if it was a pan-African restaurant that had a limited number of dishes. So I was surprised to find nothing during my research. So it was back to the kitchen.

When trying to decide what to cook, one dish cropped up again and again, and appeared to be pretty much Botswana's national dish. It also looked like it would be one of the most bland meals I've ever cooked. Seswaa. Mashed meat. With salt. Served with pap. Cornmeal. With salt.

Still, authenticity is the name of the game on this project so that's exactly what I cooked. And it couldn't have been easier.

The meal is literally made up of two main ingredients, as mentioned above. I bought 800g of slow cook casserole beef and a 500g bag of cornmeal (I used 400g of this).

The first step was to add the meat to a large pot of water, bring to the boil, then simmer for four hours. This might seem overkill, but as long as the meat simmers slowly it will make things much easier later on. I found myself topping up with water every 45 minutes or so to keep the meat covered. I also added a teaspoon and a half of salt for flavour.

Forty five minutes before the four hours was up, I started on the pap recipe. I opted for a more South African-influenced version, putu pap, which is supposed to be fairly dry and crumbly.

I boiled 600ml water and a teaspoon of salt in a large pan, then dumped 400g of cornmeal into the water. Without mixing, I placed the lid on top of the pan and let it simmer for five minutes before mixing well and adding a knob of butter. Once mixed, I replaced the lid, turned the heat way down and let it pretty much steam for half an hour. I added a dash of boiling water every now and then to replenish the source of moisture, as it was becoming very dry.

Just before the putu pap was ready, I removed the meat from the water and mashed vigourously with the end of a rolling pin. This was much easier that I thought it would be - the meat was incredibly soft. I then dry fried the shredded meat for a few minutes to remove any extra moisture.

Then it was just a case of serving. I ended up with much more meat than I expected.

On eating, it was incredibly dry, as I expected. The meat was surprisingly salty and really quite tasty. The putu pap was a bland as I expected, if not more so.

We tried to eat it as it was for as long as possible, but I had already cunningly reserved the beef stock to which Elle added Bisto gravy granules. This made it much easier to eat!

All in all, I didn't have high hopes for this meal but it ended up being really quite tasty and very filling. But all the way through, in my head, I was already thinking of the next country...

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Mugi, W5

Restaurant:  Mugi

Location:  15 Station Parade, Uxbridge Road, London, W5 3LD

Date of visit:  Sunday 14 September 2014

Time of visit:  8.30pm

The planning for this one wasn't as straightforward as previous restaurant visits. Firstly we had to find a restaurant that wasn't just Balkan or a former Yugoslav country, but one that was specifically Bosnian. As it happens, Mugi is as Serbian as it is Bosnian but naturally they are almost culturally identical. In the end, enough online sources had this down as a Bosnian restaurant for me to count it as valid. Plus this was in lieu of an alternative anyway.

The next stumbling block was after setting aside some time on the Sunday evening to walk the three miles from our flat to the restuarant - stopping off at many a pub on the way - I discovered just before we left that, according to Google, the restaurant was closed on Sundays. I took that as gospel, but we decided to make the trek anyway and end up at another restaurant in the area.

The hours passed, the half pints were sunk, then we arrived at Station Parade to find - lo and behold - the restaurant was OPEN! Result. In we went.

(DISCLAIMER:  By the time we got there, we had been drinking for hours. The following review is as accurate as the circumstances allow...)

Some people were sitting outside the restaurant on the chairs and tables provided in the street, but indoors it was still fairly quiet. That wasn't to last, however, as it quickly filled during out visit.

Like several previous restaurants we've visited, this one was very much a local cafe for Bosnian ex-pats, as opposed to a restaurant. Actually, it was more like a shop with a cafe. There was a large selection of Balkan produce for sale - fresh and pre-packaged, including many cakes. One thing that wasn't for sale was alcohol. This restaurant is non-licenced. Probably just as well under the circumstances!

On each table there was a menu in both Serbian and English, including their breakfast menu which is clearly intended for wider appeal (as was the selection of filled baguettes listed on the wall of the restaurant). As for the main event, a selection of grilled meats - a staple of the Balkans - was the speciality. 

The waitress served us very quickly. We both ended up ordering the pork and beef koftas, with a can of Diet Coke and Coke Zero. She didn't seem at all fazed by the fact we were clearly not "local" with respect to the clientèle. Neither, as it happens, did the clientèle seem to mind. I never really expect that to be an issue, but it's always in the back of my mind. The atmosphere was very friendly.

While we waited, I took in the sights and the sounds. Serbian state TV - RTS - was on the TV showing live basketball. USA v Serbia. There was no hiding from it - the TV was pretty loud! It also became clear that this was the reason the restaurant started to fill up. This game was a big deal. Later research found that this was the FIBA World Cup final (Serbia lost).

The restaurant had one toilet, which was fairly basic. On the way to the toilet we discovered a whole back room of the restaurant, where many more had gathered to watch the sport.

The food came in good time, and the portion was fantastic. The meat - around 10 koftas in all - came in two pittas, arranged almost like a burger. (This is also how I ate it - probably not the way it is done!). The pitta bread was quite moist in the middle, which made me assume it had been very freshly baked. The koftas were shaped processed minced meat, which reminded me of the Albanian restaurant all those years ago. The meat also seemed quite eggy to me - no doubt egg played in a part in keeping the koftas together. The meat seemed just cooked. Not much more. I'm sure to most people this would be seen as cooked perfectly. To me, I was just a little nervous that it was undercooked. It wasn't. However it was incredibly salty.

The koftas were served with thin chips and salad - raw onion and cucumber spears - alongside some miscellaneous sauce , almost like a tomato and marscapone mix.

It was a very decent meal and a great way to end the festivities of the day. Heavy going at times, but worth it. Which is not what the locals were probably thinking about that basketball game by the time we left.