Eat Like Me (Lunch)

February 23, 2014

I was just browsing my old blog posts and remembered that I left you guys hanging! Sorry if you've been eating makeshift peanut pancakes for breakfast lunch and dinner everyday since mid-November! Here's what I eat for lunch...every....day....

2 Cups uncooked rice

4 Cups water

4 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 tsp salt

3 cloves of garlic

1 small hot pepper (I don't know what kind they have here...)

2 small red onions

1-2 corrots

1 green bell pepper

4 medium tomatoes

Beans

I learned a kinda new way to cook rice here, which actually gives me much better results than I ever got on a stove in the states. Add the rice, water, half of the oil, and half of the salt to a pot. Cover the pot and put it on the jiko until the water reaches a rolling boil and threatens to overflow. Take the pot off of the jiko and put it on the ground. Cover the lid with a healthy amount of hot coals. If you skimp on the coals, the rice will be mushy. Then wait. Check it after about 15 minutes and stir up any standing water at the bottom. You should be able to just leave the rice in the pot with the coals to stay warm until you're done cooking the rest.

While the rice water starts heating up, you can start chopping up the veggies. When you take the rice off of the jiko, you can add some more coals (to replace what is now on the rice pot) and start cooking the veggies. I start by heating the oil and garlic. When the garlic starts to brown I throw in the onions and the hot pepper. I can't handle super spicy stuff so I don't bother cutting the hot pepper. It adds some flavor but doesn't overwhelm.

After the onions, sautée the carrots and  bell peppers too.

Once everything looks nice and I'm sufficiently pleased with the amount of sizzling I have heard, I toss the tomatoes in. Then I add the rest of the salt, about half a cup of water and I cover the pan.

Stir it every once in a while until the tomatoes have dissintegrated into a sauce. At this point you can also add some ground up peanuts (a new trick I learned here). It thickens things up and adds some protein.

Beans take forever. I cook a big batch at the beginning of the week and eat them throughout, just boiling them each time to sterilize them. Don't bother cooking dry beans in the states. Buy a can. It's not worth the wait.

Just throw the sauce and beans on the rice and eaaaat!

Well that's that. Give it a go if you want. It's pretty good.