Manhuchu Anedovi (Samp with peanut butter).
I mentioned in an earlier post that in Zimbabwe we had the opportunity to have dinner at local's home. Opening up her home, Auntie Flatter Ncube offered us a look at life in Chinotimba and prepared an epic buffet for us to sample. Taking us on a tour of her garden, Auntie Ncube talked about the types of pests she deals with - all the usual stuff, baboons eating her mangoes, elephants trampling her fence, etc. After that she showed us how to mill samp, a big food staple in many South African countries.
Unsurprisingly, samp also appeared on the dinner table, this time prepared as an appetizer with peanut butter. Auntie Flatter served the samp along with a bean dish and hot sauce, encouraging the group to try everything together. I was into it, as were a few other members of the group so I decided to make a note of this one to recreate it later. A quick Google led me to this recipe - pretty straightforward.
The hard part was tracking down the main ingredient. Even Amazon came up empty handed. But while wandering my local Wegmans, I came across a bag of crushed white hominy. Using this as a substitution, I got to work. I'll be honest, it's not a perfect match but in lieu of the real stuff, it works. Here's the recipe, adapted from Princess Tafadzwa.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of samp, or crushed white hominy
- 1/2 teaspoon, salt
- 1-2 tablespoon, creamy peanut butter
- water
Steps:
- Soak the samp or hominy overnight to reduce the cooking time. Drain and rinse.
- Bring the samp or hominy to a boil in two cups of salted water, allowing it to cook until tender.
- Reduce the heat to low and add in the peanut butter and a tablespoon of water. Cover the pot and cook for five minutes.
- Stir in the peanut butter, remove from heat and keep it covered for 10 minutes.
Makes 4 servings. Can be dished out hot or cold.
