Food Discoveries

I made mango jam the other week. Someone from our church gave us a number of little mangos that are really stringy that neither of us like eating. So I found a recipe for jam that used jello for pectin. It was a good way to use mangos and because we can easily get jello here (plus our families keep mailing it to us!), it is a good recipe.

It’s "abóbora" (anything remotely like a squash or pumpkin) season. Yesterday in the market, I found some that looked like green summer squash. Portuguese only has one word for squash and pumpkin but the local dialect has a name for all the various kinds. The women selling the squash told me how to prepare it; though unfortunately, the only thing I understood was “muito bom” (very good) at the end of her description. So I bought it (what’s to lose, when three squashes cost me 2 meticiais ($0.08)?). When Joél saw it, he was excited that it might be like zucchini. We sliced it and prepared it with onions and soy sauce. It was like a green summer squash. Now we have two more to eat.

I’ve gained the reputation in the church here for baking. I’ve taken cookies and or a cake to several church functions and make banana bread for each family that has a baby. I even made the wedding cake for our housekeeper’s wedding. Mozambicans really like cakes. They like to make them for their “festas”(parties). So Christmas Eve, three women arrived at my house to make cakes for their Christmas celebrations. The Sunday prior, they had asked me what ingredients they needed for a cake, and so when they arrived at my house, they brought their own ingredients and then learned how to make the cakes. Two of the women made two cakes each, the third one cake. The following week, two other women and the husband of one of the women from Christmas, came and made cakes. It’s been fun getting to know the women of the church this way and it’s helping them feel more comfortable coming to visit me. The next step is teaching them how to bake over a fire.