just call me rachael ray... or maybe barefoot contessa

Something I've realized is that I have never appreciated kitchens. And I should have. Even the one in the basement of the Ross Street house with its limited counter space. But I will never again underappreciate a kitchen. And this is why.

In Zambia, I cook everything over charcoal in a metal brazier with a 10-inch diameter. So first, I have to light the fire. Then I have to wait until the coals get hot enough to even cook anything, which takes at least 20 minutes, but probably 30 or more. This process can be expedited by swinging the braizer back and forth to increase airflow to the coals. Then, once it's hot, I can start cooking things one at a time.

Breakfast is easy. I usually just have to boil water so I can make coffee and oatmeal. (I'm SOOOO glad I brought a French press.) For lunch and dinner, what I do depends on the day, and whether or not I'm going to eat with my host family.

On the days that I don't eat with them, I usually just cook one meal in the afternoon. I'll snack on something, like fruit or peanuts or popcorn, when I get home from school, then start something fancy for my lunch/dinner. I can only cook one thing at a time, so I cook my starch (rice, pasta, or potatoes) first, then whatever else I'm going to eat. My usual method is to just sautee a bunch of stuff and put some sort of sauce over it. But sometimes I get creative. I've made potstickers, stuffed cabbage leaves, orange-glazed soya pieces, refried beans (and tortillas, of course), sweet potato gnocci and garlic cream sauce, the village equivalent of eggplant parmesan, banana curry, and Thai peanut sauce. I also make a lot of soups. It's a one-pot meal, which is ideal for braizer cooking, and lasts for several meals. So I have my big meal around 4 or 5, depending on how long it takes to cook. And honestly, most of the reason I do it this way is so I can do dishes that night. Otherwise I wait until morning because I rely on the sun to dry my dishes.

The days that I do eat with my family are a bit different. I make something smallish for lunch, or just have a peanut butter sandwich or something. Then later I'll make a relish to take to dinner. We usually don't eat until after 7pm, because the family is busy until there's no light to see. So bamayo makes nshima and a relish, and I bring another one. When I go, I sit with bamayo and the kids, next to the fire. We all wash our hands in a dish of warm water. There's a big bowl of nshima in the middle and the smaller bowls of relish around it. Then we dig in, everyone's fingers in the communal bowls. There's lots of talking and laughing (especially at my Bemba mistakes) and it's overall a good time. The kids bicker and pick on each other as everyone tries to keep the dogs away from the food. After we're done eating, and they've fed the dogs their portion of the nshima, I stick around to chat for a bit. My two-year-old sister comes and sits on my lap, and we talk about the day and what we're doing tomorrow.

So, as you can see, cooking isn't really that different here. Except for the fact that I don't have an oven. I really miss baking. So about two weeks ago, I decided to just try it anyway. I decided that my first attempt at brazier baking would be a chocolate cake. I wanted to make bread, but I didn't want to waste yeast in case it was an epic failure. So I used one of my pots as a Dutch oven. I put the cake batter in the pot, then adjusted my coals. I put some soda cans on the brazier to lift the pot off the heat, and put coals on the lid to heat from the top. My cake venture was semi-successful. I ended up not having enough coals; they were spent before the center of the cake had fully cooked. It still tasted good, though. So after learning that I needed more coals, I decided to attempt bread the next day. It was fully cooked and tasted like, well, bread. My only other baking venture was a tomato bread with onions and garlic. (I needed to use up my tomatoes before they went bad.) It was SO GOOD. I haven't really tried to bake anything else, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with brazier baking. :)

I must reiterate, though, that I will never take a kitchen for granted again. Even though I've figured out how to cook all these things from scratch, and even bake over a fire, it takes forever. I could easily spend 3 hours cooking one meal, especially if I want to do something fancy like potstickers. Having a stove, oven, microwave, coffee pot, refrigerator, freezer, a sink with running water... these things are such a luxury, and I never realized it.