Ugali

Ugali
Porridge
Ugali and cabbage. It is more typically eaten with collard greens (Sukuma wiki)
Alternative name(s):
Sima, sembe, posho
Main ingredient(s):
Cornmeal
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Ugali
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Ugali

Ugali (also sometimes called sima, sembe or posho) is a dish of maize flour (cornmeal) cooked with water to a porridge- or dough-like consistency. It is the most common staple starch featured in the local cuisines of the eastern African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. When ugali is made from another starch, it is usually given a specific regional name.

The traditional method of eating ugali (and the most common in the rural areas) is to roll a lump into a ball with the right hand, and then dip it into a sauce or stew of vegetables and/or meat. Making a depression with the thumb allows the ugali to be used to scoop, and to wrap around pieces of meat to pick them up in the same way that flat bread is used in other cultures.

Ugali is relatively inexpensive and is thus easily accessible to the poor who usually combine it with a vegetable stew (e.g. sukuma wiki in Kenya) or meat stews and makes a filling meal. Ugali is easy to make and the flour can last for considerable time in average conditions. Maize from which the flour is obtained is hardy and will grow reliably in dry seasons. For these reasons, ugali is an important part of the diet of millions of people of Sub Saharan Africa.

In Swahili (both in Kenya and in Tanzania), it is known as ugali, though in parts of Tanzania it also goes by an informal, "street" name, Nguna.

In Kenya, it is also known as Kienyenji in Kalenjin, ngima in Kikuyu, kuon in Luo, Obusuma in the Nyole dialect of the Luhya tribe, nkima in the meru language and obokima in the Kisii language (Ekegusii).

In Uganda, ugali has several regional names including posho.

In Rwanda, ugali is called "ubugali".

Similar foods

In South Africa, cornmeal mush is a staple food called Phuthu or mealie pap; elsewhere in Southern Africa it is called isitshwala or bogobe in Botswana or sadza in Zimbabwe, nshima in Zambia, nsima in Malawi (normally eaten with 'utaka' - a type of local dried fish), chima in Mozambique (in several languages), and "Oshifima" or Pap in Namibia. Fufu, a starch-based food from West and Central Africa, may also be made from maize meal, in which case it may be called fufu corn. In the Caribbean, similar dishes are cou-cou (Barbados), funchi (Curaçao) and funjie (Virgin Islands). It is known as funche in Puerto Rican cuisine and mayi moulin in Haitian cuisine.

See also

External links

• Congo Cook Book
• Kenya Recipes

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