RECIPE- Mmê Iris' Traditional Seswaa

I sampled a Botswanan staple and managed to make it away with the generational recipe too.

Though my trip to Gaborone was brief, I managed to stuff myself with everything from amagwinya and mince to kudu carpaccio. Street food is part of the local culture too, so I had to grab a bite from a vendor before I left. One warm afternoon, while wandering through the dusty streets of Botswana's capital city, I happened upon a mmê making a pot of seswaa.

"Dumelang," I greeted sheepishly. I'd been circling her for about five minutes and my hunger was hoping to come in for a landing.

Mmê Iris responded in quick, colloquial Tswana and I immediately regretted giving her the impression that I was a local. "I don't actually speak Tswana ma. I'm not from here," I apologized. She let out a generous laugh that put me at ease. "I can tell that my child. You look like a visitor."

Mmê Iris invited me to sit on the beer crate next to her and watch her as she cooked. Though she'd pored over the pot for two hours already, there was still a great deal more cooking that had to be done. She added salt to the boiling meat, a little, "secret spice" but let me use her makeshift mallet to pound the beef.

I felt like a kid again; cooking with my grandmother over an open fire in rural South Africa.

I took the heavy wooden cylinder in both hands and ramming it down into the traditional potjie pot.

"Twist," mmê Iris instructed. I did.

Late afternoon turned into the early evening and as the unforgiving sun began to cool, the seswaa was ready. "Hold this," mmê Iris offered and she handed me a spoon. The first mouthful burnt the roof of my mouth but I didn't care, I was famished. Not only had this humble woman given me a hearty bowl of seswaa but she gave me her family's recipe:

Ingredients

1 kg beef ( Mmê Iris used the shoulder chunks)

2 tablespoon salt

1 generous pinch ground pepper

6 bay leaves

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon mixed herbs

2 cups water (or enough to cover the meat)

Directions

1. Season the meat with 1 tablespoon of salt and mixed herbs, and pinch of pepper

2. Massage meat for 3 minutes.

3. Place meat in traditional pot or slow cooker.

4. Add bay leaves and water.

5. Cover pot and cook over open fire, or on high temp, for 2 hours.

6. Check on meat. Use wooden mallet of tenderizer to pound meat using a twisting motion.

7. Add curry powder and remaining salt.

8. Cover pot and cook for another 2 hours, checking on meat and stirring the pot every 30 minutes.

9. When cooked, remove pot from fire and let meat cool to room temperature

**Best served with pap and vegetable**

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Gaborone was 5 days of amazing. The city is beauty from sunrise to sunset. Read about my experience of its landscape here.

I also visited a my good friend's restaurant, The Daily Grind Cafe and Kitchen and had this so say.