A major part of PST is to learn about the culture here. I think we can all agree that food is an integral and unique part of every culture. (Especially in my family, oh how I miss the food) So we had a night where together in our language groups with our Mães, we learned how to cook Moçambicano. It started with the longest and most painstaking part of one of the best foods I’ve ever had, matapa. I actually prefer folha da abóbora(pumpkin leaves), couve, then matapa but I won’t argue with any. All are the greens of different plants and are prepared in a similar fashion.
Since there were four PCTs with four Mães, we were able to set up stations to make things move along faster. At one station we were cutting up the greens, which is done but rolling a bunch of leaves together very tightly in a circle and cutting from tip to the base of the stem in thin strips, about an eighth of an inch. Along with cutting up the greens, there is usually peeling and dicing tomatoes. Now in Mozambique, people don’t really use cutting boards and the knives are very dull so they just cut everything in their hands.
Another station was preparing the coco(coconut), which starts by removing the hair on the outside of the coco as much as possible. Then we had to crack open the coco, usually this is done by hitting it around the middle against a rock that’s just sitting nearby, and then drinking the coco water inside soon as it’s open. The fun part is ralar-ing(grating) the yummy white pulp of the coco. For this there is a special contraption used, the ralar-er is what I’ll refer to it as, and it is a small, rectangular, wooden stool with a sharp, oval, metal tip full of tiny teeth on one end. We were showed the proper technique for ralar-ing the coco by one of the Mães, then we got a shot at it. There is actually a specific way to sit on the ralar-er, which is different for men and women, and being in a group of all women I was not informed of this before it was my turn. Women are supposed to sit with both of their legs to one side of the ralar-er, so not to straddle it, it is culturally inappropriate for a woman to straddle the ralar-er. Men on the other hand are supposed to straddle the ralar-er, so a leg on each side, which actually makes it much easier to ralar. As I sat down, after only watching women, I sat with both legs to one side, which caused the Mães to laugh hysterically. I’m always glad when I can offer everyone a good laugh, which I manage to do often here. I was informed after they caught their breaths that I was to sit like a strong man and straddle the ralar-er. Taking a coco half and cupping it with my hands I began the time and energy consuming part of ralar-ing the coco. After only a couple minutes of ralar-ing and not able to even get half of the coco half I had finished. Once the coco is nothing more than white shavings, it is thrown into boiling water to make a coco milk. The coco milk is then strained to remove all the shavings and leaving nothing but rich coco milk.
The other station was preparing the amendoim(peanut) with the pilar and peneira. Pilar-ing is just using a giant mortar and pestle to crush the roasted amendoim to a powder a little grainier than flour. Since not all the amendoim gets pilar-ed evenly, we have to scoop out the crushed amendoim and put it into the peneira. A peneira is a large, wicker circle about an inch deep. The crushed amendoim is spread thinly on the bottom of the peneira and then the tricky part. By holding the peneira on the sides and shaking/flicking it at the correct angle with the correct amount of force, the larger pieces of amendoim collect on the bottom side and can be put back into the pilar to be crushed more. As you can imagine it takes some skill to use a peneira correctly and the Mães were getting a good laugh at us PCTs trying, needless to say I was unsuccessful.
Once the greens are cut up, the coco milk made, and the amendoim pilar-ed, it’s all mixed together in a pot and cooked for hours. So usually when people this dish they start around lunch time so it is ready in time for dinner, but it is worth all the work and time waiting. It is usually served over rice or xima, I would highly recommend rice. This is undoubtedly a dish I’ll be bringing back to American with me.