Kachumber

What is amazing to me, that no matter where you travel in the world, you will always find some recipe that is common to your region, with same ingredients with some variation here and there. Food is truly an universal language (besides music of course). Here is one such example.

In India it is known as Kachumber. It is known as Kachumbari in East and Southern African cuisine. It is an uncooked salad dish consisting of chopped tomatoes, onions, and chili peppers (and salt to taste). Kachumbari is popular throughout east Africa and can be eaten with African Pilaf rice and African Biryani. Variations of Kachumbari can be found in the Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and in central African countries of Malawi and Congo. In Latin America, it is a variation of pico de gallo, or salsa fresca.

It is popular throughout east Africa and parts of southern Africa. The Swahili word Kachumbari originated from the word Koshumbri or "Kachumber" in Sanskrit from India.
It is used like a salad side dish for a main meal. In Kenya, it is used as a condiment and is considered a favorite accompaniment to a meal of nyama choma (grilled or barbequed beef, veal, sheep, lamb, goat, etc.) and ugali. It can also be eaten with Mukimu though people prefer not to. In Tanzania, it is eaten with rice pilaf or biryani. In Malawi, it is usually eaten on its own like any other salad dish.
Other ingredients like lime or lemon juice, fresh cilantro (coriander or dhania), parsley, avocado or cucumber, and in some cases gin or vodka can also be added. Some recipe variations also call for Naga Jolokia peppers, Habanero chili peppers or Scotch Bonnet peppers with a touch of ground Cayenne Pepper.


I make it lot of different ways, today I am going to give you the recipe of the one, that I made with cabbage, green onions, tomatoes, green pepper, cilantro and Jalapeno pepper.



Ingredients:


* 1/4 of a large cabbage head, finely chopped

* 5 green onions finely chopped with green part included

* 1/2 small yellow onion finely chopped

* 2 Roma tomatoes or any ripe tomatoes chopped

* 1/3 cup of fresh cilantro leaves chopped

* 1/2 green pepper chopped

* 1 Jalapeno or Serrano pepper chopped

* 3 table spoons of fresh lime juice

* 1/2 teaspoon of black salt (available at local Indian grocers) (optional)

* 1 teaspoon table salt (or to taste, if adding black salt, may have to decrease this amount)

* 1 teaspoon of Paprika powder

* 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

* 1 teaspoon of roasted cumin powder

* 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper



Method:


* Toss all the chopped veggies together.

* Add all the spices and lime juice.

* Mix well and serve chilled.



Description of Kachumber source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachumbari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License


Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.