Githeri is a traditional food native to the Agikuyu community in Kenya. Githeri is a mixture of maize and beans cooked together. It is a dish that takes almost two or three hours to cook so the maize would soften up and beans will cook properly. In Kenya, we prepare Githeri using a Jiko because it takes a long time to boil the beans. The price of Gas and Electric is to expensive in Kenya and that is why many people prefer using Jiko. Jiko uses charcoal to cook that is why many people use it. Today am going to give you a recipe of how my mum taught me to cook Githeri.
Ingredients
- Maize that has not been dried
- Beans ( Mostly preferred kidney or yellow beans)
- Groundnuts
- Cooking Oil
- Diced Onions
- Diced Tomatoes
- Dhania or Cilantro
- Diced Carrots
- Tomato paste
- Coconut cream
Instruction
- The first process is to boil your maize for an hour and make sure the maize has been fully covered with water while boiling it. You keep checking it every 30 minutes so that it won’t burn.
- After an hour add your washed beans and groundnuts and add them to the cooking pot. Boil the food for three hours so to soften them.
- After three hours and the food has softened up remove your dish from the Jiko and drain the excess water.
- Inside an empty cooking pot pour three tablespoons of cooking oil and heat up on low hit
- Add your onions on the pot and cook until it starts browning
- Then add your tomatoes and cook them until soften up and mashed up or you can use blended tomatoes
- Once your tomatoes are cooked you can add your carrots and cook for just two minutes.
- Now add your tomato paste and stir the mixture together inside the pot
- Now add the mixture of your maize, beans and groundnuts inside the pot and stir gently.
NOTE: Do not over-stir or else your beans will turn mashy
- Cook for 15 minutes then add the coconut cream and stir and let it seamer.
- Add the Cilantro and seamer for three minutes then turn off your fire.
You can serve this dish with tea