Actually our previous post goes really nice with this dish. Isombe actually from what I read got its start in The Democratic Republic Of The Congo and found its way down in to Barundi and Rwanda. The Congo and Rwanda both has seen its share of atrocities. When I hear and read such things it makes me sad about how come people can be so cruel. I had a couple of neighbors from The Congo. I hope they ok. We are not neighbors anymore because they moved away.
I haven’t met anyone from Rwanda and Barundi yet but when I do I will tell them I tried their food. Even Mr. Riaz liked it. Actually this dish is very easy to make. On high heat in a large coldero I added 1 oz of peanut oil. If I was to use meat which is optional I would suggest 1 kg or 1 lb of either lamb, beef, chicken, veal or goat.
Add 2 cups of water to boil the meat. Add 1 bullion cube or 3 tsps of bullion powder, 1 pinch of black peppercorns ground in a mortar and pestle, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma. Cook for 40 minutes or until they are nice and soft. If you want make kabab out of the meat and using a grill pan sprayed with cooking spray until they get their grill marks. If you want the meat in the pot then that is ok too.
The rest are pretty much thrown together which are 1 large eggplant, either 1 bunch of green onions, 1 shallot or 1 onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 chili of choice, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tomato chopped in to tiny pieces and added to the pot. Cook this for 30 minutes. Add 1 bag of frozen cassava leaves, 1 small bag of frozen spinach or other leafy greens such as collards, cabbage, mustard, kale, chard or turnip greens washed and cut if used fresh or 1 small bag if frozen, 3 big pinches of cilantro, 3 tbs of red palm oil. Reduce heat and let cook for 20 minutes.
If you can’t find the frozen cassava in an African store then you can substitute for any other leafy green to go with the spinach. The eggplant and other vegetables should be soft. I like mine kind of chunky. Add 3 tbs of peanut butter and stir. Serve this with ugali and you can substitute for grits if you like rice or polenta.
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