Maize, Ufa and Tandi

This afternoon we went by to pick up Wezzie Maseko to go visit her sister, Angellah, husband Lawrence, and baby boy, Tristen. In the yard of where Wezzie stays, some of her cousins were sifting ufa. Maize is one of the major food crops in Malawi. You can pick it green and eat it - chemango - sort of like our corn on the cob, although not as sweet. They roast it or boil it. If it matures and becomes totally white, hard and dry, they harvest it and take it to the mill to be ground into ufa - a white powdery flour. After the mill, it must be dried again - on large grass mats in the sun and open air. After drying, it is sifted and then stored until time to cook it. It can be cooked with lots of water, becoming thin - called porridge. Or cooked thick and scooped out into large pieces. This is nsima. Malawians will eat it with every meal, using their fingers to dip it up and make a scoop that they use to eat their 'ndiwo' or relish (leaves, ground nuts, tomatoes, beans, whatever). It doesn't have much taste and the texture is a little different. It is very filling and it is pretty much pure carbs! I like it but lots of non-Malawians do not find it to their liking. Tandi is the girl sifting the ufa - what a gorgeous smile! And another woman came up selling the green maize. I bought some to cook at home, she is holding up two of them so you can see!