Swaziland (eSwatini) – Ground Mealies Mixed with Sour Milk (Emasi Etinkhobe Temmbila)

by Y Shomwi

Swaziland (now called eSwatini) is a country located between Mozambique and South Africa. Is among the best traditional keeper countries in Africa. Polygamy was among the tradition kept through the time in the country, but rarely done today due to HIV/AIDS pandemic that is responsible for almost over 50% of all deaths in the country.

It also has it’s varieties of dishes that can be prepared anywhere with simple steps to work on through. This cuisine is mainly comprises of corns mixed with sour milk.

The country uses traditional pots in almost all of it’s dishes preparation, not only with cooking but also in drinks and food preservation.

The recommended benefit of using these traditional pots is that they never burn foods except for a reason, this is due to the materials used during preparation that it clay.

Welcome as we prepare this cuisine from Swaziland.

Prepare the followings

• Corn about 3 cups
• 5 cups of sour milk
• Sugar (for taste)

Cooking

• In Swaziland, milk is fermented using traditional ways, by which milk is kept in a big pot (specific pot for fermentation only) for 1 day.
• After the day, the upper layer of cream is removed leaving sour milk in the pot.
• Take another pot and boil corns for 45 minutes until they are soft to chew. (boiling time may vary with hardness of corns)
• Take another pot and start to boil sour milk with low heat.

• Add in the corns and keep boiling, keep on mind about lowering heat.
• The more you boil, the more milk will become staple/ heavy paste.
• Boil it until it becomes heavy like porridge.

Serve it with coffee or tea, you may add in vegetables if you like.