Dear LPG readers,

When I first looked at this recipe, I thought it was a two-ingredient affair, but nothing is ever quite that simple.  I don’t know why it did not occur to me that there would have to be an accompaniment to complement the focal point of this dish, but it soon dawned on me when I took a detailed look at the method.

I could have put a few frozen barbeque chicken wings in the air fryer, but that would not have been as authentic as I could muster, so I decided to make all three of the alternative accompaniments suggested in the recipe I was following. They each turned out better than I could ever have hoped for.

Then, it was time to focus on the main attraction. I followed the instructions to the letter, and as the recipe indicated, I added the cornmeal spoonful by spoonful while trying my best to keep stirring and remember the consistency of playdough. I thought that I had got it right, but the instant my version of the Nshima started to cool down, it became a lot more solid than any playdough my grandchildren have ever had me play with.   

The tasting was also interesting.  I got my taste testers to eat my attempt at making this meal in the authentic way that a Zambian would eat it, and from what I worked out, that meant that the Nshima substituted for any cutlery that they would have been ready to pick up in preparation.  The result was quite a few sticky fingers and the use of  quite a few  bits of kitchen roll, and everyone had at least one small spot  of garnish on their clothes, but for all that, they all agreed that it was not a bad plate of food.

May encompasses Azerbaijan’s Independence Day, so I plan to showcase a plate of their national dish, Plov. It seems easy enough to recreate, and perhaps it will be my first plate of near perfection, but I somehow doubt it.

CB, Lewisham

CB uses the internet to unpack the secrets of plov…

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