G-nuts
I have never been accused of being a good cook. I am a pretty decent baker, but not a cook. I would say I am more of a re-heater. In America, I can get by with heating pasta and sauce on the stove, heating bread in the oven, and opening up a pre-packaged salad. But in Uganda, I cannot rely on Costco, I shop at Nakumatt, where you can find most of the raw ingredients to make such a meal. So, I have been forced to cook. I am sorry to say that my reputation as a cook has only gotten worse.
One of the first meals I tried to cook was beans andrice. It sounded easy enough. And I had learned by reading “Kisses from Katie” that you need to start cooking the beans well in advance of when you want to eat them because they take a long time to cook. I had also learned from my parents that you need to soak the beans overnight. Check and check. I even added some chopped carrots and tomatoes. This was going to upgrade my status from re-heater to cook!
After several hours of cooking the beans, they were still not soft enough to eat. I kept adding water, as the steam bubbled up from the pot. After another hour or two, everyone was hungry and the rice was ready, so we decided that the beans were cooked enough. We all did our best to smile and eat the crunchy beans. But they were not good.
Determined to make these beans work, we froze the leftovers. There were a lot of leftovers! The next week, we put the clump of frozen beans back into the pot and added spices, onions, garlic, and more tomatoes. Surely the beans just needed more time to cook and maybe some more flavor added. I was going to show these beans who was boss. But, after cooking them again for hours, they were still not very soft.
That’s when it began to dawn on us. Maybe these were not beans. They looked like beans, but they more closely resembled the G-nuts we had been snacking on all week. You can find G-nuts everywhere in Uganda, even on the street, where vendors sell them to you when your car is stopped for 1000 shillings a bag (about 50 cents). We enjoyed the roasted G-nuts from the street vendor so much, that we bought a big bag of the nuts at Nakumatt, only to find out when we tried eating them at home that we had purchased raw G-nuts, which are not very tasty. In fact, they tasted an awful lot like the beans we had been cooking for two days.
Was it possible? Had we been trying to cook G-nuts instead of beans? Take a look at the photo below and you decide.
G-nuts: Raw, Roasted, & Boiled
So, I clearly have a lot to learn about cooking in Uganda.
Lesson number one: If you want to cook beans for dinner, make sure to buy beans, not G-nuts!
It is very hard to tell from the picture. The left two look identical, so I am going to say that your family ate boiled g-nuts. You soaked and boiled those suckers to death. They would be way soft if they were beans. Them is nuts!
What does the G stand for?
Good for you for trying, Joline! I’m sure they would have been delicious if you had gotten real beans….Looks are deceiving sometimes. Practice makes perfect. MiMi
The labeled photo just made me smile. So Joline. You must teach your new Ugandan Friends the beauty of Kraft Mac and cheese, or an African version of it. I promised myself when your young children were eating it that I would never make it for mine when I had kids. Never say never… Shells and cheese is a staple.
I’m just starting the book “Kisses from Katie” and am hoping you are planning to meet with Katie Davis in Uganda while you are there!
I’m proud of you, Joline, for doing all that cooking. The next attempts will be more successful, I’m sure. At least you have a modern kitchen to work in, not a huge pot on a campfire. Baking yams or sweet potatoes should be fairly easy, though, and they are nourishing and go well with a lot of foods. We love hearing about all of your experiences in Uganda.
Joline,
Learn to embrace the pressure cooker too!
Beans are very fast in one of those.
Mom can explain the do’s of that!
Love, your Seester! xo
You are brave in so many ways, including sharing this story! Will add prayers for “cooking” to the ones we are saying for you.
Spent time tonight catching up on your blog. Amazed at what you are all doing and experiencing. Wondering how the ways in which you are being changed will continue to change you after your return in late July. Wondering what things may come of the lives you touch there and the lives you touch here.
And as amazed as I am, I also think, “well, why wouldn’t God be doing amazing things. Of course he is. He is God and he is amazing.”
Miss you guys. Always seem to look for you in your “pew” on Sundays.
Hi Joline,
We miss you guys so much! Enjoying all your exciting news. As for the beans I think they must be soaked the night before and the water changed several times before they are cooked the next day. My mum used to do that for chickpeas all the time when she made hummous!
It is a pain, but I’m sure with some spices and a tomato based sauce they would be pretty edible 🙂
Tamara and Carla miss you too. Can’t wait to see you in July! X
Suzy