Pies: Sweet and Salty

By Olivia Abraham
Delicious Sausage Rolls, home made with fresh
ingredients. Best served with roasted Potato and
a Salad











Delicious open Apple pie, made with short crust pastry served with hot custard









Ingredients
2 cups Flour, 1 apple, 250g lean mince, 1 clove garlic, a teaspoon ginger, pinch of salt, 1 egg, 200g Butter or 200mls oil and 3 teaspoons of chilled water

Make dough by mixing melted butter salt and chilled water and knead. place dough in the fridge for 30mins. spice up with ginger salt, garlic and whatever else you prefer. kneed  the dough into flat sheets and place mince in the middle and close it up. Smear a beaten egg on top and bake for 30 mins until the crust is golden at 200 degrees. remaining dough spread out and make circles with borders, place apple slices on the dough and sprinkle a bit of sugar on top and bake at 180 degrees for 30mins.Serve the apple tarts/open pies with hot custard.Good Luck                

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Charcoal and Food

By Olivia A.P Abraham


We have all heard that Charcoal burning produces poisonous carbon monoxide, which is very dangerous for your health, but the other truth is Grilling is the best way to get food cooked without utilizing so much oil and the food comes out more tasty and it's fun to do. The other advantage is that it is way cheaper than electricity. Another method is gas grills, the truth is they are too expensive for the common Zambians, though easier to maintain.


Am sure someone is saying "the environment" factor, yes, I agree that is why as we buy charcoal we should also participate in tree planting exercises around the country, in our backyards and join in environmental protection programs, but please lets use the charcoal. The type of charcoal am talking about is the local charcoal burners produce, and not the briquettes found in our Supermarkets. I find Briquettes very easy to light-up and last longer than normal charcoal but they are filled with chemicals that help them ignite faster and who knows what effect the chemicals have on the food. Normal charcoal lets air pass through thus the poison flies off easier. 


When lighting up your Charcoal it's best not to use parrafin, it is hazardous and leaves an undesirable aroma on your food. Its best to light-up your fire with fire starters easily found in local markets or just put some charcoals on a on Hot plate/stove. Another grilling tip is to add pieces of wood from fruit trees such as Peach, this adds a delicious fruity and smokey flavour to the food. Always wash your hands after handling Charcoal to reduce putting the dark colour on food. Stop the stereotype of Local Braai's always having alcohol involved and just skip it out and make them an interactive activity for everyone to enjoy. Always marinate your meat for not less than 30 minutes, more for red and white meat. As for Fish marinate for shorter periods and always put the food in the fridge during the marinating process. Also use quality foil for grilling Fish to avoid burning. Do not forget to add fruit, braai some Peaches, Apples, Pineapples and even Bananas, they make an excellent dessert idea. Finally to make food attractive always leave some left over marinade for basting on the meats and poultry.

Good food is only achieved through planning, quality choices and good company to share it with.


Good Luck

The Zambian Flag diet

The Zambian Flag is coloured Black, Green, Orange and Yellow, with the large area of the flag being Green. Am not so partriotic but truth is my flag is a wonderful combination when applied to a diet program or to any healthy diet for all ages. When we check our fast food diet or our usual food at home will find that we eat red, white and green, all the time. This combination is become does not have sufficient nutrients, it just becomes inadequate and eventually, useless. But a variable combination of coloured food brings in different, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and whatever else is good in food.
Examples of Local and easily accessible foods that we should incorporate into the diet or meals everyday are as follows:

"RED: Tomatoes get their red colour from lycopene, a powerful antioxidant linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease. Lycopene is also found in watermelon."Red meat is one of the best sources of iron and zinc is well adsorbed by the body. It is a source of omega-3 and a good source of vitamin B and protein.
GREEN: The green comes from chlorophyll, which researchers suspect becomes a powerful cancer-fighting agent when it's broken down by digestion. All the greens are rich in vitamins, minerals and a variety of disease-fighting plant chemicals. When you pick your greens, the darker the better. ORANGE/YELLOW: Orange foods are sources of alpha and beta-carotene associated with cancer prevention. Sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, apricots, mangoes, yellow pepper, pawpaw, peaches and pineapples.
BLACK: Black lentils/Beans.This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Protein, Iron, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Folate and Manganese. 
if you can find black use BLUE/PURPLE: Blue pigment created by anthocyanins ranges from the deep blue/purple in foods such as grapes and eggplant, Eggplant can be grilled, roasted or baked, added to sandwiches or used in soups.

I will soon make recipes with the Zambian flag combo to prove that all these foods are workable and i will suggest cheap sources so that cost does not become a constraint to good health.
Good Luck.


References:
1. http://www.themainmeal.com.au/Red+meat+and+nutrition/Nutritional-value-of-red-meat/Nutritional+value+of+red+meat.htm
2. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4338/2
3. http://arthritis.about.com/od/nutrition/a/fruitsvegetable.htm

The Love of Food

By Olivia A.Phiri-Abraham

The body needs nourishment, medication, care, exercise and love. One of the best ways to show your body love is to give it good food. Good food has been a subject of debate recently because people are thinking of better or alternative ways of being more healthy, sustaining the environment by eating natural products (organic), raw and  home cooked meals. We have heard about Trans-fat, effects of Sodium, Phosphoric acid, Tartrazine and other chemicals put in processed foods to add colour, flavour or just preserve them.

Science has proved that excess exposure to such elements make our body's weak and we in turn lose precious minerals in our system through ingesting them, for example, I read an article that says if you take too much soda your body loses zinc, calcium and magnesium every time you urinate, causing health hazards such as bone deterioration (osteoporosis).

So what is good food? In Africa it is both easy and difficult to say what is good and bad. We have good soils and vegetation that allows crops with high nutritional value to grow, but because of Politics, we are often using the land to grow cash crops that are not so necessary to sustenance, for example, instead of growing a lot of cassava, millet, sorghum we instead grow coffee, sugar cane, roses for export and very little crop for our families.
Characteristics of good food is clean food, free of disease, free of pesticides, well cooked, well preserved (no artificial preservatives/colourants) or stored and nutritious(sufficient calories needed for optimal growth and development of the body).
Zambia is a poor country, so it appropriate for us to follow Diets and eating  plans of wealthy nations that have a larger variety of food than us? The answer is no. We should be realistic in our goals for health and taking care of the body. Whatever is readily available in our country is extremely sufficient and most people in the West admire our diet or types of foods because they are so natural and filled with fiber and very little of it is processed.

Scientific evidence links fiber intake to a plethora of health benefits, including treating and preventing constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis; decreasing blood cholesterol levels, which protects against certain forms of cancer; and increasing satiety to help control weight.

Examples of Fiber rich food are Maize, wild Rice, Wheat, Beans, Millet, Peanuts, Cashews, Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Zucchini, Cauliflower, Sweet Potato,Banana, Figs,Orange,Guava, Avocado and Soya. All these are cheaply produced in our country but even myself have fallen victim to thinking they are exotic and buying them very expensively from our local supermarkets. Most of these Fiber rich foods can be planted in our back yard, Sweet potato, pumpkins, Zucchini, beans, peanuts, cauliflower, in fact the only thing a bit exotic or difficult to find are the cashews. But cashew nuts and a variety types of nuts are easily found at Soweto Market in Lusaka at much more affordable prices than fancy supermarkets.

Good food needs effort, I guess that is why people opt for a quick snack at the nearest Take away joint. Please understand that am not totally discouraging people from eating from convenient places, its just that fast food joints are more concerned with profit and appearance that the food is sometimes fried in used or excessive oil or just re-used and storage facilities have been found lacking, thus inviting problems like food poisoning, unwarranted fat intake and dirt.

My own little garden, to be improved with the addition of organic Chicken rearing, it's going to be fun

It would not hurt to start a little garden, using natural fertilizers such as cow dung, chicken poop or dried out vegetation to help grow your produce and stay healthy. If you have no time to plant, go to natural food markets and get unprocessed, un-waxed and no preservative food for you and your family.
And one last tip....try to have more home cooked meals together with loved ones, although it opens up cans of worms sometimes, its good for your heart.
Good Luck