Kisamvu

Ingredients

Leaves

• 800 gyoung cassava leaves
• or 800 g frozen pounded cassava leaf
• water, for washing

The pot

• 2onions, chopped
• 3tomatoes, chopped
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• about 500 ml water
• salt and black pepper

To enrich

• 500 mlthick coconut milk
• or 150 g groundnut paste
• or both together

To serve

• ugali, stiff maize porridge
• rice
• fried or dried fish
• pilipili, chilli sauce

Directions

1. Discard any that smell musty or taste bitter. Pick the top few leaves from each stem. Discard any that are yellowed or damaged. Preparing the leaves takes real work. Strip the leaves from their stems. Discard every one of the stems. Wash them in several changes of water. Lift them out rather than pouring off.
2. Shake them as dry as you possibly can. Put the leaves in a large mortar. Pound them steadily and firmly. Work them until they break right down. Keep going until it is a fine green pulp. That takes fifteen or twenty minutes.
3. Put the pounded leaves in a large pot. Add the measured water to the pot. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Cover the pot and let it cook. Give it at least one full hour. Heat the oil in a separate pan. Add the chopped onions to the hot oil.
4. Cook them for a good eight minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan. Cook them down for about six minutes. Tip the pan into the leaf pot. Season it with salt and black pepper. Stir it all through thoroughly. Pour in the thick coconut milk.
5. Stir it through all of the leaves. Twenty minutes of gentle cooking is enough. Let it simmer very gently indeed. Give it another twenty minutes. Stir it regularly so it does not catch. Loosen the groundnut paste with warm liquid. Take a ladle from the pot to do it. Adding it thick gives lumps that never disperse.
6. Oil should sit at the surface. Any real bitterness means it needs longer. Cook it on if it tastes sharp. Taste it and adjust the salt as needed. It needs more than you might expect. Spoon it beside a mound of ugali. Serve fried or dried fish alongside.
7. Put pilipili chilli sauce on the table. Pinch off ugali and scoop with it. It keeps three days refrigerated.

Technique

• Cassava leaves carry more cyanogenic compounds than the root and are genuinely dangerous raw or undercooked; pounding breaks the cells and releases the enzyme that breaks those compounds down, and long boiling then drives off the released cyanide. Neither step alone is sufficient, an hour is the minimum and ninety minutes is safer.
• Cassava is not native to Africa but came from South America through Portuguese trade, spreading from the Congo basin eastwards with its processing knowledge, which is why the methods are so consistent across the continent.
• The same dish is made across central and eastern Africa with the enriching ingredient differing by region: katapa in Zambia uses groundnut, kisamvu on the Swahili coast uses coconut milk, and some Tanzanian cooks use both together.

Substitutions

• Frozen pounded cassava leaf is sold ready prepared in African shops.
• Groundnut paste replaces or joins the coconut milk in inland versions.

Variations

• Some cooks boil and drain the leaves once before cooking them again.
• Dried fish is added to the pot in many households.
• Coconut milk, groundnut or both together are all made in Tanzania.

History

Pounding and long boiling break down the leaves’ cyanogenic compounds; the technique came with cassava from Central Africa.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kisamvu?

Kisamvu is a salad & side from Tanzania: cassava leaves pounded and simmered with coconut milk or groundnut. Pounding and long boiling break down the leaves’ cyanogenic compounds; the technique came with cassava from Central Africa.

How long does Kisamvu take to make?

Kisamvu takes 40 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kisamvu?

Yes, within limits. Frozen pounded cassava leaf is sold ready prepared in African shops. Groundnut paste replaces or joins the coconut milk in inland versions.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kisamvu?

Discard any that smell musty or taste bitter. Pick the top few leaves from each stem. Discard any that are yellowed or damaged. Preparing the leaves takes real work. Strip the leaves from their stems. Discard every one of the stems. Wash them in several changes of water. Lift them out rather than pouring off.