Green peppers are used for flavouring here, but there are no red ones in the markets. I had brought a single packet of mixed red and green – the harvest of luscious red fruits had just finished and Gaudence had collected much seed, as you can see.
Also growing abundantly - rather to my surprise since it does well in my home garden right through the cold winter – was cavolo nero -black italian kale. Another crop waiting for my serving instructions was the mixed spicy salad leaves, big and glossy, from a few seeds I'd saved at home. I was interested, too, to see whether any of the tomato varieties from pound store selections were growing well and tasting good.The cavolo nero, so fashionable now from England to New Zealand, has not appealed to Gaudence's family. So I am to go round on Monday and help her cook it. I've been looking on the internet for suitable recipes. Because cabbage doesn't usually set seed here, there may be no need to increase its popularity, however. We shall also try a salad of the mixed greens, though it will be rather strong without any sweet lettuce – all that has gone to seed now.
This small patch includes rocket and mustard greens
There is only one kind of tomato generally available here, and to my taste it has little flavour compared with the better varieties available from gardens and even supermarkets at home. So I was disappointed that Gaudence had not even tasted the small red and yellow fruits now withering on desiccated plants.
The overlooked tomatoes, with cavolo nero in the background I picked a few and offered them as samples. Surprisingly to the Rwandans, who usually discard any small fruits, they still tasted strong and fragrant, if not particularly sweet. Perhaps the beefsteak kind, currently plump but still green in Rachel's garden, will be more appealing. Perhaps one of the other recipients of the variety packs will start some niche marketing.
I asked if I could take some of the kale and the mixed leaves, since there is too much to be used before it spoils. I have been doing most of the evening meal preparation this week, with Annunciate working in Ruhengeri and Sandrine at school in England. Cooking with my teaching groups has become an important and mostly enjoyable part of my work. What about cooking our dinner?
I steamed the kale, stripped from its stalks and shredded, with white cabbage, on top of carrots and broccoli stalk. (The small amount of water at the bottom of the pan went into the tomato sauce after it was thickened with cornflour.) Emile was at my side as I gingerly lifted the flat lid, protecting my hands with an old tea towel, stiff with oil and soot (better than the bits of paper bag sometimes proffered for the task), and fished out some pieces of cabbage to try. No, he didn't think that was cooked enough yet, though he knows that's how they eat it in Kenya now. So I say I'll give it a few more minutes. OK, he says, but you're killing vitamins, you know.
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Shopping for seed in my usual two shops, I am seeing a few new kinds from year to year. Basil and rocket are now available at the basic price, and large black aubergines as well as the small green local ones, with coriander and mint at a premium and several varieties of melon on offer, from the standard to the ridiculously expensive. If I think back forty years I can remember trying to buy green peppers and garlic in a small Yorkshire town and being told that for that kind of fancy stuff I'd better go back to London. Rwandans have a reputation among their neighbours for being conservative in matters of food. All I can do is offer possibilities.
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