Mbaazi wa Nazi

The Swahili coast's breakfast: pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk with onion, garlic, turmeric, and green chilli, eaten with mahamri for tearing and dipping

Origin: Mombasa & the Swahili Coast, Kenya

From the journey of Pigeon Pea.

Mbaazi wa nazi, sometimes mbaazi za nazi, is pigeon peas in coconut milk, and on the Swahili coast of Kenya and Tanzania it is breakfast. The peas are boiled until tender, then simmered in thin coconut milk with onion, garlic, tomato, turmeric, and green chilli, and finished with a spoonful of thick coconut cream stirred in at the end. The sauce should be rich and golden and just thick enough to cling. It is eaten with mahamri, the fried, cardamom-scented coconut breads of the coast, torn and dipped in the peas, or with chapati, and in the mornings in Mombasa's Old Town and across the coast the two are sold together from cafés and home kitchens alike. The pairing puts the pigeon pea, a pulse of Indian origin, beside coconut and cardamom, the other staples of an Indian Ocean coast that has traded with India for well over a thousand years. In Swahili the pulse is mbaazi, and Kenya and Tanzania are amongst the largest growers of pigeon peas in Africa.

Ingredients

Peas

  • 250 g dried whole pigeon peas (mbaazi), soaked overnight, or 2 x 400 g tins, drained

Sauce

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 ripe tomato, chopped
  • 1 green chilli, slit
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin (optional)
  • 400 ml coconut milk, divided: 300 ml thin milk and 100 ml thick cream from the top of the tin
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

To Serve

  • Mahamri or chapati, to serve

Method

  1. Drain the soaked peas and simmer in fresh water for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until tender but whole. Drain. (Tinned peas need only rinsing.)
  2. Heat the oil and fry the onion gently until soft and golden. Add the garlic, chilli, turmeric, and cumin and cook for a minute, then the tomato, and cook until it collapses.
  3. Add the peas, the thin coconut milk, and the salt. Simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has thickened.
  4. Stir in the thick coconut cream and heat through for 2 minutes without boiling hard.
  5. Serve hot with mahamri or chapati for dipping.

Notes

Fresh green pigeon peas, when in season, cook in about 20 minutes. Some coastal cooks add a pinch of ground cardamom; others leave out the tomato for a whiter sauce. The peas are equally good at lunch with rice.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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