Urojo

Zanzibar mix: a turmeric-yellow tamarind broth loaded at the table with bhajia, crisps, skewers and a spoonful of fierce coconut chutney

Origin: Zanzibar & the Swahili Coast, Tanzania

From the journey of Turmeric.

Urojo, known everywhere in Zanzibar as Zanzibar mix, is a thin, sharply sour, brilliantly yellow soup that arrives as a base and is then built by the seller in front of you. Into the bowl go potato bhajia, cassava crisps, a boiled potato, a meat skewer or two, crushed kachori, a boiled egg, and a spoonful each of coconut chutney and chilli. No two bowls are the same and none is eaten with a knife. The soup itself is turmeric, tamarind, and a light broth thickened faintly with gram flour, and its character is the collision of those first two: the earthy yellow against a sourness sharp enough to make you blink. It is street food of the evening, sold along Forodhani Gardens on the Stone Town waterfront as the sun goes down. Zanzibar's cooking is the sum of the Indian Ocean traffic that passed through it, and urojo is the plainest evidence. The gram flour, the bhajia, and the kachori are Gujarati; the tamarind and turmeric came down the same routes; the coconut and the cassava are African and Southeast Asian; and the whole assembly is Swahili. The islands were the world's principal source of cloves for much of the nineteenth century, and the spice trade that made them wealthy also stocked their kitchens. It is properly eaten standing up, and the seller will keep adding to the bowl until told to stop.

Ingredients

Soup

1.5 litres light chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp ground turmeric
80 g tamarind pulp, soaked in 200ml hot water and strained
4 tbsp gram flour
1 large thumb of ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp salt, or to taste

Bhajia

150 g gram flour
2 potatoes, very thinly sliced
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
500 ml oil, for frying

Chutney

100 g grated coconut
2 green chillies
1 small bunch coriander
1 lime, juiced

To assemble

4 boiled potatoes, halved
4 boiled eggs, halved
100 g cassava crisps

Method

Make the chutney first: blend the coconut, chillies, coriander, and lime juice with a splash of water to a coarse green paste. Season and set aside.
For the bhajia, whisk the 150g gram flour with the half teaspoon of turmeric, salt, and enough water to make a thick coating batter.
Heat the frying oil to 180°C. Dip the potato slices in the batter and fry in batches until golden and crisp, three to four minutes. Drain on paper.
For the soup, whisk the 4 tablespoons of gram flour into 300ml of the cold stock until completely smooth. Lumps here will not disperse.
Bring the remaining stock to a simmer with the turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin, and salt.
Pour in the gram flour slurry, whisking, and simmer for fifteen minutes. The soup should thicken only slightly: this is a broth, not a gravy, and it should still pour freely.
Add the strained tamarind and cook for a further ten minutes. Taste. It should be markedly sour, more than seems reasonable, because everything added to the bowl will blunt it.
To serve, ladle the hot soup into wide bowls and let each person build: bhajia, boiled potato, egg, cassava crisps, then a spoonful of coconut chutney and chilli on top. Eat at once, before the bhajia soften.

Notes

The soup must be soured harder than tastes right on its own, since the fried additions and the potato flatten it considerably. Keep it thin; a thick urojo is a common error and makes the whole bowl stodgy. Fry the bhajia last so they are still crisp when the bowl is built. Anything crunchy works among the toppings, and Zanzibari sellers use whatever the day has produced.

The Gastrographer

Name: Urojo
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Tanzania
Ingredients: 1.5 litres light chicken or vegetable stock; 2 tsp ground turmeric; 80 g tamarind pulp, soaked in 200ml hot water and strained; 4 tbsp gram flour; 1 large thumb of ginger, grated; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tsp ground cumin; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 150 g gram flour; 2 potatoes, very thinly sliced; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 500 ml oil, for frying; 100 g grated coconut; 2 green chillies; 1 small bunch coriander; 1 lime, juiced; 4 boiled potatoes, halved; 4 boiled eggs, halved; 100 g cassava crisps

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control