Botswanan Cuisine

Browse All Botswanan Recipes: Botswanan Appetizers | Botswanan Soups | Botswanan Salads | Botswanan Vegetarian | Botswanan Meat Dishes | Botswanan Snacks | Botswanan Desserts

Overview of Botswana Cuisine History
Botswana is an African country dominated in geographical term by the Kalahari Desert. Botswana is bordered by Zambia and Zimbabwe to the northeast, Namibia to the north and west, and South Africa to the south and southeast. Due to the fact that Botswana is an equatorial country the most important dishes are vegetables and fruits. Botswana people eat a lot of stuff with vegetables like soups and salads. They also eat meat that they got from hunting prepared in special tradition with sauces and tomatoes. Botswana inhabitants eat fish, seswaa, the ugali, rice, goat, meat, lots and lots of meat, yams, cabbage, beats and fresh fruits. Most cooking in villages is on open wood fires, and lighting by candle and kerosene lantern, though coal fires have become general in poorer urban households without electricity. The cuisine in Botswana may includes consists of millet or sorghum porridge which constitute much of the cuisine.

Cuisines of Botswana
Favorite meats in Botswana are beef,lamb,goat and Chicken. sorghum is the staple starch. Breads are oven baked and deep fried. Vegetables, fresh and cooked, are of infinite variety, fruits are peeled and cut in small slices for dessert, but the Botswana people as well love sweets and every housewife knows how to make Custard. Also the most excellent recipe is seswaa which is a cooked pounded Beef served with maize meal and cooked cabbage. Botswana cuisine is rich in fish mostly in the northren part of the country. Meat pies introduced by the British had a deep influence on Botswana cuisine, which are made from Chicken meat or beef,Russian sausages and ofals.

Preparation Methods for Setswana Cooking
The ritual of generosity is as important in the Botswana as it is in other African countries. While there are no specific or unique preparation methods for Botswana cooking, we should point out that attention to detail is important in the Namibian cuisine. Botswana cuisine uses elements from various cooking traditions borrowed from their neighbors and developed from their own traditional dishes, like British or South African. Using the right amount of spices for example is essential – either for spicing up the taste or for coloring the dish. Each traditional dish has a special cooking method, which is more or less general in all of Botswana regions. Meat is one of the main elements of most Botswana dishes. The visual attractiveness of the dish is also important. The diversity of vegetables and cereals found in Botswana is also noticed in the delicious dishes belonging to a cuisine.

Special Equipment for Setswana Cooking
In Botswana cuisine exist a great variety cooking equipments from cake pans, can openers, colanders, egg rings, poachers and holders, food dishers and portioned, food pans and food containers to other kitchen utensils, such as food scales, food scoops and fryer baskets and accessories. The Botswana cuisine requests various food preparation equipment set in order to produce the most refined Botswana dishes. You should consider insulated food carriers if you are transporting the food and a full set of kitchen linens and uniforms if you wish to look like a pro. Here are a few other items that will come handy while cooking Botswana food: juicers, kitchen knives, kitchen slickers, and kitchen thermometers, measuring cups and measuring spoons, miscellaneous utensils, mixing bowls and skimmers and strainers. Necessary utensils like serving spoons, spatulas, forks, turners, scrapers and tongs should as well be part of your cooking "munitions store”. When the entree is served, small plates or bowls are also brought in from which the host or hostess dishes out portions of salad and gives each guest a spoon with which to eat the salad.

Botswana Food Traditions and Festivals
Botswana is one of the riches countries in Africa and enjoys a high standard of healthcare, education and stability. Botswana has a large variety of holidays and festivals when the peoples cook special dishes and meals. The most important Botswana’s event is Independence Day in September. Other important Botswana festivals are: maitisong festival in Gaborone, president's day, Christmas Day, and New Year Day. Cuisine of Botswana reflects excellent traditions and use large combination of fruits, milk, vegetables and meat. On these special days Botswana families serve traditional food along with traditional drinks on family dinners.

Setswana Food (Dijo tsa Setswana)

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Women have to systematize the daily meals according to their financial possibilities and according to the accessibility of the ingredients In Botswana the cooking and preparing of the food is frequently done by the women. There are many chefs who creatively use the essential ingredients and cooking process for traditional Setswana dishes and make innovative and tasty food variations. Batswana chefs are passionate about their traditional dishes and they enjoy presenting them to foreigners who has never tasted them before. Whether they are cooking dishes that go back in time for centuries or brand new, modern dishes, Batswana chefs take pride in what they do, and this is readily noticeable in the unforgettable taste of their cooking.