At my sisters’ I saw Ugali made in a sufuria for the first time in my life. Their flour was Jogoo which made the Ugali so light and delicious, I could eat it without any stew or vegetables. Our Ugali in OlKalou was made in a wok (Karai) with flour milled at the Mukurino’s posho mill, making our Ugali quite dense and not exactly white like the Jogoo one at my sisters’ house.
In OlKalou, after making the Ugali and dropping the huge lump onto a traditional tray (Gitaruru or Uteo) the Karai was stashed into a corner of our kitchen, leaning against a wall until the next time it was needed. When such a time came, the dusty Karai was retrieved from its corner, still caked with the crust (mukuro) from the Ugali we made last. To loosen the mukuro, the Karai was reheated and the mukuro was scrapped away with a sharp object. Us, we used a machete (banga) to chip away the mukuro. The Karai was then rinsed off and ready to make Ugali.
As much as I was famous for cooking for my entire family, Ugali is one meal I was never allowed to make. The Ugali made at my house was huge, enough to feed twenty people or more. I guess my parents feared I did not have enough body strength to mix, mash, fold and roll as was required in making good Ugali. One of my brothers was the expert in making Ugali. He mixed it perfectly, there were no pockets of unmixed flour, like it happened when some of the other brothers attempted making Ugali.
The expert Ugali making brother effortlessly made a Karai full, every time, ensuring we had enough for supper and plenty left over for eating with tea the next morning for breakfast. That was very important. Remember bread was a luxury most families could not afford. My family rarely bought bread for breakfast, unless our father came home from his business travels, or we had visitors who brought us bread otherwise, our breakfast consisted of a cup of tea with no accompaniment. That is why Ugali left over from the previous evening was a really big deal. A godsend. It gave us something to eat with our tea for breakfast, starting our day off with full stomachs, just the way we liked it.
