Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook: The No.1 book for African delicacies

Published on Saturday 28 November 2009 10:02

A NEW cookbook! A celebrity endorsement! Lots of glossy pics! So far, so Gordon Ramsay – or Jamie Oliver or any of their fellow chefs whose flashy recipe tomes are designed to make us more adventurous in the kitchen – and are guaranteed to have us scouring speciality shelves of the supermarket or local deli in search of some obscure but vital ingredient.

However, perhaps even cooking guru Heston Blumenthal, famed for his recipes' curious combinations, would balk at the idea of including roasted flying ants or dried Mopane worms in his list of ingredients. But then this is Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook – a collection of recipes and tales about food from Botswana, home of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the creation of Edinburgh author Alexander McCall Smith.

Being fictional, the "traditionally built" sleuth hasn't written the book herself. Instead, the food and drink of her native country have been brought to life by one of her fans, 38-year-old Morningside resident Stuart Brown.

"Just reading Alexander McCall Smith, I was struck by how many food references there were and how many dishes mentioned – I felt I shared Mma Ramotswe's relish for food and cooking," explains charity worker Stuart. "It just seemed a natural thing to pursue."

Having never written a book, he had no thought of doing it himself – instead he wrote to McCall Smith, suggesting the idea.

"I was surprised when he wrote back saying: 'This is a good idea, why don't you do it?'" he says.

Research included spending time in Botswana this summer, eating with and learning from villagers, including sampling some of the more exotic dishes.

"I haven't tried the termites but I have tried the worms on several occasions. They are not unpleasant, they don't have much flavour on their own – they are added to stews as they are very high in protein," Stuart explains.

Mopane worms are actually caterpillars from the Mopane emperor moth, which live on the leaves of the Mopane tree.

"They are extremely popular in Botswana. Each nation has its peculiar dish which other countries don't understand," says Stuart.

While he admits the worms aren't available at your local Asda, he insists many of the recipes can be recreated back here

"It does take a bit of searching to find the ingredients but it is possible to find most of them," he says. There are always substitutes – venison for springbok or antelope, for instance – and many of the ingredients are as much staples of the Scottish diet as the African. No cook over here would have trouble rustling up some lemon and condensed milk biscuits, while Botswana beef is highly prized. "Their beef is outstanding and has an international reputation," says Stuart.

Good, wholesome food is what you'd expect from the home country of Mma Ramotswe, a woman who prides herself on her "traditional" build – and Stuart admits it's not a book for dieters. "People are comfortable in their own skins. A larger size is a sign of prosperity and wellbeing in Botswana – and the men prefer women with larger bottoms," he laughs.

In fact, with its mineral wealth and stable government Botswana – as McCall Smith has always been keen to highlight – counters the cliched view of Africa as a continent of dictators, starvation and despair.

But a little further up the east coast, in sub-Saharan Africa, the picture is different, as Stuart, who works for a livestock vaccine charity, knows only too well. The charity works to provide access to vaccines and veterinary advice to some of the 700 million people in the world, many in east Africa, who rely on livestock and whose communities are devastated if their animals are hit by disease.

"At the moment, we work predominately in east Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda," says Stuart. "Food scarcity is an enormous problem and the number of children dying under five is shocking."

Even so, Stuart says he is touched by the resilience he finds. "There is great joy and ingenuity among people," he says. He was no less impressed with the people of Botswana: "They were very welcoming and very proud of their traditional dishes."

As for the person he most needed to please, McCall Smith was more than happy to write the foreword to the book. And he says: "This book is a wonderful tribute to Botswana and indeed to Mma Ramotswe herself."

Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook by Stuart Brown is published by Birlinn and is priced 18.99