Ginger Beer 'Salone' Style

I have not yet been able to independently make any of the international dishes here like Saki (Cassava Leaves) or Jola (Potato Leaves) (both sauces or plasas served mostly with rice.)  They are both delicious but difficult to make, I don't beat myself up about not being able to cook them yet, most girls here start cooking these dishes at around 10 years old so they have quite a head start on me.

The first thing I have been able to prepare is the local equivalent of Ginger Beer or Ginger as it is known here. When it is 35 degrees Celsius and the sun is blazing hot a really refreshing way to cool down is to drink some spicy sweet Ginger.  I am going to show how we make it here:

First, the ingredients:

Root Ginger

Limes

White Sugar

One of the essential kitchen implements here is what is called a Matowodo  and Matapencil (I state here again that these are Krio words and I am spelling them how they are said because I do not know written Krio and have no dictionary to refer to) or a mortar and pestle in English but I am sure that before I came to Sierra Leone I had never seen them this big:

Mortar or Matowodo

My friend got this for me from a village and had engraved I Love Africa and the date on it for me, this made me laugh because I know very little of Africa and have not travel anywhere else on the Continent but it was very nice of her and I haven't seen anyone else with a Matowodo quite like mine.

Moving on, you need to wash the root ginger very well in water:

Once done, put the ginger in the mortar and begin to beat it:

No tap water here so we have to buy our drinking water in packets:

Put the ginger in a sieve and dip it into the water.

Squeeze out the ginger then place it back in the mortar.  Wash and cut the limes in half adding them to the mortar and beat the ginger and limes together.

Once you have crushed the limes into the ginger sieve the mixture into the water again.  Remove the limes and beat the ginger again, repeating the process until the water has enough 'heat' (from the ginger - Sierra Leoneans love spice and many add chillies to their mixture, for me the ginger is enough.)

Add sugar to taste, for me this is a lot as I like it very sweet!  Here I put the ginger in quite small quantities into these plastic bags, because we don't have electricity much for it to get cold, it has to be in small volumes. 

I put it in the freezer as a gain lack of electricity means that for anything to get remotely cold it has to be in the freezer not the fridge.  The closer to freezing though, the better!

This is a very refreshing drink and though I have not tried it would be very nice with some Vodka and lots of ice!!