Creamy Samp
Overview
Samp is dried maize kernels, stamped to crack the hulls and break the grain into coarse pieces. It is eaten in place of rice or mealie meal across South Africa, and it holds a chewy, distinctly grainy texture that neither of those has. Different communities cook it differently: with beans as umngqusho, on its own with a little seasoning, or with meat worked through it. Its defining property used to be time. Conventional samp takes about three hours, which puts it beyond a weekday for most households and placed it firmly at weddings, traditional ceremonies and funerals. There is a South African joke that turns on exactly this: warn someone about risky behaviour and the reply is that everyone will eat samp at the funeral, because that was the reliable place to find it on a menu. Quick cook samp changed that. Processed to cook in around thirty minutes, it moved the dish from the occasion to the ordinary week, and the reason it caught on is as much about electricity as about time. Three hours on a stove is expensive in a country with an unreliable supply. This creamy version, finished with mushroom, cheese and milk, is what samp looks like once it stopped being ceremonial.
AFN Heritage Note
Samp is stamped maize, produced by pounding dried kernels to crack the hull, and is documented as a staple across southern Africa, most closely associated in Xhosa cooking with umngqusho, the preparation of samp with beans. Maize itself reached the region through Portuguese Atlantic trade from the 16th century.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Put the quick cook samp in a large deep pot, cover with the boiling water and cook over medium heat for 50 minutes.
- 2
In a separate pan, heat some cooking oil and add the onion.
- 3
Fry the onion until translucent, then add the mushrooms and fry until browned.
- 4
Once the samp is soft and the water has cooked away, add the mushroom mixture and mix well.
- 5
Add the aromat seasoning.
- 6
Mix the mushroom soup powder into the milk in a clean bowl, then pour it into the samp, followed by the cheese.
- 7
Simmer for 5 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste.
- 8
Serve hot with any protein of your choice.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Tshego Stone- Conventional samp needs soaking overnight and around three hours of cooking. Quick cook samp is the product this recipe is built around, and substituting one for the other without adjusting the method will not work.
- Keep an eye on the liquid. Samp absorbs a great deal of water and a pot that runs dry will catch and scorch, which is not recoverable.
- Add the milk and cheese at the end and off a hard boil. High heat after the dairy goes in will split the sauce.
- Aromat is a South African seasoning blend. If it is unavailable, a mixture of salt, onion powder, garlic powder and a little MSG approximates it.
- The other standard preparation is umngqusho, samp cooked with sugar beans, which is a different and older dish rather than a variation on this one.
Reviews
4 reviews
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Never cooked samp before and had to order the quick cook version online. The technique of mixing cream of mushroom soup powder with milk to make the sauce creamy was completely new to me, but it worked surprisingly well with the melted mozzarella. Served it alongside grilled pork chops for my family and everyone loved the texture.
50 minutes was not enough for 3 cups of water to cook away in my pot abeg, the samp was still swimming after an hour. I had to drain liquid out before adding the milk and soup powder or it would have turned into porridge soup. Taste was decent in the end but the cooking time is way off.
Made this yesterday for Sunday braai. Using the Knorr soup powder gives it that proper home taste, but 1 tablespoon of Aromat made it slightly too salty alongside the soup mix. Next time I'll cut the Aromat in half. Still very lekker and super creamy with the cheese.
Couldn't find quick cook samp anywhere here so I bought standard samp from an Afro-shop in Wedding and had to soak it overnight before cooking. The mushroom and soup powder combination surprised me sha, but e sweet o! Very hearty meal for this cold weather.