Creating Nshima

Since Nshima is eaten with virtually every meal in Zambia, you can understand that it's an important product. The question then is, where does it come from?

Nshima is ground up corn (or as they say in Zambia, Maize). The trick is to get it refined enough. If you do not have access to machinery you have to do all of this by hand.
These pictures show the start of the process but the reality is after the corn is off the cob it still needs to be beaten to make it like cream of wheat! With a hammer mill this job would be ALOT quicker!

Nshima (the stable food for Zambia)

Nshima was described by the Peace Corps in my useless information packet as "corn porridge." In reality it is the consistency of grainy modelling clay. It is flavorless, colorless, and as far as I know virtually nutritionless. It's corn flour mixed with water and boiled until it gets that perfect rubbery texture, and is served as a gigantic (sometimes half of a soccer ball sized) mound. It is served so hot that the center of this mound is approximately the temperature of the Earth's core. No utensils are used. You grab your little lump of food substance off of the mound, roll it into a ball in your hand, and pinch up some delicious relish off of your plate with it and put the lot of it your mouth.