I was sitting on the cool earthen floor of a traditional home in the northernmost desert of Uganda. The family cow trying to find refuge from the heat had stuck her head through the window and you could tell she was annoyed that I had taken her spot on the floor. Outside, the mirage was so thick you couldn’t distinguish the horizon. The rainy season was about to begin, and the heat was truly a force of nature as everyone begged the rain to begin.
I was visiting a friend’s family, who actually had immigrated to this area from Ethiopia. The grandmother, head of the family, came in with carrying some gourds filled with an array of delicious foods. Some sort of meat stew, a large piece of flatbread, and this spicy green sauce.
It was one of my favorite meals of that time. I will never forget the sensation of the sweat dripping off my body, a combination of the heat and the chiles, but it was so good that you just had to have one more bite…
Months later, when I arrived back home, I searched desperately for information on that green sauce. I found out that it was probably a sauce called koch-kocha but every recipe I have ever tried has always fallen short.
However, in my experimenting and quest to recreate with the ingredients I have access to here, this is my version. Not the same, but still delicious.
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
2 poblano chiles | seeded and chopped
4 Thai chiles | seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove
1 3/4 tsp whole cardamom seeds | toasted and ground
1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds | toasted and ground
1/4 teaspoon black whole peppercorns | toasted and ground
2 cups cilantro leaves
3/4 cup Thai basil
1 teaspoon oregano leaves | roughly minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger | peeled
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Instructions
Step 1
Heat a dry skillet until hot, add the whole cardamom, cumin seeds, and peppercorns. Continually stir using a wooden spoon to push the seeds around the skillet until they are nicely toasted and very fragrant. Remove from the heat and either pound in a mortar and pestle, or put into a spice grinder, pulverizing the seeds until you have a nice fine powder.
Step 2
Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add your chiles and garlic, stirring occasionally, for one minute. Add your powdered spice blend and continue to cook until the chiles have just softened. Remove from the heat.
Step 3
Put the chile mixture, cilantro, oregano, Thai basil, ginger, salt, and vinegar in a blender and puree until smooth. Enjoy.
Some background
on traditional Koch-Kocha