Zimbabwe kept two British habits with real devotion: tea at ten in the morning and tea again at four in the afternoon. Mupotohayi, also called chimodho, is one of the homemade things that went with it, a bread of mealie meal, the white cornmeal that is the country's staple, made by mothers and grandmothers for breakfast or the afternoon pot, and remembered with great fondness by anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. The oldest versions were plain and frugal, just mealie meal, flour, water and salt. Over time cooks added sugar, an egg and the tang of sour milk, and the result became a soft, sweet loaf somewhere between cornbread and a simple cake.

It needs no yeast, no kneading and no special skill, which makes it an ideal first bake, and it fills the kitchen with the warm, toasty smell of corn. Serve it in thick slices with butter and jam and a strong cup of tea with milk, and you have a very Zimbabwean way to settle in for the afternoon. Bake it in the morning and it will be at its best, still slightly warm, by the time the cars leave the grid.

The cornmeal bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (210 g) fine white mealie meal or fine cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cups (160 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup (240 ml) sour milk or buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) sunflower or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) water or milk

Tea with milk, for ten o'clock or four o'clock

Ingredients

• 4 cups (950 ml) water
• 4 black tea bags, or 4 teaspoons loose black tea
• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
• to taste sugar
• to serve butter and apricot or mixed fruit jam

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