Huyu chamaa anachua kupika ukari kweri kweri.

I cannot tell you how many people fail to understand the importance of making sure Ugali is well done and it takes a great deal of skill and experience to make sure it is done correctly. Thanks Muriel for emphasizing the salient points of adding unga slowly and in phases to allow for maximum cooking and also the breathing..... This by the way also serves as a test of how well it is cooked and that the consistency is just right.

If the Ugali is too soft it will not breathe instead the air will come right through the ugali, If it is too hard it will start burning before it can breathe.........

For the uninitiated the breathing of ugali is where a the mwiko is used to smooth out the Ugali in the sufuria to a beautiful rounded mlima making sure that there is no Ugali sticking out of the sides. The whole Ugali should then rise within the sufuria so that the bottom does not touch the bottom of the Sufuria ie (If you were to cut a cross section of the sufuria at this point you would have air on top then the Ugali, then compressed hot air then the sufuria, the Ugali is floating on this hot air which is what causes the breathing as it escapes). Do not let it breath for too long because the "Mukoro" at the bottom of the Sufuria starts to burn and produces a lot of smoke.

If you are cooking a small Ugali and are an expert you can overturn the Ugali after the first breathe onto your hand (It just drops out of the sufuria)and then drop it back into the sufuria upside down for the opposite side to breath. After the second breathing take it out and overturn it onto a plate. When you overturn it you should feel the whole Ugali dropping onto the plate, further evidence that you did a good job. Let it rest for a few minutes as people wash hands and gawana mboga because if you open too soon that hot air at the bottom of the sufuria(which is now on top of the ugali since the sufuria is overturned) can burn you. As the ugali rests that hot air escapes slowly and it has a distinctive smell that lets all who are outside know, Ukari Iko tayari pwana.

Another test of a well cooked Ugali is when you cut it with a knife there should not be too much Ugali sticking to the knife.