African Recipes

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One of the most delightful cookbooks I have discovered is a book of African Recipes by my friend Michael Tracey.

AFRICAN RECIPES

(Cooking real food from Africa)

As Michael explains, it blends "the different cultures, traditions and ethnic groupings of Africa into one AFRICAN RECIPES COOK BOOK, that contains recipes from almost every African country" Michael truely has produced a unique African Recipe book that reveals the story of Africa through its cooking and ethnic recipes

This cookbook gave me a deep appreciation of the connections provided by the foods served on our two continents. As Michael shared:

Some of the recipes contained in the African Recipes cookbook are the same as those eaten and enjoyed by Africans many years ago. Except in limited instances, where fresh vegetables have been substituted by canned, the recipes stay true to the originals, We can imagine the significance a last meal as a free person could have had to someone, before his world was destroyed, before the slave chains were locked on his wrists and ankles.

The new slaves faced unimaginable horrors; deprived of their freedom, displaced and despairing, transported between decks under appalling conditions, to face forced labor on the plantations of the new World and Caribbean. Everything was unfamiliar and threatening. They had nothing to fall back on.

In this strange new world, the slaves sought solace by remembering home. They were aided in this by cooking their traditional foods, sometimes adapting their ethnic African recipes to include new ingredients found in their new surroundings. This saw the start of Soul Food and Caribbean cooking; cuisine now recognized for its own uniqueness and flavor - and copied in many countries of the world.

Know also that Gumbo is the word for Okra in a great many of the African dialects.

Remembering the above, the recipes of ethnic foods contained in the African Recipes cookbook may indeed serve to soothe your soul.

This cookbook is perfect for teaching your children about the different African cultures.

Here are 4 sample recipes from this incredible cookbook:

PEA SOUP 'N MEAT
(GUINEABISSAU)

· 2 lb neck of mutton
· 1 small pork shank
· 4 strips bacon
· 1 lb dried split peas
· ½ cup rice
· 2 large celery sticks
· 2 large potatoes
· 2 large carrots
· 1 large onion
· 2 bay leaves
· salt and pepper to taste
· 8 pints water

Slice the neck of mutton.
Cut the bacon into strips across the length.
Finely chop the celery sticks.
Peel the potatoes and grate coarsely.
Peel the carrots and grate coarsely.
Peel the onion and chop finely.

Place all the ingredients, except for the peas and rice, in a heavy Dutch oven or cast iron pot.
Add 3 pints of water. Cover and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat and simmer slowly for 2 hours.

Add the peas and rice together with 4 pints of water
Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer for 2 hours.

If the soup is too thick, add the remaining pint of water.
You can even add more water if you feel it's necessary

As the soup thickens it must be stirred frequently to prevent burning.

This is a very thick and tasty soup.

Don't be tempted to make it too thin.

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SENEGALESE RICE AND FISH STEW
Thiebou Dienn Sous Verre
(SENEGAL)

· 3 lb sea bass tail
· 2 lb broken rice
· ½ lb pound calabreze
· ½ lb sweet cassava
· 9 cups cold water
· 1x6 ounce can tomato paste
· 3” piece smoked fish (any firm white will do)
· 12 small okra pods
· 5 small purple turnips
· 5 carrots
· 4 sweet potatoes
· 2 large onions
· 2 scallions
· 2 small eggplants
· 2 large cloves garlic
· 1 small green cabbage
· 1 bunch parsley
· 1 fresh bird chili
· 1 habanero chili
· 4 Tbsp peanut oil
· 1 tsp salt

Dissolve the salt in the water.

Prepare the vegetables as follows:- Peel and dice both the calabreze and cassava into 1 inch pieces.
Wash, top and tail the okra pods, making sure you have no hard pods
Quarter the turnips and sweet potatoes.
Peel the carrots and cut into 1 inch rounds
Cut the eggplants into 1 inch slices
Cut the cabbage into 8 pieces
Mince the onions

Prepare the sea bass by cleaning and cut into 1 ½ inch thick steaks, score the steaks with a sharp knife.

Prepare the stuffing for the sea bass steaks by placing the parsley, garlic, bird chili and scallions in a food processor and pulsing until they form a thick paste.

When the paste is ready poke the stuffing into the slits, previously made by scoring the sea bass steaks

Heat the oil in a large stockpot and brown the onion.
Add the smoked fish, tomato paste and ¼ cup of the salted water.
When the onion has browned, place the sea bass in the pot with the onion mixture and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the remaining water.
Bring to the boil, cover and lower the heat.

Add the vegetables as follows: calabaza, sweet cassava, turnips, cabbage, sweet potatoes, eggplants, carrots, okra and habanero chili.

Remove and reserve the habanero chili when the thiebou dienn is spicy enough to taste.

Cook for 20 minutes.

Remove the sea bass steaks, keeping them whole, and place them on a serving platter.
Cover with a little of the cooking liquid and keep warm.

Cook the thiebou dienn for a further 15 minutes, thereafter removing the vegetables and arranging them on a platter. Keep warm.

Reserve 2 cups of the liquid to make the sauces.

Bring the remaining liquid to the boil, add the rice, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done.

While the rice is cooking, pulverize the habanero chili and add it to 1 cup of the reserved liquid. Heat, stirring occasionally, and place it in a sauce dish.

Heat the remaining cup of liquid and place in a separate sauce dish.

When ready to serve, mound the rice on one platter and the fish and vegetables on another.
Alternatively, place the rice in a deep dish, arrange the vegetables and fish on top, and eat Senegalese-style with your right hand (only!) or with a large spoon.

Add, whichever sauce you prefer, the one with or without the habanero chili according to your taste.

You and your guests or family will undoubtedly find this dish well worth the trouble taken in it's preparation. Apart from using canned tomato paste, the recipe is the same as that which would have been taken to America and the Caribbean by slaves transported from Senegal, one of the areas, heavily raided by slave traders

Serves 8-10

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SWEET LAMB FOR RAMADHAN
El ham lahlou
(ALGERIA)

· 1 lb lamb
· 12 dried prunes
· 1 firm pear
· 3 cups water
· ¼ cup sugar
· 3 Tbsp butter
· 2 Tbsp orange blossom water
· 2 Tbsp white raisins
· 2 Tbsp whole blanched almonds
· ½ tsp cinnamon, ground

Cut the lamb into 2 to 3 inch pieces.
Soak the prunes in water for 1 to 2 hours, remove the pits.
Peel and core the pear and cut into wedges.

Melt the butter in a pan, over low heat and then add the lamb.
Sauté over low heat for 5 minutes and then add the cinnamon, water and sugar and mix well.
Increase the heat to moderate and cook for approximately 45 minutes or until the meat is tender to a fork. The sauce will become darker.

Drain the prunes and add them to the lamb with the raisins, almonds and pear.
Simmer for a further 15 minutes, remove the pan from heat and stir in the orange blossom water.

Normally served at room temperature with rice, salad and bread.

This dish is eaten after a day of fasting during the Muslim holy celebration of Ramadhan. It is cooked without salt to prevent thirst the next day for those fasting.

Something that can be extremely important in hot desert areas

However, this has given us a really different and delicious way to prepare lamb

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PAPAYA AND EGG YOLK PUDDING
Ovos Moles de Papaia
(MOZAMBIQUE)

· 1 medium sized ripe papaya
· 5 egg yolks
· 2 cups sugar
· 2 or 3 lemons or limes
· ¼ cup water
· 4 cloves whole
· 3 inch piece of stick cinnamon

Peel, seed and coarsely chop the papaya.
Squeeze the lemons or limes to obtain ¼ cup of strained juice.
Using a very fine rasp rub the lemon/lime peel to obtain ½ tsp of zest.

Add the papaya, lemon or lime juice and water to the jar of an electric blender and blend on high for plus minus 45 seconds.
Scrape down the sides of the blender jar with a rubber spatula.
Repeat the blending process until the mixture is smoothly pureed.

Using the back of a table or dessert spoon, rub the puree through a fine sieve into a 2 or 3 quart stainless steel or enameled pan.
Add the sugar, mixing well to ensure even distribution.
Add the cloves and cinnamon stick.
Stir constantly while bringing to the boil over high heat.

Cook until a few drops of the mixture immediately form coarse threads when dropped from a spoon into cold water. (The mixture needs to be stirred regularly, until this point is reached.)

Remove the pan from the heat and, using a slotted spoon, remove the cloves and cinnamon stick.
Discard the cloves and cinnamon stick.

Using a wire whisk, or electric beater if preferred, beat the egg yolks vigorously, in a deep heat proof, bowl, for about a minute, until the yolks thicken slightly.

Pour the hot syrup into the egg yolks in a thin stream, beating constantly and vigorously while doing so.
Continue to beat the mixture until it is smooth and thick.
It should now be a deep bright yellow in color.

The mixture should be divided into 4 individual heat proof dessert dishes and left to cool to room temperature.
The dessert will continue to thicken while it cools.

The dish should be served immediately it reaches room temperature, or alternatively it may be completely chilled in a refrigerator before serving.

The lemon/lime zest may be sprinkled on top of the dessert before serving.

Go on! - Enjoy something different!

SERVES 4

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WILDEBEESKASTAIINGS
(SOUTH AFRICA)

In an attempt to translate for the curious
Wilde equals wild
Bees equals beast, generally of the bovine variety
Wildebees equals wild beast actually a very large wild bovine creature similar to the gnu, possibly think buffalo
Kastaiings equals gonads.
So WILDEBEESKASTAIINGS equals Gonads of a large wild beast of the bovine type
In this instance bovine does not imply good natured/tempered.
However, you can relax, this recipe does not involve the use of gonads.
The name is derived from the fact that somebody once thought that the end result looked like Wild Beast Gonads.

Syrup

· ½ lb sugar
· 1 cup water
· 2 tbsp golden syrup
· 1 tsp lemon juice.

Place all the ingredients into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil.
Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Then simmer the syrup over moderate heat for 10 minutes, until it forms a syrup.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Refrigerate overnight.

About 15 to 20 minutes before needed place in the deep freeze compartment of the refrigerator, to ensure that the syrup is as cold as possible, without becoming frozen.

Batter

· 11 oz cake flour
· ½ cup milk
· 2 eggs
· 1 tbsp baking powder
· 1 tbsp butter
· good pinch salt
· cornflour as required
· extra butter softened
· sunflower oil for deep frying.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl.

Double sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.
Rub the tablespoon of butter into the mixture.

Add the milk to the beaten eggs and beat well.
Cut the milk/egg mixture into the flour mixture using a spatula.

Add a little extra milk if the dough is too stiff. Alternatively add a little extra flour if the dough is too wet.

Shape the dough into a sausage and divide into 6 equal lengths.

Place each length separately on a floured board and roll into a thin oval surface.
So that you end up with 6 ovals.

Spread the softened butter on each oval and sprinkle well with cornflour.

Place the ovals one on top of each other, resulting in one stack, 6 ovals high.

Roll out into a thin rectangular shape.
Roll up this rectangle, very tightly from one of the short ends.

Cut the roll into 1 inch slices using a sharp knife.

Wet the ends of each little roll and press each end together to prevent the roll from opening during frying.

Heat the oil over moderate heat in a deep saucepan.

Remove the syrup from the fridge a divide equally into 2 separate bowls.

Deep fry the rolls a few at a time until the become golden brown
Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon and dip them immediately into one of the bowls of ice cold syrup.

Drain on a wire rack over a tray.

After doing ½ of the kastaiings, the syrup, in the bowl being used, will have started to warm.
Start using the other bowl of syrup.

Let cool before serving (some people like them chilled)
Makes about 40 kastaiings.

A great sweet treat

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Willie Crawford 
P.O. Box 636 
Valparaiso, Florida 32580