Equatorial Guinea

I hope I don't shock or offend anyone by saying this, but this was the first country we pulled that left me scratching my head and running for a map. I knew it was somewhere on the west coast of Africa, but I honestly could not have pointed it out on a blank map. Fortunately this meal provided the perfect opportunity for a much needed geography lesson.

It turns out that Equatorial Guinea is located just beneath the top bulge of Africa and consists of several large offshore islands and a mainland territory about the size of Rhode Island. Also it is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa. Aside from a few areas of Morocco, Guinea was Spain's only African colony. Historically it was a Portuguese trading port that was active in the slave trade and used as a stopover point for European cargo passing to and from Asia. Spain took over control in the 18th century and retained power over the colony until the declining years of the Franco regime in the late 1960's.

The unique colonial past of this tiny country is apparent in the cuisine which is quite similar to other West African nations, but has also incorporated many elements of Spanish cooking. As I researched recipes I found many to be familiar in concept yet new in ingredients and method. The final product is something that anybody who loves Latino and African cuisines must try.

Papaya Gazpacho

Fresh fruits are often a large part of many West African meals. In this recipe I used papaya instead of tomatoes for a different take on the standard Gazpacho recipe. The slight sweetness of the papaya allowed for a lot of strong flavors to be added to the mix. Feel free to use more habanero if you want a much spicier soup. I toned it down for pleasing the crowd at my table.

1.5 lbs papaya flesh (1/2 big one) cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup cucumber skinned and cubed

1/2 cup lime juice

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 habanero chile seeded

Salt to tasted

Garnish:

1 avocado thinly sliced

Cilantro chopped

Cucumber sliced

1. Combine everything but the garnish in a blender and process to a smooth consistency with a pint of water.

2. Pour the mix into a bowl and add another liter of water or just enough to give the mixture a soupy consistency. Sitr well and refrigerate for at least one hour.

3. Serve garnished with avocado, cucumber and cilantro.

Creamed Spinach

Traditionally this recipe calls for collared greens, but it snowed a lot that week and I couldn't get to a market that sold collareds for a reasonable price. So we had spinach instead. But that's fine because this recipe could work with any number of greens. I'd love to see how it would work with mustard greens in the future.

2 tbsp corn oil
1 lb spinach washed and chopped
1 large red onion thinly sliced
1 tsp dried ginger
1/2 tsp dried turmeric
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

1. In a large cast iron skillet heat the oil and cook the onions over medium heat and cook until tender about five minutes.
2. Add the cream, turmeric, and ginger and simmer another 3 minutes.
3. Add the spinach salt and water. Raise to a simmer and cover and continue cooking for five more minutes.
4. Reduce liquid to a thick sauce and serve.

Corn and Avocado Pap

I'd use less water with this in the future. The final product was a bit too runny for my liking. Still it was tasty and the avocado and cooked vegetables give it a more substantial taste than regular corn mush. Still I would definitely be more careful with the water in the future.

2 cups fine ground corn meal

2 liters water
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 jalapeno seeds removed
1 red onion minced
2 cups corn kernels
2 ripe tomatoes
2 avocados chopped
2 scallions chopped
Salt to taste

1. Combine corn meal and water in a saucepan and simmer 40 minutes covered stirring every five minutes. Set aside and allow 30 minutes to cool.
2. In a skillet heat the olive oil and saute the all the vegetables except the avocadoes and scallions for five minutes.
3. Stir in the avocadoes and scallions and remove from the heat.
4. Fold the vegetables into the corn mush and serve.

Peanut Bread

This is some very dense bread. I'd recommend cutting it into small portions when serving with the food so you don't overwhelm anybody.

1 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp honey
3 tsp dried yeast
1.5 tsp chili powder
1.5 cups ground peanuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2.5 cups white flour
2.5 cups wheat flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Heat coconut milk and honey in small saucepan until well mixed. Allow to cool and stir in the yeast. Let sit for ten minutes.
2. Now combine everything in a large bowl or electric mixer and stir well until everything is mixed. Kneed for ten minutes adjusting for flour and water ratios until the dough is smooth and elastic. Allow to sit covered in a warm place for 1.5 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
3. Gently push dough down and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover again and let rise for another 40 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake dough for 40 minutes. Invert the bread from the pan and allow another 30 minutes to cool. Serve alongside everything.

Chicken and White Bean Paella

This could be served as a one pot meal with maybe a salad to accompany it. We jazzed it up a little bit with the white wine, but for the most part this is a delicious and utilitarian way to feed a large crowd of people. Also it's a brilliant fusion of peasant food styles.

1 chicken cut into serving portions

4 tbsp oil

2 cups medium grain rice

4 cloves garlic minced

1 large red onion thinly sliced

2 tsp oregano

2 tbsp paprika

1/2 habanero seeded and chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp pepper

4 roma tomatoes chopped

1 red pepper thinly sliced

2 cups cooked white beans

1 cup white wine

3 cups chicken stock

1. In a large dutch oven or casserole brown the chickent pieces in the oil in batches and set aside.

2. Add the onion and gently cook over medium heat until browned.

3. Add the garlic and rice and gently cook until the rice becomes translucent

4. Add the tomatoes and saute for five minutes.

5. Add the wine, stock, spices, and pepper, and chicken. Raise to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes (add more water and stir if the liquid burns off to quickly)

6. Add the beans, stir well, check for water, cover and cook a further 15 minutes.

7. When rice is tender the paella should be ready.

In Conclusion

It's always a pleasure to cook something new, and yet feel somewhat familiar with it while cooking it. That was the feeling I had while preparing this meal. It's definitely a cuisine that deserves more research and attention because of it's unique mix of very distinct cultural influences. Also it was nice to not have too large a crowd for a change. The meal was small, simple, and fairly quick. The next post will be Germany. That took about a week to prepare and was anything but simple and quick. Until then: salud!

Senegal

Let me just start out by saying that I hope everyone reading this that celebrates Thanksgiving had a wondrous meal! Ours was complete with two turkeys, some Milwaukee's Best and Tom catching his face on fire. Don't worry, he's alright. Just lost a few eyelashes while smoking the turkey on the grill.

Speaking of which, I apologize for the tardiness of the Senegal post. Thanksgiving took over our cooking interests for the week. But we are back at full force to bring you Senegal.

Senegal hails from western Africa. It was a former French possession, then it formed with Gambia to make up Senegambia for a whole seven years before it was it's own nation. A whopping 90%+ of the population practices Islam. During the 19th century, following Islamic practices was seen as a way to resist French colonialism.

The food of Senegal is similar to that of many other west African and Caribbean dishes. It is also apparent that this region had an impact on Cajun cuisine. What we prepared was very similar to the classic dish we all know as Jambalaya.

Thieboudienn

This meal was for a much smaller crowd, but that didn't stop us from making way too much. We could have easily fed a house of ten with this one pot meal. And much like our Guatemalan feast, this meal was absurdly cheap. This made us very happy because we really appreciate when food manages to be excellent and cheap Any type of white and firm flesh fish will do in this recipe and the vegetables can be changed according to your preferences. The only part of the meal that cannot be changed is the rice and the sauce. You absolutely need to use a medium grained rice to give the meal the right amount of gooey starchiness. And the sauce is the dominant flavor in each part of the meal. So don't be too intimidated by the length of the ingredients, because a lot of it can be substituted with whatever you have on hand. That seems to keep in the spirit of this giant pot of a meal.


4 tbsp corn oil
2 large onions chopped
1/4 pound some sort of smoked fish (we used herring)
6 tbsp tomato paste
2.5 liters of water set aside in a large bowl
1 bunch parsley stems trimmed off
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch scallions
1 small red chile
1 habanero left whole
3 pounds catfish steaks
1/2 pound pumpkin diced
1/2 pound yuca or cassava root cubed
2 parsley roots peeled and cubed
1/2 head green cabbage trimmed and cut into wedges
1/2 pound eggplant cubed
5 carrots peeled and cut into thin strips
2 lbs medium grain rice
Salt to taste


1. In a large and deep pot heat the oil over medium and add the chopped onion. Cook until browned. Add the smoked fish, tomato paste and 1/4 cup of the water. Simmer this for ten minutes.
2. While thats simmering puree the parsley, garlic, chile, and scallions into a thick paste with either a blender or processor. Our blender died so I used the processor. Cover the fish with this paste and let sit for at least five minutes.
3. Place the fish in the pot with simmering sauce and cook for five minutes. Add the rest of the water, salt it, and bring it to a boil and cook for a further ten minutes. Remove the fish steaks and set on a platter with 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. This renders a simple stock from the fish that the rest of the food will be cooked in. Cover the fish and set in the oven to keep warm while everything else cooks.
5. Add the vegetables to the boiling broth. Before adding the habanero cut a small opening into the top of the chile and add it to the vegetables. Allow the vegetables to boil for about 40 minutes to make sure everything cooks through. Taste the sauce as it boils and remove the habanero and set aside when the you feel the sauce is spicy enough. For Amy this had to be done after about ten minutes. But for the true taste give it about 20 minutes.
6. When the vegetables are cooked remove them from the broth with slotted spoon and put them on yet another platter. Cover these with a bit of the sauce and put into the oven to keep warm.
7. Reserve two cups of the broth and distribute this into two bowls. In one bowl pulverize the habanero and use this as a hot sauce for the meal. The other bowl you can hand to the weaker palates as a mild sauce.
8. Add the rice to the broth. Raise to boil, cover, and reduce the heat. Continue cooking until the rice is done (30 minutes). Check on the rice as it cooks stirring occasionally and add more water if it needs it.
9. When the rice is done remove it to a very large platter. Remove the fish and vegetable from the oven and set everything on the table. You're now ready to eat.

Traditionally this meal would be eaten off of one enormous platter with the fish in the middle of the rice and the vegetables around the sides. This is optimal if everybody plans to be extra traditional and eat everything with their hands. But nobody seemed up for that and we didn't have any plates with a 3 foot diameter, so we dished everything onto plates and used forks. This didn't stop the meal from being delicious.

Sesame Cookies

The most important part of this recipe, as silly is it sounds, is to remember to grease the wax paper. I failed to do so, and it ended up with us clawing bits of cookie with our hands off the pan. Although this provides something to laugh at, I think we can all agree that cookies are best enjoyed when you can actually hold one in your hands. They were, however, delightful. So do yourself a favor and grease up that wax paper. The other important part is the sesame seeds. None of the supermarkets around us seem to understand that sesame seeds are best when sold cheaply and in large quantities. I'm not sure who thought a tiny vile of seed should cost six bucks, but in Senegal I'm sure you'd be legally killed for such a transgression. I would recommend visiting an Asian grocer for procuring large amounts of the seeds. We bought a five pound bag a while back and are already halfway through it.

1/2 cup plus two tablespoons of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup toasted sesame seeds

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
2. Cream the butter and and sugar with a hand mixer until it is light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg vanilla and lemon and continue mixing for another minute.
4. Add the flour and sesame seeds. Mix gently and allow the mixture 1 hour to sit.
5. Preheat the oven to 350. Place greased wax paper on two large baking sheets. Add heaping tablespoons of the sesame dough leaving enough space between cookies for expanding.
6. Bake them for 7 minutes making sure to turn the baking sheets halfway through.
7. Remove the cookies allow to cool and set aside on a wire rack for whenever you're ready to eat them.

Conclusions

The simplicity of this meal was wonderful. The cost was perfect. And the flavors were strong and tasty. The crowd this time was much smaller. We only had one friend over for the feasting and two stragglers arrived to eat leftovers. All agreed the food was good and mourned the fact that they couldn't actually hold the cookies. Amy and I are both pleased to find that we are enjoying all of the african dishes we've eaten. Which is a great attitude to have because there's a greater than 25 percent chance that whatever country we draw will be an African one. Thats not to say that its all gonna be the same food. Not surprisingly, Africa has just as much diversity of of food as Europe or Asia it just takes a bit more research for the lesser known cuisines. We look forward to pulling our next African country. Up next Bolivia! Until then, à la vôtre!