Possibilities of pap..

Hennie Fisher a food lover and chef in South Africa has this rather outspoken view that ends on a very tasty note..

pap croutons on swiss chard salad

"The one thing that makes me a real outcast in our country is that I do not like pap at all. Those that do not know what pap is, in a South African context, need to understand, that it is to South Africans what rice is to the East or pasta in Italy. In our country (and not necessarily so in other African countries) pap is a rather heavy startch cooked from predominantly white maize meal. Maize meal refers to maize (or as it is called to in our country, mielies) that is ground to a not too fine flour. It does not look like normal cake flour. If you do grind maize until it becomes a complete white powder, you get corn starch or corn flour. But the stage where it still has some texture is referred to as maize meal. And in South Africa that is what we make mielie-pap from. At one stage in the 70’s we had a huge shortage of white mielies, and people had to make pap from yellow maize flour – like Italian polenta – not a period favoured in the minds of people who see the white stuff as Italians see pasta – that the pasta is important and the sauce or accompaniment is just there to flavour the starch filler.

The range and possibilities of cooking pap in our country is endless. People have it quite stiff most of the time, when it is eaten by hand in little balls and dunked into the accompanying sauce or vegetable or meat dish. Big volumes are consumed and one can see a grown man eat 750ml of stiff pap in one go without blinking. Pap of course is also made quite dry, when the clump of pap does not end in one big stiff ball, but starts separating into little smaller clumps or balls of pap. It is achieved through a large ratio of maize meal to water, but also in the cooking technique and duration of cooking. Krummelpap is what it is called and literally means crumbly pap. It is most often eaten either as a breakfast item with milk and sugar or with our countries other biggest food pastime – the braai, when it is served with a tomato sauce. Krummelpap is something that I can still cope with as it had texture. Which brings me to my affliction- I have no problem with the actual product – maize meal – it has to do with the preparation and seasoning.


 Soft polenta is a national staple in most Italian homes, and various cultures all over the world make similar variations from maize meal. Soft Italian polenta is very similar to a soft version of pap – other than the fact that it is mostly made from yellow maize meal. But the big thing here is that it is made with stock, and/or cream and milk and always with lots of salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. It is therefore and extremely pleasant tasty addition, and not a huge plate of tasteless flavourless pap. Most pap in South Africa is made with very little seasoning other than a small bit of salt. I understand the reasoning as a carrier of flavour coming from the sauce or meat or vegetables. But it is just such a bland unimaginative product that it is not one of my favourite items. Even stiff pap has very little appeal. Stiff polenta on the other hand (again made with all the seasonings and flavourings) cooled and cut into slices and fried has a total different textural appeal. 


 If maize meal is treated in the polenta way, of course it is really nice. Some special millers in SA sell maize flour that are really course and has all the fibres left in the flour. It makes wonderful polenta inspired dishes and very tasty. With braai I is completely wonderful to therefore make such a loaf of stiff cold pap that was made with milk/cream/stock (or any combination thereof) and lots of salt and pepper and copious hands of grated parmesan cheese. Then cut into thick wedges and grilled on the braai – delicious, a little unhealthy( don’t eat too much), and a lovely alternative to normal braai pap.
 I have too on another occasion create a similar dish, and spread the same mixture on a lined baking sheet and then layered thinly sliced grilled vegetables thereon, and rolled it up like s Swiss-roll. admittedly a bit of work, I must say that was delicious. 
So you see there are possibilities with pap…"

Hennie with collegue, preparing for a catering function

 

Eco Cooking on African Tables

Two South Africans have blown new life into an old-fashioned, fuel saving cooking technique. The massive reduction in fuel that the “Wonderbag” uses, is especially welcome those who can ill- afford to spend their income on energy bills. The design is simple, a padded, insulated bag covered in sassy African textiles. Start the cooking process by heating a pot of food in the conventional way, then place the pot with food in the Wonderbag to slow cook to tasty perfection. Healthy cooking, less energy, less pollution and easy to use- brilliant. Get the whole story on the website: http://nb-wonderbag.com

Poorman's breakfast- African way

Pastels is an African food my partner should have told me a long time ago, considering my vested interest in African food. But for some reason he didn’t.

His story just popped out this last week.. As we were passing a mill, which sells stone ground flour, he piped up ” I need to get some good flour and make pastels… my mom used to make them. 

I thought he ‘meant pasteis de Bacalhau -but what he described was a type of bread fritter similar to Mandazi found in east Africa, Kenya and Tanzania or Vetkoek in South Africa. He also mentioned that they were similar to “mikates” a Congolese fritter sold on the streets in the eastern province of Uige in Angola.

In the batter one can include small pieces of soaked bacalhau, which cook as you fry the fritter. His family would have them for breakfast; their mum would make them when there was no bread in the house. We had them as bite with an ice- cold beer- delicious! 

A Pint of cassava

A new beer called Impala Cerveja has been launched in Mozambique. It is brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller's local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). Cassava beer is a popular traditional home brewed drink in rural Mozambique. Impala Cerverja is the world’s first commercially produced cassava beer, and has a refreshingly sour taste compared to other beers. This organic beer, a blend of cassava and barley has a stronger taste than conventional beers. Cassava is a root vegetable similar to potato and is highly perishable. The brewery uses a mobile processing plant, which roams local farms to source and harvest and process the cassava within a few hours buying from about 2000 local farms. This support of local communities will hopefully help Mozambique farmers put food on the table. 

Stylish duo

Fellow foodie, Martine Steenstra, took her fist trip to Africa recently…she came back with some good tales, recipes and a plan to return.

Here’s what she’s sharing-

Fishing bike on the beach in Zanzibar

Octopus is a staple on Zanzibar, it’s hard to find a dish without octopus when eating at local restaurants. But who cares? They also like to dress their salads with the pulp of passion fruits. Octopus and the passion fruit happen to be adventurous African couple in this salad.

Zanzibari salad with octopus and passion fruit

starter – serves 4 – 30 min. prep. time

4 baby octopuses

 red wine vinegar

4 tomatoes

1 cucumber, thinly sliced

2 red onions, sliced in thin rings

1 red chilli pepper, sliced in thin rings

pulp of  6 passion fruits

juice of 2 limes

groundnut oil

sea salt and pepper

Clean the octopus (or if you’re a lazy girl like me; have your fishmonger do it for you). Then poach it in boiling salted water, with a large glug of vinegar, for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Dunk in ice cold water and cut the tentacles into small pieces.

Remove and tomatoes pith and seeds, and cut  the remaining flesh in strips.

Arrange the tomatoes, cucumber, onion and chilli pepper on four plates. Place the octopus on top. Dollop the passion fruit pulp on the octopus. Make a dressing with the lime juice, vinegar and oil just as you like it. Zanzibari’s like it tart. Season with salt and pepper.

Tears in the stew

One of my favourite African ladies, my partner’s mother, Dona Aida do Amaral has left us. She recently passed away, which has left a huge gaping emptiness in our lives. There were still so many questions to ask, conversations to enjoy, recipes to note (she was a knowledgeable and enthusiastic cook), but suddenly she was there no more.

Last weekend we held a luncheon in her honour- a komba- and I wanted to cook a traditional African meal. Cooking it was a sad but therapeutic. As my tears seasoned the stew I reflected on what I knew about Aida’s life and silently marvelled at the achievement of raising eight wonderful children in times of hardship and war.

Despite the extra seasoning, the table of tasters, all Africans, ate with gusto and applauded my efforts- (one of the friends had never seen a white person make maize porridge, before- chuckle!)

This is what I cooked- 

       

 Calulu de peixe with chorizo

(Fish stew with chorizo)

Calulu, calalu, calaloo or calalou is a hearty stew both in West Africa and Caribbean countries. It almost always contains a green leafy vegetable and/or okra.

This recipe has its own twist and contains neither. What it does have, are pieces of spicy chorizo sausage, not traditional, but utterly delicious combined with a splash of very African, palm oil, results in a rich, hearty and slightly spicier fish stew, a good accompaniment to stiff steaming maize porridge or sticky white rice.  

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 red peppers, chopped

200 g chorizo sausage, chopped

2 cloves garlic,peeled and chopped

1 small red chilli pepper, chopped

1 heaped teaspoon of paprika

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons mild red pepper paste

2 tins of tomatoes, chopped

4 tablespoons of palm oil

2 large potatoes, peeled

2 large carrots, peeled

1 sweet potato

1 kg Nile Perch filet, or other firm white fish, in pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole, and gently fry the onions to a golden colour. Add the chorizo and the red pepper pieces and fry over a moderate heat.  Stir in the garlic, chilli, paprika and the bay leaves and cook for a further minute or two. Add the tinned tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon. Allow to bubble for a few minutes and remove from the heat. Stir in the pepper paste, parsley, 250 ml hot water and the palm oil.  Chop the potato, carrot and sweet potato into large chunks and stir into the sauce. Season the fish and lay on top of the mixture. Cover and cook in the oven for about 50 minutes. Stir carefully with a wooden spoon and return to the oven for another 20 minutes to a thick bubbling stew.     

Mbuzi Baby

Two wonderful things I came home with from Kenya-

One was a very groovy dance number- Nwa Baby by Nigerian hiphopper- Flavour 

The other was this very wonderful kitchen tool called a mbuzi (which also means goat in Swahili), to which I promised to dedicate a post.

It is an ingenious gadget, a seat and coconut grater in one- who could think of such a thing?

At the risk of looking (very) foolish I decided to have documented my attempts to use it. It looked simple enough, it was demonstrated to me by its seller and I’ve also seem a picture or two, but in reality it takes a lot of skill, just the right swirl of the coconut and just the right pressure so one just grates the soft white fruit and not the brown shell… I have to get a lesson, pointers anyone?

The grated fresh coconut was so succulent, I wanted to eat it right there from the bowl, but excercised restraint, to use it in a pimped version of wali wa nazi- coconut rice laced with pieces of ripe mango, chilli, mint, fresh coriander, lime zest and juice, toasted peanuts and crisply fried onions, all in a delicious salad. We had it with roast chicken.

Wali wa nazi with mango

300 g basmati rice

1 teaspoon salt

400 ml thin coconut milk

1 red chilli, finely sliced

2 red onions, chopped

1 small bunch of fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 small bunch of fresh coriander leaves, chopped

grated zest and juice of 1 lime

6 tablespoons sunflower oil

3 shallots or small onions, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 large ripe mango, peeled and flesh cut into 1 cm cubes

100 g (10 tablespoons) fresh grated coconut

3 tablespoons toasted peanuts, chopped

Method: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the rice in an ovenproof saucepan with the salt, coconut milk  and 300 ml water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring, then place in the oven for another 20 minutes. Scoop into a colander and allow to cool. Mix the chilli, onions, fresh herbs, lime zest and juice with 2 tablespoons of the oil.  Meanwhile heat the remaining oil and fry the shallot slices with the sugar  to a crisp golden brown over a medium heat. Drain on a piece of paper towel. Mix the rice into the dressing and gently mix in the coconut, peanuts and mango cubes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the fried onions and serve.

Serves 4    

In search of tree tomatoes

Last week in Kenya, I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into a dripping, juicy tree tomato after joining recently an FB discussion about the fruit started by writer Binyavanga Wainaina.

I was told by Kenyans in the know(you know who you are) I would find tree tomatoes (aka tamarillo) a plenty in Mombasa. 

I searched from Malindi to Mombasa old town and didn’t see a single one.. the closest I came was a not so nice tree tomato white chocolate and mousse in a very posh Mombasa eatery...

Fortunately I was cleverly distracted by a number of other gastronomic delights, not the least of which were the cooking untensils I brought home.. a handsome sieve, Kenyan made by Lion and a Chapti pan from the local Nakumatt( supermarket chain).

And this wonderful handmade mbuzi( coconut grater), to this ingenious gadget I want to dedicate a whole post (later).

Then the food- starting up North, in Malindi the best pizza and espresso I’ve had ouside Naples. I can’t decide whether to love or hate the Mediterranean flavour the Italians have added to this quaint town…

In Mombasa, the most delectable rice dishes- biriani, subtly spiced pilau, fluffy “wali wa nazi”- rice cooked in coconut milk. Spicy chicken tika and crisp “kuku choma” ( barbequed chicken), heavenly fresh naan bread baked in a tandoori oven and the small tangy,  juicy “katchumbari “(salads) on the side.

 A expert pavement chip-maker, producing the freshest, crispiest, potato chips with a sprinkling of a very fiery spice blend- perfect with a “bia biridi”( cold beer). Ingmar

“Mombasa Pilau, rice with all the spices you can think of!"

This was Agnes Maitha’s answer when asked for her favorite food.

 A short interview with Agnes about Kenyan Costal cooking.

Agnes is Mombasan born and bred. She speaks English, Swahili and Kamba.  She went hotel school where she learnt to cook but now works as a beautician.

What are the most frequently used ingredients here?

 Spices, everything contains spices. Fresh chillies, coconut and people eat a lot of rice.

Where or from who did you learn to cook?

I learnt quite a lot at school- hotel school and from my mother.

What is the staple food here?

I would say rice.

Do people here snack? What is typical snack food.

Oh yes they love their snacks- you’ve seen the baobab sweets and simsim balls sold on the streets? Then there's some of my favorites- potato bhaji,  also mkatewasinia- a sweetend baked rice pudding.

Do Coastal people eat out?

Yes, restaurants, café’s snack bars, street food, people are eating everywhere.

What are typical meals served for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Lunch and dinner are mostly birianis, curries, kuku choma (grilled chicken), with a delicious simple salad- kachumbari- and rice, chapati’s, naan bread or chips But for breakfast we serve different food. Mahambri is a favorite, and a cassava dish called minogoya nazi.

coastal cooking food decoder

potato bhaji- small potatoes boiled, battered and deep fried to a fritter

simsim- sesame balls

biriani- spicy rice casserole served with meat, chicken, seafood or vegetables

kuku choma - grilled chicken

kachumbari- salad of tomato, onion, some fresh coriander, salt and lemon juice 

mahambri - a triangular shaped spicy fritter, sweentend and laced with coconut and cardamom.
minogoya nazi- cassava pieces stewed in sweetend coconut milk

Lunch: chicken tikka, naan and kachumbari,
 above left: chicken biriani, right baobab sweets, dried mango

  

Here's what happened to the grains

Back tracking to a previous post "Bag of Grains"- 8 August 2011.  Rather than cook these grains traditionally, the idea was to try something different, Even when raw, these grains have a lovely nuttiness. I wanted to enhance that but keep the recipes distinctly African- taking a look at what food-friends Nadia and Merijn from café Arabia-( see www.arabiacafe.nl) -have been doing with couscous and bulghur ( short of building a tower with the stuff, they’ve tried just about every variation) and I love how they combined the grains with lots of spices or fresh herbs and lemony flavours.. ok so hear goes-

First I toasted my grains and set off to work-

Fonio pilav

3 tablespoons oil

250 g white fonio

1 large onion, chopped

1 large carrot peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

750 ml vegetable stock

1 large ripe tomato, chopped

2 spring onions, chopped

Method: Heat a large frying pan and toast the fonio, for about the minutes. A nutty aroma will rise fro the pan. Stir with a wooden spoon to prevent burning. Remove from the pan. Toast the coriander and cumin seeds in the same pan. Grind the spices coarsely in a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil in the pan and soften the onion and carrot.  Add the garlic, ginger and spices and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the fonio and fry for 2 more minutes. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Cook for about 30 minutes until done. Add more water if the fonio becomes too dry.  Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped tomato and spring onion.

Serves 4

Sweet millet couscous with mango

Somali Cuisine by Barlin Ali, is a very unusual cookbook.  In it there is a dessert recipe called Adriyad, from Nothern Solmalia spiced sweet angelhair pasta eaten with rice!

I’ve used it as inspiration for this millet recipe.

30 g butter

125 g toasted almonds, chopped

125 g golden raisins

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

125 g millet couscous (couscous de mil)

2 tablespoons of sugar

a pinch of salt

2 tablespoons honey

grated rind of 1 orange

a few drops of orange flower water

½ lemon

1 large ripe mango, peeled and sliced

Melt the butter in a pan and the nuts, raisins and spices and couscous and toast for a few minutes until the mixture releases a nutty aroma. Add 400 ml hot water, salt and sugar and bring to the boil. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to swell. Loosen the grains with a fork, drizzle over some honey and mix in the orange rind and flower water. Season to taste with a few drops of lemon juice. Leave to cool to room temperature and serve with slices of ripe mango.
Serves 4. 

Jamie magazine

A fine opportunity for us to spread the word- guest blog about African food on the Dutch version of Jamie magazine's site.( Sorry to the English readers- you’ll get the idea..)

Take a look on www.jamiemagazine.nl - blog post for 18^th August and let us know what you think.

What is safou?

Safou is a tropical fruit which belongs to the trees Dacryodes edulis L. This  is an evergreen, tropical fruit tree which grows in the humid and sub-humid climates of West and Central Africa. It grows to about 20-30 meters  and can grow to be about 100 years old.

Why should you grow the safou tree? - The tree is well known for its fruits (safou), which are rich in protein, fat, fibre, minerals and essential amino acids. The oil, which is extracted from both the pulp and the seed, is rich in palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids. The tree is easy to cultivate It can provide a good income from sale of the fruits and their products.

The fruit is harvested when other crops are out of season and provides a staple food for 3-4 months of the year in some areas.

The safou tree is not yet a plantation crop, but is currently grown in small orchards.

If you ever come across the fruit, here is a tasty recipe-

Add the safou to the tomatoes

 

Roast tomatoes with safou

 6 ripe plum tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons oil

3 clove garlic, peeled an coarsely chopped

salt an pepper

1 tablespoon honey

1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped

6 safou fruit, washed

course sea salt

 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the tomatoes in a baking tray an sprinkle with the oil, garlic, salt  and pepper, honey and rosemary. Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Place the safou between the tomatoes and bake for a further 15 minutes, turning the safou halfway. Break open the safou and scoop out the soft flesh. Sprinkle with course salt. Eat with the tomatoes and steaming white rice.

Serves 6 . 

Paris –Africa

For the price of a metro ticket you can travel from the Champs Elysees to the heart of Africa. Get off at the Chateau Rouge stop and you’ll be in the thick of it. Rue de Poissoniers host a fabulous market, busiest on a Sunday, fresh produce and much, much more. Leg of goat &  pigs trotters at the Boucherie d' Afrique, the ripest, pungent mangos at the fruit stalls.

Watch the constant movement of the street vendors, as they duck and dive from the “gendarmerie..” selling fresh ears of corn piled precariously  high onto supermarket trollies. And these strange vegetables called "safou" in the Congo and “prunes” in Cameroon They taste something like a slightly tart avocado with a large pip.. I've had them roast on a fire, but was told that stewed with tomatoes they're superb. 

Safou

I found alot of my goodies at El Mundo store, 28 rue Poulet. Monsieur the store keeper was most helpful and ever so gracious about  us taking lots 
of fotos in his shop. Look at these "Kikwanga" fufu sticks-  I’m still learning to appreciate their taste and strange texture, but they look so wholesome and appealing-l I WILL find a way to enjoy them..

Kikwanga

and  these shredded greens “mfumbwa” found in another shop. Mfumbwa which is a general name for wild greens in Congo, Angola and other central and west African countries. Spinach is always a good substitute.

shredded mfumbwa