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

Bag of grains

Look what I brought back from Paris.

You thought couscous was couscous, but I’ve found millet couscous from Senegal and cassava couscous from Ivory Coast.  Plus another wonderful African grain from Mali- Fonio- one of Africa’s oldest, they say. But, oh! How to cook them?

All the packages have cooking instructions, boil/steam with knob of butter.. but I want to scrape the bottom of the barrel, get the best out of these grains, so the next few weeks I’ll be cooking away. Ideas and suggestions- most welcome.

Attieke- cassava couscous from Ivory Coast, Millet couscous from Senegal
 and Fonio from Mali