5 ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT AFRICAN DISHES

Different people have different questions about African dishes that are yet to be answered. This is because of the numerous African dishes and the delicious nature of the dishes. To help demystify and answer these questions, we’ve compiled some of these questions and their answers in no particular order.

Is there such a thing as an African Cuisine?

Looking at that question, you’d find out that the only thing bothering you is the cuisine mentioned in that sentence. The word ‘cuisine’ is a French word which means kitchen. You find it often in spoken or written works concerning cooking and kitchen. It looks like everything sounds attractive to English speakers when said in French. Cuisine merely refers to the food itself or particularly, the way food is prepared. So looking at the question again, you will see that what you just asked is “Is there such thing as African cooking’?”

Various African tribes have their diverse cultures, traditions, and definitely their foods. These foods, although with different tastes and looks speak not only to the palate when tasted but also to the soul. Owing to these reasons, there is nothing like a single cuisine in Africa. Africa is too large to have just one kind of cooking or kitchen. Therefore, the correct answer to your question is “Yes, There is such thing as African Cuisines.”

Why should I be interested in African Cuisines?

And why should you not be? If nourishment is what you seek when it comes to food, then you should be interested in African dishes. Apart from the fact that Africans blend their foods in a way that make your body grin on the sight of African foods, African Cuisines provides you with new and creative ways to use vegetables, proteins, starchy foods, and the likes. These innovative combinations bring forth new dishes to revitalize the body every new day.

Are African dishes the same as African-American dishes?

It is true that some African cookbooks get mixed up with African-American collections of cookbooks, but that doesn’t make both Cuisines the same. African-American food has a little bit of the American sweetness most times, which you won’t find in traditional African foods. Even though Africans have blended some American recipes into their cuisine, the native African dishes are just native to Africa and not the same with the cuisine of any foreign country. So to answer your question, African dishes are in no way the same with African-American dishes.

Are African dishes not too weird and bland?

This question stems from the school of thought that my food or my mother’s food is the best when you haven’t left your home or country to visit other ones. Africans make delicious and nutritious delicacies from the edible resources nature gives them. Since these resources might not be found in foreign environments, it’s normal for non-Africans to think African food is weird. Some Africans haven’t seen broccoli or Asparagus, so if it is used to prepare food, the vegetables might look strange to them but does that make that food weird? No. Therefore it is safe to say that African dishes are not bland or weird. Non-Africans might see it that way because they’ve neither seen nor tasted anything like it before.

Where can i go to learn more about African dishes?

The world today has become a global village. Therefore you don’t have to go anywhere to perfect your African cooking skills or startup as a beginner. Different websites are there to take you on a step by step journey through a plethora of recipes until you get what the pictures show or what you have once seen with your eyes. All you have to do is search for the African dishes you wish to learn more about and check out the videos online. We have different African recipes you might want to try out.

Conclusively, whatever your question might be, have it in mind that African dishes are unique and taste just as lovely as they look. Any dish that whispers “delicious” to your soul why you eat it is worth eating every day, and that defines African dishes.

SIX STEPS TO PREPARE PARTY JOLLOF RICE

Jollof rice should be the most popular food in Nigeria, despite its Senegalese origin. But it’s a wonder how some people still find it difficult to prepare that particular recipe that we all like to enjoy at parties. The type that its aroma makes you want to sneak into OWAMBES uninvited. That bright, reddish yellow, sumptuous looking, Olfactory teasing, mouth watering, burnt, tasty, party jollof rice. The kind that makes you stash food in take away plates at occasions(Don’t be shy, you are not alone in this)

For intercontinental dishes may rise and fall and local dishes may evolve but our party jollof rice remaineth the same. Lol. This is for people who are complicating jollof rice with too many condiments (please stop it now?). The beauty of this special dish is in its simplicity, and the key to that simplicity lies in the proportion of tomatoes, pepper and onions in the rice. I’ll share a step-by-step procedure, but first, you need to understand that if it isn’t that legendary jollof rice that you and I (but especially me) can’t get enough of, then it just isn’t party jollof rice. Now let’s get down to kitchen business.

JOLLOF RICE INGREDIENTS

4 cups of long grain rice.

Six firm, fresh tomatoes

3 table spoons of tomato paste

5 large red bell pepper (tatashe)

1 scotch bonnet

3 bulbs of onions

5-6 spoons of Olive oil

⅓ liter of groundnut oil

5-6 cups of Beef/Chicken stock

Chicken/Beef

1 teaspoon of curry powder

1 table spoon of dried thyme

Unsalted butter(melted)

2 seasoning cubes

2 fingers of ginger

1 medium clove of garlic

Salt to taste.

HOW TO PREPARE.

STEP 1: Blend tomatoes, red bell pepper, scotched bonnet, ginger, garlic, and onions to achieve a thick, smooth, paste, and then boil until the volume of water is reduced to its barest minimum.

STEP 2: Put the unwashed rice into a steaming pot of water and let it boil until the starch is clearly seen floating above the water. Make sure the rice has turned to a bright white color and has softened a bit before you stop heating.

STEP 3: Once you turn off the source of heat, sieve the hot water out, and submerge the rice in cold water, then sieve out the water. Wash thoroughly and sieve again.

STEP 4: While the rice is pre boiling. Set a medium-sized pot on the fire, pour ⅓ litre of groundnut oil into the dry pot and let it heat for a few seconds. Pour in your chopped onions and let them fry until they are you translucent, then add the tomato paste. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Taste, to make sure the tomato paste has lost its bitter-sour taste, then add the steamed tomato and pepper mixture(from STEP 1). Add Olive oil so that the pepper can fry properly, then add your curry powder, dried thyme. Add the beef stock to thin out the broth. Add a little salt, seasoning, and the unsalted, melted, butter next and then stir until the mixture thickens again. Don’t forget to taste for salt.

STEP 5 : Add the pre-boiled rice to the pot of boiling sauce and add more beef stock. Stir this time with a wooden spoon (Metal spoons are great, but you don’t want to prepare mashed rice) keep adding the stock until the rice is slightly submerged. Watch the rice boil until it absorbs the stock then cover the pot properly.

STEP 6: After 8 to 10 minutes, check the rice for softness and stir. If there’s need to add more stock or water, do so, but just a little. It’s okay if some parts of the rice gets burnt so don’t stir so vigorously that you scrape the bottom of the pot. Just make sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed and Voilà!! You have that sort of party Jollof rice I was talking about.

Here are some pro tips:

1. It’s better to pre boil rice and then wash out with cold water. This impedes further cooking and prevents the rice from turning out all gummy after you must have mixed it with your already prepared tomato sauce. Also, while cooking large quantities of rice, don’t pour in all the tomato sauce at once. Wait till when the rice is almost cooked. It prevents the rice from burning and improves its Color.

2. While cooking, especially after your rice must have absorbed the sauce, make the pot airtight. You can improvise by placing foils around the edges of the pot (Some people use plastic wraps, but I don’t think it’s healthy) The reason for this is so that no steam can escape. It’s important that the rice cooks in its own steam.

3. This one is very important. As crazy as it sounds, you have to let that rice burn. Otherwise, how do you intend to get that smoky, burnt taste? I recommend cooking with firewood if burning food is not in your nature.

4. Lastly, don’t forget to add tomato paste. In as much as you want to go all natural and use only fresh tomatoes, tomato paste improves taste and color.

Is this the point when you’re taken aback and you’re asking yourself what the heck you’ve been cooking all your life? ?

Well there’s no time. Just enjoy your well-prepared dish with fried beef or chicken or garnish it with coleslaw and then wash it down with a tall glass of cold juice?.
Bon appétit!

By Nwaogwugwu Monica

Freelance Writer Entertainment Train

+234 810 570 4357

HOW TO PREPARE AN AMAZING DISH OF PLANTAIN SCOTCH EGG

Food doesn’t have to be routinely bland and uninteresting. Your creativity where food is concerned makes both you and other people crave for your food. A little twist here and there can turn an old recipe into a new one. Plantain Scotch egg is on the category of foods born out of the desire of something different from the regular deep-fried mixture of sausage meat, and bread crumbs with a hardboiled egg sandwiched in-between.

Plantain Scotch egg could sometimes replace the old cereal breakfast tradition and could serve as the highlight of your picnics or late-night movie moments. So where pizza is not readily available, Plantain Scotch egg could fill in. If you must make a delicious dish of Plantain Scotch egg, you must know the secret to create one.

Who’s thrilled to meet the ingredients? Here goes everything.

INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PLANTAIN SCOTCH EGG

• Ripe Plantain
• 125g of Bread crumbs
• 10 Eggs (depends on the number of persons you are preparing for)
• 57g flour
• 1 seasoning cube
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 8 tablespoons of Couscous (This is optional)
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 4 teaspoons of Suya powder.

PREPARATION OF PLANTAIN SCOTCH EGG

• Heat your oven to about 250⁰C.
• Cook 8 of the 10 eggs and ensure that it boils for 7 minutes. Once they are properly cooked, crack them all up, remove the shells and keep them aside.
• Boil your ripe plantain in a medium-sized pot until it softens, drain the water from the pot so that the plantain doesn’t become too soft then mash up the plantain in a mixing bowl.
• Into the mixture in the bowl, add your seasoning cube, ginger, flour, black pepper, and two teaspoons of suya powder and mix thoroughly until it is evenly mixed.
• In a separate small bowl, whisk the two eggs left and set aside.
• Also, get another bowl and mix the couscous with the breadcrumbs and two teaspoons of suya powder and keep aside. (The couscous is usually added for an extra crunchy feel in the mouth and so if not available can be substituted by garri).
• Scoop into your hands some of the mashed plantain and mold lightly round an egg. (Always apply some vegetable oil on your palms before scooping the mashed plantain, so it doesn’t stick to your palms.)
• And then into the bowl of the whisked egg goes the molded plantain egg ball.
• After dipping in the whisked egg, roll the plantain egg-ball in the breadcrumbs and dip again in the whisked egg and then in the couscous and put it aside in a tray. Repeat this for as many Plantain egg-balls you’ve decided to make.
• In a baking pan, place the plantain egg balls that have gone through a series of dipping and rolling and bake for 7 minutes.
• Take it out and on each of the baked Plantain Scotch Egg, apply oil evenly and bake for five more minutes.
• After 5 minutes elapses, get your plantain scotch egg out of the pan and voila, it is ready to be served.

For the most amazing Plantain Scotch Egg experience, serve with hot sauce, and you will go back to your kitchen for more helpings. Don’t forget to enjoy it with your favorite fruit juice.