Here is my favourite African recipe. You can vary the mustard and spices to suit your taste, but this really is a tasty chicken dish. Serve it on top of hot boiled rice. Chicken Yassa � from The Gambia (serves 4 people) Fry until crispy, then remove from skillet: 1/2/ cup oil (120 ml) 1 chicken cut into 4 combine separately and cook 10 minutes: 2 medium onions � shredded/cut thinly 2 medium onions � diced 4 heaped teaspoons mustard powder juice of 2 large lemons 2 cloves of garlic, crushed salt and pepper to taste Add to this cooked mixture: The cooked chicken pieces Chicken bouillon cube, crushed Water to make plenty of sauce Salt and pepper to taste I bay leaf Chilli pepper to taste Simmer for 1-1 � hours. Perfect rice combine in a pan and fry 2-3 mns: 1-2 tablespoons oil 2 tablespoons sliced onion (optional) Add and bring to the boil: 1 cup rice 2 cups boiling water 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt Cover, turn heat very low and cook without stirring for 18-20 minutes

Sounds delicious, but the real way to make perfect rice Hawaiian style is use the sticky kind and a rice cooker. Perfect every time - and delicious. I eat it several times a day...

(I know, but this is how I make it in Africa!!!! Could not live without my pressure cookers) Try the chicken!

I shall try the chicken. I heard there were lots of peanut sauces. Do you like them?

Maggie--this is OT, but I just this day finished a book entitled Dear Exile. It's a collection of letters between two friends, one who lives in Kenya for the Peace Corps and one who lives in NYC. I thought about you! (although the "recipes" it contained overwhelmingly spoke of rancid goat...)

Please spare us the rancid goat recipes... Terribly difficult to find here.

I'll dig you up the groundnut/peanut recipes! I had too much of it - they were the ONLY protein eaten by women in my village. Autumn somewhere in Travel:Namibia I think, and Travel:Gambia and springark:arachnids are some of my stories!!! Marcia, I'll only post here recipes that I think you'll find the ingredients for - that way I can nag you to try them!!!!!!

OK here's the peanut recipe that we ate til I was sick of it! Domoda 1 kilo beef 250 grams peanut butter (smooth) 3 tablespoons tomato puree 1 large onion (chopped) 2 lemons (squeezed) 4 medium sized bitter tomato (optional) 8 medium size Okra 250 grams pumpkin 1 litre water half kilo rice salt & pepper to taste Cut meat into cubes Seal meat in hot fat and add tmato puree, water and seasonings Boil for 20 mins and reduce heat In another pan, boil bitter tomatoes, Okra, and Pumpkin until soft but not soggy, keep these warm Add other ingredients to the meat Bring to the boil for 10 mins stirring continuously to avoid sticking. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 45 mins Prepare boiled rice while stew is simmering. Serve sauce on the rice with the cooked vegetables on top.

We're all speechless!

What happened to our posts??? Yapping up the wrong tree again?!

har-dee-har-har!!

Well, have you tried it yet???

Sorry, vegetarian here.

vegetarian posted in topic 5

African Recipes - The Congo Cookbook Here's a collection of simple, everyday recipes accompanied by observations about cooking and culture in tropical Africa. Designed by a former Peace Corps volunteer, the site is tastily illustrated with African motifs. http://www.geocities.com/congocookbook

From http://www.geocities.com/congocookbook Green Tea with Mint from Western Africa Anyone who has visited Western African will associate Gunpowder tea with mid-day breaks and after-dinner visits. Gunpowder tea is Chinese green tea named for the way the tea leaves are rolled into small pellets, which look like old-fashioned gunpowder. The Chinese call it "zucha" (pearl) tea for the same reason. Rolling the tea leaves helps preserve the flavor; a desirable quality considering the tea's journey from Asia to Africa. Some Chinese green teas, called "Moroccan style Tea" or "Moroccan Mint Tea", come with mint already mixed in. What you need  Gunpowder tea (or any green tea), one teaspoon for each cup  cold water  fresh mint leaves  sugar to taste What you do  Bring the water to a near boil in a tea kettle or sauce pan. (Don't use water that has been boiling for any length of time.) Pour the water into a tea pot and add the tea, and then the mint leaves. Allow to the tea to steep only a few minutes. (Green teas should not be steeped as long as black teas.) Using a tea infuser is the best way to avoid letting the tea steep too long.  Serve immediately, with lots of sugar. The Western African style of serving involves holding the tea pot high above the table and pouring the hot tea at least twelve inches through the air into small glasses. (Glasses made of glass, not porcelain cups.) If the sugar is added to the pot, the tea is sometimes poured from the glasses back into the pot (before anyone has sipped) and the process is repeated. This mixes the sugar into the tea. Western Africans generally drink their tea very sweet. [Canvins use a small charcoal stove and a little red enamel teapot. We use little tea glasses about 3" high and put half one of these glasses-full of tea into the teapot. Once the water is boiling add a full glass of sugar. Thoroughly boil until sugar is dissolved. The tea is poured from about 12" over the glasses into one glass and then back into the pot several times to help mix the sugar. When it is thoroughly mixed the tea is divided amongst usually four glasses. If there are more than four drinkers, less tea is poured into each glass. Once a drinker has finished his tea the glass is replenished for somebody else. The tea is boiled up a second time with another glass full of sugar (but no more tea) and fresh water (filling the tea pot) repeating the whole process and then the tea is boiled a third time with another glass of sugar and more fresh water. The first cup is quite bitter, the second cup less so, and the third cup very sweet. Women only drink the thrid cup.] Depending on whether you are British or not, you may wish to make an iced-tea beverage. (Iced green tea is very good, though this is not the African way). The best way to make iced-tea is to follow this recipe and then pour the hot tea over enough ice to chill it thoroughly (do not use a glass pitcher: the suddenly changing temperature could shatter it), then place the iced tea in the refrigerator. Placing hot tea in the refrigerator without icing it first will make the tea cloudy.

African Foods http://africancultures.about.com/culture/africancultures/library/weekly/aa052900a.htm (05/29/00) Africa's cuisine is as rich and diverse as any continent in the world. In fact, since ancient history Africa has been the source for trade in spices. Alexandria, Egypt, was the world's leading spice trading center, and Zanzibar, Marrakech and Timbuktu were important points of exchange for spices. The earliest accounts by European voyagers marveled over the abundance and variety of indigenous foods of Africa. African cooking is as varied as the landscape. Topography and climates have spawned distinct cuisines from the spicy, savory stews of North and West Africa to the soothing porridges and fiery curries of East and Southern Africa. By necessity and tradition, Africans employ minimally processed grains, locally grown, vine-ripened fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs and hand-pounded spices, dairy products and meats from free-range animals, and seafood caught the same day. African influences on the cuisine of the southern United States are pervasive. Peanuts, rice, okra, yams, sesame and cumin are among the foods and flavorings brought to colonial America by African slaves. The words gumbo, nyami (from which the word "yam" derives) and banana are all African words. The opening of African restaurants in major cities in North America have contributed to a growing awareness of Africa's ways of eating, as well as the increase in the publishing of African cookbooks. To get you started cooking West African-style, here is a cookbook I highly recommend: I had the pleasure of receiving a review copy of South of the Sahara: Traditional Cooking from the Lands of West Africa authored by Elizabeth A. Jackson, and published by Fantail. Ms. Jackson was born in Nigeria where she lived for 16 years before returning to the United States with her missionary parents. Her book recalls the exotic foods she remembered from her childhood. She painstakingly recreated over 100 authentic West African recipes, including beverages, appetizers, soups, entrees, side dishes, and desserts. There are detailed instructions for preparing foods unfamiliar to Westerners and full-color photographs of finished dishes. You will also find brief introductions to West African countries and Hausa proverbs at the beginning of each section, and sources for West African foods and a glossary of tropical foods at the end. The recipes are easy to follow and, but for a few exceptions, most of the ingredients called for are those commonly found in your local grocery store.

Your quip, "I'll dig you up the groundnut/peanut recipes!" was very funny. The beef and peanut recipe you posted looks really interesting. I'm going to print it out. My husband could be talked into giving it a try -- once I do the metric conversions into American style measures. He cooks better than I do. He actually enjoys cooking. I think that's because he's half Italian and in Mediterranean cultures it seems that knowing how to cook is something of macho thing.

great ..I hope you like it!!! We did the African tea ceremony for a youth group quite recently ...and I took a huge bag of all our clothes and they dressed up and had a great time ... Tomorrow is our 'valedictory' service ('goodbye) at church ..the whole family are going in African clothes...including the boyfriends!