Recipe: African food and some info

Here is an artical I found maybe it,ll be a help for you as the recs are very ethnic I also have some traditional S.African recs you can have just let me know

Amuka Afrika!
By Binyavanga Wainaina
Cape Verde is one of those African countries that one rarely ever hears about. I first ate Cape Verdean food many years ago at a friend's place in Nairobi.
Most people who write about African food have dismissed Cape Verde cuisine, because it is assumed that it is primarily Portuguese and therefore not really African.

I have a huge problem with such assumptions. If something is eaten and enjoyed in Africa, it is African. What would French cuisine be without tomatoes from South America? In fact, what would European cuisine be like if Vasco Da Gama and company did not land in Zanzibar, or head off to the East Indies.

Also, the manner of cooking, serving and many ingredients in Cape Verde cuisine resemble the cuisine of other areas in Africa. Xerem and Catchupa are reminiscent of South Africa's "Samp and Beans", and Kenya's "Githeri".

Enslaved Africans brought knowledge of growing and cooking tropical crops to the Island. The Portuguese brought livestock, they used Cape Verde for feeding the crews of their sailing ships and as an experimental station for growing foods from the Americas, such as corn, hot peppers, pumpkins, and cassava. They also transplanted sugar, bananas, mangoes, papayas, and other tropical crops from Asia and the African mainland.

Kuskus is another Verdean favourite. It is made from mielies, ground fine and steamed in a distinctive ceramic pot called a binde. Unlike its West and North African relation, it is served hot with butter and milk (kuskus ku leite) or molasses (kuskus ku mel).

Cachupa is a slow boiled stew of samp, beans, vegetables, spices and marinated pork or tuna. The ingredients in a kettle of cachupa depend very much on what season it is.

Most Cape Verdeans who reside in the countryside maintain gardens to grow a little mandioca (cassava), beans and perhaps some greens to fatten a pig for their cachupa. If it's to be a wedding or other very special occasion, people somehow manage to get together and make sure that the kettle overflows with sausage, marinated meats, and vegetables. This is called a cachupa rica.

Cooking cachupa from dry ingredients may require as much as four hours over a slow but steady flame.

Recipes for cachupa vary from island to island and from household to household. On Brava island cachupa is called munchupa. What's in a kettle of cachupa may also depend on the weather. When the rains are good, there are greens, mandioca, potatoes, maybe squash, yams, and plenty of pork. In a dry year you might have to make do with corn, a handful of beans and a piece of salt pork.

The table in Cape Verde is a place for communal sharing, telling stories and showing hospitality.


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Recipes from Ken's Kitchen

Cachupa Rica
4 cups samp (hominy)
1 cup kidney beans
1 cup large lima beans
1/2 cup shell beans
whole chicken
900g spareribs (pork or beef)
1 chourico (garlic spicy sausage), sliced
l blood sausage, when available, sliced
120g lean bacon, diced
900g cabbage, chopped coarsely
900g tomatoes, quartered
900g green bananas, peeled and sliced
900g fresh yams, peeled and chunked
900g fresh sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked
900g hard winter squash, peeled and chunked (eg buttercup, butternut, hubbard etc.)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 bay leaves
Flat leaf coriander
Soak the samp and beans overnight. In a stock pot, heat six cups of water. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, onion, garlic and bay leaf to water for seasoning. Bring to boil and add samp and beans. In a separate kettle, cook the vegetables except the tomatoes with the spareribs, chourico or linguica, blood sausage, and bacon. Next, cut up and season the chicken. Saute chicken in olive oil. Add tomatoes, and let simmer until samp and beans are almost tender but not quite done.

Add cooked vegetables and meats into stock pot. Cook on low heat for approximately one hour. About 20 minutes before the cachupa is done you may mix in well sauted onion, garlic and tomato paste mixture (sofrito) to adjust and enhance the flavour.

Turn off heat and let sit in the covered pot for at least one half hour before serving. Arrange meats and vegetables on a large serving platter and serve the corn and beans in a bowl.

Leftover cachupa makes a great breakfast.

Cachupa Guisada

Fry up a few ladles of cachupa on top of some browned onions and let it heat up slowly until it begins to dry out. Let it cook up until it is almost crispy on the bottom. Serve it with a fried egg on top (cachupa ku ovo stralado).

More about Binyavanga Wainaina

Binyavanga, also known as " Ken", is a partner in an Western Cape-based events management company called Amuka Afrika!. They put together functions that reflect Africa, doing catering that specialises in authentic African food, as well as training and consultation. For more info, contact (021) 468 7743 (beeper)


Amuka Afrika!
By Binyavanga Wainaina
Recipes from Ken's Kitchen

Spinach Sauce (Plasas)
2 packages of frozen chopped spinach
250g smoked fish, flaked
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups water
1 1/2 cup palm oil (if difficult to find, use ordinary vegetable oil)
2 hot peppers or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
450g meat, stewing or chuck roast
Cut meat. Put in saucepan with two cups of water, salt, onion and pepper. Bring to boil and add palm-oil. Continue cooking partly covered. Cook for 1 1/2 hours over medium heat. Add spinach (previously thawed and drained), flaked fish and peanut butter mixed with water. Stir, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with steamed rice, drained), flaked fish and peanut butter mixed with water. Stir, cover and simmer.

Serve with Pap or Rice.

Benne Cakes

These are a favourite from Jamaica to Georgia, and from Sierra Leone to Ghana. (Benne seeds are sesame seeds.)

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions

Cream butter and sugar together and mix with other ingredients in the order given. Drop with a teaspoon on wax paper in a cookie sheet, far enough apart to allow spreading while baking. Bake in a 160 degrees C oven for 30 minutes. (Yield: 7 dozen.)