SIERRA LEONE: THE FOOD

It’s been a busy month getting the kids off to a new school year. My daughter started middle school this year, which has a 7am drop-off time. So, she and I have been struggling with this early wake-up time. I feel like I’ve been a zombie for the past few weeks. But both kids are doing well and adjusting – both have been picked as Top Five Students of the Week for each of their grades. So, I suppose they’re getting off to a good start. 

This dish was fantastic! Definitely had a fan club.

And it’s taken me a while to cook the food from Sierra Leone (mostly because we’re trying to fix up our house to move into, so all of our extra money has been pouring into floors and cabinets lately). But here we are finally. I divided this cooking between two days. The first dish I made was West African Plasas, or Chicken in Peanut, Spinach, and Tomato Sauce. I got out my large pot and heated up some oil in it. I added in my chicken thighs (with the bones and skins on them) to brown them on all sides. When they were browned, I took them out and put them on a plate off to the side. In the same pot, I added a touch more oil before caramelizing my onions and then adding in 2 cans of tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, a thawed and drained package of frozen spinach, 1/3 c of peanut butter, a vegetable bouillon cube, a little salt and pepper, and a cup of chicken broth. Once it comes to a simmer again, I added my chicken back into the pot and pushed it down into the sauce, covering it some. I covered my pot and turned my heat down low, letting it simmer for another 20-30 minutes. I served this on top of rice. I really liked this, even though I couldn’t really taste any of the peanut butter at all. And I got quite a few compliments from people at work when I took it as leftovers. 

I normally love banana bread, but this needed a little something more.

The bread I made was Rice Bread (slightly different than the one I made for Liberia). I started by mashing six kinda ripe bananas in a bowl until it was like a lumpy pudding. Then I slowly added in 1 ½ c of rice flour (I used white rice flour) into the bananas. After stirring to avoid lumps, I slowly poured in almost a cup of sugar, stirring it well again (the riper the banana, the more sugar it makes naturally; since mine weren’t as ripe, I added more sugar). Finally, I added in 2 tsp grated nutmeg, ¼ tsp of cinnamon, and 3 oz (6 Tbsp) of vegetable oil and stirred again. Once I gave it another couple of good stirs to make sure everything was smooth and consistent, I poured it into one of my baking pans (I oiled it beforehand). I couldn’t find my loaf pan, so I had to use a different one. No worries. Setting my oven to 350ºF, I baked this for about 60 minutes. It didn’t seem quite done, so I put it back in for a little longer. I really liked the flavor of the nutmeg with it, but the slightly gooey texture kept making me think it wasn’t done.  

Although everyone thought the mild sausage too spicy, I liked this dish.

The final dish I made was Egusi Soup. I started by browning some mild sausage (the recipe says “meat” – no clue as to what kind; I imagine it’s whatever’s on hand). In a separate bowl, I mixed together a half can of diced green chilies (if you want heat, use some hotter peppers), a half can of diced tomatoes, and about a quarter of a diced onion. Then I took mashed them all together with my pestle and added it to the sausage, letting it simmer for 10 minutes or so. I didn’t have time to look for egusi at the international store, but I did have a small bag of walnuts that I ground up. Not a perfect substitute, but it added a nice flavor. Then I added in my ground “egusi,” a condensed stock cube (in lieu of a Maggi cube – those things are full of MSG), and a tin of smoked salmon. After a few minutes, I added in some spinach leaves and a bit of salt and pepper, simmering for another 5-10 minutes. I could’ve actually left out the salt completely. I served this with some steamed white rice. I was skeptical about the salmon-sausage-walnut combo, but you know what? It was quite tasty! Outside of being a little bit oily, I thought it was fantastic. The rest of my family thought it was too peppery. (Wimps.)

Pictures or it didn't happen. He actually ate part of my food... and liked it.

It took me a while to complete this one, but it got done. I'm not used to having to cook during the week. And even though sometimes I'm grateful for a break, it actually made me a little stir crazy to NOT be cooking something exotic in the kitchen for a while. (My husband probably enjoyed that part. Just kidding -- if you ask him, he'll deny it, but then give you "that look.") All in all, I think everyone enjoyed this meal, even if it was spread out over a couple of days. And oddly enough, I kept running into articles, books, organizations, and people with ties to Sierra Leone.

Up next: Singapore