TOGO: THE FOOD

Well, it’s my first Mother’s Day in our new home, and that’s where we’ll be spending it today. I personally haven’t left our property for about a month. It doesn’t super bother me, except I miss going to the grocery store. My husband is the only one to go out now, to minimize who comes in contact with what. He reports back how crazy it is, though. People are angry. People aren’t wearing masks and not social distancing. If I don’t come out of this without a mild case of agoraphobia, it’ll be a miracle.

It looks like a desert landscape. A bread desert.

But today I’m staying safe and cooking food from Togo! The bread I made is called Ablo, or Togolese Corn Bread. I sifted my maize (corn) flour in bowl along with some wheat flour. Then I took about a quarter of this and mixed with 200mL of water until it was smooth like a slurry. In a saucepan, I brought another 200mL to a boil. Then I whisked in my slurry and stirred constantly until it was just under a boil before I took it off the heat. It was really kind of thick. In the same bowl with the rest of my flour, I added in the yeast and salt. And when the slurry/paste was completely cool, I added that in as well. I stirred and kneaded to make it a light dough, having to add quite a bit of water to get it that way. And even at that, it was very dense. Then I covered it and let it sit for an hour. Like the famous book by Chinua Achebe, this is where things start to fall apart. It was supposed to have risen, but it did nothing. I lined a springform cake tin and lined it with wax paper. I made five layers (or as many layers as I could), separating each layer with wax paper. I was supposed to place my cake tin inside of a roasting pan that I filled halfway up with boiling water, but I didn’t have anything big enough to put it in. So, I just put it in the oven and baked in a 350ºF oven for 30-40 minutes or until what I hoped was cooked through. I was going to put a pan with water below it in the oven, but I didn’t think of that until later and didn’t think it would’ve had the same effect. The top layer was cracked and the bottom layers just didn’t like they cooked through all the way. And it stuck to the wax paper so that all I could get was crumbs: this was kind of an epic fail. But it smelled good, and it actually tasted good too. Just crumbly.

Amaaaaaaaaazing! I loved this so much. (Except the meat getting stuck in my teeth.)

The main meal for today is called Gboma Dessi. For this, I got out my pressure cooker. I sautéed some onion in a little oil along with some minced garlic and ginger for a couple minutes. Then I added in my stew beef, salt, pepper, a bouillon cube and covered it all with water. I cooked it on high heat until it started to whistle, then turned it to low heat and let it cook for 45 minutes. Then I removed the meat and set it aside in a bowl. I seasoned the meat with Gbotemi spice (a mixture that I amended but essentially included clove, cardamom, oregano and thyme--it’s not the same but probably kinda close, I hope). While the meat was cooking, I took my spinach leaves (I got bagged spinach since it was already washed and ready to go) and boiled them in salted water for 10-15 minutes. In a large pot, I sautéed more onions and garlic with a bit of oil. After a couple minutes, I added in a small can of tomato sauce, some pepper, and another bouillon cube. If you’re using hot peppers, which I am not, you can add them now. After stirring constantly for a few minutes, I added in my broth from my pressure cooker and boiled this over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Then I added in my drained spinach leaves and meat and let it all simmer for about 25 minutes (which turned into an hour because I had my husband and daughter help me, and well, they forgot). But no matter: this was amazing. It tasted like beef stew. It was so good and the meat practically fell apart. Honestly, I think the whole thing could’ve been made in the pressure cooker (and my husband wanted to add in potatoes). I served it with rice, and it was amazing.

You know, I'd do this again but experiment around with it. Maybe with some dulce de leche??

And for dessert, I made Togolese Baked Bananas. I took my unpeeled bananas and placed them on a baking sheet and put it in a 350ºF oven, baking them for about 15 minutes until the skins became brown. Then I removed them and cut two slits down the middle when they cooled a bit and peeled back just a strip of the peel to reveal the banana inside. Then I squeezed a little bit of lime juice onto the banana, sprinkled a bit of brown sugar and poured a bit of heavy cream over them. I also garnished it with some crushed peanuts. The peanuts are a must. It really compliments the salty-sweet flavors. It was probably one of the strangest-looking desserts I’ve ever had, but it was quite tasty.

You know, as terrible as the bread turned out, it wasn't bad when crumbled in the stew.

Besides the peppers and the spice mix, this stew was easy to make and was almost the perfect kind of quarantine meal. I suppose you could’ve substituted other meats or greens, but that may also be the point. I imagine in a lot of places in West Africa, there are food shortages or items you just can’t find at times. And maybe learning a thing or two about food preservation and preparation from places like West Africa helps with knowing how to make good food out of a few ingredients that sticks to your ribs. It sounds so “first world problems,” but we’ve always taken going to the store for granted. And now we’re learning what many people around the world roll their eyes at and already know.

Up next: Tonga