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

NIGER: THE FOOD

This has been a busy weekend! I had to order my daughter new glasses, and then my son and husband went to Cincinnati for an overnight art field trip while my daughter and I got to visit a cat café and go to cosmic bowling later on. And so now I’m finally finishing my three-day weekend with some Nigerien food. 

I know it's not healthy, but I really like sausage. And these are great!

I’m starting today off with some Nigerien Sausage Rolls. In a large bowl, I combined 3 c of flour, 1 stick of butter, 2 eggs, ½ c of water, and ½ Tbsp of salt together and kneaded it until it started to come together as a dough. I didn’t realize that I was out of all-purpose flour, so it ended up being 1 c of all-purpose and 2 c of spelt flour. Then I let it rest for about 2 hours. I bought already cooked turkey sausage crumbles, so I skipped the part where I browned it. When the dough was ready, I rolled it out and cut out rectangles. I took these rectangles and laid my sausage crumbles near one of the short ends. Starting from that end, I started rolling it up, trying to keep the sausage on the inside. When I got to the end, I pinched the outside edges to keep it all together and laid the whole thing on a baking sheet. Once I finished doing this will all of the dough, I brushed them all with an egg wash made from the egg whites. I baked this in a 400ºF oven until they were golden on top. I didn’t keep exact track of the time, but it was probably in the 10-13 minute range. I thought they were good, even though I think they might’ve been better with the using only all-purpose flour.

The picture doesn't show much, but there wasn't much to talk about either.

Next, I made Egusi Soup. I started out browning some ground beef, draining, and setting it off to the side. Then I put a can of diced tomatoes (juice and all), some diced green peppers and onions into my blender and blended them just a little (but not too much). Then I poured this into a pot, added in my ground beef, 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil, and the 1 c of ground egusi (I actually used pumpkin seeds that I had to grind myself since I couldn’t find the egusi. I saw it there last month when I was stopped by, but they must’ve been out.) And I left out the Maggi cubes because they have MSG in them. I let this all cook down for about 20-30 minutes, adding in a little beef stock, salt, and pepper for flavoring in lieu of the Maggi cubes. This one was not my favorite. The flavor was ok, but the texture was throwing me off. And the color, too. There were also places where the pumpkin seeds didn’t get ground all the way, so every now and then it felt like I was eating a shard of bark.

I actually kind of liked the addition of the shrimp with it, but I think a different kind of bean would've tasted better.

I also made Ewa Dodo (literally, ewa is black-eyed peas and dodo is plantains). I rinsed my peas in cold water and then boiled them for 2 minutes. I took them off the heat and let them soak for about an hour. Then I simmered in the same water for an hour until they are tender. This time, I watched my water levels like a hawk. After this, I added in some onion, tomato, and some crushed red pepper and let it cook for another 15 minutes. Then I threw in some tomato paste, oil, and salad shrimp and let it simmer covered for another 10 minutes. Separately, I sliced my plantains, sprinkled them with salt, and fried them. I drained the fried plantains on a paper towel and served next to or on top of the black-eyed peas. First of all, I wasn’t impressed with the way the plantains fried up. They fried up hard like chips and not as flavorful as I thought they could’ve been. Second, I think black-eyed peas have a musty flavor. But adding the shrimp, tomatoes, and spices helped. My husband thought it was too spicy, but I didn’t think so. I only used 1 ½ tsp for a large pot. He’s such a wimp. The kids barely touched this.

No complaints in the fruit department. It's all good here.

And finally, I made a Mango Salad. I didn’t feel like actually cubing pineapple and mangoes myself. So, I bought canned fruit and let someone else do the hard part. In a small bowl, I mixed together a drained can of diced pineapple and mangoes. Then I mixed together ½ c lemon juice and a cup of apricot nectar and poured on top of the fruit. I served this on lettuce leaves and garnished it with sliced strawberries. This was probably the best part of the meal. The mixed juices gave the normally sweet fruits a slightly sweet-sour flavor. I thought it was great!

Overall, this one was a half and half.

I realized today how important it is to multitask. I was making all of these dishes pretty much at the same time. I typically have more than one dish going at the same time. I prioritize my time and maximize my downtime. But you can only pull off multitasking if you are efficiently organized. Otherwise, I’ll forget about a dish, and it goes to crap (as I’ve found out before). I do this in my work day as well as taking care of my family (with the same results). However, on the downside of being a multitasker, I often feel like I’m working All. The. Time. Sometimes I just want a moment to chill, drink my coffee, and read my book. One day, one day.

Up next: Nigeria