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The Taste of Africa (cookbook project)
Apr. 10th, 2013 08:30 amThis was actually a library book. I have no African books at the moment, rather some North African recipes in my Middle East cookbook (written by an Egyptian), so there were several of various regions/time periods in my Amazon wishlist when I transferred it to a library reserve list. This was the only one of those books the library had.
For my taste, it's a little Morocco heavy in terms of recipes. I'm not dissing Morocco or Moroccan food, just that that's the part of Africa I have covered already, and I'm looking to fill the holes from further south.
Anyway, last night, I made Fish with crab and aubergine sauce (Mauritius), with okra and tomato tagine (general North Africa, particularly Egypt according to the book), followed by spiced nutty bananas ('central Africa'). Well, I would have done had I remembered to buy aubergine.
The fish was absolutely delicious, and I should remember to keep crab meat in. Judith went from 'I don't like salmon' to 'this is yummy'. She only ate the bits untouched by vegetable sauce, though, so if and when I make this again I should keep her some separate. You make a smooth sauce from onion, pepper, aubergine and tomatoes, then layer salmon, crab meat and vegetables in a pan, put the lid on, and leave it to cook. I think this would be a good Wonderbag recipe actually. Anyway, while I would have preferred this with aubergine, it was still good without, and I think basically it's the sort of thing where almost any veg could be thrown in to good effect, particularly things like mushrooms and courgette.
The okra was a bit weedy. It starts with a spice paste, but even so, too much tomato, not enough anyhthing else. Judith declared that she prefers 'normal okra' by which she means bhindi bhaji, and I agree. We don't eat enough okra, and I should add a bhindi bhaji to our normal repertoire.
Pudding was a mixed success. You slice the bananas, cover them in juice and rum, and pour over crushed nuts, sugar and spices. It was alright, but never going to be a wild favourite, and I should maybe have chosen something a bit more exotic.
For my taste, it's a little Morocco heavy in terms of recipes. I'm not dissing Morocco or Moroccan food, just that that's the part of Africa I have covered already, and I'm looking to fill the holes from further south.
Anyway, last night, I made Fish with crab and aubergine sauce (Mauritius), with okra and tomato tagine (general North Africa, particularly Egypt according to the book), followed by spiced nutty bananas ('central Africa'). Well, I would have done had I remembered to buy aubergine.
The fish was absolutely delicious, and I should remember to keep crab meat in. Judith went from 'I don't like salmon' to 'this is yummy'. She only ate the bits untouched by vegetable sauce, though, so if and when I make this again I should keep her some separate. You make a smooth sauce from onion, pepper, aubergine and tomatoes, then layer salmon, crab meat and vegetables in a pan, put the lid on, and leave it to cook. I think this would be a good Wonderbag recipe actually. Anyway, while I would have preferred this with aubergine, it was still good without, and I think basically it's the sort of thing where almost any veg could be thrown in to good effect, particularly things like mushrooms and courgette.
The okra was a bit weedy. It starts with a spice paste, but even so, too much tomato, not enough anyhthing else. Judith declared that she prefers 'normal okra' by which she means bhindi bhaji, and I agree. We don't eat enough okra, and I should add a bhindi bhaji to our normal repertoire.
Pudding was a mixed success. You slice the bananas, cover them in juice and rum, and pour over crushed nuts, sugar and spices. It was alright, but never going to be a wild favourite, and I should maybe have chosen something a bit more exotic.
