What are some indigenous foods of Africa?!
Answers: Help will be very much appreciated....I've already googled it and yet I found nothing...
Desserts
KOEKSISTERS
12 oz flour 8 oz sugar 4 eggs 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp mixed spice 4 oz butter 1/2 tsp yeast fat for frying
Coating: 1 and 1/2 lb sugar 1 pint water
Mix the yeast with a little sugar, then add the mixed dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Knead all together and leave to stand for 1 hour. Roll out and cut into rectangles. Fry in deep fat. When cooked, dip into a syrup made from the 1 and 1/2 lb sugar and water boiled together with a little more cinnamon for taste.
KOLOMBYNTJES
8 oz butter 1 lb sugar 5 eggs 12 oz flour 2 tsp cream of tartar pinch salt 1 tbsp milk 1 tsp bicarb. of soda 6 oz currants 1 tsp lemon juice
Cream together butter and sugar, then add the beaten eggs, flour, cream of tartar and salt. Dissolve the bicarb. of soda in the milk and beat this in. Finally add the lemon juice and currants. Pour into a greased pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 - 30 minutes.
MELKTERT
Pastry: 4 oz flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 oz butter 2 egg yolks pich salt
Filling: 1 pint milk 8 oz sugar 2 tbsp cornflour 3 egg whites 1 oz butter cinnamon and sugar
Rub butter into sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Add egg yolks and enough milk to make a stiff dough. Roll out thinly and line one large or two small cake pans.
To make filling, dissolve cornflour in a little of the milk and boil the remaining milk together with the sugar. Pour milk/sugar onto the cornflour mixture and cook for 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Stir in the butter.
Cool slightly then fold the stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour the mixture into lined cake pans, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes
Main Dishes:
Wali wa samaki = Fish rice
:
1/2 kilo fish (preferably salmon), half boiled, stripped from the bones and cut into small pieces
1 large fresh minced onion
1/4 cup of vermicelli broken to small pieces
2 medium sized fresh carrots, cut into tiny pieces or grated
1 cube magi soup
2 cups of rice
1 cup of water
1 tea spoon salt
Boil the rice well and add some salt to taste. Pour out all the water and leave the rice in a sieve.
Stir fry the fish, onion, vermicelli and carrots in a wide pan until onions get cooked but not burnt.
Add 1 cup of water into the frying pan and drop in the magi soup cube. Keep steering until water starts boiling and the soup is fully dissolved.
Take the rice from the sieve and put into a medium sized cooking dish, add all the contents from the frying pan and stir gently (with wooden spoon / spatula). Put in a low fire for 5 minutes. Stir one more time and take off from the fire. Keep to cool a little and serve
Boko boko / Harees = Wheat paste food
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 tea cups of whole or half ground wheat
3 chicken breast
3 pairs of chicken gizzards
2 onions 1 big (grated/cut into tiny pieces) and
one small (sliced and shredded)
3 table spoons turmeric paste/puree
5 table spoons sugar
5 cups water
6 heaped tea spoons of ghee
2 tea spoons salt
Instructions:
Soak wheat and leave wheat in water for 3 hours. Boil wheat, chicken breast and big (grated) onion in 3 cups of water. Add 1 tea spoon of salt and keep cooking on low fire.
On another side of the cooker make sweet turmeric sauce. Cut chicken gizzards into small pieces and boil with 3 spoons of turmeric paste/puree in 1/2 cup of water, add a pinch of salt and 3 table spoons of sugar. Leave the sauce to cool.
Once wheat is thoroughly cooked, take out the chicken breast, they should also be well cooked by now to the point that they almost start to shred when you just touch them. Cut chicken breast into small pieces and shred well. Put the chicken back into the bowl of wheat and start to stir. By now the wheat you are cooking should have started turning into a thick paste. Add 2 to 3 spoons of ghee and keep stirring until the shredded chicken is evenly distributed. The heaviness or thickness of wheat paste should almost feel like dough when kneaded and ready for baking. If the paste is too hard add a little water. Once ready, take off from fire and cover the wheat paste.
On one side of cooker, take a small frying pen and fry the small (shredded) onion in 3 to 4 spoons of ghee. Keep stirring until onions turn red and crispy.
Serving:
The turmeric sauce with pieces of chicken gizzards is served in one small bowl.
Deep fried onions with all the ghee are also poured into another bowl and put on the table (allow a few minutes to cool but not solidify)
Boko boko is served while still warm (not hot, you could end up badly burnt). One may choose to either eat it with the fried onions (where by one also adds the ghee that is with the onions) or one may choose to eat boko boko with the turmeric sauce.
Maharage ya nazi = Coconut creamed red kidney beans
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 cup Red kidney beans, soaked over night
2 cups coconut cream (fresh if possible)
1 onion - large shredded bulb
2 tomatoes sliced in small pieces
1 teaspoon salt or less, for testing
2 green peppers (chilies)
Instructions:
Boil beans in 2 cups of water until half cooked, if necessary add more water. Some beans are so hard that you may have to add water 3 times. When half cooked, throw out all water, wash under running cold water and put on low fire. Add all other ingredients now, i.e. coconut cream, onion, tomato, green pepper and salt.
Stir occasionally with wooden spoon. Use knife or fork, poke the beans to check for softness in order to a certain level of cooking. Your best indicator should be when the beans start to split.
Serving:
Eaten with rice, 'Ugali' or bread like curry/gravy.
Mseto = Rice paste food with green grams
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 cup green gram
1 cup rice
1/2 cube of chicken soup
1 teaspoon salt or less, for testing
Instructions:
Boil rice with green gram then cook under low fire until green gram is well done, start stirring with wooden spoon as to break the rice and gram. Just break them enough not so much as to lose identity of the grains.
Serving:
To be served with roasted fish in sauce, or roasted chicken in sauce.
Mchuzi wa biringani = Eggplant curry
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 medium sized eggplant vegetables
3 medium sized tomatoes
2 medium sized potatoes
1 bulb of onion
3 table spoons of animal fat (ghee)
1 teaspoon salt or less, for testing
Instructions:
After washing (peel potatoes) and cut eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes into small slices. Put in frying pan and add animal fat. Fry and continuously keep stirring. When tomatoes and egg plant are well done, add some water and stir until thick curry is formed. Check for readiness of potatoes. If cooked, then all is ready.
Serving:
To eaten with any kind of bread or with rice, mseto etc.
Kisamvu na karanga = Casava leaves with peanuts
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 kilo freshly cut tapioca spinach
2 large tomatoes freshly sliced
2 table spoons crunchy peanut butter or 3 heaped spoons crushed roasted peanuts
1 bulb of onion nicely sliced
1 teaspoon salt or less, for testing
Instructions:
Best tasting tapioca spinach consists mainly of the 3 leaves at the tip (near shoot), collect these and cut them from twigs, wash them and grind them well.
Cook the spinach adding salt to taste. Make sure that spinach is 'very well' cooked. Once you are certain that it is well cooked, add the sliced tomatoes and onions. Keep stirring and at this point add the grounded peanuts or the peanut butter and stir to mix well. Allow to cool a little and serve.
Serving:
To eaten with any kind of bread or with rice, mseto etc.
Supu ya maharage na nazi = Coconut bean soup
Serves 8
Notes:
In Tanzania, as in other African countries, soups and sauces are served in a consistency that is as thick as our stews. Coconut Bean Soup would be used there as a meatless main dish by increasing the quantities of beans and rice. However, in adapting this recipe in our test kitchen we thinned it to soup consistency with additional water and served it as a delightful soup course. Any dried beans such as black-eyed peas or pea beans can be used in this soup. Just cover with
water and cook until tender before combining them with the other ingredients. Coconut milk and the delicate use of curry give the soup its unusual flavor.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup onions finely chopped
1/2 Cup green peppers (capsicum) chopped
1 tea spoon curry powder
1 tea spoon salt
1/4 tea spoon hot pepper
3 table spoons margarine or butter
1 cup fresh tomato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2&1/2 cups kidney beans
2 cups coconut milk
3 cups water
1/2 cup cooked rice
10 table spoons coconut
Instructions:
In a 3-quart saucepan:
Sauté: 1/2 cup ONIONS, chopped finely
1/2 cup GREEN PEPPERS, chopped finely
1 tsp. CURRY POWDER
1 tsp. SALT
1/4 tsp. PEPPER in
3 Tbs. MARGARINE OR BUTTER until soft but not brown.
Add 1 cup FRESH TOMATO cut in 1/2-inch pieces.
Simmer for two minutes longer.
Add: 2 1/2 cups KIDNEY BEANS (24-oz. can with liquid)
2 cups COCONUT MILK (see page 226)
3 cups WATER.
Simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup COOKED RICE.
Correct the seasonings to your taste.
Serving:
Serve one-cup portions in attractive soup bowls.
Garnish each bowl with 1 tsp. FINE SHREDDED COCONUT.
Mchuzi wa bata = Duckling Dar-Es-Salaam
Serves 8
Notes:
Duckling is a great delicacy in Tanzania and is usually served when there are special guests. The same recipe is used for other meats and is particularly good with veal and chicken. Accompaniments are cooked bananas (a must), rice, potatoes, cassava and Ugali made with white cornmeal.
Ingredients:
1 duckling 6lb (2&1/2 kilos or so) - cut into 12 pieces
1 cup onions finely chopped
1 cup tomatoes diced in small pieces
1 tea spoon salt
1 tea spoon curry powder (optional)
1/2 tea spoon crushed red pepper
4 table spoons oil or margarine
4 large bananas
2 quarts of water
Directions:
In a 6-quart Dutch oven or baking dish:
Sauté: 1 cup ONIONS finely chopped, and
1 cup TOMATOES in small dice, with
1 tsp. SALT
1 tsp. CURRY POWDER (optional)
1/2 tsp. CRUSHED RED PEPPER (optional) in
4 Tbs. OIL or MARGARINE until soft.
Add 1 6-lb. DUCKLING, cut up into about 12 pieces.
Sauté the duckling lightly for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add 2 quarts WATER
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or bake at 350' until duckling is tender. Slightly green bananas or plantains may be simmered with the duckling. Or they may be prepared separately and served as a side vegetable.
Serving:
1/2 banana per portion or 4 large bananas
Ugali = Cornmeal Mush
Serves 8
Notes:
One of the foods most frequently used in both East and West Africa is a mush or gruel made by pounding fresh corn and squeezing out the cornstarch. When it is cooked in boiling water to a gruel consistency and used as a breakfast cereal it is called Uji (Ogi, in West Africa). When it is cooked to a thicker consistency, so that it can easily be rolled into a ball, it is called Ugali (Agidi in West Africa). As a substitute you can use cornmeal grits or buckwheat grits. Africans in our country use any fine white cereal such as Farina or Cream of Wheat. These cereals are surprisingly tasty when served with meat and poultry gravies. Stone- ground white cornmeal can be purchased in specialty food shops. For added flavor, try cooking cornmeal grits, farina, or any cereal in chicken or beef stock instead of water. The cereals absorb the flavor of the stock and make an excellent accompaniment for meats. Rice and couscous, that wonderful semolina grain used so abundantly in North Africa, are delicious when prepared in this way. In Swahili any thick mush is called Ugali. There is a light Ugali made with cornmeal flour and there is a dark Ugali made with millet flour, and often groundnuts (peanuts) are ground in with the mush.
Ingredients:
1 quart water
1 tea spoon salt
1 cup white cereal (e.g. farina)
Directions:
In a 2-quart saucepan:
Boil rapidly 1 quart WATER or CHICKEN BROTH.
Add: 1 tsp. SALT and
1 cup ANY FINE WHITE CEREAL.
Swirl the cereal into the boiling water and cook according to package directions
to a thick heavy mush.
Keep warm over hot water (in a double boiler) until ready to serve.
Serving:
Put in a big glass or plastic bowl then cover with a big plate. Turn upside down so that 'ugali' whic is now bowl shaped gets in the plate. Take a smaller dish and press on the top of 'ugali' to form a hole. Pour coconut cream red kidney beans or tapioca leaves, or duckling into the hole and serve. Usually every one eats together. In case some one wants to eat separately, serve a portion of 'ugali' in their plate and pour any of the above mentioned soups onto it.
Biriyani = Biriyani Rice
Serves 8
Ingredients
2 Kilo grams RED Onions
2 Kilo grams Chicken (thighs & drumsticks)
4 cups Basmati rice (long grain rice)
2 tb spn canned tomato
2 large regular tomatoes
1 bunch mint leaves
1 bunch parsley
5 spices (cinnamon bark - 3 medium pieces, cardamom - 6 pieces, cumin seeds, black pepper - about 1/6 tea spoon, cloves - 3 to 4 sticks)
4 medium sized potatoes
2 cups yogurt
6-8 lemons
Salt to taste
5-6 sections/pieces from 1 head garlic medium sized
1 node fresh ginger, about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch diameter (not powdered)
Directions
Wash the rice 2 or 3 times until the whitishness does not re appear in the water.
Boil the rice until it is half done, sieve and throw away the starchy fluid
Mix the rice with a big pinch of strands of saffron, about 20 or 30 strands.
In a big cooking pot, fry the garlic in GHEE
Raise the temperature of ghee and put in the chicken.. fry at high temperature only to brown the chicken... remove quickly so that the juices from the chicken do not get out (you will need them for later). Remove the chicken and put on a paper towel to drain the oil and remove the pot from the fire
Now put everything BUT THE RICE, into another pot and mix them nicely (all the spices -ground-, the chicken, yogurt, ginger, garlic etc). Add salt and make sure that you can taste the salt (don't go over board) also make sure that the mix taste for sourness.
Pour rice on top of all the mixed stuff.
Boil some ghee on another pot or pan and pour on top of the rice. Cover the pot with tinfoil and make sure you do this well, make it snuggle nicely. Then use your regular pot cover over this.
Cook in medium low (second option between low and medium) for about 30 minutes. {Alternatively you could cook it in the oven at about 250 that is about 30-40% lower temp than you would use for backing cake - if cooking in the oven, you will need to time it for 45 minutes, after 45 minutes you will need to poke in a fork all the way to the bottom to feel if its done or not}
To be done, the rice on the top will be cooked and the bottom of the pot will stay a little bit soggy.
Time to serve, NOW you will need a big deep bowl like plate, uncover the pot completely, clear the area for a little work. Cover the pot with the plate, serving side facing the pot. Lift the pot in such a way that with a quick twist, you can flip it over where the plate is at the bottom and the pot is on top of it. If you used a plate big enough, nothing will fall on the floor when you pull up the pot. So now pull up the pot. The thick curry should be at the top and may slightly run if it was not cooked at right temperature, but that is not a bad thing. The biriyani curry is one of the best curry you will ever taste. Remember what I said about NOT over frying the chicken, not losing the juices?? Well what has happened is that the juices from the chicken combined with tomatoes, yogurt and other stuff and made the rich biriyani curry at the low cooking temperatures.
Serving
Usually in Africa and the Middle East, the whole BIG plate is set in the middle and every one eats hand in hand from it, sitting on the floor around it. However, though that is the best way for socializing and breaking class barrier, you can serve it any way you like in your home. You could set the big plate in the middle of the table and every one can serve into their plates (especially if you do not have eaters hehehe), and take the amount they need.
Every one taking a serving should take the curry and all, that is the best part, if biriyani is cooked right, I would swear it is the best food in the world as far as taste is concerned. However, this here is chicken biriyani, the more authentic one is beef/veal biriyani, I will get the recipe for that when mom has time and I will post it here for you. She says there is a little difference in preparation. I know there is a lot of difference in taste!
OTHER SUGGESTED VARIATIONS:
Just to add to all the lovely taste, you could boil a few eggs (1 to 2 eggs for every expected guest) and also but them at the bottom of the pot, after mixing ingredients and just before pouring in the rice, that way they are not stuck at the bottom, but they get the biriyani curry taste on them as well.
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Chappati = Roti/naan
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 cup of flour (white)
1 tablespoon ghee (cow shortening)
1/2 tea sp or less salt
Directions
Melt ghee in a small frying pan DO NOT boil it.
Mix ghee with flour and salt.
Then mix with warm water (add just a little bit of water at a time and mix the dough thoroughly, make sure the dough is not hard) keep for at least one hour. Then separate dough into small rolls similar to oven cupcake buns. Use rolling pin and roll the dough balls each on a large flat surface (Formica counter top does great) as you roll the pin spread a little ghee on the dough and then tear the now flat pizza like dough spread from the center by pulling evenly to all edges and cut one side so you are left with a long lean piece of dough in your hands. Roll it into a coil (snakes) from each end in opposite directions (one clock wise and the other end counter clock wise) when they get together, then twist one of the collected coil and put it over the other.
Clean area over the oven top and keep a wide flat heavy/thick frying pan on the cooking range, turn on the cooker at low. Leave the dough for about 10 minutes then roll with rolling pin on flat surface into an evenly spread round (pizza like) thin spread. Turn the heat on to medium using oiling brush, spread a little ghee evenly all around the pan and cook the chappatis. Keep turning (rotating it) to ensure even cooking and turn over and keep pressing after turning and also put ghee on top but not too much and keep on pressing in the frying pen until light brown.
I remember reading somewhere that sweet potatos are originally from Africa.
I'm African, we have yams, plantains, okro, cassava, white beans and brown beans, yam flour, amala(cassava flour), tthere's alot more but I cnt remember right nw.
Goodluck!!!
lol- i was gonna say chicken , watermelon and coolaid too !!!!! hahahahahaha ! lmao ! mac and cheese, collards, and lobster when the first of the month comes around !
!xoble .. haha
The African continent is huge and each region has indigenous foods.
There are arid sections of Africa and there are subtropical and rainforests in Africa.
There are Arab Africans, white Africans, black Africans, Asian Africans, pygmy Africans, etc..
The food of Africa has been influenced by every other country/culture in the world, just as in the U.S.
It is a huge multicultural country, just as is the U.S.
There is no simple way to answer your question.
You need to take a region or a country in Africa and look up information just on that region or country.
And, some of the foods, like the peanut, that have long been thought to have originated in Africa are actually indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. Many relics and art objects have been found in central America that are based on the peanut so it was here tens of thousands of years ago.
Good luck!
I have been tracking down some of the foods indigenous to Kenya, and one of the mainstays seems to be millet.