African Cuisines

[The Wall Is Undefeated!]

A thread on the multitude of cuisine on the continent.

Nigerian, Somali, Senegalese, Gabonese, Zimbabwean, Moroccan, Zambian etc.

From Jollof Rice to Kenkey to Sadza to Nyama Choma to Tajine.

Post some of the different dishes and where they from.

 

[get these nets]

Hyde Park couple start AYO, a West African frozen food line

August 2, 2020https://www.hpherald.com/news/busin...ccc-d1e1-11ea-bead-e7e6e010bc60.html#comments

Hyde Park resident Perteet Spencer and her husband Fred are banking on her Liberian heritage and experience in the food industry as they launch AYO Foods, a line of West African frozen meals.

As a girl, she helped her father run a Twin Cities import wholesale business, later working as a brand manager at General Mills in Minneapolis for a decade. She met her husband at DePaul University, and the two moved to Hyde Park six years ago.

"One of the things that we really fell in love with about Chicago was the breadth of so many delicious kinds of ethnic foods," she said. "I come from a really strong entrepreneurial background. I come from many, many years in the food industry really building brands, and we're personally foodies. As we thought through all of our personal talents, strengths and passions, we quickly landed on the idea of launching a brand that really representing our story."


"The brand is really about delivering joy through the flavors of West Africa, so we really view this as an exploration," she continued. "While one of the dishes is born out of a Liberian family recipe, as we identified items for the brand, we tried to find ones that had strong commonalities across regions."

West Africa is a physically large, populous, post-colonial region, and each country puts its own flair on dishes, she said, but AYO's products are striving for a sort of trans-national Platonic idealism.

In addition to jollof rice — perhaps the quintessential dish of the region, with tomatoes, red peppers and onions — AYO has frozen single servings of cassava leaf soup, with chicken, cayenne and other spices, and an egusi seed soup, with ground melon seeds, chicken, peppers, onions and spinach. Ingredients are sourced locally as well as from West Africa and South America, and packaging is done by a contractor in Dalton.

The big packaged food industry has seen uneven returns in recent years; the Chicago-based Kraft Heinz Co. has seen share prices slump two-thirds from a peak in February 2017. But Perteet said ethnic food has been an exception to the business's "fish tail" over the past few years.


"We've started to see a resurgence in frozen as folks are starting to look for more convenient options, and as you look at that growth, it was really fueled by more specialty, premium entrees entering the space," she said. "There's been a pretty big disruption in frozen over the past three years with the big growth of brands like Saffron Rose and Frontera."

Chicago's West African immigrant community is centered in Uptown, but foods of the African diaspora — particularly jerk chicken shops — are found across the South Side. Fred pointed out African American cuisine's tendency towards one-pot cooking, a link to its West African roots. He added cassava leaf soup has taken off in Minneapolis' Black community; Perteet pointed out the ingredient's similarity to collards.

As it stands, AYO, which means "joy" in Yoruba, is the first West African frozen food line in the United States. Perteet said customers include recent West African immigrants as well as a segment she dubbed "the ethnic explorers, folks who are looking for authentic ethnic experiences," whom she said represent 30% of the market. And as being homebound is now the norm, Perteet said AYO functions well as a small, escapist luxury.

Right now, AYO is the couple's self-funded passion project — Perteet currently works for SPINS, a River North natural foods consultancy, and Fred, a native South Sider, works in real estate development. The brand is currently in 50 Whole Foods locations across the South and a few retailers in Illinois

"We have big visions for this brand," she said. "Frozen is kind of the gateway, but we see the opportunity to really expand our offerings across the stores." Beginning with a frozen meal line allows people an introduction to the cuisine without having to go to specialty stores, but the Spencers would like to expand their offerings.

The Spencers only wanted to live in Hyde Park when they returned to Chicago. Their children attend the Lab School. While AYO products are currently available within the city only at Green Grocer Chicago, 1402 W. Grand Ave., the two have pitched to Hyde Park Produce, 1226 E. 53rd St., and Open Produce, 1635 E. 55th St.

"As you think about the community that we want represented and to experience our brand, Hyde Park is so interesting … in terms of racial and socioeconomic diversity that I think it represents a nice microcosm in terms of who we're trying to reach," Perteet said.

 

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Cassava Leaf Stew a Staple in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Cameroon, Congo

 

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My favorite breakfast thing, Rice/Corn Pap Sierra Leone and Guinea

 

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My Favorite Jollof Recipe

 

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Chicken Yassa Senegal, Gambian, Mali, Southern Mauritania staple

 

[Skooby]

I love Quanta firfir:

 

[Dad]

Peanut soup

 

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Good and easy Okra Soup Recipe

Okra Stew/Soup is a West African Staple

 

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Benachin Senegambia Dish, the original Jollof

 

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One of my favorite Dishes period, not the easiest to make, but so delicious. This or Okra was a Saturday staple for any Krio Household.


Krain krain, A staple in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Gambia often eaten with Fufu. But also rice.

 

[get these nets]

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Spoiler: news article about Montclair Brewery

Founders of Montclair Brewery Celebrate Culture Through Craft Beer

February 18, 2020
Denise-Ford Sawadogo and Leo Sawadogo are the married couple behind New Jersey’s Montclair Brewery. At the foundation of the brewery is a vision of connecting their diverse upbringings and cultures with the Montclair community through beer.

“Culturally, beer is a part of us,” says Denise Ford-Sawadogo, co-owner and general manager of the brewery. “My husband [and head brewer/co-owner] Leo is from West Africa, where there is just a wealth of culture.”

Ford-Sawadogo acknowledges that in West Africa, it’s traditionally the women who do the brewing. But her husband is a chef by training and has a vast knowledge of the fruits, plants, herbs, and ingredients that are unique to that part of the world. Ford-Sawadogo was born in Brooklyn, the first in her family to have been born outside their native Jamaica, and grew up on Long Island in a household dominated by kitchen smells of hibiscus and coconut.

“We and our beer are very inspired by our culture,” she says.

Inspired by their own backgrounds, Denise-Ford Sawadogo and Leo Sawadogo of Montclair Brewery celebrate culture through their beer.

For evidence, look no further than Baobiere, a golden ale from Montclair Brewery which is a mainstay on tap and is packaged in cans. Baobiere is brewed with fruit from the baobab tree, a tree native to parts of Madagascar and Africa, and is often referred to as the “Tree of Life.”
“Only Leo would know about [brewing with] that fruit,” she says, laughing.

In fact, the brewery’s beer menu is typically full of beers that reflect their upbringing from Hibiscus Dream, a pale ale brewed with the flower. Kingston Porter is a beer named for Jamaica in honor of Ford-Sawadogo’s family history.

Denise and Leo recognize there aren’t many Caribbean or West African natives in the U.S. craft brewing world, but Denise says that motivates them to make sure everyone feels welcome and comfortable coming into the brewery.

“We pride ourselves on making our guests feel comfortable,” she says. “We are appealing to larger audiences.”

Montclair Brewery’s Black History Month Beers
Staying true to their vision to connect with culture through craft beer, Montclair Brewing releasing a series of beers for Black History Month that pays homage to some of the black Americans that created lasting cultural legacies. For the husband and wife, Black History Month is a chance to “openly and proudly honor all the great accomplishments that people of African descent have contributed to the world,” Ford-Sawadogo says.

“We are aware of these great accomplishments all year round, but February gave us the platform to elevate the message.”

The brewery released a beer honoring Larry Doby, the second player to break the Major League Baseball color barrier when he was signed to the Cleveland Indians in 1947, a few months after Jackie Robinson started for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He spent the years at the end of his life in Montclair.

Denise Ford Sawadogo and Leo Sawadogo greet Larry Doby Jr


“Doby is a historical figure,” Ford-Sawadogo says. “He is not as well-known as Jackie Robinson, but there are tons of achievements. Plus it is the Negro League 100th anniversary this year. We thought this is the year to honor someone from that league.”

Other beers Montclair Brewing offered during Black History Month are the Motherland, a gluten-free beer made with sorghum, a traditional style of beer brewed in Africa, and the MB Pecan Stout, which connects the history of African-Americans and pecans. A former enslaved man, known only as Antoine, is regarded to have developed the technique used to grow pecan orchards.

The husband and wife duo have also planned to honor their culture by hosting a series of events featuring weekly acts that celebrate music of the African diaspora like reggae, hip-hop, and calypso. Ford-Sawadogo believes that music, like beer, can connect people.


“We think our music helps [bring people together],” she says. “Musicians have a following, so they come into our brewery and get introduced to craft beer. For many people, it’s their first time in a brewery. It’s an opportunity for us to tell them about what we do.”

Music and beer can be the bridge between people who may not typically be seated at the same table, taking in a culture that might not be their own.

“And whether you’re a person who goes to breweries on weekends or if you’re a person just coming to see a band you like, we want everyone to feel welcome,” Ford-Sawadogo says.

In many taprooms, the beer can inspire the culture within the walls. At Montclair Brewery, the Sawadogos are intent on making the opposite true.

 

[get these nets]

Semet about Kenyan traditional vegetables.

 

[get these nets]

RECIPES: West African cuisine transcends borders​

Nov 2, 2022


Recently, when I asked chef Pierre Thiam why West African cuisine was suddenly being touted as a new food trend, he laughed and said, “It’s been around for a few thousand years.” Then he thought for a minute and added, “It’s a cuisine that’s pretty much been unknown, but has influenced so many other cultures around the world.”
Born in Dakar, Senegal, Thiam also is an author and activist, known for bringing West African cuisine to the fine dining world with his New York City restaurant Teranga in East Harlem. These days, though, he’s heavily involved in his food company, Yolélé.


Around Atlanta, you’ll find West African cooking at restaurants such as Cafe Songhai in Peachtree Corners, which specializes in dishes from Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. And Island Grill in Duluth is a Nigerian restaurant that offers up classics such as jollof rice, okra stew, and fufu dumplings.

What’s more, the ongoing Jollof Festival of Atlanta not only offers food trucks, music and art, but it also holds a jollof cooking contest.
From his point of view, Thiam acknowledges that those are encouraging signs, especially compared to his early struggles to have West African cuisine recognized.


“As a young chef in New York City, I realized that West Africa was absent in the so-called food capital of the world,” he said. “You take a country like Nigeria, it has over 200 languages, so you can imagine how rich the culture is. Food is culture, and that’s very much how we approach food in West Africa.”
ExploreMore than 300 Black-owned metro Atlanta restaurants, food businesses

Asked about the cultural connection between the different regions, and beyond, Thiam pointed to the way recipes traveled and underwent many different interpretations.



“For instance, with okra stew, you see it with lots of seafood, and sometimes meat mixed into the same recipe,” he said. “But (in Senegal), there’s always palm oil. And, by the way, it became known as gumbo in New Orleans. You go to Bahia in Brazil, you see West African cuisine in all its richness.

ExploreAfrican flavors spice up familiar comfort food at this Atlanta restaurant
“But it’s cuisine that transcends the borders, and really tells a different story of West Africa itself. It’s a decolonizing story that doesn’t believe in the borders that were imposed on us. So you see jollof in Nigeria, in Ghana, in Senegal, and in Sierra Leone. And you see a version of jollof in jambalaya. So, again, that tells you how resilient this food is.”

The signature product of Yolélé is fonio, a tiny, nutritious grain with a nutty flavor that is grown by smallholder sub-Saharan farmers and used in myriad ways.

“Fonio is very important because it’s a grain that’s not only a nutritious powerhouse, but it’s gluten-free,” Thiam said. “Also, it’s a grain that grows in poor soil, requires very little water, and because it has deep roots, it restores the soil. For me, it was important to think about the economic impact of bringing opportunities among the poorest farmers and communities in the sub-Saharan region.”

ExploreWest African flavors rule at FAD in Marietta
Thiam also is the author of “The Fonio Cookbook” (Lake Isle Press, $24.95), which to my surprise features a recipe for beer made with fonio. And recently, Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing created Yolélé Fonio White Beer, a craft beer brewed with fonio.

“We understand how culture, and food in particular, is a great bridge,” Thiam said. “If we take the time to look at it as a way to reconnect with who we truly are, I think it’s a powerful tool. Food is an evolution, but it’s always inspired by the past.”

RECIPES

These recipes celebrate the foodways of West Africa, from classic peanut soup, and the cassava dumplings called fufu, to fonio, the ancient gluten-free grain that can be an ingredient in everything from beer to chocolate cake.

Peanut Soup

This West African-inspired recipe may be best remembered as a classic from “The Moosewood Cookbook” of the 1970s. Served with fonio and cassava dumplings, it makes a hearty meal for a fall or winter evening.

Fufu

These quintessential African dumplings made from fonio, a grain native to West Africa, are very large, and known by many different names, including fufu in Nigeria and Congo. Look for fonio at Sevananda Natural Foods Market as well as select Whole Foods Markets or purchase it online at Amazon or African foods marketplace yolele.com.

Jollof Rice with Roasted Shrimp and Okra

Jollof rice is a dish cooked throughout West Africa with a variety of proteins, including seafood, lamb and chicken. This version with shrimp and okra has elements of both gumbo and jambalaya.

Fonio Chocolate Cake with Raspberries
With coconut oil and cocoa, this flavorful fonio cake tastes a lot like a Mounds bar. It will serve eight or more, and will keep refrigerated in a sealed container for up to a week.


Adapted from “The Fonio Cookbook” by Pierre Thiam (Lake Isle Press, $24.95) and reprinted with permission.

 

[get these nets]

*begins @ 11:07​

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African Foodways and The Wakanda Cookbook w/ Nyanyika Banda​

On this episode, we speak with Nyanyika Banda, the cook and creative mind behind The Wakanda Cookbook – a cookbook for the Marvel universe that builds out of expertise in culinary traditions from all over the African continent. Nyanyika is a Malawian-American chef, writer, and entrepreneur. She designed her history and writing degrees around African Foodways and has been a scholar of the topic ever since. Nyanyika Banda teaches Culinary Arts at Holyoke Community College and continues to freelance, contributing to Food52, Thrillist, Saveur, and RESY; she also contributed an essay to the book Knives and Ink.