As I learn the Gambian way of life, I must admit that I have found it difficult to cook. Hence the lack of posts on Gambian food so far. That is not because cooking here is difficult – most dishes are one-pot dishes or two-pot dishes – so they are not too complicated. Cooking here is difficult because the women don’t believe that I can cook. This is aggravated by their love of repetition… and if a dish is not cooked exactly as they do it or they know it – then they don’t like it. After two months living here though, I decided to push all help out of the way and cook a meal all by myself. Oh boy, it was not easy! All throughout my cooking women would come in and tell me different things about how I should be doing it… but I kept on saying ‘today I am cooking, and you will eat’. So I guess before I give you the recipe, I will tell you the story of how this meal was created. The way I made it was a fusion of Gambian Benachin and Senegalese Chebu Gen, because I learned to cook it in Dakar as well as in Gambia.

It started off with a deal with a friend of mine, P., who told me that he didn’t think I could cook because every time I say I cook I end up watching more than anything else because the women take over.

Mid-morning I headed to the market with my friend F. who helped me with the transactions so that I would not be nailed with Toubab prices. My basket was soon filling up with fresh fish, sea snail, salt-dried fish, carrots, tomatoes, bitter tomatoes, garlic, squash, niambi, cabbage, egg plant, onions, rice, preserved tamarind, hot peppers, salt, seasoning, pepper corns, peanut oil, and charcoal.

On my way home, several men told me jokingly, ‘I look forward to you bringing my lunch!’. Every time I go to the market and return with food, the next time I pass, men (who I don’t know) ask me ‘where is my lunch?’. Here, people like to joke jovially a lot.

Back home, I started by cleaning the fish to fry it right away, because even though I was going to cook dinner, I had to cook the fish right away so it didn’t spoil since there is no refrigeration. I lit the charcoal, and began to heat the oil to fry the fish. As the oil heated up, fish scales were flying everywhere as I cleaned it. I hauled buckets of water to the back of my house, and washed the fish three times. Then I drizzled it in lemon and salt.

After frying it, I put it in a bowl and let it stand in the shade all afternoon while I visited a friend.

That evening, I returned to cook around 5pm. First, I started by cleaning all the vegetables, and lighting the charcoal again. That is easier said than done, and took a lot of blowing and fanning in order for the charcoal to be fully lit. The women kept on coming over to watch and tell me what to do (all the time different instructions). I had to shoo them away every time. The kids would then come and ask to help me. That day, there were 5 women at the house, so I got 5 different sets of instructions. It was exhausting!

Finally, when I got to the stage of picking through the rice to clean it and then wash it, I was relieved. I was also worried that the pot was too small for the 7 cups of rice I was about to cook… It just fit. Barely. Now, I will try to estimate quantities for you to make this – but I definitely did not have any measurements as to the amount of water to use with the rice – just a lucky guess!

Anyway, after an exhausting but nonetheless fun cooking session, I had two big bowls of food prepared for the family. When I came to Gambia I was given a Gambian name, Yandé, which means ‘everyone’s mother’ – after the mother of the Director of the Agricultural Centre where I work. So all of her children call me ‘my mother’ and their children call me ‘Grandmother’. I was very happy that I could share this meal with 4 of ‘my children’, their spouses, and many, many grandchildren. Despite the fact that the recipe was not exactly like they usually have it (I made a slightly healthier version than normal… with less oil and no palm oil and lot of vegetables), they all said they loved it and said, Yandé, you can cook!’.

So there you have it, the story of the first truly Gambian dish I have cooked entirely on my own. Sorry for the long story! Bisimilah – that means ‘bon appétit’, among many things.

Ingredients – for a full meal for approximately 6 – 8 people

-3 cups of medium or long-grain (not basmati) rice
-2 onions
-6 cloves garlic
-5 kani chili peppers (scotch bonnet – you can alter the amount based on how spicy you like your food)
-1 Tbsp black pepper corns

-3 firm-fleshed whole fish
-1 piece of sea snail (substitute some smoked oysters or dried fish from an Asian food store)
-1/2 a salted dried fish
-4 lemons
-1 tbsp coarse sea salt

-1 cup peanut oil
-2 cups water (plus more)

-2 cubes vegetable stock

-4 carrots
-2 pieces of squash
-2 bitter tomatoes (not sure if there is any substitute for this in Canada – maybe just add more of something else)
-4 pieces of niambi or cassava root
-1/2 a medium cabbage, cut into two pieces
-1 sweet potato, cut into 4 pieces
-4-6 medium tomatoes
-8 cups water approximately

-Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Clean, gut, and scale the fish. Cut in half, and cut slits onto each side. Drizzle with the juice of two lemons, and salt with the coarse sea salt. Make sure there is plenty of lemon juice in covering the fish and in the slits.

In another bowl, wash the salt-dried fish and snail thoroughly three times.

Pound the pepper corns, and then the garlic. Once it is a smooth paste (you can use a food processor for the garlic with ground pepper instead of pepper corns if you don’t have large enough a mortar and pestle). Add the hot peppers, and pound until smooth. Then chop the onions and add them and continue pounding until it is a relatively uniform paste. Transfer to a bowl and cover until it will be used.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, fry the fish pieces one-by-one until it is fully cooked and golden. Remove from oil and let drain on paper towel (I didn’t do this here… but I think it is a good idea if there is paper towel available!).

Set fish aside. While the oil is still hot, fry the snail and the salt-dried fish. Once they are in the pot, they should never leave it until it is time to eat! Fry them until they are golden brown.

After this, crush or crumble one cube of stock and carefully stir into the hot oil. Stir well so no clumps form. Add the pounded garlic, hot pepper, and onion mixture. Traditionally, you would add the tomatoes and pound them with the garlic but I like them separate.

Stir the pounded mixture in well, then fry in the oil for two minutes while stirring often until everything becomes fragrant. Then add two cups of water and the remaining stock cube, and bring to a boil. When it boils, add the hard vegetables. Add more water until the vegetables are fully covered. Boil them until tender, approximately 30 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the whole tomatoes, the two remaining hot peppers, and the egg plant (and any other soft veggies you might want).

Put the preserved tamarind in a bowl with a lid, with the juice of one lemon. When the veggies are cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon and put them in the bowl on top of the tamarind, and cover.

Replace fish in the pot, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and put in with the vegetables.

Add more water until it makes approximately 8 cups of stock and bring to a boil (instead of measuring, I use the following technique to guess the volume necessary: there should be approximately 2-3 fingers-thick of water above the rice in the pot). Taste the broth and add salt accordingly. Pick through the rice and remove any rocks and other seeds. Wash the rice three times until clean. Add rice to boiling stock and cover. Once it boils, reduce the heat (for me, this meant removing charcoal…). Cook for 10 minutes more or so and then stir and remove from heat.

Place rice in a big bowl. Spread vegetables on top, with fish. Serve with juice and tamarind from the bowl where veggies were reserved. Slice a lemon and juice it on top of everything, and a dusting of minced parsley if you like.

If you want to eat Gambian-style, use your right hand and make a ball of rice with small amounts of veggies and fish for each mouthful, and everyone eats out of the same bowl!

Bisimilah!

-Sitelle (alias: Yandé)

I turned to Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowickz’ Rebar - a collection of delicious, inventive recipes out of Victoria, BC – for inspiration.  I was immediately drawn to their African yam soup.  The recipe looked simple, nutrient-filled, and packed with flavour – just what a girl needed when feeling under the weather.  (I note as an addendum that Monday evening, feeling reenergized sleeping off this cold, leftovers from this soup were superb.)

I leave you with Rebar’s description, which describes this soup beautifully:

“Silky smooth richness in this soup comes courtesy of peanut butter – there’s just enough of it blended in to make this soup luxuriant, rather than cloying.  Pineapple, lime and tomatoes add sweetness and tang, while the spices are lively and warming.  This soup can handle a generous dose of spice and heat, so arm yourself with a good hot sauce for last minute seasoning.”

African yam & peanut soup with ginger and pineapple

Serves 8

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable stock

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 teaspoons salt

6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) minced ginger

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon hot paprika

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 medium yams (sweet potato), peeled and roughly chopped

1 x 14 fl oz (398 mL) can water-packed pineapple, juice reserved

3 ripe tomatoes, chopped

5 tablespoons natural smooth peanut butter

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

juice and zest of 2 limes, or more to taste

favourite hot sauce, to taste (I used sambal oelek here and loved it!)

Directions:

Heat stock and keep it warm on the back burner while you assemble the soup.  In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and a pinch of salt; saute for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Next, add garlic, ginger and spices and saute until soft and golden.

Stir in red pepper, yams, and salt and continue cooking until they start to stick to the bottom of the pot.  Add vegetable stock to cover, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.  Cover partially and simmer until the yams are tender.

Add pineapple with juice, tomatoes, peanut butter and remaining stock and simmer 30 minutes.  Puree the soup until smooth, either directly in the pot with a hand blender or in batches with a food processor.

Return soup to the pot and simmer for a final 10 minutes.  Season to taste with more salt, pineapple juice, and/or hot sauce.  Just before serving, add chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice.

Bon appetit!

- Catherine

And when it comes to brunch, cinnamon buns top the list.  I find shopping at a mall dangerous because of the alluring waft from Cinnabon’s tantalizingly placed near the exit.  I’ve concluded that it is an unavoidable Pavlovian conditioning linked to my  mother’s Ford genes. Despite my love of these gooey treats, I had yet to actually attempt baking them.

I have been eyeing Whitewater Cooks’ cinnamon bun recipe for a while, so last weekend I invited a few friends over to brunch as guinea pigs.  Having never before worked with active dry yeast, I found the recipe easy to follow.  The alluring waft of cinnamon began with the second rise.  While the buns were nice and cinnamon-y, my one complaint is these buns were not quite as gooey as I desired.  More butter perhaps next time?

Waiting for the cinnamon buns to finish rising

Whitewater Cinnamon Buns

(makes 12 buns)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter at room temperature

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1 1/8 cups warm water

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

5-6 cups flour plus extra as needed

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1/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is bubbly.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, 2/3 cup brown sugar, and salt.  Add eggs one at a time.  Mix in the milk, dissolved yeast mixture and flour, 1 cup at a time mixing until smooth.  Add enough flour to make soft dough.  Turn onto a lightly floured board.  Knead dough until smooth and springy, about 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed. Place in a large greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 45 minutes.

Punch down the dough.  Roll out into a large rectangular shape, about 12 by 18 inches.  Brush with melted butter and remaining brown sugar.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, pecans, and raisins.  Roll lengthwise into a long log, and slice with a sharp knife into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Place slices in a greased 9 by 13 inch pan about one inch apart. Let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 350 F oven for approximately 45 minutes.  Let cool and ice with your favourite butter icing.

Bon appetit!

- Catherine

Steamed fish is something I have for breakfast here on the Smiling Coast. I think it would be appreciated for lunch or dinner in Canada though!

Here, access to electricity is never guaranteed, and most people don’t have refrigerators. That means instead that food is fresh fresh fresh because it is caught the day it is eaten, or picked the day it is sold. At the market, there are heaps of kani chilis, heaps of fish, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, squash, egg plant, bitter tomato, niambi, cassava, cabbage… and women greeting me everywhere in the hopes that the Toubab will be their customer. I greet them in wolof, and they laugh and say ‘this toubab understands wolof!’ And then the greetings begin.

Although this is a Gambian dish, it is definitely not one of the most common ones. I will post those recipes another time.

Ingredients – Serves 4
-4 lemons
-4 whole fish, fresh, gutted, scales removed, sides slit
-3 hot chili peppers (or more or less depending on your taste – here they use kani peppers)
-4 onions
-medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
-salt to taste
-2 Tbsp mustard
-2 tsp – black pepper
-1/2 cube vegetable stock
-1 head of lettuce, washed
-4 tomatoes, sliced
-1 1/2 cups water

Directions
Bring water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil until cooked through, 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, clean the fish and wash.

Pound the hot chili peppers in a mortar and pestle. Add to the fish in a bowl. Add the juice 3 of the lemons, the mustard, and black pepper to the fish as well as the cube of broth.

Slice the onions and add to the fish. Stir well to coat everything in seasoning.

Remove the potatoes from the water, and remove a few tablespoonfuls of water so there is less than one inch of water at the bottom of the pan. Add fish and cover. Cook for 10 or so minutes or until fish is fully cooked. Add potatoes at the end and stir to season.

Wash the lettuce, and add the juice of the remaining lemon and some salt to the lettuce. Arrange lettuce on a large platter. Place fish and everything from the pot on top of the lettuce. Serve with slices of tomatoes and fresh crusty bread!

-Sitelle (Alias Yandé Saar)

The resulting entree was a delight – the nutty bulgar infused with fragrant spices complimented the sweetness of the squash flesh, with the cranberries and red pepper adding a hint of red dazzle!

To make this dish vegan, simply omit the ground chicken.

Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash
(each squash serves 2)

Ingredients:
2 large acorn squash, halved and seeded
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3/4 cup uncooked barley
1 1/4 cup vegetable broth
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Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound ground chicken
Handful of carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Place squashes cut side down in a glass baking dish. Bake until tender, 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, before scraping out the squash fleshing, leaving 1/2 inch thick bowls. Reserve the squash to add to the mixture

Meanwhile, bring bulgar and broth to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or until all the broth has evaporated. Remove from heat, let stand, covered for five minutes.

Saute onion, garlic, and ground chicken until the vegetables are translucent and the chicken is cooked through. Add the carrots, zucchini, red pepper, and spices, and saute for five minutes or until the vegetables are soft and the spices are fragrant. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in the craisins, chickpeas, parsley, bulgur and squash flesh. Sample filling, and adjust spices as desired.

Divide the filling among the squash halves, and return to oven. Bake until warmed through and the stuffing is starting to crisp, 12-15 minutes.

Bon appetit!

- Catherine

Pecan Puffs
 
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanila
Ground pecans (1 generous cup pecan meats, measured before grinding)
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
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Icing Sugar
 
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar throughly together. Mix in the vanilla and salt, followed by the ground pecans and flour. Knead slightly to blend dough throughly. Allow to refrigerate until dough is chilled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Roll dough into small 1-inch balls. Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom of the puffs are golden brown, rotating the trays half way through.

Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the tray, before rolling them individually in icing sugar. Allow to cool completely on a cookie rack.

Bon appetit!

- Catherine

My grandmother Ford had the brilliant idea of transforming almond crescents into candy canes. Instead of rolling them into the traditional half-moons, she rolled them into candy-canes and painted them with all colours of stripes. These cookies are so much fun to eat, and delicious too with their nutty aroma and hint of cinnamon. Candy canes are slightly finicky to make – rolling the dough into candy canes requires a light and persistent roller, and they break easily when you cover them in the cinnamon sugar – but worth every second of effort!

I should add that all these beautiful cookies were a family effort – my sister mixed the dough and my mother was the chief Candy Cane roller.

Candy Cane Cookies
(makes about 4-5 dozen cookies)
 
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/3 cup berry sugar
2/3 cup finely ground almonds*
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
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Red and green food dye
*****************
1/2 cup berry sugar**
2 tsp cinnamon
 
Directions:
Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the almonds, salt, and flour, kneading as necessary to incorporate all the flour. Refrigerate the dough until chilled thoroughly (about 1 hour).

Preheat oven to 325 F. On a clean counter, roll a small amount of dough into a thick pencil-width, between 2.5- to 3-inch long shape. Fold the top quarter of the dough down to form the candy cane’s hook.  Transfer to a baking sheet, keeping cookies at least one-inch apart.  With toothpicks, paint the candy canes with stripes using red and green food dye.

Bake the cookies for 14-16 minutes, until the edges just begin to turn golden brown.  Allow to cool slightly on the tray, before carefully rolling them individually in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

 
Bon appetit!
- Catherine
 
*You can buy ground almonds, but they tend to stale quickly. For a fresher taste, you can grind blanched almonds pieces either by hand or in a food processor.

**Berry sugar is super fine granulated sugar, often used to make jam. If you can’t find it , regular white sugar works just fine.

- Catherine

True tourtière lovers are passionate about this dish – some even refusing to call certain meat pies tourtière if they are not “authentic” enough.   I myself am not fussy about the recipe as long as it is perfectly moist!  There is nothing more disappointing after smelling this dish than to take your first bite and despair at its dryness.   Luckily, my grandmother’s recipe is the antithesis of dry tourtière - deliciously moist and full of flavour, there is everything to love about this meat pie.

Instead of a double crust, I often oft for a lattice, which is far prettier and makes for lighter dinner fare.  While many people use broth to moisten their pie and spices such as cinnamon and cloves to spice it, this recipe’s secret ingredient is cream of mushroom soup.  It adds just the perfect amount of creaminess, while retaining the richness in flavour.  This recipe makes enough for two pies, so we traditionally savour this dish on Christmas Eve, freezing the second one to enjoy a few weeks later!

Tourtière

(makes two 9-inch deep crust pies)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef

1 1/2 lbs lean ground pork

1 small onion, minced

1/2 cup HP sauce

1 cup chili sauce

1 10-oz tin of cream of mushroom soup

1 Tbsp dry mustard

3 Tbsp Worcester sauce

***********************

Pastry for 2 9-inch double crusts or a lattice 

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Beaten egg white

Directions:

Brown meat and onions.  Drain fat, add remaining ingredients, and cook over medium heat for 45 minutes. (If you taste test at this point, don’t worry if the flavour is slightly odd – as it simmers, the flavours will mellow and meld together beautifully).  Cool meat mixture.

Meanwhile, roll out pastry to fit pie plates.  Divide meat mixture evenly between the two pies, and top with pastry (or lattice).  Pierce pastry with fork to create steam vents.  Brush the pastry with beaten egg white.

Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.  Let pies cool slightly and enjoy!  Delicious served with pickled mustard relish or fruit chutney.

To freeze pies: cool, wrap, and freeze for up to three months.  To serve, thaw overnight in fridge and reheat before serving.

Bon appetit!

- Catherine

Now I know a recipe is an old family tradition (handed down from mother to daughter over many generations) when the first ingredient is melted fat and the only instruction to be found is “bake in moderate oven”.   These icebox cookies have indeed stood the test of time. My mother has since modified a few of the ingredients (we have long substituted butter for melted fat), but the stains on our family recipe is testament to the deliciousness of these Christmas cookies.

The batter is a cinch to make and makes about 8 or 9 dozen cookies altogether.  The simplicity of icebox cookies lies in its baking: Once the batter is mixed, the dough is first rolled into logs and frozen in the freezer, and then, quickly sliced and baked.  Our family will often bake one or two rolls, saving the third for a special occasion a few months later.  With red and green candied cherries complementing the toasted almonds, these buttery, crispy cookies are an absolute delight!

Icebox Cookies

(makes over 100 cookies)

Ingredients:

2 cups unsalted butter

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1  1/2 cups finely chopped almonds, toasted in oven with butter

1/2 cup each green and red candied cherries

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugars together. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the batter is light and fluffy. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Fold in the toasted almonds and candied cherries.

Spread three large pieces of wax or parchment paper on your counter.  Divide the cookie dough into thirds and roll each section into a log.  Chill for at least two hours or freeze for up to three months.

Preheat your over toe 350 F. Unwrap log, and place on a cutting board.  Using a sharp knive, thinly slice into 1/4 inch (or about half a centimetre) rounds.  Place on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake until pale golden, 6-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies, rotating the sheets halfway through.

The cookies will crisp as they cool.  Perfect with a glass of milk or tea!

- Catherine