Fonde (Millet Porridge with Dried Fruit)

Fonde is one of my favorite porridges. I have had it for breakfast, as a snack or even for dinner sometimes when I am too tired to cook or had such a major lunch that dinner becomes an afterthought. It has a certain comfort food quality to it. Maybe soft and warm foods take us back to childhood. In my case, I think the texture mirrors that of one of my favorite foods as a baby: Cerelac, the original one, not all the ones with fancy flavors. I have to confess that I continued to eat Cerelac well into a certain age range that shall remain undisclosed.

Fonde is made from millet flour mixed with a bit of water and rolled into tiny granules by hand. God Bless our mothers who sat under mango trees rolling fonde or picking burnt grains from rice or doing one of the myriad processes in the African kitchen that take a lifetime. Nowadays, we thank those who saw and seized the opportunity to dry and package fonde granules. The dried granules keep very well, especially if you pop them in the freezer. I usually buy a bunch of bags when I travel to Dakar.


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of fonde granules
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 1/2 liters of water
• A handful of dried raisins and apricots or any other dried fruit available

Preparation

1. Bring water to a boil. Note: Bringing the water to a boil first is important here since the granules will dissolve into mush if the water is not at the right temperature.
2. Slowly add the granules while stirring. They will tend to stick to each other a little so keep stirring and separating.
3. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 30 mns but do check in every few minutes as fonde requires a bit of supervision in order not to stick and/or dry out. Even though I have a certain amount of water in the recipe, please feel free to add a bit of water if it gets too thick while cooking.
4. It is cooked when the granules puff up (a bit like couscous does) and you obtain the porridge consistency you would seek in oatmeal.
5. Sprinkle the dried fruit on the hot porridge. The heat will soften them.
6. Serve warm.

Yassa (Chicken with Lemon and Onions)

Yassa is one of the more popular dishes out of Senegal. Probably because the ingredients are readily available in most places (no smelly-but-oh-so-yummy, difficult-to-get-by-customs ingredients!) and it can be assembled relatively quickly once you get the pieces in place (marinating the chicken beforehand).

One of its drawbacks, however, is the peeling and slicing of what will seem like a lifetime supply of onions. So I was very pleased to find a solution on page 16 of the newest addition to my cookbook collection: Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. Clever, that British chap! See below.

Yassa
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 pieces of chicken (e.g. 4 thighs and 4 legs)
• 165 ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice ~2 to 3 lemons
• 85 ml (1/3 cup) lime juice ~2 to 3 limes
• 4 to 5 big onions
• 50 g of butter (~3 tablespoons)
• 1 liter (4 cups) of water
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced in thin rounds
• 1 small tomato, cut in 4
• For seasoning: 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2 to 3 chilies, salt and pepper
• 8 to 10 olives
• Steamed white rice
• Garnish: 1 lemon and/or 1 lime, sliced thinly

Preparation

Advance prep required: Add lemon and lime juice, a pinch of salt and pepper to the chicken. Cover and refrigerate. Marinating the chicken for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight, is critical. I have tried to cut corners and the result does show, especially on non-free range poultry.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Remove chicken from the fridge and let it return to room temperature (~30 mns)
3. Peel the onions and cut in half
4. Place onions in a baking/roasting dish and break pieces of butter on them
5. Add a pinch of salt and pepper
6. Roast until tender and soft (~30 mns). Turn halfway through roasting time when one side is brown. Note: Baking the onions is one way to avoid the river of tears that come from having to slice so many onions. The idea comes one of my cookbooks (Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater). He came up with this idea while trying to solve the tears problem inherent in making french onion soup.
7. When onions are ready, slice with fork and knife into small strips
8. Simultaneously (or before or after the onions roasting), remove chicken from marinade (save marinade) and grill the chicken. The goal here is to get nice browning. The chicken will be cooked again so no need for full cooking right now.
9. Warm up a large pot and add onions with remaining butter from roasting pan for 3 mns of additional caramelising
10. Add 1 liter of water to (dirty!) roasting pan, release whatever stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon and pour in the onion pot
11. Add the marinade you set aside earlier, the grilled chicken, the carrots and tomato
12. In mixer, combine elements for seasoning (see ingredients list) to make a paste and add to stew pot
13. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for 30 to 45 mns (depending on toughness of chicken)
14. Add olives and season to taste: a bit of salt, a touch of lemon juice, etc...
15. Simmer for another 10 mns and serve with steamed white rice, with slices of lemon and/or lime for garnish

Tiebou Yap (Rice with lamb)

Tiebou Yap is very simply named for the 2 main ingredients: Tieb (rice in wolof) and Yap (Meat). It is a dish as fit for everyday dining as it is for special occasions. Many of my childhood food memories include this dish but one of the best incarnations I ever tasted was in boarding school. Shocking, I know! Boarding schools are not known for being centers of culinary excellence and mine wasn't 99% of the time. But once a year, we had a major pre-holiday celebration in early December that almost made up for the remaining days of below average fare. The school was and still is on the island of Goree (a UN World Heritage Site worth visiting) and on this occasion, the principal would bring in women from the island to cook this rice dish, the traditional way. They would set up huge iron pots outside the main kitchen and cook the rice for hours on a good old fire. The aroma would tease us for hours. The result always made us forget that the rest of the year, we lived on watery sauces and prison rice. It also convinced our parents that we were simply spoiled brats who complained about the everyday food for no reason!

Tiebou Yap
Serves 6

Ingredients- Rice Dish

• 1 kg of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into large chunks, preferably with bone
• 1 to 2 pieces of yeet. Note: Yeet is the meat of a mollusk, fished, fermented and dried on the beaches all along the coast of Senegal. It is quite tough and requires a long cooking time which is why it is used in long simmering stews such as this one. It also has a strong and distinct smell and taste, which I adore but can be more of an acquired taste for some. It is not critical to this dish and therefore is optional.
• 250 ml (1 cup) of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of ground chili
• 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 kg of long grain rice (I use jasmine rice)
• 1 can (~400g undrained) of mixed vegetables (you can use fresh vegetables and combine 200 g of finely diced carrots, corn and green beans)
  

Ingredients- Mustard Sauce

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, diced
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 250 ml (1 cup) of water
• 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and chili each
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
  

Preparation- Rice Dish

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Add lamb and yeet and cook while stirring frequently until brown (~15mns).
3. In mixer, reduce onion, garlic, salt, chili and black pepper to a fine mixture.
4. Add to the pot and cook for about 10 mns.
5. Add 2 liters of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This cooking time can be reduced if you use chicken or more tender meat and no yeet. Adjust accordingly. Note: Given the amount of time this dish takes, you can do all the steps up to now the day before and cool and refrigerate or freeze the stew to be completed the following day or later.
6. Rinse the rice TWICE to remove some of the starch.
7. Cover and steam in microwave for 4 mns on high power.
8. Add steamed rice and vegetables to the pot. Reduce heat and cook covered for 20 mns. Note: Before adding the rice, please taste the stew and adjust spices as desired (a bit of salt, a bit of pepper). Also very importantly, make sure there is not too much water for the amount of rice. This can be judged visually with experience but to be safe, I always remove and set aside about 2 cups of liquid (500 ml). After adding the rice and cooking for 5 mns, you can decide to add the liquid back little by little as needed. The goal is cooked rice, not porridge. If you have liquid left aside, you can reduce it by bringing it to a boil in a small pan and serving it as a side gravy with the rice.

Preparation- Mustard Sauce

1. Heat oil in a small pan
2. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft and brown
3. Mix water and mustard and add to the pan
4. Bring to a boil and cook covered for 5 mns
5. Remove cover and cook for 10 mns until liquid is reduced to a gravy-like texture
6. Add salt, pepper, chili and vinegar and mix
7. Cook for 2 mns and remove from heat

Confi Kani (Hot Pepper Puree)

This pepper mixture gets its name from the shortened version of the french word for jam "confiture"and the wolof word for red pepper "kani". Pepper is a critical ingredient in most, if not all West African dishes. We luuuv hot food. I have learned, however, over the years that my friends from East and Southern Africa do not always share that passion for spicy dishes. This pepper jam is a great way to accomodate all my guests, by putting a tiny bit in the main meal and a lot on the side.

Confi Kani
Makes ~ 300g

Ingredients

• 300g of peppers (choose peppers based on how much heat you want in the final product)
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
  
  

Preparation

1. Rinse the peppers and remove the little tails
   In the mixer, mix pepper, onion and garlic
2. Add salt and pepper
3. Heat oil in a saute pan
4. Add the mixture and cook for 10 mns while stirring
5. Add vinegar and take off the heat
6. Cool for 15 mns and serve. The rest can be refrigerated in a glass container.

Red Bissap Juice (Zobo)

This drink can claim various origins. From Egypt (karkadeh) to Senegal (bissap) to Nigeria (zobo), it is prepared and enjoyed more or less the same way. A minor difference is that Egyptians do drink it warm or cold. It is served daily in Senegal but also for special occasions. The main ingredient is the flower and leaf of the hibiscus sabdariffa or roselle pods. Because of the tartness of the beverage, it takes quite a bit of sugar to make it sweet. It is said to be high antioxidants such as vitamin C and polyphenols.

Jus de Bissap Rouge

Makes 1 liter

Ingredients

• 200g of dried bissap (dried hibiscus flowers)
• 150 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (NOT vanilla essence)
• 1 teaspoon of orange flower water (eau de fleur d'oranger) (optional)
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
• 5 t0 10 fresh mint leaves
• 1.2 l water (to allow for some loss to evaporation)
  

Preparation

1. Rinse the bissap leaves and bring to a boil. Turn off and let the mixture sit for 1 hour. Strain using a sieve or muslin.
2. Add all the remaining ingredients, finishing with the mint leaves.
3. Refrigerate before serving.

Okra Soup

Soupou Kanja means "okra stew" in Wolof (spoken in Senegal). There are many variations to this recipe as you travel along the coastal towns of West Africa. I even had a version of it in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in December 2002. The slaves from West Africa took West African culinary traditions with them on their journey to the New World. It can be made with beef or lamb and/or fish and/or seafood mix; you decide what you like. This recipe is a simpler version with oxtail and shrimp.
Please send me your version in a comment or email me at tiliboskitchen@gmail.com
Serves 6
1 kg of oxtail (if you use stewing beef or lamb, just reduce cooking time by 15mns)
500g okra
300 g of small to medium-size shrimp
375 ml of palm oil (My friend Mariama once made a version of this dish WITHOUT palm oil. It was quite delicious! Try it.)
Salt
Recipe for the Nokos (Wolof word describing a tasty mixture of ingredients):
1 large onion
1 large fresh chili pepper or 1 tablespoon of dried chili (or more if you'd like)
2 maggi cubes or other brand of bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon black pepper
Note: the ingredients below are harder to find if you do not reside in West Africa but there are a few subsitutes or you can skip them for a less layered taste to the dish.
1 piece of gejj or dried fish (you can use spicy dried shrimp from the Chinese store)
1 piece of yeet (flesh from a dried shellfish, found in the coastal waters off Senegal); you can do without this one but to be honest, this mollusk is an acquired taste so you may not miss it.
1 tablespoon of netetou powder (Netetou is the fermented fruit of the Nere tree which grows in many parts of West Africa. I believe it is called soumbala in Mali, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, dadawa or iru in Nigeria and Ghana, afiti in Togo and Benin. It is very high in amino acids, iron and vitamin C). Warning: it has a VERY strong smell but adds such incredible flavor to stews.
1 tablespoon of crayfish powder (i discovered this ingredient in Nigeria and decided to add it to the recipe)
Place the meat and yeet + 1 l of water with some salt in a pot and bring to a boil
Put all the Nokos ingredients in a mixer and add mixture to the meat. Use same mixer to chop up the okra and set aside.
After 30 mns, add palm oil, netetou and crayfish powder
After 30 mns, add shrimp
After 15 mns, add okra mixture (do not stir too much, just enough to incorporate okra)
Cook for about 20mns on reduced heat
Serve with steamed white rice