If I could point to one thing that I know I have learned here in Africa, it is how to cook. I’ve known for years how to bring a meal to the table, but half of it was from cans, and I also received quite a bit of help from Better Homes and Gardens. But now, I have a whole new definition of cooking; because here, everything is a process. And it starts with buying the food. There are no isles in a grocery store that I can walk up and down, checking off each ingredient from a cookbook recipe as I place it in my basket. Instead, I go to the daily market.
At the market, vegetables are spread on the ground for about 30 feet along each side of a narrow street. They are placed on large sheets of plastic replete with greens, and sprinkled with the sunrise aray of tomatoes in different stages of ripeness, the sandy pinks of red onions, and the waxy brightness of lemons. They are organized into either large mounds or small divided piles, and their sellers beckon customers with shouts. The most basic vegetables are nearly always available, but the less common ones come and go, and anything can disappear at any time. It all depends on the harvests. So there is usually only one fruit being sold for months at a time, but cheaply and in abundance. When I first arrived in Mokolo it was papaya, now it is mangoes, soon it will be guava. Because of this, I am often not able to plan what I will cook until I see what is available. Although some things are always available in the small shops, such as pasta, dried beans, tomato concentrate, flour, sugar, etc.
Next I begin one of two processes which I have come to think of as food creation and food re-creation. Food creation is my trial and error method of developing new recipes. It’s kinda like that TV show where you are given a limited number of ingredients and an hour to come up with your spectacular recipe. After buying whatever I can at the market, I unload everything onto my square little table in the kitchen, and stare at it until I decide what it will become. Then I chop, dice, mash, spice, and stir until it resembles a meal. Admittedly, there have been some failures, but there have also been many successes, savory enough to put it into writing for next time.
On the other hand, food re-creation is when I make beloved American recipes without those seemingly necessary cans and boxes. As a result of this method, I’ve learned to solar-cook beans and chick peas in order to make refried beans and hummus; to can my own pickles; and compose just about anything and everything from scratch, including tortillas, whole wheat bread, bagels, pretzels, cakes. It is time-intensive and makes me appreciate not only all those pre-made packages, but even more so, the people who don’t use them when they are available. Without living in Africa I probably never would have bothered to learn. I would have continued to grab the box of Jiff cornbread mix off the shelf and never saw it for what it really was. But after living here, I am sure I will always remember having to buy dried corn kernels, taking them to the grinder, and guessing at the proportions of egg, milk, and honey. This, I’ve realized, is the difference between knowing how to cook, and really knowing how to cook.
So, I’ve realized that for me, cooking is no longer about knowing how to follow a recipe. Now it is about looking deeply at each part of the whole. It is about knowing where the food came from, which combination to use, what spices to add, and how much time and care was put into it. These things are what I taste in every bite and what makes each meal special. If I have learned nothing else here in Africa, it is ‘how to cook’, which to me now means ‘how to truly appreciate food’.
Just for fun, here are a couple of my impromptu recipes. Try them and let me know what you think!
Curried Mango w/ Peanuts and Raisins
2 large mangoes
1 medium onion
3 tbpns milk
about 2 tbspns curry (depends on strength of curry and preferences)
Salt and pepper
2 pinches of cinnamon
1/4 cup peanuts
1/4 cup raisins
Peel, dice and crush mangoes. Let mangoes and juice simmer in frying pan. Add onion, milk, curry, salt and pepper and cinnamon and continue to let simmer until mango is fully cooked. Add peanuts and raisins. Serve with rice. Makes 2 servings.
Dijon Stuffed Peppers
4 large peppers
1/2 cup brown rice
1 cup water
1 Small eggplant
1 large carrot
1 tomato
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbspn butter
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
Dice eggplant, carrot, tomato, onion and garlic and add to unprepared rice. Add water. Bring to boil, allow to simmer until water is evaporated and rice and vegetables are tender. Add butter and Dijon mustard. Slice off 1 side of each green peppers and gut/deseed. Stuff peppers with rice mixture and bake at 350 until peppers are tender (about 15-20 min).
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