West African cuisine
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West African cuisine is an umbrella term referring to the dozens of distinct regional and ethnic cuisines set in well over a dozen different nations in West Africa, with climates ranging from desert to tropical. The nations that are associated with this part of Africa include but are not limited to Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso.
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[edit] History
Centuries before the influence of Europeans, West African people were trading with the Arab world. Items like rice and cinnamon were introduced, and became part of the local culinary traditions. Centuries later, the Portuguese, French and British influenced the regional cuisines, but only to a limited extent. However, as far as is known, it was European explorers and slaves ships who brought chillies and tomatoes from the New World, and both have become ubiquitous components of West African cuisines, along with peanuts, corn, cassava, and plantains. In turn, these slave ships carried African ingredients to the New World, including black-eyed peas and okra. Around the time of the colonial period, particularly during the Scramble for Africa, The European settlers defined colonial borders without regard to pre-existing borders, territories or cultural differences of tribal cultures. This bisected tribes and created colonies with varying culinary styles. As a result, it's difficult to sharply define, for example, Senegalese cuisine.
The local cuisine and recipes of West Africa continue to remain deeply entrenched in the local customs and traditions, which remains essentially the same as it was in the past. Although the Portuguese, French, British and other European colonists brought many new ingredients to the African continent, they had relatively little impact on the way people cook in West Africa. Its strong culinary tradition lives on despite the influence of colonization and food migration that occurred long ago.
[edit] Ingredients
Though there are obvious differences among the local cuisines in West Africa, there are also many commonalities, mainly in the ingredients used. Many dishes are enriched with a base of tomatoes, onions and chili peppers, considered an essential and even "sacred" cooking technique in the region“[1]. Combining and cooking these three ingredients in oil is analogous similar techniques such as the holy trinity of Cajun and Creole cooking, sofrito used in the Spanish-speaking world, soffritto in Italy, and the mirepoix of France. The most prevalent cooking oil is palm nut oil, traditionally associated with the coastal regions and contributes a distinctive colour, flavour and texture to food; while shea butter is more commonly used in the Sahel. Called karité in French, which comes from the Arabic word ghartī, it is prized for the rich mouthfeel it imparts.
Spices play a relatively less prominent role in West African cooking compared to say, North African cuisine. Cooks use spices and herbs like ginger, coriander, and thyme sparingly but knowingly. Chilli peppers however are immensely loved in West Africa, both in fresh or dried and powdered form, particularly in the more hot-and-humid lands of the region. Introduced to Africa probably sometime soon after Christopher Columbus sailed to America by European sailors, it is said that the sweating induced by the spicy heat of chilli helps to air-conditions your skin. More than in other regions of Africa, West Africans utilize Scotch bonnet chile peppers with a liberal hand in many of their sauces and stews. The bite and fire of these extremely hot peppers (Scofield units 200,000 – 300,000) add a unique flavor as well as heat. The chilli is also supposed to help preserve food, as well as adding flavour to relatively bland tropical staples like root vegetables.
The seeds of Guinea pepper (Aframomum melegueta; also called grains of paradise or melagueta pepper), a plant indigenous to West Africa, are also widely used. This native spice tastes and looks somewhat like a peppercorn, but has cardamom and coriander seed flavor notes. The grains of paradise was once a prized commodity reaching Europe through North African middlemen, during the Middle Ages.
Sumbala or soumbala is a flavouring used widely across West Africa, used in a manner not unlike a bouillon cube. It is usually prepared by women over the course of several days, traditionally from néré (Parkia biglobosa) seeds. It can be made from other kinds of seeds, and the use of soybeans for this purpose is increasing due mainly to inadequate supply of néré seeds. The fabrication process involves boiling, cleaning and then packing away to ferment - the fermentation process giving it a pungent smell and at the same time a rich, deep umami or savory flavour is developed. Salt can be added to the finished product to facilitate storage life. This condiment is traditionally sold in balls or patties that can be kept for several months at a time in the case of the best quality. It is a traditional cooking ingredient used across West Africa, although the less traditional bouillon cube, specifically the Maggi brand rivals it in popularity. African potash (potassium carbonate) is a native salt used for flavoring and to expedite the cooking time for some foods by cooks, it is made from wood-fire ashes in an ancient process that was once used by pioneer settlers in North America.
[edit] Vegetables
Vegetables are a respected and vital component of any West African meal, and are always fresh and in excellent condition, even in the smallest village markets where there is less to choose from. Some of the commonly eaten vegetables are black-eyed peas,eggplant, pumpkin and other squashes, okra, as well as a staggering variety of both farmed and foraged edible green leafy vegetables, little known or used outside of the African continent. Baobob leaf, pumpkin leaves, rosella leaves, sweet potato leaves, and cassava leaves (which contain cyanide in their raw state, and are always blanched with boiling water before use to remove the toxins) are just some of the greens that are commonplace in a West African kitchen. Black-eyed peas form the basis for a popular fried snack, the well-loved akara fritter.
Starchy tubers and root vegetables are used as staple food, to be served with their meat and vegetable dishes, often as a foil to the hotness of the peppers. Cassava, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, plantains, and yams are ubiquitous in the local diet, and they are usually boiled and then pounded into a thick starchy paste with a pestle and mortar called fufu.
Other starch staples eaten throughout West Africa but are not root vegetables or tubers, include fonio, rice, millet, sorghum, and maize.
[edit] Meat
Although West Africans ate far more vegetables and much less meat in the past, today their diet is heavier in meats, salt, and fats. Seafood is especially popular along the coast, chicken is cherished nearly everywhere, and many dishes combine both fish and meat. Chicken eggs are also a common food and source of protein, with guinea fowl eggs also popular. Dried and smoked fish flavor a number of sauces, stews, and other dishes, including condiments, in much the same way that anchovies and bacon flavour food in a number of other cuisines. It is often flaked and fried in oil, and sometimes cooked in sauce made with the base of hot peppers, onions and tomatoes, various spices (such as soumbala) and water to produce a incredible combination of subtle flavors. In some inland areas, beef and mutton are preferred, with goat meat being the dominant red meat. Suya, a popular grilled spicy meat kebab flavored with peanuts and other spices, is sold by street vendors as a tasty snack or evening meal and is typically made with beef or chicken.
[edit] Representative dishes
Some dishes are a prevalent feature in most West African societies, but bearing different names in different locales.
[edit] Fufu
As above, fufu is usually made from cassava, yams, and sometimes combined with cocoyam, plantains, or cornmeal. In Ghana, fufu is mostly made from boiled cassava and unripe plantain beaten together, as well as from cocoyam. Currently, these products have been made into powder/flour and can be mixed with hot water to obtain the final product hence eliminating the arduous task of beating it in a mortar with a pestle until a desired consistency is reached. Fufu can also be made from semolina, rice, or even instant potato flakes. Often, the dish is still made by traditional methods: pounding and beating the base substance in a mortar with a wooden spoon. In contexts where poverty is not an issue, or where modern appliances are readily available, a food processor may also be used.
In Western and Central Africa, the more common method is to serve a mound of fufu along with a soup (ọbẹ). After washing hands, the diner pinches off a small ball of fufu and makes an indentation with the thumb. This reservoir is then filled with soup, and the ball is eaten. In Ghana and Nigeria, the ball is often not chewed but swallowed whole - in fact, chewing fufu is considered a faux pas. Therefore fufu not only serves as a food but also as a utensil.
A selection of soups that could be served with fufu includes but not limited to: light (tomato) soup, palm nut soup, groundnut soup, and other types of soups with vegetables such as okra, nkontomire (cocoyam leaves). Soups are often made with different kinds of meat and fish, fresh or smoked.
[edit] Groundnut Stew
Groundnut Stew (var. Maafe, Mafé, Maffé, Maffe, sauce d'arachide, tigadèguèna or tigadene), , is a stew common to much of West Africa, and especially associated with the Wolof people of Senegal and the Gambia, and the Fula peoples in Mali, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria. Variants of the dish appear in the cuisine of nations throughout West Africa and Central Africa. With the huge expansion of groundnut cultivation during the colonial period, Maafe has become a popular dish across West Africa, and as far east as Cameroon.
Recipes for the stew vary wildly, but groundnut stew at its core is cooked with a sauce based on groundnuts (peanuts)[2], the West African trinity of tomatoes, onion and chillies, and common protein components are mutton, beef or chicken. In the coastal regions of Senegal, maafe is frequently made with fish. Maafe is traditionally served with white rice (in Senegambia), couscous (as West Africa meets the Sahara) or Fufu and sweet potatoes in the more tropical areas. [3]
[edit] Jollof rice
Jollof rice, also called Benachin, Ceebu Jën or Thieboudienne meaning one pot in the Wolof language, is a popular dish all over West Africa. It is thought to have originated in Senegal and in Gambia but has since spread to the whole of West Africa, especially Nigeria and Ghana amongst members of the Wolof ethnic group, from whom the word "Jollof" originated from. There are many variations of Jollof Rice. The most common basic ingredients are: rice, tomatoes and tomato paste, onion, salt, and red pepper. Beyond that, nearly any kind of meat, vegetable, or spice can be added.
The dish consists of rice, tomatoes and/or tomato paste, onion, chill pepper, and spices (such as nutmeg, ginger, Guinea pepper or cumin), to which various ingredients can be added such as vegetables, meats and fish.
[edit] Partial list of other West African dishes
- Akara
- Aloko
- Cachupa
- Chin chin
- Draw soup
- Ẹbà
- Egusi soup
- Frejon
- Fried plantain - a popular version made in Ghana is called kelewele, or hot plantain chips.
- Kenkey
- Kokoro
- Moin moin
- Ndolé
- Ngome
- Ogbono soup
- Ogi
- Palaver Sauce
- Puff Puff
- Suya
- Tapalapa bread
- Yassa au poulet
[edit] Beverages
As for alcoholic drinks, palm wine is a common beverage made from the fermented sap of various types of palm trees and is usually sold in sweet (less-fermented, retaining more of the sap's sugar) or sour (fermented longer, making it stronger and less sweet) varieties. Beer from millet is also common, and popular.
[edit] Etiquette
Dining is communal, and diners would use their fingers to eat. Water has a very strong ritual significance in many West African nations (particularly in dry areas), and water is often the first thing an African host will offer his/her guest.
[edit] By country
For more specific styles, refer to the articles on each national or regional cuisine:
- Cuisine of Burkina Faso
- Ghanaian cuisine
- Nigerian cuisine
- Senegalese cuisine
- Cuisine of Sierra Leone
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Ghanaian cuisine". http://www.betumi.com/home/gastro-fulltext.html. Retrieved 2010-03-18.
- ^ Dorinda Hafner. "Maafe - Chicken And Peanut Stew - Mali". Chef2Chef culinary portal. http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/30/164262.shtml. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
- ^ Um'bido (greens & Peanuts) Recipe Ghanaian Maafe: My Changing Memories of Mafe
[edit] References
- "West African cuisine". http://www.hillmanwonders.com/cuisines/west_african_cuisine.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
- "Glossary, West African Cooking". http://www.westafricancooking.com/glossary.html. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
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