Cooking Traditional African Food
3 May 2012
There is a story to tell the wider community about making food. It is not always as easy as people think, but very challenging!
I often take the lead and make sure the food will not harm anyone. It is fresh, home made food and fit for the purpose. "Food is food and it must be eaten".
We don't waste food in Africa and one of the criteria before getting married for a young lady in the past is you must prove your family in law that you can look after your husband and the whole family by providing good quality food properly made or cooked, otherwise you will be sacked by your family in law. I remember one thing when I was married to my late husband, I had been told that when you burn food in their culture this can break the marriage.
In African culture, if you burn food, then it means you are not paying attention, and this is looked on very badly. In effect they judge you not capable of looking after your husband nor the whole family.
Ingredients and Seasoning
It is so important to give food its best flavour, and we use a variety of seasoning to achieve this, depending on the food we are making. We use many ingredients, such as jumbo seasoning, cube maggi, fresh garlic, celery, onions, spring onions, green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper, chilli, ginger, lemon juice, eggs, vanilla, sugar, salt, milk and oil.
Cooking Goats Meat (Ntaba in Lingala) by Betty Phoba
Food preparation in the African culture is a personal affair. The first thing when preparing meat is to go to a butcher and see the quality of the meat in its raw form - as a carcass. If it is of the right quality, then a price is agreed and the meat is cut to order. The meat is then taken home and washed straight away, seasoning is added, and left overnight in a fridge. Lemon is added to help make the meat tender.
Early in the morning, we make up the bonfire, and cook the meat in this traditional way, that is over a fire made up of logs and charcoal.
This is done slowly, and may take from an hour to several depending on the meat and the heat of the fire; the aim is to cook the meat slowly to preserve the best flavour. We add lemon juice, jumbo seasoning and salt to taste.
Cooking Catfish "Ngolo" by Mado Ngalula
There are two ways of cooking cat fish for a party:
1. We make 'liboke' by cutting the fish into small pieces and placing them into a mixture of seasoning, such as garlic, red chilli, onion, oil and salt. This is left to stand for 2-3 hours, then wrap the fish in an outer shell of aluminium foil, with an inner layer of leaves, and wrap this into a single large parcel of food. This is then sealed and placed in a big pan of boiling water for up to an hour. We can tell when the food has been cooked because the parcel feels lighter. It is finally placed in a hot oven for another hour or so to allow the food to dry.
2. We smoke the cat fish with wood or charcoal using barbecue. This is the same as the previous description, the fish is seasoned in the same way but then cooked over the barbeque or in an oven.
Cooking Saltfish "Makayabu" by Henrial Mulamba
We cut the fish into pieces, which is already dried with salt, then soak it in water for over 24 hours. We change the water every six hours to remove the salt, and to ensure we wash them properly. We then fry each piece in hot oil for between 5-7 minutes, making sure both sides are cooked then put them in a clean saucepan. The next step is to add the sauce, made of green, red and yellow peppers, spring onions, onions and cube maggi.
Cooking Saltfish Sauce by Ahn Mwamba
I start by frying oil in a frying pan, I get my onions ready, and fry them for up to six minutes. I then add the green, red and yellow peppers, the spring onions in the hot oil, and stir until all the fish is cooked, finally adding the cube maggi to taste.
The last step is to mix the fried saltfish with the sauce together, making it ready to serve. These fish may also be cooked in the same way; Mackerel, Thomson and Redfish. Bon appétit!
Cooked Chicken by Imomo Francoise
We distinguish between young and old chickens, aware that Europeans prefer the soft chicken whereas we Congolese love crunching through the bones of older chicken because we have strong teeth. There is an African saying, that you must know the feeling of crunching chicken and the price of cassava bread when your Dad is alive, because once he is dead, no-one will bring these things to you.
Hard chicken: "Soso ya makasi" is prepared by cutting a whole chicken in pieces, washing it, and then a clean pan with seasoning, celery, onion and cube Maggi or cube Jumbo. Cook until the meat is tender and add sauce. This can also be fried or cooked in the oven or in a tomato sauce. This can be eaten with rice, fufu (semolina), maize and cassava bread or pasta.
Soft chicken: "Soso ya pete" is prepared like hard chicken with seasoning to taste, and then boil it for 5-10 minutes, slowly over a fire to allow the seasoning to flavour the meat. The meat can then be fried or cooked over a barbeque or in the oven, ready to eat.
"Soso fume" refers to smoked chicken, which is cut, washed, and placed in a hot oven for 10-20 minutes. A sauce is then made from onions, green, red and yellow peppers, which we love, and mix this together with the chicken taken from the oven. The chicken comes from France, and is already salted - so do not use salt until you have tested the food first.
Preparing Cassava Bread "Kwanga" by Godelive Mbala
This was largely appreciated by the Congolese who came and may be a delicacy yet to be discovered here in England! This was made in London by friends there who used to live in Derby. It is made of cassava roots, ground up and put in a sack in water, and then boiled and shaped into long and big sausages wrapped in cling film and then in large leaves or aluminium foil to keep the bread dry while it cooks.
Making Plantain "Makemba" Altesse Mulamba
This is something the Congolese choose very carefully - it must be just the right colour and consistency in the market place - it is so important for it to be the right quality. It should appear like a green banana; when it becomes yellow it is good to fry, peeled and chopped up into slices, in hot oil until the plantain becomes golden, and ready to eat.
Preparing Beignet (doughnut) "Mikate" by Ghislaine Lipindo
This is made of self-raising flour, milk sugar and vanilla flavouring, with eggs water and salt. The dough is made in a big bowl and small round bowls of it are dropped into hot fat and cooked for only a few minutes.
For more information about this Community News story, contact Betty Phoba, Chair of the Voice of Congolese Women, on 07428 679333.
