West Africa is a melange of traditional African cooking techniques and methods with colonial European influences and muslim influences. Most of the cooking is traditional and stews made with rice are commonplace. Indeed, Jollof Rice in one form or other is found throughout West Africa. The cuisine is notable for its use of chillies (usually very hot chillies) in the one-pot stews (locally called 'soups') that are accompanied either by rice or by a sticky mucilaginous mass called Fufu that traditionally is made from fermented cassava flour, but which can also be made from plantains, mashed yams, maize flour and rice flour.
Another notable feature of West Africa is the use of both peanuts (in the form of peanut butter) and/or okra as thickeners for the local stews. These stews are often based on greens and meat, if added tends to be used more as a flavouring than as a main ingredient. Also a combination of fish, dried and smoked fish and meat is often employed.
The first recipe here is for a type of Jollof Rice common to Benin, but version of this dish are found throughout West Africa:
Beninese Jollof Rice
Ingredients:
200g dried black-eyed beans
2 medium aubergines (eggplants)
1.5 tbsp oil
3 tbsp ginger, freshly-grated
2 hot chillies, roasted and finely chopped
10 tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp West African Curry Powder
hot pepper sauce, to taste
3l water
1 tsp salt
2 large onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1.5 tbsp tomato purée
500g carrots, cleaned and sliced into rounds
500g green beans, trimmed
320g rice
Method:
Soak the black-eyed beans over night in plenty of water. Drain the following day, place in a pan and cover with 2l water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Drain (reserve the water for coking). Slice the aubergines into rounds about 1.5cm thick and place in a colander. Salt liberally and allow to drain for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the oil in a large pan. Add the drained aubergine, 1 tsp of the chopped onion, 1 tbsp of the ginger, 1 chilli, 1 garlic clove and the bell pepper. Fry, stirring all the while, until the aubergine has browned (about 5 minutes) then remove the aubergine from the mix and set aside.
At this point add the remaining onion, ginger, chilli, garlic, reserved bean cooking water, tomatoes, tomato purée, cayenne pepper and chilli powder. Stir everything to combine then add hot pepper sauce, to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes before adding the black-eyed beans, carrots and the rice.
Allow to simmer for a further 5 minutes then add the green beans and cooked aubergine. Simmer for a further 15 minutes, uncovered. Cover the pot and simmer for a further 20 minutes then serve.
The next recipe is for a classic fufu-style staple made with pounded yam, which is common to Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Cost (Côte d'Ivoire), Benin (to name but a few). This is a starchy staple often accompanied by a peanut-based stew.
Iyan
Ingredients:
600g Oluolu Pound'ol Iyan (dried yam powder)
1l boiled water
Method:
Add the 900ml water to a pot, bring to the boil and sprinkle the yam powder on top. Stir the powder in to make a dough. Keep stirring to incorporate the yam flour and cook, uncovered, until you attain a dough of the desired texture (this should be like a thin bread dough). Once you have reached this stage, sprinkle some 100ml of water on the dough, cover the pot, reduce the heat as much as possible and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Knead the dough with a stout wooden spatula until you reach the desired smoothness and serve with a traditional stew. I know that yam powder isn't common outside Africa, but you could substitute any carbohydrate-based flour such as maize flour, millet flour or cassava flour. All will work in this recipe.
To serve with your Iyan you need a stew. Here is a basic greens-based stew to go with your Iyam of Fufu:
Greens with Green Pepper
Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 hot chilli peppers, pounded to a paste
2 green bell peppers, de-seeded and chopped
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
900g greens (eg spinach, cassava leaves, kale, collard greens, turnip greens etc) de-stemmed and parboiled
salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
120ml peanut butter
Method:
For the classic Liberian version of this dish you need to pound a handful of the onion, garlic, chillies and tomatoes together in a pestle and mortar to form a paste (you can omit the chillies if desired).
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add your remaining chopped onion for a few minutes before adding he tomato and chilli paste. Fry for a few minutes then add he greens and 60ml water. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Add the peanut butter and stir in, season and then reduce the heat as much as possible. Continue cooking and stirring until the sauce is smooth and serve with Iyan or FuFu.
Although you can gain little more than a taste of what the foods of such a huge region as West Africa entails I hope that this article has whetted your appetite and made you ready to learn more about West African foods.
