Recettes

Grilled Plantains

Grilled plantain is street food across West Africa, and in Nigeria it is boli, ripe plantain roasted over charcoal until the outside blackens and the sugars inside caramelise. It is about as simple as cooking gets. No oil, no seasoning, nothing added. The plantain is put over heat and turned. What makes it work is entirely down to the fruit: a plantain that is ripe enough has developed sugars that caramelise under direct heat, and one that is not will taste starchy and dull no matter how long it is grilled. Plantains are not bananas, despite the resemblance. They are larger, starchier, and must be cooked before eating, raw they are unpleasant and hard to digest. The ripeness scale runs from green, which is firm and starchy and used for chips and fufu, through yellow, which is what grilling wants, to almost black, which is very sweet and better fried. Boli is sold from charcoal drums at roadsides and motor parks, usually with roasted groundnuts, and often with a pepper sauce or with fish. The pairing with groundnuts is close to fixed in Nigeria, the salt and fat against the sweetness of the plantain. It is cheap, filling and energy-dense, which is why it has stayed street food rather than becoming restaurant food.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

EasyNigeria

Recette de Debby · Africook

Roasted Potatoes

Potatoes cut into chunks, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic, and roasted until browned and crisp. No country is claimed and none applies, this is the standard Western roast potato. The one piece of technique worth understanding is parboiling, which the source explains well in its text and then leaves out of its method. Boiling the cut potatoes briefly before they go into the oven does two things: it cooks the inside through so the oven only has to work on the outside, and it roughens the surface so that fat can get into the cracks. That roughened surface is what turns into crust. Skip it and the skin stays smooth and tough, and the fat sits on the outside instead of crisping it. Giving the drained potatoes a good shake in the pan before they are dressed roughs them up further, and is the single cheapest improvement you can make. Drying matters too. A wet potato steams before it browns. Any variety works, though they behave differently: floury potatoes such as russets and Maris Piper give a fluffier interior and a crisper crust, while waxy red and new potatoes hold their shape and crisp less. This recipe uses small red or white potatoes. Africa has deep roasted-tuber traditions, yam, cassava and sweet potato from street braziers, but this is not one of them.

1 hr 10 minEasy

Recette de FoodChef · Africook

Sukuma Wiki

Sukuma wiki is braised collard greens, and the name tells you what it is for. In Swahili it means to push or stretch the week, and it describes a cheap, filling vegetable dish that makes the household's resources last. Served with ugali and perhaps a little roasted meat or fish, it is a typical Kenyan or Tanzanian meal. Sukuma is the Swahili name for collard greens, called colewort in older English and often confused with kale. It is grown across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, it is inexpensive, and it is available all year round, which is exactly why it occupies the place it does. The greens are the most in demand vegetable in Kenya on both nutritional and economic grounds. The method is simple and the order matters. Onion is softened first, the greens go in by the handful so each addition wilts before the next, and tomatoes and liquid follow. Twenty to thirty minutes of gentle cooking takes it from tough to tender. It is naturally vegan as written, which is unusual for a staple side dish, and it is often eaten that way rather than by choice. A chopped chilli is the most common addition.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

50 minEasyKenya

Recette de FoodChef · Africook

Baked Potato

A whole potato baked in its skin, oiled and salted for a crisp surface, and served with whatever you like on it. There is no country attached to this and none is implied. Russet potatoes are what to use, and the reason is starch. Russets are high-starch, low-moisture potatoes, sometimes sold as baking or mealy potatoes, and that composition is what produces the light, flaky interior a baked potato is judged on. Waxy potatoes hold their moisture and stay dense. Two pieces of advice in the source are worth repeating because they are both right and both commonly ignored. Pierce the potato deeply several times on each side: skipping it can genuinely make a potato burst in the oven. And do not wrap it in foil. Foil traps the moisture inside, which means the potato steams rather than bakes, and steaming gives an entirely different and softer texture with no crisp skin at all. Africa has its own baked and roasted potato and tuber traditions, roasted yam, sweet potato and plantain sold from street braziers across the continent, but a russet baked potato is not one of them.

1 hr 10 minEasy

Recette de Nympha · Africook