Recettes

Moroccan Chicken Rfissa

Rfissa is chicken and lentils stewed with onions in a broth heavy with fenugreek, ras el hanout and saffron, poured over a bed of shredded msemen or trid pastry. The pastry takes up the broth and becomes the base of the dish rather than an accompaniment to it, which is what distinguishes rfissa from a tagine served with bread. It is a family dish above all else. Rfissa is what appears at reunions and at religious occasions, at what Moroccans call a zarda, and it is not a restaurant dish. Its most specific role is at childbirth: it is served to women who have recently given birth, traditionally on the third day, because fenugreek, lentils and the spice blend are held to support recovery and milk production. A dish with a fixed place in a family's most significant week carries a weight that a good stew does not. The bed underneath it has its own vocabulary. Served over crumbled harcha it becomes rfissa medhoussa; over cubed bread it is treda. Moroccan households commonly buy the trid or msemen from a souk or a local bakery rather than making it, because the pastry is the slow part and the stew is not.

Morocco3 hrBlessing

Angwa Moo

Angwa moo is oiled rice, and the Akan name says it plainly. Onions are browned in oil, rice goes in and is fried briefly, then water is added and the whole thing cooks together. The result is golden, faintly sweet from the caramelised onion, and unlike fried rice in one important respect: the rice is raw when it enters the oil rather than cooked and cooled. Ghanaians treat it as the emergency dish, and they are cheerful about saying so. It is what a child cooks when a parent is not home, what a young man living alone makes because it needs almost nothing, and what gets made when there is no time and no plan. That does not make it lesser. The browning of the onion is doing real work, and a well made angwa moo has a depth that its ingredient list does not predict. The traditional accompaniment is ground pepper made in an earthenware asanka, with tinned sardines or fried eggs alongside, and that combination is the version most Ghanaians picture. The salted beef known as tolobeef, cured at home over two days, is the more considered addition. The crisp scorched layer at the bottom of the pot is prized and fought over, which is the case for rice dishes across the continent, and the way to get it is to let the rice finish in its own steam without stirring.

Ghana40 minJennifer

Zviti

Zviti is a very hot Algerian dish from Bou Saada in M'Sila province, and it is defined as much by how it is served as by what goes into it. A semolina flatbread called rakhsis is crumbled into a tall wooden mortar, the mehrez, along with grilled peppers, tomatoes, garlic and a large quantity of chilli, and everything is crushed together with a wooden pestle. The mortar then goes to the table. Zviti is not portioned onto plates: everyone gathers around the mehrez and eats directly from it, and in some places it is presented on a special table with a hole cut in the middle to hold the pestle upright. It also goes by the name slata mehrez, which translates as the mortar salad. The heat is the point and Algerians are entirely open about the effect. Eating zviti involves sweating and gasping, and the description of it as a fire dish is affectionate rather than a warning. Some restaurants reduce the chilli or work olive oil and butter through it to soften it, which regulars regard as missing the idea. It is eaten as an accompaniment rather than a course, with a glass of lben, the fermented buttermilk, to cool the mouth between mouthfuls.

Algeria45 minBlessing

Fried Yam

Fried yam is called dundun in Yoruba, and it is one of the most eaten street foods in Nigeria. Yam is peeled, cut into thick chips, salted and fried until the outside crisps and the inside stays soft and floury. It is sold from roadside stands with a pepper sauce, and it is eaten at breakfast, at lunch and late at night. Yam is the crop that Nigeria produces more of than anywhere else in the world, and dundun is the most direct thing to do with it. It costs almost nothing, needs three ingredients, and the frying takes minutes. That combination is what makes it street food: a vendor with a pot of oil and a sack of yam is in business. Its usual partner is akara, the fried bean cake, and the pairing of dundun and akara with a ground pepper sauce is a standard Nigerian breakfast. It is also eaten with egg sauce, with fried fish, with stew, or on its own. The word dundun covers the fried treatment specifically, as distinct from the plain, pounded and porridge treatments of the same tuber, each of which occupies its own place on the Nigerian table.

Nigeria35 minAnthonyJ

Goat Gari Pinon

Goat Gari Pinon is a robust Ghanaian dish where spiced, slow-cooked goat meat is served over or mixed with gari, dried, fermented, and toasted cassava flakes, creating a satisfying combination of tender, boldly seasoned meat and the slightly sour, grainy texture of the gari absorbing all the cooking juices. The dish is deeply practical in its origins: gari is a preserved, shelf-stable staple that can absorb liquid and flavour readily, making it an ideal accompaniment to richly cooked meats. The combination of goat meat and gari is a classic of Ghanaian home cooking and street food culture.

Pan-AfricanCuisine228

Chakalaka Boerewors

Chakalaka boerewors puts two South African staples together: boerewors, the coiled farmer's sausage of beef and spice that is the centre of any braai, and chakalaka, the spiced vegetable relish of onion, pepper, carrot, chilli and beans that goes alongside almost everything. Boerewors is protected by law in South Africa. Regulations set a minimum meat content and cap the amount of cereal and fat, and coriander is the defining spice, with nutmeg, cloves and allspice alongside it. It is always sold and cooked as a continuous coil rather than in links, and cutting it into pieces before cooking, as this recipe does, is a departure from how it is usually treated. Chakalaka's origins are generally placed in the townships of Johannesburg, where it is said to have been made by mineworkers from what was available, and it has since become a national side dish served hot or cold. The two together, cooked in one pan over a fire, is home cooking rather than a documented traditional dish, and the source describes it in the first person as something the contributor made. It is included as given.

South Africa25 minLisias Johanna

South African Picnic Bread sliced to reveal cheese, bacon, and spring onion filling, a popular braai bread from South Africa

Picnic Bread (From South Africa)

Picnic bread is a South African savoury quick bread, heavy with cheese, spring onion and bacon, bound with egg, and made to be eaten cold in a slice with nothing on it. The category matters. It is a quick bread, raised chemically rather than with yeast, which means no proving and no kneading. Everything is mixed and baked. That is much of why it exists: it is a bread that can be made in an evening for the next day without planning. Its association is with food carried away from home. It is described as an old recipe favoured by fishermen for their packed lunches and by schoolchildren, and the reasoning is visible in the recipe itself. It needs no butter because there is enough fat in it already. It holds together in a slice rather than crumbling. It does not dry out the way a plain loaf does. And it is dense enough that one slice is a meal rather than an accompaniment, which is exactly what you want on a boat or a long day out. The texture is unusual for a bread. It is moist, almost pudding-like in the middle, without being heavy, and the cheese keeps it soft for days. It is honest about what it is: nobody has ever pretended this is a low-fat recipe.

South Africa55 minFoodChef

Peanut Butter Rice

Peanut butter rice is Zimbabwean everyday cooking, rice finished with peanut butter until each grain is coated, giving a rich, mildly savoury dish eaten as a meal or as a side. Peanut butter, dovi in Shona, is not an occasional ingredient in Zimbabwean food. It is a staple seasoning used the way another cuisine might use cream or coconut milk, stirred into vegetables, greens, chicken and rice. Peanut butter rice, mupunga unedovi, is one of the most common expressions of it, sold by food vendors and restaurants across the country and cooked constantly at home. What separates it from a peanut sauce poured over rice is that the peanut butter goes in during cooking, not after. The rice absorbs it, taking on colour and a faint sheen, and the result is closer to a risotto in texture than to a rice-and-sauce plate. It is deliberately mild. Where West African groundnut cooking often runs hot with chilli, the Zimbabwean version is gentler, and the peanut is the flavour rather than a background to something spicier. Some versions add a little sugar or cayenne to lift it. It is also a practical dish for using up rice cooked the day before, which is much of why it gets made as often as it does.

ZimbabweFoodChef

Oven-Baked Spareribs

South African Oven-Baked Spareribs are slow-cooked in the oven until the meat falls off the bone, then finished with a sticky, caramelised glaze that builds deep flavour on the exterior. The approach delivers all the satisfaction of braai ribs without requiring an outdoor fire. The slow-bake method is the key, low heat over a long period breaks down the connective tissue in the ribs, producing a tenderness that quick-cooking methods cannot achieve. The glaze is applied in layers during the final stage of cooking, each application caramelising over the last to build the characteristic sticky, glossy coating that makes these ribs irresistible.

Pan-AfricanCuisine228

Chakalaka

Chakalaka is a South African relish of onions, tomatoes, peppers and often baked beans, spiced with curry powder and chilli, and it is close to compulsory at a braai. It came out of the townships, where it has been a staple of black South African cooking for decades. Accounts of its origin vary and none is firmly documented, which is common for food that developed in domestic and working-class settings rather than in restaurants. What is certain is that it is now everywhere, served at braais, at funerals and weddings, in lunchboxes, tinned and sold in supermarkets. Its usefulness is in its flexibility. It works hot as a side dish, cold as a relish, spooned over pap, alongside grilled meat, or in a sandwich. It is light, quick, keeps well, and gets better after a day. Grated carrot is near universal, baked beans are common though not obligatory, and the heat level varies from mild to considerable depending on who is making it. It is naturally vegan in its standard form, which is unusual for a dish that spends most of its life next to grilled meat.

South AfricaFoodChef

Chicken Curry Sauce

This is a Nigerian take on a curry sauce: chicken breast marinated in ginger, garlic and all purpose seasoning, cooked with carrots and bell peppers, and thickened with a cornstarch slurry rather than reduced or enriched with cream. Two things mark it as Nigerian rather than South Asian. The first is yaji, the suya spice built on ground peanuts, paprika, cayenne, ginger and garlic, which goes in alongside the curry powder and gives an aromatic depth no Indian curry would have. The second is the cornstarch slurry, which is how a great many Nigerian sauces are thickened, giving a glossy sauce that clings rather than a reduced one. The vegetables are meant to keep their bite. Carrots and bell peppers go in after the onion and are cooked only until slightly tender, which is characteristic of Nigerian party cooking, where texture and colour matter as much as flavour. The heat is moderate and adjustable through the scotch bonnet. Because yaji contains ground peanuts, this dish carries a peanut allergen despite nothing in its name suggesting one.

Nigeria50 minSobecooks

Creamy Beet and Potato Salad

South African Creamy Beet and Potato Salad is a vibrant, striking side dish made from diced roasted or boiled beetroot and tender potato chunks folded together in a tangy, creamy dressing. The beetroot bleeds its deep purple-red colour through the dressing, turning the entire salad a vivid pink that makes it one of the most visually distinctive dishes on any braai spread. Beetroot holds a special place in South African food culture, it appears in salads, as a condiment on burgers, in preserves, and in baked goods. This salad is a braai staple, served alongside boerewors, grilled chicken, and pap at outdoor gatherings across the country.

Pan-AfricanCuisine228

Grilled tilapia with a green pepper, herb and ginger base

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Whole tilapia scored, marinated in an oil-based spice mixture, oven-grilled, then coated in a fresh green pepper base and returned to the heat. The two-stage seasoning is what makes it, and it is a West African approach rather than a simple marinade. The first stage is a dry-spice oil: vegetable oil with fish seasoning, white and black pepper, ginger, garlic, onion powder and lemon juice, worked into the cuts. The second is a green pepper base built in a food processor from green and red scotch bonnets, bell peppers, spinach, dill, coriander, ginger, garlic and onion, fried briefly in oil and then smeared over the part-cooked fish. That green base is the interesting part. Blending leafy greens and fresh herbs into a pepper sauce is characteristic of Ghanaian and wider West African fish cookery, and it gives colour and a fresh, sharp finish that a marinade applied only at the start cannot. The scoring is not decorative either: two or three cuts on each side let both stages of seasoning reach the flesh rather than sitting on the skin. Tilapia is native to African fresh waters and is the fish most associated with Ghanaian grilling, usually eaten with banku.

Ghana50 minRashidatu Alhassan

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Zaalouk is a classic Moroccan cooked salad of eggplant (aubergine) and tomatoes, gently seasoned with cumin, paprika, garlic, fresh coriander, and a touch of preserved lemon, then cooked down to a soft, almost spreadable consistency. It is served at room temperature as part of the Moroccan mezze spread that precedes most main meals. Despite being called a salad, Zaalouk is fully cooked. The eggplant is first roasted or grilled to develop smokiness, then combined with tomatoes and spices and cooked together until completely collapsed into a silky, intensely flavoured paste. It is served generously with warm bread for scooping and represents the sophisticated simplicity that defines Moroccan cooking at its best.

MoroccoBlessing

Fondant Potatoes golden and crispy outside in a pan, the South African version of the French classic butter-basted potato

Simple Fondant Potato Recipe

Fondant Potatoes are cylindrical potato portions browned aggressively in butter until deeply golden on both flat ends, then finished in a bath of herb-infused stock in the oven until they are completely tender and have absorbed the fragrant cooking liquid throughout. The result is a potato with a crackling, caramelised exterior and an interior that is so soft and flavourful it seems to dissolve. The preparation is a French restaurant technique that South African home cooks have adopted enthusiastically, particularly for special-occasion meals where the elegance and specific texture of fondant potatoes earns their place alongside quality proteins and sauces.

Pan-AfricanThulisile_

Cameroonian Koki Corn steamed corn pudding wrapped in banana leaves, a traditional Central African dish from Cameroon

Cameroon Koki Corn

Koki corn is a Cameroonian steamed pudding made from ground fresh corn mixed with palm oil and greens, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed until it sets firm. It is the corn version of a dish more commonly made with black-eyed peas. Koki beans, ground soaked beans treated the same way, is the better-known form, and the two are close relatives using the same technique on different staples. Both belong to a wider West and Central African family of leaf-wrapped steamed puddings that includes moi moi and abala. The wrapping is not decorative. Banana leaves are warmed over a flame first, which makes them pliable enough to fold without splitting, and they hold the loose mixture in shape while it steams. They also contribute a faint grassy aroma that the pudding takes on. Palm oil is heated before it goes in, which changes how it behaves in the mixture and gives the finished koki its deep orange colour. Njama njama, huckleberry leaves, a Cameroonian staple green, or spinach is folded through. It sets firm enough to slice and is eaten hot, on its own or with plantain.

CameroonBlessing

Farofa, Brazilian toasted cassava flour with bacon and onion

Farofa (Toasted Cassava Flour)

Farofa is cassava flour toasted in fat with onion, garlic and usually bacon, until it turns golden and sandy. It is Brazilian, and it appears on the table at almost every Brazilian meal that involves a stew or grilled meat. Its job is texture. Brazilian cooking produces a great deal of rich, soupy food, feijoada above all, and farofa is scattered over it to absorb the liquid and give a dry, crunchy contrast. Eaten on its own it makes little sense; eaten over a wet dish it makes complete sense, and that is how it is used. The African connection is direct and worth stating. Cassava is South American in origin, but the technique of toasting cassava meal into a dry accompaniment moved across the Atlantic in both directions with the transatlantic slave trade, and farofa's closest relatives are West African. Garri, the fermented and toasted cassava granules eaten across Nigeria, Ghana and Benin, is made by essentially the same process. Brazilian cooking, and Bahian cooking in particular, carries an enormous amount of West African influence, and farofa sits squarely in that history, which is precisely why it belongs in a Worldwide collection on an African food site rather than being simply foreign. The method is short and the one instruction that matters is to keep it moving. Cassava flour burns quickly and unevenly.

15 minNympha

Recettes

Zviti

Fried Yam

Farofa (Toasted Cassava Flour)

Simple Fondant Potato Recipe

Goat Gari Pinon

Cameroon Koki Corn

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Creamy Beet and Potato Salad

Chicken Curry Sauce

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Moroccan Chicken Rfissa

Angwa Moo

Zviti

Fried Yam

Goat Gari Pinon

Chakalaka Boerewors

Picnic Bread (From South Africa)

Peanut Butter Rice

Oven-Baked Spareribs

Chakalaka

Chicken Curry Sauce

Creamy Beet and Potato Salad

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Simple Fondant Potato Recipe

Cameroon Koki Corn

Farofa (Toasted Cassava Flour)

Recettes

Recettes à la une

Zviti

Goat Gari Pinon

Cameroon Koki Corn

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Creamy Beet and Potato Salad

Chicken Curry Sauce

Plats emblématiques

Recettes les plus populaires

Moroccan Chicken Rfissa

Angwa Moo

Zviti

Fried Yam

Goat Gari Pinon

Chakalaka Boerewors

Picnic Bread (From South Africa)

Peanut Butter Rice

Oven-Baked Spareribs

Chakalaka

Chicken Curry Sauce

Creamy Beet and Potato Salad

Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Garlic and Ginger

Moroccan Zaalouk (Cooked Eggplant and Tomato Salad)

Simple Fondant Potato Recipe

Cameroon Koki Corn

Farofa (Toasted Cassava Flour)