Recettes

Fish Seasoning

This is a dry spice rub for fish, and it belongs to no particular cuisine. Paprika, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne is a broadly Western seasoning profile, and the source claims no country for it. That is worth stating plainly on a platform documenting African food, because Africa has a great many specific fish seasonings that this is not. Nigerian fish is seasoned with blended pepper, ginger and stock cubes. Senegalese fish carries rof, a stuffing of parsley, garlic and chilli pushed into slashes in the flesh. Moroccan fish is marinated in chermoula, built on coriander, cumin, paprika and preserved lemon. Any of those would be the regional answer to the question this recipe is asking. What is here is a competent all purpose blend, useful for grilling, baking or pan frying, and it keeps for months in a sealed jar. It is filed under Worldwide Recipes rather than presented as African, since inventing a heritage for a paprika and oregano rub would be exactly the kind of claim this archive should not make.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

10 minEasy

Recette de Debby · Africook

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.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

25 minEasySouth Africa

Recette de Lisias Johanna · Africook

Boerewors Stew

Boerewors is South African sausage, and the name is Afrikaans: boer for farmer, wors for sausage. It is coarsely minced beef, sometimes with pork or lamb, seasoned with toasted coriander seed, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves and allspice, and it is made in one continuous coil rather than in links. Its identity is protected in law. South African regulation sets out what may be sold as boerewors, including a minimum meat content and a cap on other ingredients, which is an unusual level of legislative attention for a sausage and a fair measure of how seriously the country takes it. That regulation is also why boerewors is genuinely hard to buy outside South Africa and why South Africans abroad end up making their own. The sausage belongs to the braai above all, grilled in its coil over coals. This stew is what happens to it indoors: cut into pieces, browned, and simmered with tomato, garlic and spices into something closer to a weeknight dish. Boerewors is also eaten with pap and a tomato and onion sauce, which is the standard plate across the country. The stew is a newer treatment of an old sausage, and its spread beyond South Africa has come with the diaspora.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

30 minEasySouth Africa

Recette de Nympha · Africook

Avocado Salmon Salad

Pan-seared salmon over romaine, cucumber, tomato, red onion and avocado, dressed with an olive oil, mayonnaise and vinegar dressing. The source names no country and the combination is a broadly Western one, so it sits in Worldwide Recipes with its URL unchanged. Salmon is the reason. It is a cold-water fish of the North Atlantic and North Pacific and is not native to African waters, so while it is imported and eaten in African cities, it belongs to no African tradition. The dishes Africa builds on its own fish are quite different: Senegalese thieboudienne with thiof, Ghanaian grilled tilapia with banku, Libyan haraimi, Egyptian sayadeya. The technique worth taking from it is the sear. The salmon goes into a warm pan skin side up and is left alone for about four minutes until one side is golden, then turned for another three. Moving it early is what tears the flesh and stops it colouring. The avocado goes in raw at the end and should be added just before serving, since it browns quickly once cut. The dressing is blended separately and drizzled over rather than tossed through, which keeps the leaves crisp.

25 minEasy

Recette de Cuisine228 · Africook