Recipes

Green Seasoning

Green seasoning is a blended paste of fresh herbs, aromatics and chilli, used across the Caribbean as an all-purpose marinade and flavour base. Trinidad and Tobago is where it is most identified, and Guyana, Jamaica and the wider region all have versions. The source describes it as known to the Caribbean and some parts of Africa, which is a fair way of putting it. Its home is the Caribbean. What it resembles in Africa is a family of green pastes that do similar work: Senegalese nokoss, Moroccan chermoula, and the blended pepper bases used across West Africa. Those are related in function rather than in origin, and green seasoning as it is made here is Caribbean. It goes on everything: meat, seafood, grains, stews. Composition varies enormously by household and island, and the version here is a modest one built on parsley, coriander, celery, onion, garlic, scotch bonnet and thyme. Bigger versions include chive, culantro, pimento peppers and ginger. It keeps about a week refrigerated, and freezing it in ice cube trays is the standard way to hold a large batch, which is how most Caribbean kitchens handle it.

10 minEasy

Recipe by Debby · Africook

Homemade Pilau Masala

Pilau masala is the spice blend behind pilau, the spiced rice of the East African coast, and it is a short list of whole spices rather than a long one. Cumin, black peppercorns, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon are roasted briefly and ground, and that is the whole thing. The blend belongs to the Swahili coast, where centuries of Indian Ocean trade brought spices from South and Southeast Asia into the cooking of Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. Pilau itself is a relative of the pilaf and pulao found from Persia to India, adapted along the coast into something distinctly East African, and the masala is the point at which that trade history is most visible. Whether to buy it or make it is the practical question. Pre-ground blends are widely sold and perfectly usable, but ground spices lose their volatile oils quickly, and the difference between a jar that has sat on a shelf for a year and spices roasted and ground the same day is not subtle. It requires no grinder: a mortar and pestle does the job, and the roasting step is what makes it worth doing at all, since brief heat opens up the aromatics before they are broken down.

★★★★★Highest Rated

30 minEasyKenya

Recipe by Debby · Africook

Chicken Seasoning

A dry rub for chicken: thyme, cayenne, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, onion powder and salt. It carries no country and it is a broadly Western blend, the direct counterpart to the fish seasoning already in this collection. That is worth saying plainly on a platform documenting African food, because Africa has a great many chicken seasonings that this is not. Nigerian suya spice, yaji, is built on ground peanuts with paprika, cayenne and ginger. Ethiopian berbere combines chilli with cardamom, fenugreek and rue. Moroccan ras el hanout can run to a dozen or more spices. Peri peri from Mozambique and Angola leads with African bird's eye chilli and lemon. Any of those would be the regional answer. What is here is a competent all-purpose rub, useful for roasting, grilling or frying, and it keeps for months in a sealed jar. It is filed under Worldwide Recipes rather than presented as African. One practical note the source makes and is right about: the salt is adjustable and can be left out entirely, which is worth doing if you are also using a seasoning cube or a brine, since both already carry a great deal.

5 minEasy

Recipe by Debby · Africook

Awaze (Ethiopian Chilli Dip)

Awaze is the Ethiopian red chilli paste, built on berbere and loosened with an alcoholic liquid into a thick dip. It is extremely hot, it takes five minutes to make, and it goes with almost everything on an Ethiopian table. Berbere is what it is built on, and berbere is itself a blend: dried chillies, garlic, ginger, onion, rue seeds, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Awaze takes that and turns it into something spoonable. The liquid matters more than it sounds. Traditionally it is tej, the Ethiopian honey wine made with gesho, the shiny-leaf buckthorn, or areki, a strong spirit. This recipe uses red wine, which the contributor prefers and which is far easier to find. Its traditional place is at celebrations. Awaze is made for weddings and special occasions and served with raw meat, and gored gored, cubed raw beef with dipping sauce, is considered by many an unofficial national dish that no Ethiopian celebration is complete without. That is worth knowing about what the dip is for. Because of the wine, this is not alcohol-free, and mitmita, the other Ethiopian chilli blend with pili-pili peppers and cardamom, is a related but different thing.

5 minEasyEthiopia

Recipe by Blessing · Africook