What's Cookin Good Lookin

 

　

With no electricity and no running water, cooking looks a little a different than the typical American kitchen. Instead, imagine pots of white rice, brown soups, and dark, leafy green sauces resting on three stones over open fires. Large mortars and 5 feet tall pestles are used to beat green and red hot peppers; little yellow and gold cubes of maggi with little shrimps printed on the packaging rest on the stove lids. A plastic bottle dripping with crimson palm oil sits in a bowl with onions and fish, waiting to be thrown in the pot. Brightly colored buckets of water are never far for additional water for the rice. This is how we prepare dinner in Sierra Leone.

 

Cooking is a very important part of everyday life in Salone. Rice is the staple food - it is eaten everyday, often more than once. Mushy, spicy, tasty plasas made from leafy greens like potato leaf, or nutty fish stews are poured on top of huge trays of rice - the more rice, the more there is to share with your neighbor. When the rice is soft and the plasas is done simmering to spicy perfection, the food is distributed among bowls and plates and tupperware of various sizes to then delivered to family and friends.

 

In the village where I live, cooking is almost unanimously done by the women. But leave your "women belong in the kitchen" jokes at the door. These women are straight up bosses. Not only are they preparing food for upwards of 20 people, but they've carried huge loads of fire wood and 15 gallon basins of water on their heads from the bush and the water well back home before they even start cooking. (Don't get the wrong idea about the men, they work just as hard around here!)

 

Cooking has been an activity I've made some of my closest friends over. Many evenings with my host mom were spent learning how to make cassava leaf plasas or pumpkin stew, and now I enjoy getting to know my neighbors while we make granat soup. Cooking a traditional dish can be a 3-4 hour process, giving ample opportunity to spend meaningful time with people. In my community, people are constantly cooking, making it a common conversation starter. "Are you done cooking?" was one of the first questions I learned how to ask and respond to in Mandingo. Below are recipes to a few of my favorite Salone dishes I've learned how to make so far.

 

 

Groundnut Soup / Granat Soup / Tiya Gi

Ingredients:

Fresh, raw fish caught from the river, de-scaled, guts pulled, de-boned, and cleaned

1/2 pint "White" oil - vegetable or groundnut oil

1/2 cup granat paste (peanut butter)

One onion, thinly sliced

Hot pepper to taste, beaten with mortar and pestal

Salt

2 Maggi Cubes (flavored MSG boullion cubes)

Rice

 

Soup:

1. Rinse fish and season with 1/2 Sweetie Sweetie Shrimps Maggi cube.
2. Heat oil in large sauce pan. When hot, fry the fish. Cook all the way through but be careful not to burn the fish. Pull from oil when done and set aside.
3. Reduce heat, and put onions, beaten pepper, and tomato maggi in the oil and stir.
4. Dissolve granat paste into half cup water using the back of spoon.
5. Add salt and the rest of the Maggi to taste.
6. Add watered down granat paste to pot. Let simmer with lid on for about 10 minutes.
7. Add fried fish to soup and stir. Let simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Rice:

1. Heat water in large pot.
2. Just before the water gets to a full boil, add rice and stir.
3. Add a pinch or two of salt, stir again.
4. Cover and let simmer until rice is soft and all the water is gone, stiring occasionally and reducing or adding water when necessary.

Potato Leaf / Petete Lif / Wusen Fira

Ingredients:

Fresh, raw fish caught from the river, de-scaled, guts pulled, de-boned, and cleaned

One bunch potato leaf, washed and shredded

1/2 pint red palm oil

One onion, sliced

Hot pepper to taste, beaten with mortar and pestal

Salt

2 Maggi Cubes

Pre-cooked soy beans (optional)

Dried okra powder (optional)

Rice

 

Plasas:

1. Heat palm oil in pot. When boiling, add fish. Pull when cooked all the way through and set aside.
2. Add onion, pepper, and maggi to oil. Let simmer 5 minutes.
3. Add shredded potatoe leaf to pot. Stir and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoe leaf starts to turn brown.
4. Add beans, fish, dried okra power, and salt to taste to pot, stir, and remove from heat.

Rice: see rice directions for Granat Sup

 

Pepper Soup / Pepe Soup / Foroto Gi

Perfect meal for the common cold - clears the sinuses right out.

Ingredients:

Water

Fresh, raw fish caught from the river, de-scaled, guts pulled, de-boned, and cleaned

All the hot pepper you can find, beaten with mortar and pestal

One onion, sliced

Basil

Handful of leafy green

1 Maggi cube

Salt

Lime juice for garnish

Tissues for all the snot that will pour out of your sinuses

 

Directions:

1. Heat water in pot. Add fish, hot pepper, onion, Maggi, and salt. Cover and let simmer until fish is thoroughly cooked through.
2. When fish is cooked all the way through, add leafy green and basil. Stir and let simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes.
3. Garnish with juice of one lime.

 

Sweet Potatoes and Gravy / Petete en gravi / Wusen ani manfen

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes or yams, peeled, washed, and halfed

2 pints vegetable oil

Gravy:

Fresh, raw fish caught from the river, de-scaled, guts pulled, de-boned, and cleaned

One onion, sliced

Hot pepper

1/2 head of cabbage, sliced and boiled

2 tbsp tomato paste

Salt

Maggi Cubes

 

Directions:

1. Heat oil until hot. Carefully add potato halves in batches to the oil, and fry until golden brown. Set aside.
2. Rinse fish and season with 1/2 Sweetie Sweetie Shrimps Maggi.
3. While the oil is still hot, add fish. Do not completely fry first couple pieces of fish - remove after one minute. Beat with mortar and pestal the partly cooked fis with, pepper, onions, and cabbage.
4. Fry remaining fish. When finished, pull and set aside.
5. Add pepper, onion, fish, and cabbage mixture to the oil. Stir and let simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Add tomato paste, stirring to dissolve into oil.
7. Add salt and Maggi to taste and add fried fish.
8. Let simmer for a few more minutes and the remove from heat.
9. Smother potatoes in gravy and eat your heart out.