Back in September I was invited together with other very friendly food bloggers for an evening of demo, cooking and tasting African food from Madagascar and Tanzania. This event took place in Hoxton at Open Kitchen. It was a great evening with Chef Attoma Mandjishowing demonstrating how to cook a couple of especially designed African dishes for the evening. This event was organised by Rainbow Tours, winners of Tour Operator of the Year 2012 by the readers of Food and Travel Magazine. Rainbow tours operates bespoke holidays in Africa and Latin America, from 5 star hotels to lodges to a simple tent in the wilderness or National Park. Sounds heavenly!
The evening started with some very interesting African canapes of fish, cassava, greens, plantain among other nibbles:
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| spicy ‘peanut butter’ with greens to a piquant medley of fish and tomato. |
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| deep-fried fish balls, fried cassava with tomato salsa |
Romazava Vary (Malagasy beef with greens)
A Malagasy dish which showcase the wealth of cultures. This dish is a one pot dish, so not a lot of dishes to wash afterwards. Rice features heavily in Brazilian diet and I learnt that applies to Malagasy cuisine too. This dish was very mild. The name of this dish breaks down to describe the saucy cooking style of the dish – Ro (soup) Mazava (clear) and Vary (rice).
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| Demo |
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| chopping |
Romazava Vary
Ingredients:
1 tbsp Oil
450g Braising beef cut into 2.5cm cubes
1 Large onion chopped
4 Garlic cloves chopped
50g Fresh root ginger thinly sliced
2 Tomatoes chopped
450g Leafy greens (e.g. spinach, cabbage, chard)
240ml Fresh beef stock
1 tsp Dried green peppercorns crushed
Salt
450g Long grain rice
Extra Water
Method:
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the meat and brown on all sides.
Add the onions, garlic, and ginger and fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the stock, mix well, bring to the boil then reduce the heat
slightly and cook until beef is soft. Add the add tomato, green and
green pepper.
Add the rice and enough extra water to cover the
mixture by 2.5cm bring back to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and
simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is tender, stirring once
or twice during the cooking and adding a little extra water if necessary
to prevent it drying out.
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| I added extra garlic, red chilli and 2/3 of red wine to this recipe |
The next dish was a fish with fried tomato and onion
Samaki Wa Kakuango
Ingredients:
1 whole fish scaled and cleaned (firm white fish such as sea bream)
2 tbsp salt
2 tsp fresh garlic crushed
1 tsp finely-chopped chilli
200g onions coarsely chopped
200g tomatoes sliced
2 tbsp butter
1 garlic finely slice
Chopped parsley
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| I added 1/2 cup of white wine to the fish marinade |
Method:
Cut gashes some 5cm apart all the way along both sides of the fish.
Mix the salt, garlic and chilli and rub into the gashes along the fish’s sides.
Meanwhile fry the onions in the butter, until soft, add tomatoes,
finely slice garlic cook for few minutes. Add parsley and season to
taste
Place the fish on a rack in a steamer pot. Fill the bottom with water halfway to the rack
Steam the fish for 15- 20 minutes
Remove the fish onto a large platter, spread the onions mixture over the fish and serve with boiled rice.
Garnish with lemon wedges and serve.
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| Two dishes become one! |
