Lambassa's Cameroon Chicken

This is really a great looking and a genuine African recipe. It come from a little further North than strictly Southern Africa, but it is so similar to many of our ethnic chicken dishes that I thought I would include it. Visit her blog at lambassaa It is in French but is easy to follow. If you prefer, use Google translate which is found here
She has beautiful step by step photos of the preparation. Give it a go! try a little taste of real Africa!
Here is her finished dish.

African bird Stew (relish to accompany papa/sadza or polenta)

See the hunting fishing and gathering page on the tabs lower down on the right hand side of this blog. You will see how to prepare your birds for cooking. However I know that in many countries pigeons, doves and other small birds are available commercially so why not give this a try. If you are African, living out of Africa, then take a trip back to your early roots, when your grandparent regularly ate food like this. Its good healthy and tasty!
For a good pot of bird stew relish you will need 4 to 6 doves depending on their variety or size. If you are fortunate to get red eye doves, green pigeons or rock doves, then 3 may be enough. If you have an enterprising lad who has collected you a number of assorted small birds then aim for about 750 grams of meat.

A large onion or two small
three quarter cup Sunflower oil. (yes I know its a lot, but it is the basis of the relish and carries the flavor.)
2 tomatoes or half a cup of chopped dried tomatoes. (by far the nicer choice if you have got) I have come across a few indigenous Africans over the years who have opened tomatoes and dried them on the roof of their huts. So using dried tomatoes would be authentic.
Chillis to taste. I use 2 for this amount of meat.
Its now very simple. Cut the birds into quarters. Then brown the birds 1 onion and garlic together slightly and then add the other ingredients. Cover with water and simmer for a long time. Many African women have the pot simmering on the side of the fire for half a day. On the stove top I cook for 4 or 5 hours. Wild birds can be very tough and you need to break down all the sinews thoroughly. In the last three quarter hour add the second onion roughly chopped. Pumpkin if available or cabbage is sometimes added now also.
Then take off the pot lid and reduce the liquid to very little water and mostly oil. That is your bird relish. It is normally fairly salty and eaten by dipping sausage shaped balls of papa/polenta with the fingers of the right hand into the juice and eating. A little piece of bird or vegetable is occasionally picked up with one of the fingers alongside the pap ball and eaten with the papa.
Invite some people over, take away all the cutlery and serve it on two dishes in the middle of the table. They will love it! It makes for a very social meal. I have done something similar for many overseas visitors and they absolutely love this brush with African style food. By the way, water in a bowl is brought before the meal for guests to wash hands, and also afterwards. A towel is supplied.

 Warning for Westerners who eat "traditional style" with Africans. DO wash your hands before eating. Do not use your left hand for eating. It may be used to hold a piece of meat or bone and transferred to the right hand to eat. If you re-dip your ball of polenta/papa into the gravy, turn it around so you dip the un-bitten end. This is a general guide which applies to most African tribes in the region, but I would love some of my African followers to add or correct me if you think of something. Wait for the senior man present to finish the last piece of meat, but DO NOT follow the western habit of leaving a piece. It insults the cook.  (Westerners like leaving the last biscuit or piece of cake. This is the most daft senseless European custom I have ever encountered!! I have had quite heated arguments with some guests who refuse to eat the last piece of food on a plate or dish!)

Classic, basic african style meat relish and pap

I said in an earlier post that the cupboard was bare! And that is what a lot of african cooking is all about. Simple cheap food.

To translate the title above: meat relish is meat cooked normally with onions, oil if available and garlic and green peppers and chillis IF available.
Pap is maize meal porridge cooked in a unique African way to a stiff texture that can be formed into balls with the fingers. In the region it is called "Papa" "Sadza" "Putu"and "Nshima" to mention just a few. It looks easy to make, but it is NOT easy to get it right. In Zimbabwe, African men cook it differently to women. Both are good, but the womens method is far nicer in my opinion, so that is what I am going to explain. It is the way I was taught to cook pap by an ancient camp cook many years ago when I was a game ranger. (Yawn grandad!)

Anyway...
Usehalf a kilo of meat. This can be shin, blade, chicken (cook half the time) or short rib or any cheap cut of meat. The delicacy in Africa is fatty meat. (I Know, I know it unhealthy, but you should see how very healthy africans are.)
brown the meat. Add a large chopped onion, even two if you have. Tomatoes and green peppers and chopped garlic can be added if it available. Thats the thing....there IS no fixed recipe. Its the method that is important. And the onions. Chillis are always added if available. One chopped chilli for the half kilo of meat is about right. Potatoes can also be added. Cover with water.
After browning, cover with water. Simmer and reduce to gravy for an hour and a half. Meanwhile get half a 2 liter pot of water boiling.

Put 2 cups of maize meal in a bowl and add enough cold water to wet it all to a sort of crumbly mix. Too much water is no problem. If you dont do this pre-cold water thing, you will get bad lumps of uncooked porridge when you toss dry meal into boiling water. It cant be done!
Add a little of the cold mix to the boiling water and stir for a few minutes until you get a thick porridge that blips slowly. Turn the heat right down and put a lid on it. Stir every 5 minutes for 20 minutes. Then add about a cup of the mixture and vigourously stir it into the porridge. Only experience will tell when its right. Put the lid on again for another 20 minutes. When you take the lid off, if you got it right, it should have puffed up to the lid with steam. Collapse it with a spoon and add another couple of tablespoons of meal mix. Lid on for another 10 minutes. If it seems soft when you serve it, dont panic, it will set a bit as it cools to a perfect consistency. Keep on trying until you get it right. It takes Shona women in Zimbabwe many years to get it right, and she is highly regarded in the community when she does!!

photo by Libby

This meal gets served onto a soup plate and presented as you see in the photo above by Lukas.

Proper "morogo" african style cooked spinach.

Proper African style "morogo" or spinach can actually be made of a variety of greens including pumpkins leaves, various wild plants and even beetroot tops.
The secret is the method.
Finely slice the green leaves after washing thouroughly.
Put into a large pot and drizzle with vegetable oil. Add 1 teaspoon of salt for every 500g of fresh leaves.(It is eaten quite salty as it is usually accompanied by an unseasoned starch like sweet potato, rice or more commonly maize meal or polenta cooked stiff.

Do not add water. Heat gently and it will cook in its own water iy you have just washed it. Simmer very slowly for an hour, turning gently. Add very little water if required, as it is basically steamed.