Okra stew gambia3/13/2024 ![]() The word “nyam,” meaning, “to eat,” was passed down through them to Gullah, Jamaican Patois and even American English. The legacy of these women was not only the foods that came down to us, but their almost religious commitment to manners and proper behavior. Having a legendary reputation for cooking, it was Senegambian women who were often picked to be the Big House cooks. They were also expert fishermen, blacksmiths, woodworkers and hunters. It was the Senegambians who were brought in to grow cotton, tobacco, rice and other grains and corn. Whenever you enjoy boiled peanuts, peanut soup, barbecued chicken, hoppin’ john, okra soup or gumbo, black eyed peas and red rice, you are tasting the culinary legacy of Senegambians in North America. Popular dishes include riz au Joloff or rice cooked with tomatoes, peppers and onions poulet au yassa which is grilled and then stewed in a lemony sauce, ceeb u niebe or black eyed peas and rice, domoda, or groundnut stew, ceeb u djen and supakanja or okra soup. The diet is predominately based on starches like rice, millet and sorghum and fresh vegetables made into soups and stews with fish or meat as condiment rather than entrée. Many key Southern ingredients-hot peppers, tomatoes, okra, black eyed peas, peanuts, watermelons, sorghum, eggplant, sesame, seafood, onions and chicken are traditional parts of Senegambian cuisines. Louis in Senegal and Fort James in Gambia, Senegambians were responsible for many of Southern cuisines staple dishes. Forcibly brought from places like Goree Island and St. Senegambians (the Wolof, Mande, Fula, Serer, Diola, Bassari and others) were foundational to the development of early America. The region of Senegambia is the source of our recipe. These areas, in different proportions, supplied the majority of enslaved Africans in the early Chesapeake, Carolina Low Country and Lower Mississippi Valley. Virtually all Americans who can trace their ancestry back to the days of early slavery can count Senegambia, the Bight of Biafra and West-Central Africa in their bloodlines. Those regions included Senegambia (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau), the Rice Coast (Sierra Leone and Liberia and part of Cote D’Ivoire, the Gold Coast (modern day Ghana and part of Cote D’Ivoire), the Slave Coast (Togo, Benin and western Nigeria), the Bight of Biafra (southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon), West-Central Africa (Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola) and Southeastern Africa (including parts of East Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar). The majority of enslaved Africans brought to this country came from seven regions in the vast continent of Africa. This Kwanzaa I encourage you to use the table to encourage that dialogue.Īs a culinary historian who focuses on the roots of African American cooking, I would love to recommend a feast based on the regions from which our ancestors came. ![]() For African Americans, the resurgence in an interest in genealogy has put a spotlight on what that heritage means. As they say in Nigeria, “Let dem say!” We know that Kwanzaa is an amazing opportunity to get our community engaged and informed about our connections as people of African descent around the world. Those of us who celebrate Kwanzaa face a lot of ribbing, good natured and otherwise, often questioning the authenticity and meaning of the holiday. ![]() I tend to use the frozen baby okra that I find at my local Middle-Eastern grocer.Kwanzaa: Using Food and Heritage to Make Meaning However, if you cannot find baby okra, you can use larger varieties and chop them to about 2 inches in size. ![]() I almost always use a pressure cooker to cook beef stew cubes or bone-in beef because it cuts the cooking time by at least 45 minutes!Īs for the okra, baby okra is most commonly used. You can use either bone-in meat or bone free, depending on your preference. I use beef shanks but, you can use whatever beef you use for stew. In this okra stew, beef cubes are always used. You can also opt to skip the protein and use vegetable broth to keep this dish vegetarian. Next, homemade broth is made by boiling the protein, and added with the tomato sauce, beef stew cubes or chicken and simmered all together. The base is made by sautéing crushed garlic with fresh chopped cilantro in any neutral oil, followed by adding the main vegetable (okra, white beans, green beans, peas and carrots or potatoes). The Lebanese technique of making yekhnes starts out pretty much the exact same way every time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |