African diet

[obed]

Anybody here interested in some indigenous highly nutritional and tempting African dishes?

[Julsey]

As long as they don't involve insects.  LOL.

[GrumpysWife]

I knew a brother who served in Africa and he told me some of the things that are eaten there. Some sounded really interesting, but the bugs     I think we eat a lot of gross stuff too, though.  

[NSSewer]

I am! I just finished a delicious butternut squash soup, cantaloupe, and yellow watermelon. Very delicious and oh boy very filling!

[Holly]

well?  where are the recipes?!

[Brother_Bliss]

I'm posting to tag myself in this topic. I would be very interested in seeing some recipes that I could attempt at home. I love foreign food. It is so flavorful and exotic. What are we known for here in the USA? - Hot dogs :-(

So far, I've enjoyed everything except one particular Indian restaurant nearby.

[surfergirl]

Bob don't forget the mega sized burgers. & greasy fries

&pre packed foods.

A friend visited US they said servings were massive.

They noticed a lot of Drive throughs.

&Every thing bacon. Is tthat right?

[Julsey]

Obed, I hope you know I was joking about the insects. 

 

Please do share.  We could all use a new recipe or two. 

[GrumpysWife]

Waiting, waiting, waiting..............................where are they Obed?

[obed]

I see you are all very eager. That's nice but one question: how are you going to get the ingredients since most of them are found only here?

[Brother_Bliss]

I see you are all very eager. That's nice but one question: how are you going to get the ingredients since most of them are found only here?

 

We have a number of ethnic grocery stores around here. Plus, there is always the possibility of ordering online.

[obed]

Alright. I'm posting when I get home.

[obed]

Let's start with Palm nut soup. This can be served with other foods but you try boiled plain rice since you are familiar with it. To begin, the most important ingredient is the palm liquid. Here we pound the fresh palm nuts with a pestle and mortar then we mix the fibre with water to obtain palm liquid but you can buy it canned already or something. Alright, enough talking.

Ingredients

* palm liquid ( 1 tin Ghanacan)

* meat( you can add snails)

* 2 medium sized onions

* 3 tomatoes

* 4 garden eggs

* 2 teaspoon ground pepper

* 1 clove garlic, ground

* 2 dsrts pn. smoked dried shrimp, ground(optional )

* salt to taste

Method

Clean, cut meat into pieces and wash.

Put meat in a saucepan, season with salt, chopped shallots, garlic and a little ginger.

Add enough water and boil for 10 minutes.

Add the palm liquid to meat with washed vegetables (tomatoes, onions, garden eggs) and add ground pepper.

Cook until vegetables are soft. Remove tomatoes and onions, grind and return to soup. Remove garden eggs, seed and strain, return to soup.

Simmer for about 1 hour. Serve with rice , etc.

If you don't get something right , feel free to ask.

Edited August 24, 2013 by obed

[GrumpysWife]

I looked it up on google and it looks good.

 

[surfergirl]

At my Italian market we can buy tin escargos/snails.

Thanks for the recipe Obed.

Sounds fine.

[obed]

Please don't thank me. Palm nut soup is great but can't be compared to those foods involving bugs. When you are done, tell me so we can move to next one.

[Joey]

I've never eaten snails but always thought maybe they are like clams.Which I like.I have never heard of garden eggs or palm nuts  .I tried to find if we have those items in the US and it seems we do not have them here.

It sounds very good though.:-) 

[GrumpysWife]

Please don't thank me. Palm nut soup is great but can't be compared to those foods involving bugs. When you are done, tell me so we can move to next one.

Well I've cooked rice and mushrooms with little white bugs. It was yummy. I bet it would be better with the Palm nut soup. And remember shrimp and lobster are water bugs. Crustaceans.

 

 

Did you Know? List of Facts about Crustaceans

Facts are statements which are held to be true and often contrasted with opinions and beliefs. Our unusual and interesting facts about Crustaceans, trivia and information, including some useful statistics about animals will fascinate everyone from kids and children to adults. Interesting Facts about Crustaceans are as follows:

• Fact 1 - All Crustaceans have an exoskeleton which doesn’t grow so must be moulted for them to grow
• Fact 2: There are 44,000 different species of Crustaceans, most of them live in the sea (marine) but some are freshwater and others live on land
• Fact 3: The Woodlice is a Crustacean despite living on land
• Fact 4: Crustaceans don’t have a skeleton; their hard exoskeleton protects their body and supports them
• Fact 5: Live lobsters can be yellow, blue, orange and white but never red in color, they only turn red when they have been cooked!
• Fact 6: The most popular Crustaceans are from the Decapod group. Decapod means 'ten legs’ and species from this group include the Lobster, Prawn, Crabs and Crayfish
• Fact 7: The Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) is the largest crustacean in the world
• Fact 8: The Stygotantulus stock is the smallest Crustacean in the world, measuring less than 0.1mm in length!
• Fact 9: Soft Shell Crabs are simply crabs who have moulted their exoskeleton in order to grown and their new shell hasn’t hardened yet.
• Fact 10: A lobsters teeth are in its stomach, an area called the ‘gastric mill’
• Fact 11: Shrimps move by walking slowly across the sea floor but when fleeing from a predator, they swim backwards quickly by curling and uncurling their abdomen. This is known as the caridoid escape reaction.
• Fact 12: Male fiddler crabs have one large claw, which they wave in the air to impress females when trying to find a mate and intimidate other males and predators. The waving of their claw is thought to resemble playing the Fiddle!
• Fact 13: The Arrow Crab looks more like a spider than a crab, the only way to tell the difference is to count its legs (spiders have 8 legs whereas crabs have 10 legs)
• Fact 14: Lobsters have the ability to regenerate body (autotomy) parts that they loose, for example in order to escape a predator they can shed a claw, leg or antennae
• Fact 15: Copepods are small crustaceans, between 0.5mm and 5mm in length, one is even named Cyclops after the one-eyed giant of mythology

[blue-jay]

This looks good. I hope I can find the palm liquid. I guess substituting it would be pointless since it is the main ingredient?

If I find it I'll try either a vegetarian version or one with meat next weekend (we eat meat only about once a week)

Would the garden egg be replaced with regular eggplant or yellow summer squash?

Do you think shrimp or chicken would be a better substitute for the snails?

Edited August 25, 2013 by star-bug

[obed]

Well for garden eggs, I doubt you can replace it with something else. And for the snails, yes, you can use chicken and shrimp but I'd go for shrimp. Or better yet 'DOKONLE'!!! I still can't find the English name for 'dokonle'(oilly bug found in dead palm trees and looks like caterpillar )

[Joey]

Our grocery store doesn't have an oily bug section...lol...I have trees nearby with tent caterpillars in them,I hadn't thought about eating them.I'd probably like them deep fried in beer batter if I did want to eat them.

I love hearing about what you eat Obed.Very interesting.:-)

[GrumpysWife]

Here in the south, if the chickens run loose in the yard and lay their eggs wherever, they are called Yard Eggs. I that what you are talking about?

[Joey]

I looked up garden eggs, they are like eggplant but smaller and white.

[GrumpysWife]

OK Grumpy grew some of those a couple of years ago. Thanks Nancy.

[obed]

Glad you've seen the garden egg. It is one nutritious ingredient. About the oily bugs........... I promise you, you can't resist the temptation of a plate of fried bugs. I wish I could export you some. You guys should eat a variety of insects because they are healthy. Am planning on killing my cat next week and preparing it with pepper soup. Yummy. The dog would be next.