S for Sierra Leone ~ Kanya / Kanyah

Event: BM #44, Around the world (A - Z Series)

Choice of Country: The Republic of Sierra Leone

Capital City: Freetown

Official Language: English

We are into 4th week of our culinary marathon, 'Around the world in 30 days' and I am stopping at Sierra Leone, a West African nation for my letter 'S'.

Some tidbits about Sierra Leone:

* Sierra Leone is a west African nation bordered by Guinea and Liberia. The Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra visited this area in 1462 and named it 'Serra de Leôa', meaning "Lioness Mountains", for the landscape around Freetown. The Spanish rendering of this geographic formation is 'Sierra Leona', which later was adapted and, misspelled, became the country's current name.  
* It is predominantly a Muslim country with a Christian minority.  Religious violence is a rare occurrence in this nation.  
* English is the official language in government administration and is the medium of of instruction in schools. However the Krio language is used primarily for communication among ethnic groups and is spoken by 90% of the population.  
* Sierra Leone has relied on diamond mining for its economic base. It is also among the largest producers of titanium and bauxite, a major producer of gold, and has one of the world's largest deposits of rutile. Sierra Leone is home to the third-largest natural harbour in the world.   
* 70% of its people still live in poverty despite exploiting it's natural resources.
* The recent outbreak of Ebola virus has tremendously affected the economy. With the closure of borders, the cancellation of airline flights, the evacuation of foreign workers and a collapse of cross-border trade, the national deficit of Sierra Leone is widening to the point where the IMF was considering expanding its financial support.  
* Sierra Leonean cuisine includes cassava bread, fried fish, and okra soup. Stews are a fundamental part of Sierra Leone's cuisine, with groundnut stew having been called the country's national dish.
 (Source:Wiki)
 
Kanya / Kanyah are sweet peanut bites from Sierra Leone and they  are popular in other West African regions as well. They are made with ingredients that are staple in West Africa and is as basic as it can get. No surprises there considering that the majority of the population lives under poverty line and families hardly could afford three meals. Kanya is prepared by pounding rice, peanuts and sugar together.
Rice is a staple food in Sierra Leone and is used in many savory / sweet dishes and where as peanuts are considered a woman's crop in Africa. Peanut plants are widely cultivated throughout Africa ever since the European explorers introduced to them in 1500s. These peanut plants soon replaced a similar African plant called the Bambara Groundnut, that was cultivated earlier in the region. Now peanuts provide a vital source of cash income for women and nutritious, high protein food which could prevent child malnutrition.
 
As mentioned above, these humble and tasty peanut bites needs only three ingredients - rice, peanuts and sugar and are traditionally pounded. We can of course quicken the kanya making process by using a food processor or a mixer in the modern world. One can start from the scratch and prepare their own rice flour or use the store bought rice flour. This recipe was inspired from The Congo Cookbook website and I have changed the quantities to suit my taste. I added some extra peanuts to shape  the kanya pieces and reduced the sugar to my taste. If you already have toasted rice flour and peanuts then it takes about 5 minutes to prepare this kanya.
 

 Toasted & skinned peanuts and toasted rice flour

Ingredients for 8 burfis:
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp roasted and skinned peanuts
6 - 7 tbsp sugar

Method:
* I used store bought rice flour but homemade flour can be used too. Toast the rice flour in a dry skillet on low flame until it changes to light brown color. Keep stirring all the while to toast uniformly and avoid burning the flour.

From L to R ~  white rice flour and toasted flour 

* Grind peanuts and sugar together into coarse crumbs using a food processor. Next add the toasted rice flour and pulse again until the mixture is a finely ground homogeneous mixture and starts to cake up as shown below.

 

* Press the mixture firmly into a square shaped pan and cut into squares. If you are finding it difficult to shape and the mixture is crumbling, put back the mixture into food processor and grind again until the mixture holds the shape. One can shape it into cubes or pyramids as well.

* Store these peanut bites in air-tight container if not serving immediately.

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R for Russia ~ Oladi

Event: BM #44, Around the world (A - Z Series)

Choice of Country: The Russian Federation

Capital City: Moscow

Official Language: Russian

I am going to Russia, the largest country on the planet (by area) to try some of their scrumptious pancakes named 'oladi' for today's post. There are basically two kinds of pancakes from a traditional Russian kitchen though there are supposedly hundreds of variations for Russian pancakes depending upon what kind of flour / starch and leavening agents are used and how they are made (plain with toppings or stacked with filling). Above mentioned two pancakes are oladi and blini. Blini are on the thinner side like crepes while oladis are thick, airy pancakes.   
 
This version of oladis are yeast based and take some planning owing to the required double rising of the batter. I think these make a great weekend brunch item than a breakfast in a rush, owing to that rising period. Though the pancakes themselves take little time to make, the rising takes around 1&1/2 to 2 hours. And here is a useful tip from the original recipe if you want to hurry up the rising process. Preheat the oven at the lowest setting and turn off the oven. Place the dough in a heat proof bowl, cover and place it in the oven and it quickens the rising process. These puffy pancakes are soft from inside while the outer surface is delightfully crispy.

Ingredients: (Yield about 15 oladis)
1.5 cup + 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1 tbsp. flax meal (or any other substitute for 1 egg)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp.oil
Oil to make oladi

Method:
* Mix flour, yeast and milk in a bowl using a wooden spoon.

* Cover the dough bowl and leave it to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume.
* Combine flax meal and 3 tbsp. warm water in a small bowl and leave it aside for five minutes.
* Add this flax meal mixture, sugar, salt and oil to the fermented batter and mix well to combine.  At this point berries, finely chopped apples, nuts or chocolate chips can also be added to the batter if desired.

 * Cover it and leave it again in a warm place to rise until it doubles.

The dough would be very sticky and hard to drop from the spoon onto the skillet. To avoid this situation, keep a small bowl of water handy and dip the spoon (you are going to use to spoon the batter) each time in the water before using it to scoop out the dough.
* Heat a non-stick skillet on medium flame and add about 2 tsp of oil. Now dunk the spoon in the water, remove and scoop out the dough and pour on the skillet with out deflating it as much as possible. The dough effortlessly slides off the spoon. Drop more spoonfuls of batter taking care to dunk the spoon in water every time before using it.

* Cook on low flame until they are cooked through and they turn golden brown both sides. If they are cooked on high flame, they get brown faster without getting cooked inside.

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter. Ravish these scrumptious oladi warm with jam, sweetened sour cream or berries. I also served some with bananas and maple-cane syrup.





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Q for Qatar ~ Al Rangina

Event: BM #44, Around the world (A - Z Series)

Choice of Country: The State of Qatar

Capital City: Doha

Official Language: Arabic

Qatar is the only nation on planet which starts with the alphabet 'Q' and obviously my choice for today in this culinary marathon. I am going with a simple and yet an interesting and delicious dessert, al rangina. It is basically dates in a flavorful cinnamon butter sauce. This eye-catchy platter of al rangina takes hardly 10 minutes to prepare. And before I proceed to the recipe, here are some interesting facts about this peninsula.

Some tidbits about Qatar:

* Qatar is a sovereign Arab country located in Western Asia and it's sole land border is with Saudi Arabia.
* Qatar is the world's richest country per capita and has the world's third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves in excess of 25 billion barrels.  
* Qatar has been ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century and Emir has the final say in all matters. Criticizing Emir in media is illegal.  
* Qatar's semi-elected consultative assembly called Majlis al Shura has very limited legislative authority. There is no independent legislature and political parties are forbidden.  
* Before the discovery of oil, the economy depended mainly on fishing and pearl hunting. It's capital, Doha was originally a fishing village.  
* Muslims are not allowed to consume alcohol in Qatar and if they get caught doing so, will be punished by flogging. Adultery also meets the same punishment.
 * Al Jazeera Media Network is funded by the ruling family of Qatar and it's head quarters is located in Doha.  
* Tourists have to dress modestly.  
* The work week runs from Sunday through Thursday. 

Culinary Tidbits:  
* Qatar's cuisine has been influenced by close links to Iran and India and Muslim dietary conventions.  
* Muslims generally refrain from eating pork and drinking alcohol, and neither is served publicly.  
* Traditional cuisine is based around seafood and native varieties of dates. Sour apples, almonds and dates are considered delicacies.
* Some of the popular dishes are burghul pilaf, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and mashboush while desserts are harees, umm ali, mehalabiya and esh asaraya.
* Coffee is the loved beverage and the Qatari version goes by the name 'Qahwa Helw'. This sweet coffee is a delightful concoction of saffron, cardamon, orange and sugar and is served on special occasions and by the elite.
* Qataris, especially women, are reluctant to eat in public places 
(Source: Several online sites)

   
This is one simple dessert that I thoroughly enjoyed making and consuming. I was initially like who would eat dates in a sauce when I learnt about the recipe. Then I began to wonder that something must be in it if it is popular among the Arab countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. I thought of trying a small portion to test and was really glad that I did. The sauce is the real hero of this recipe and tastes really wonderful. I recalled something when I tasted the sauce and couldn't figure it out what until my husband pointed it out that it was almost like the ragi huri hittu. He was right about the taste, albeit it was richer in flavor because of all the butter and cinnamon that goes into it. I loved the base sauce so much that I am planning to prepare a thicker sauce next time and going to use it in another dish. 

Ingredients:
1/4 lb pitted dates (18 - 20 dates)
3 to 4 tbsp. butter
2.5 to 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. icing sugar

Method:
* Arrange the dates on a plate you are going to use to serve.
 
* Melt the butter in a sauce pan.

* Add flour and cinnamon to the butter. Whisk well and cook the mixture until a thick sauce is formed.

* I cooked for about 6 to 7 minutes and added cinnamon at the final stages of the cooking. Most of the online recipes mention to cook for 3 to 4 minutes but I cooked it longer to make sure that the flour is cooked well.
I forgot to take the pictures while it was cooking and this is what it looked like when it was warm. And please don't be tempted to add extra flour while cooking if the sauce appears thin since it thickens once it cools down.
 
* Pour the cooked cinnamon-butter sauce over the dates evenly.

 
 * Once it cools down, dust with icing sugar as much as needed and serve.

 

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P for Panama ~ Patacones / Patacón / Tostones

Event: BM #44, Around the World (A - Z Series)  

Choice of Country: The Republic of Panama  

Capital City: Panama City 

Official Language: Spanish

Panama history:

Panama is the southernmost country of Central America and the whole of North America. It was inhabited by several indigenous tribes before becoming a Spanish settlement during 16th century. It broke with Spain in 1821 and became a part of the Republic of Gran Colombia, along with Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela. When Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. The total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama culminated on 31 December 1999.   

Panama cuisine:
Panamanian cuisine is a unique mix of African, Spanish, and Native American techniques, dishes, and ingredients, reflecting its diverse population. Since Panama is a land bridge between two continents, it has a large variety of tropical fruits, vegetables and herbs that are used in native cooking. Panamanian foods are mildly flavored and the commonly used ingredients are maize, rice, wheat flour, plantains, yuca, beef, chicken, pork and seafood.

I went with one of the popular side dishes of the region, patacones. Patacones / Tostones are twice fried, crisp green plantain slices. In fact, these starters/side dish are popular in many of the Latin countries and the Caribbean and go by different names. In Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and in most of Venezuela, they are known by the name tostones. The word tostones comes from the Spanish verb 'tostar' meaning "to toast". They are known as patacón / patacones in Colombia, Costarica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and in some parts of Venezuela, where they are served with a garlic sauce. These are also known as fritos verdes (in Dominican Republic), banan peze (in Haiti) and plantain crisps (in West Africa). (Source:Wiki)

Tostones is pronounced as thos-tho-nes ('Tho' like in a Indian girl's name Toral and 'nes' as in nest).  Patacones is pronounced as pa-tha-co-nes (Say 'pa' as in the word pat and 'tha' like in Indian name 'Tanu' ).

Actually I guess this post should be divided into what you should and should not do while trying patacones. I was well prepared or so I thought when I tried these patacones for the first time. You see, I have eaten and prepared my share of plantain chips in life. This recipe is so simple and besides I had gone through some online videos on how to prepare these addictive chips. I thought it was impossible to go wrong but my first trial burst my bubble and it was a super flop experiment. Two things failed me - peeling the plantains and using the wrong gadgets to press the fried plantains.
The recipe is simple and you need unripe, green plantains, oil to fry and salt.
The first time I peeled the plantains using a peeler removing only the thick superficial layer - the way I do when doing Indian style plantain dishes. You still can see the light green skin.

And ended up with these after the first time frying. When I tried to flatten them, the outer darker layer was breaking apart from the yellow portion. (Not at all good for this recipe and ended up making Indian style curry.)

During this marathon besides learning how to make these crispy, yummy patacones, I also got to learn an easy, Latino way to peel the plantains which by the way is important for this dish.
* Take an unripe plantain and cut off the edges. Make a slit running the knife along the seams and peel away the skin with your hand. It peels off easily. Or if using a peeler, do it twice to reach the cream colored skin of the plantain.
 
* Cut the plantain into about 1 inch pieces. How big the patacones are depends upon the size of the cut plantains. Or they can be cut lengthwise into two slices.

* Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan. Drop the plantain pieces and fry them on low medium heat for about 3 - 4 minutes. They would be cooked to some extent and would have turned yellow in color.

* Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.

* Usually a gadget named tostonera is used to flatten the fried plantain slices. In my first attempt, I tried the bottom of a heavy pan, a food can and even a small sized pounder and all failed. Then I realized that the athirasam press I had is similar to what the Latinos are using to flatten the fried plantain pieces. One can use even a roti press or any kitchen utensil with a flat surface.
* Place a fried piece of plantain on the bottom disc of the gadget and place the upper piece over it.

* Apply pressure using the handle of the upper wooden piece and flatten the plantain piece.

* Drop the flattened pieces of plantain into the hot oil and fry again on medium flame until they turn golden brown.

 

* Drain them on paper towels, sprinkle with salt and serve immediately. 
 

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O for Oman ~ Khabeesa

Event: BM #44, Around the World (A - Z Series)
Choice of Country: The Sultanate of Oman
Capital City: Muscat
Official Language: Omani Arabic

And it's time for the "O" country today and obviously it had to be Oman since this Arabic nation is the only one that starts with the alphabet "O". The Omani cuisine is a mixture of several staples of Asian foods. It borrows Asian tastes and flavors and incorporates them into typical Omani dishes that are palate pleasing. Rice is a staple while Omani dishes are often based around chicken, fish, and lamb. Most Omani dishes tend to contain a rich mixture of spices, herbs, and marinades. 
I had bookmarked a few Omani recipes from Nestlé site and mostly was leaning towards the mugasgas. Those sweet, puffy triangles caught my attention at the first sight. However yesterday when I started the preparation, I realized that unknowingly I already had cooked 4 deep fried dishes for this week. I therefore had to steer away from there to this yummy and quick semolina pudding, khabeesa. 

I prepared khabeesa twice - once pre-roasting the semolina and once without roasting. In India it is a common practice to roast semolina before using it in any dish to avoid it to turn lumpy while cooking. And so I roasted the semolina by default. This dish doesn't need the prior roasting of semolina and the consistency of khabeesa is similar to a soft version halwa. Cardamom, rose water and saffron add aromatic flavors to delicious khabeesa.

Please note that if you follow the (original) recipe to the T, then you will end up with a cloyingly sweet khabeesa. I would recommend adding less sweetened condensed milk than the recipe mentions or use unsweetened condensed milk and add sugar to taste. I have adjusted the ingredients below to suit my palate.

Ingredients: (2 -3 servings)
1/4 cup semolina
3/4 cup milk (at room temperature / warm)
2 - 3 tbsp. sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp butter 
1/4 tsp ground cardamom 
1/2 tsp rosewater
A pinch of saffron threads
Slivered pistachio to garnish (optional)

Method 1:
* Combine semolina and milk in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. 
* Now add the remaining ingredients except the pistachio to the pan. Continue to cook for about 8 - 10 minutes, stirring in between.  
* Transfer the cooked khabeesa to individual serving bowls and let it cool. The mixture considerably thickens once it cools down.
* Garnish with nuts if desired.

Method 2:
*Toast semolina on low flame until it starts to change the color.
* Boil milk, butter and condensed milk together in a sauce pan. Add semolina slowly, constantly stirring with a sturdy spatula so that the mixture would not turn lumpy.
* Allow the mixture to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring in between. Add cardamom, rose water and saffron threads at the final stages of cooking.
* When the mixture is done, turn off the stove and pour in individual bowls for serving. The mixture considerably thickens once it cools down and reaches a soft halwa consistency. Garnish with slivered pistachio if desired and serve.

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N for Nigeria ~ Akara

Event: BM #44 , Around the World (A - Z series)  
Choice of Country: The Federal Republic of Nigeria
Capital City: Abuja  
Official Language: English

Nigeria is located in West Africa and is often referred to as "The giant of Africa" because of it's large population and economy. The name "Nigeria" comes from the Niger River, that runs through the country. Nigeria is inhabited by more than 500 ethnic groups and obviously it's cuisine consists of dishes coming from them. Wikipedia mentions that the cuisine uses spices, herbs along with palm oil or ground nut oil to create rich flavored sauces and spicy soups. Their feasts are lavish and colorful. They have a variety of street foods that is often barbecued or deep fried like this akara for instance.  

Akara are deep fried black-eyed pea fritters from Nigeria. I was contemplating whether to try these or not as black-eyed fritters / alasanda vadalu are a common street food in my home state, Andhra in India. However after going through the recipe, the method sounded slightly different than the standard Indian version and decided to give it a try. The black-eyed peas are soaked overnight and then skinned before proceeding to the grinding part. I have peeled my share of avarekalu when I was young but still the process of peeling off the skins is tedious. Employ your family members for the job during TV watching session. :) Coming back to recipe, skinned beans are ground into paste adding very little / no water. Then red chilli and onion are added and pounded in a wooden mortar and pestle until smooth. Then spoonfuls of batter are dropped into hot oil and fried until golden brown through out. I didn't have any variety of fresh red chilli on hand and so used green chillies instead. I ground the beans first in the food processor and then added onion, green chillies and salt and processed just until they were combined. (Recipe source: Here)


Ingredients:
1 cup black eyed peas
3 - 4 chillies, chopped finely (the original recipe uses 2 fresh red chillies.)
1 big onion or 2 small onions; chopped fine
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method:
* Soak black eyed peas overnight and then peel off the skins. Grind the beans into a smooth batter, adding water just enough to facilitate grinding.

* Add the chillies and onions and grind again until they are just combined. Stir in salt just before frying.
* Meanwhile, heat oil for deep frying. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry on low flame until they turn golden brown through out. Serve warm.

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M for Malaysia ~ Cekodok Pisang

Event: BM #44 , Around the World (A - Z series)
Choice of Country: Malaysia  
Capital City: Kuala Lumpur  
Official Language: Malaysian

After a short break yesterday, I am back to my alphabet based global cooking and today we are moving to "M" and "Malaysia", a south east Asian nation. This federal constitutional monarchy is separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). This nation was ruled by Malay monarchs up until the 18th century when it came under British rule. It finally became independent in 1957. Now the head of government is the Prime Minister while the head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, though The constitution declares Islam the state religion. 
Malays, Chinese and Indians form the major ethnic groups. Malaysian cuisine has evolved into a highly diverse and complex one owing to this multi-ethnic makeup of its population, historical migrations, colonization by foreign powers, and its geographical position. The present day cuisine is a melange of traditions from it's Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and ethnic Bornean citizens. 
(Source:Wiki)
 
The first recipe that popped up in my search of Malaysian treats was cekodok. Even though I later bookmarked a lot of desserts, I stuck to these fritters since they were simple and quick to prepare and I had to finish off some leftover bananas. Cekodok pisang are supposedly one of the popular, traditional snacks in Malaysia. They also go by alternative names cekodok, kuih kodok, cucur and jemput-jemput. These fritters are prepared using flour and banana but are not at all on the sweet side. In fact they were bland to our taste and I would prefer some extra sugar added to the batter if I try them next time. They are very easy and quick to prepare and a nice way to use up those left over bananas lying on your counter. They are usually round shaped and can be made small or big depending upon one's choices. And of course bananas can be substituted with anchovies, prawns, onions or maize.

Ingredients: (Make about a dozen)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
2 tbsp coconut
1 tsp sugar
1 big sized banana (I had approximately 7 tbsp puree.)
Oil to fry

Method:
* Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
* Mash the banana finely in a bowl and stir in together flour mixture, sugar and coconut. Mix well to combine.

* Heat oil for deep frying in a pan.
* Drop big spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil.

* Fry them on low flame until they turn golden brown throughout.

* Drain them on absorbent towels and serve warm.

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