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books2022-03-27 02:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in books2022-03-27 02:11 pm
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Zoe's Ghana Kitchen
In January, I set a goal to read four new cookbooks this year. The fourth is Zoe's Ghana Kitchen by Zoe Adjonyoh, which I just finished the other day. We found a recommendation for several African cookbooks in one of our cooking magazines, and this is one of the two we bought to try. I have also written about In Bibi's Kitchen over in book_love.
This book has a large amount of front matter that includes an introduction and an extensive guide to ingredients: spices, pulses, flavorings, fruits, and vegetables. There are 5 suggestions each for two major items, yams and plantains. So if you want a guide to the components of African cooking, this part is very useful even if you choose to combine them in different ways. I was intrigued to see multiple items that I had never even heard of and am now curious to try, along with some favorites like dried shrimp/crayfish. (They're all shrimp, but "shrimp" usually means saltwater species and "crayfish" means freshwater.) This part was really fun and interesting to read.
Recipes are divided into salads, seafood, vegetables, meat, side dishes, desserts, drinks and snacks, and dips. The "cheat sheets" section is actually where you'll find recipes for spice blends. The recipes range from simple to more complex. If you love spicy-hot food, then you'll probably find a lot of exciting things to try. Many of the recipes layer multiple sources of heat including hot spices and hot peppers. If that's not your thing, the desserts and beverages are less volcanic -- there's a very nice recipe for sorrel, one of the original "red drink" versions from Africa made with hibiscus. I also spotted a recipe for plaintain bread that's similar to banana bread.
The "Features" scattered through the book include two soundtracks of Ghanaian music (one for cooking, one for eating), four parts of the author's Ghana adventures and cultural perspective, a Ghana-Irish crossover, and some ideas for making the superfood moringa more palatable. So if you like cookbooks that set the cultural context of the food, or you're seeking the personal aspects of African cuisine, then this part will probably appeal to you.
Recommended, though this book won't appeal to everyone, and will appeal to people for different reasons.
(Suggested tag: non-fiction: cookbook.)
book_love.This book has a large amount of front matter that includes an introduction and an extensive guide to ingredients: spices, pulses, flavorings, fruits, and vegetables. There are 5 suggestions each for two major items, yams and plantains. So if you want a guide to the components of African cooking, this part is very useful even if you choose to combine them in different ways. I was intrigued to see multiple items that I had never even heard of and am now curious to try, along with some favorites like dried shrimp/crayfish. (They're all shrimp, but "shrimp" usually means saltwater species and "crayfish" means freshwater.) This part was really fun and interesting to read.
Recipes are divided into salads, seafood, vegetables, meat, side dishes, desserts, drinks and snacks, and dips. The "cheat sheets" section is actually where you'll find recipes for spice blends. The recipes range from simple to more complex. If you love spicy-hot food, then you'll probably find a lot of exciting things to try. Many of the recipes layer multiple sources of heat including hot spices and hot peppers. If that's not your thing, the desserts and beverages are less volcanic -- there's a very nice recipe for sorrel, one of the original "red drink" versions from Africa made with hibiscus. I also spotted a recipe for plaintain bread that's similar to banana bread.
The "Features" scattered through the book include two soundtracks of Ghanaian music (one for cooking, one for eating), four parts of the author's Ghana adventures and cultural perspective, a Ghana-Irish crossover, and some ideas for making the superfood moringa more palatable. So if you like cookbooks that set the cultural context of the food, or you're seeking the personal aspects of African cuisine, then this part will probably appeal to you.
Recommended, though this book won't appeal to everyone, and will appeal to people for different reasons.
(Suggested tag: non-fiction: cookbook.)
no subject
Yes ...
Then of course, Africa has a lot of edibles that just aren't grown anywhere else. So do Central and South America, and Southeast Asia. If possible, look for imported ingredients from Africa. There's a little Africa grocery store not far from us, which is where I've found things like dried crayfish and honey beans. We looked up African recipes and found a great one for Adalu.
On the other hoof, even if you can't get the exact ingredients, looking at an ethnic recipe can inspire you to make something similar. There's a wonderful line from The Hundred-Foot Journey: "We have to adapt. We have to use what is close to us ... and then pray to God that it works!" That right there is the history of human cuisine.
If you look at soul food, it's all about adapting African traditions to whatever people could get in America, which is why sweet potatoes came to be called yams. They're not yams, but they're the closest people could get, and they do work similarly in a lot of recipes -- especially if you're inspired by yellow yams (sweeter) rather than white yams (starchier).