Monday, April 1, 2019

Reading and Eating our way through West Africa

We found so many books in our library about countries in West Africa!  If Katherine gets really quiet, I can usually find her in the book nook reading through the many picture books we checked out.  The other place I can often find her is in the kitchen creating.  I like getting to be her sous chef!  Tonight, she made African Onion Sauce for supper, and it was delicious.


I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakite
A Story, A Story by Gail E. Haley (this book won the Caldecott Award)
The Water Princess by Susan Verde
The Name of the Tree: A Bantu Folktale retold by Celia Barker Lottridge
The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale retold by Phillis Gershator
The Magic Gourd by Baba Wague Diakite
Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile by Won-Ldy Paye &  Margaret H. Lippert
My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel
The Spider Weaver: A Legend of Kente Cloth by Margaret Musgrove
Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott (another Caldecott winner)


Aunt Kadja's Djaba Dji (African Onion Sauce)

Peanut oil for sautéing onions and meat
1 cut up chicken, or stew beef (optional)
6-10 medium onions, sliced
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tsp. dried onion
1 tsp. curry
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh gingerroot, grated
3 tbsp. tomato paste
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into 2 pieces
5 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 medium eggplant, cut into 8 pieces
1 cup green beans
3 medium carrots, halved
1 cup of the tiniest noodles you can find
4 cups uncooked rice


Heat oil.  Sauté meat (if you are using meat) then, onions.  Crush garlic in a garlic press, then add along with dried onion, curry, salt, and pepper.  Add grated ginger, tomato paste,, and stir.  Reduce flame and close lid for 3-10 minutes, until meat and onions are covered with a thick paste.  Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of water, add potatoes, and bring to a boil.  Turn down heat and simmer with the lid off for at least 5-10 minutes, mixing from time to time.  Then add vegetables and uncooked noodles and simmer 15-20 minutes, until the vegetables have softened.  Taste and add salt, if needed.  Pour over cooked long grain rice.  This will taste even better the second day!  Feeds a family of 6,

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