![\"Bottle](\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201128_165833-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt’s our old friend, Red Palm Oil! Ubiquitous in African cooking, this is a pretty large bottle, but it’s the smallest one they had. Well, DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eretria, and Eswatini (which we could, I suppose, file under “S”) are all coming up soon.<\/p>\n
So what about the other ingredient, the cassava leaves? Well, we’re making\u00a0Saka Saka,<\/em> which is a Congolese stew involving the leaves, mixed vegetables, and mackerel.\u00a0 There’s a number of recipes for this online, most of which are in French, and the one we’re using claims to be specifically local to Congo Brazza, so that’s good.\u00a0 It also has sort of vague quantities, and serves thirty.\u00a0 So that’s… well, let’s see how it goes.<\/p>\n First off, it calls for the leaves to be boiled for HOURS.\u00a0 Six hours the night before, and then on a low heat pretty much the entire day of.\u00a0 They look more or less like chopped spinach, and filled the apartment with a not at all unpleasant vegetal aroma.<\/p>\n Saturday, we headed over to Granville Market to acquire our remaining ingredients.\u00a0 Six frozen quail, some natural peanut butter, a lovely haul of vegetables…<\/p>\n …and this bad boy:<\/p>\n I meant to take a picture of the mackerel BEFORE I decapitated it, but, then I had the cleaver in my hand, and I just couldn’t control myself.\u00a0 It’s still pretty isn’t it?\u00a0 You cook the veggies in the leaves for about two hours, then put the whole fish on top to steam for fifteen minutes.\u00a0 (Or as much of the fish will fit in your pot.)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, what about the little birds?\u00a0 Well, those get marinated in ginger, garlic, onions, oil, and a red pepper.\u00a0 Except – reading the recipe more carefully, it’s clear that it was actually supposed to be a HOT pepper, not a red bell pepper, as Google translate rendered it.\u00a0 We didn’t have any of those, but we did have a Jalapeno, meaning that this marinade was a lot less colorful than it should have been.\u00a0 But we slathered it on the little fellas anyway.<\/p>\n It also turns out that although this recipe called for salt, it forgot to mention when to add it.\u00a0 If you make this recipe for yourself, the answer to that question is definitely “when you make the marinade” and not “never.”<\/p>\n It was a fair evening, if only about 40 degrees out, so we fired up the grill.\u00a0 (Since we’re in Canada now, I should probably be reporting temperatures in Celsius, or Kelvin, or Moose per furlong or something.)<\/p>\n At this point, we learned a valuable lesson on the topic of “Gas Grill Bypass Mode,” and how you don’t want your gas grill getting stuck in said mode.\u00a0 Turns out if you try to start it too fast in cold weather, a safety device kicks on and the grill only runs at 10% capacity.\u00a0 So that was fun.\u00a0 A little Googling to identify the source of the problem, and we had the grill up to a nice roaring temperature in no time.\u00a0 And look how purty these quail turned out!<\/p>\n And here’s a shot of the stew with some rice.<\/p>\n And… it was pretty good.\u00a0 Once we added a bit more salt to both the stew and the quail to make up for the recipes failing to specify a quantity, and failing to to add it at all, respectively, they were both quite flavorful.\u00a0 The addition of the fish definitely was a nice increase in complexity above some of the other “greens and peanut” stews we’ve had. And the quail were just yummy.<\/p>\n So – Republic of the Congo, you have tasty food.\u00a0 We’ll be back in the neighborhood in a bit to try your national dish from the other side of the river.\u00a0 Next up, Costa Rica, followed by either C\u00f4te D’Ivoire, (unless we put that under “I”), or Croatia!<\/p>\n Recipes: A project like this is all about tough decisions. For example: “Do we really want to drive halfway across Michigan for an obscure Brazilian Cheese?” (yes) “Do we want to make fermented Durian?” (Jesus Christ, no.) “Where does the Republic … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nAfter fifteen minutes, the meat just flakes right off the bones, and you get boneless fish you can mash into your stew with very little effort.\u00a0 It’s kind of a genius technique.\u00a0 You finish the stew with the peanut butter, palm oil, and probably more salt than we actually used.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSaka Saka (Congolese Cassava and Mackerel Stew)<\/a>
\nRoasted Quail in a Chili Ginger Marinade<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"