African recipe suggestions

[Clevs]

I’m looking for tried & tested recipes of African meals that I can cook with my 8 year old as part of a project on Africa with school.

I have a couple of ideas found on an internet search but was just wondering if there were any specific recipes that you like, work well and don’t have too many obscure ingredients.

How African?

lots of books on Moroccan cookery and a tagine is pretty easy.

if you want sub Saharan African Jollof rice is pretty good.

Unfortnately, "African" recipes is way too vague. You'll be getting everything from Bobotie in South Africa to Koshari in Egypt. Can you be more specific?

South Africa have a thing called Bunny chow which is meat and veg curry/stew served in a hollowed out roll. There's lots of different versions of it I think. But if it's curry I'm guessing it's easy enough to make. You could teach her how to make the bread as well?

How about chipsi mayai? Swahili Food Recipe: The Famous Chips Mayai (Fries & Eggs) - UnitedRepublicofTanzania.com

@MageKing I agree, though I wouldn't put it past a UK primary school to use 'Africa' as a topic.

The bread was, typically, what we called "government bread". this was bread mass produced and fortified and available at cheap prices in every shop. I'm not 100% certain, but I'd guess that it was also a way to use up slightly older/staler bread as the juices from the curry would soak into it, removing the taste and sensation of stale bread, and all benefiting from a solid crust that wouldn't soak through in five minutes. So you could make your own, of course, but I'm not sure that would be very authentic.

South African traditional food, whether from white (Afrikaans) people, "coloureds" (what would be mixed race in other countries but with a unique culture and identify as a result of a long history in SA), black or Indian all tend to less hot/spicey. Even our curries are (mostly) on the milder side .As I understand it, countries further north would be a lot hotter and use a lot more chilli/heat.

And then even further north you'll start getting a lot of mediterranean influences.

Sigh.

I do quite feel like a Durban curry now.

I do feel you’ve phrased this badly, @Clevs.

Which part of Africa? North, South, West, East? Muslim, Christian, something else? Do you want the type of food an eight year old might eat for lunch on a school day? Or from a banquet in a luxury hotel?

What would you expect if the topic were ‘European food’?

I’d expect there to be a variety of different options provided ranging from coq au vin to schnitzel, like this school probably does. Talk about overthinking it. Not everything is problematic.

I would personally do a lovely peanut stew I’ve cooked before OP. Lots of recipes online for similar, unfortunately I don’t have it to hand. As pp suggested, North African cuisine is easy to get the ingredients for - think tagine and couscous.

Honestly, that's such rubbish. If you produced a coq au vin and said this is "European" food, you'd be looked at oddly.

And of course, you could be asked to produce food that's European, make your coq au vin and say, "here's a classic French dish...." but the point is that you simply wouldn't be asked in the first place and Africa is a lot bigger and more diverse than Europe.

So yes, of course OP and her daughter can make a bunny chow and explain to the class it's a classic South African curry served in bread that had its roots in Apartheid. I imagine the history, and story behind that, is very different to the story of a Nigerial Jollof. But the point is that it's a generic question that doesn't give a lot of directio.

But if you responded to a “please bring a food from Europe” ie to celebrate Eurovision or similar, you would just bring a food from Europe like a coq au bin without overthinking it. OP just needs some recipes from the continent of Africa to choose the one she wants to make with her DC, it isn’t a value judgment on “diversity”.

Thank you. That's interesting to hear the history of it. I've not actually tried it myself but keep meaning to do a recipe. I heard they were quite mild generally.

I guess you could use a slightly stale supermarket loaf. But the low quality/ long life bread here always seems to be sliced so no use!

And yes the history is interesting and can form part of the presentation.

I have subsequently researched it and yes, while government bread was/is used regularly, it originally started as a convenient way to serve hot food from a restaurant to labourers who were banned by apartheid from ordering in restaurants. I guess the South African equivalent of an encased pie like a cornish pasty? Apparently any sort of soft white bread, with a strong crust, will work!

Bobotie Recipe | Good Food

I'm pretty certain that if you were asked to bring a food from Europe for Eurovision, you would identify a specific European country in Eurovision, and bring food from there. If France was not in Eurovision, you wouldn't bring the coq au vin.

And no, it's not a value judgement (although i don't know why diversity is in inverted commas? it's an actual word, not something made up and your use of inverted commas does make me slightly concerned abou t how you feel about diversity) but it is extremely irritating, and possibly offensive, to lump Africa in as one homogoneous area. It's not. I coudl no more fit into a Nigerian household seamlessly than a person from Kenya would fit into an Egyptian one.

Ful medames recipe | Good Food

Futali is simple to make. Just cubed sweet potato, water and ground nut powder needed. Simple boil the potatoes, around 15 mins in add the nut power, let it simmer and stir. Maybe people eat it for breakfast.

Mbatata cookies are simple and easy to bake. That’s just sweet potato, brown sugar, raisins (and cinnamon if wanted).

Thanks, that's interesting. I think that rings a bell from when I was reading about it. It sounds really tasty!

Jollof rice! 🇳🇬 Veggie and vegan friendly.

I'd steer clear of groundnut stew - I doubt the school will allow you to bring in nut-based dishes.

Oh yes! Very good point about the nuts.

Again, I disagree that coq au vin isn’t a valid interpretation of bringing a “European dish”. But it’s a derail and I won’t be participating in it further.

Okay. great. I hope you will consider not using "African" as a general word to describe people or places across an entire continent in the future. I also look forward to your "European coq au vin" at an event that's not french.

So as not to "derail" (see what i did there?) the thread further, I look forward to more details from OP on what is needed/expected so that people can advise on appropriate meals.