Recipes: African Food Special

With December less than a month away, it’s only a matter of time before we will be stuffing our faces with turkey, ham, Brussels sprouts, mince pies and all the other traditional fodder Christmas has to offer.

In the meantime, I fancy something different so over the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on African food.  This amazing continent, with it’s diversity of flavours and amalgam of influences, offers up the most incredible cuisines.  With hearty dishes in mind, I will be including recipes from Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt and Gambia amongst others.

I figure, following my experimental November, when I see that homely turkey leg and those predictable sprouts nestled together on the plate – it will be an especially warm and fuzzy Christmas dinner.

First up is Moroccan food. One of the more popular African cuisines; the dishes are exotic yet straight forward to make and one of my favourites. Although, there are a lot of savory dishes that incorporate fruit, if you’re like me who hates that combination, there are many other options.

Tagine of Monkfish – Serves four

This fish is marinated in Chermoula, which is a lemony garlic and coriander paste. It is also traditionally cooked in a tagine but don’t worry if you don’t have one, you can use a pan with a tight fitting lid. Although, I did pick up a nifty tagine in TK-Max recently for €9.99 and it works a treat.

Ingredients:

• 900g monkfish, cut into chunks
• 15 small new potatoes, peeled
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 20 cherry tomatoes
• 2 green peppers, grilled until black, skinned and cut into strips
• Large handful Kalamata olives or black olives
• ½ cup water
• Salt and pepper

For the Chermoula

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• Juice 1 lemon
• Small bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:

1. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic with the salt to make a smooth paste. Add the cumin, paprika, lemon juice and coriander and gradually add the oil.
2. Reserve a little chermoula for cooking, then rub the rest of the paste over the monkfish. Cover and leave to marinade for an hour.
3. Par-boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes. Drain and cut in half. Heat the olive oil in a pan and stir in the garlic. When the garlic begins to colour, add the tomatoes and cook until just softened.
4. Add the peppers to the tomatoes and garlic, together with the reserved chermoula and season to taste.
5. Spread the potatoes over the base of the tagine or pan and spoon three-quarters of the tomato and pepper mixture over and place the marinated fish chunks on top, with their marinade.
6. Spoon the remaining tomato and pepper mixture on top of the fish and add the olives. Drizzle a little olive oil over the dish and add the water.
7. Heat until simmering, cover the tagine or pan with a lid and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the fish is cooked though.

I’ll be back later this week with some more tempting Moroccan dishes.