Elite life
Ivory Coast (Ivoarian Recipes)
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
3 lrg Very ripe plantains
2 tsp Chillie sambal, fresh
1 cup Rice flour
60 ml Corn oil
2 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Cooking Instructions:
Peel the plantains, cut them into small chunks & put into a large deep mixing bowel. Mash into a thick paste with your fingers or an electric clender. If using a blender, you may need to add 30-60 ml of water for smoother blending. Add the chilli sambal, rice flour, salt and mix well. Gently heat the corn oil in a frying pan and add the turmeric. Stir well, remove from the heat and blend into the plantain mixture which should be thinck yet soft enough to pour. If it is too soft, add small amounts of rice flour or if too stiff, add small amounts of water until it reached th described consistency. Grease a loaf tin, and pour plantain mixture into it. Bake in teh overn on medium to low heat at 150-180C for 1 hr. or until cooked and firm. When cooked, remove from the overn and allow to stand for approximately 5-10 mins before turning it out on a wire rack. Slice and serve with salted peanuts or as an accompaniment to spicy dishes.
Ingredients:
1 large guinea fowl
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Dash of orange extract mixed with a dash of orange oil
Salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
Chicken stock, optional
6 cloves garlic
2-1/4 cups apple juice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Orange slices, for garnish
Pineapple slices, for garnish
Cooking Instructions:
Season the guinea fowl inside and out with the salt and garlic cloves, leaving some cloves inside the fowl and some embedded in the skin. Put the bird in a large pan. Combine the fruit juices and pepper and pour the mixture over the fowl. Cover and simmer gently for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, turning from time to time. You may need to add more apple juice or some chicken stock to prevent burning and ensure there is enough fluid to cook the fowl fully. Preheat the oven to 450 F/240 C. When the fowl is cooked, remove it from the juices and brush it all over with a mixture of the vegetable oil and the orange essence and oil. Place the fowl in a roasting pan and brown it quickly in the oven. When brown, remove and cool. Carve the fowl, garnish it with pineapple and orange slices and serve with a green salad.
Thermidor
Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 green onions, minced
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh red chiles, minced
1 tomato, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup dried shrimp, ground to a powder
1-1/2 pounds (750 g) cooked crabmeat
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 to 12 empty crab shells
1/2 cup ablemamu
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish
Cooking Instructions:
Prehat the oven to 425 F/220 C. In a medium pan, heat the oil and saute the green onions, bell pepper, ginger, garlic, chiles, and tomato for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomato paste and shrimp powder. Mix well and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Add the crabmeat and stir well. Taste the mixture and, if necessary, season with salt and pepper. Be careful; shrimp powder can be very salty. Fill each crab shell with the mixture, then sprinkle the top of each shell with the ablemamu. Bake for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tops brown a little, but be careful not to brun them. Serve hot, straight out of the oven, garnished with cilanto and pinch of black pepper.
Ingredients:
3 papayas
2 grapefruit
1/2 tin pineapple, or 1/4 fresh pineapple
2 avocados
3 fillets whiting
6 langoustines or Dublin Bay prawns
Mayonnaise
Tabasco sauce
1 lemon
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare prawns, by removing shells, heads and tails and picking out spinal cord (dark thread running along top of back) with the tip of a knife. Boil for 5 minutes in salt water. Leave to cool thoroughly in water, then remove.
Put fish fillets in same water, as soon as water starts to boil, turn heat down. Leave to poach for 5 to 7 minutes. Strain, cut into small pieces.
Peel avocados, cut flesh into cubes, sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown and put to one side. Peel grapefruit with a stainless steel knife, then separate segments. Squeeze or juice one half of a grapefruit and any flesh or pith left over. Cut pineapple into small pieces. Cut papayas in half lengthways, remove seeds. Remove flesh with a teaspoon, leaving about 1cm on skin. Arrange all ingredients in papaya halves, top with a prawns tail to decorate.
Mix mayonnaise and tabasco with grapefruit juice to taste, drizzle over papaya halves. Chill for 15 minutes before serving, with rest of sauce in a small jug.
Ingredients:
1 pound (500 g) smoked herring or mackerel
Salt
3 tablspoons peeled and finely grated ginger
1/2 cup vegetable or peanut oil
2 yellow onions, minced
4 ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and pureed
1 tablespoon tomato paste blened with 1/4 cup water
2 fresh red chiles, minced
1/2 pound (250 g) green beans, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups gari
Cooking Instructions:
Season the fish with salt and ginger. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, and saute the fish until crisp and brown. Remove from the oil, drain, set aside, and keep hot. In the remaining hot oil, add the onions and saute until they are almost brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chiles, green beans, and garlic salt. Return the fish to the pan, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Put the gari in a bowl and add enough lightly salted cold water just to corer it completey. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until the gari absorbs the liquid and swells. Fluff the gari with a fork. Accompany each serving of fried fish with some of the vegetables and gari.
Ingredients:
4 very large, ripe mangoes, peeled
1/4 cup Cointreau, Triple Sec, or other orange liqueur
2 cups heavy cream, amount optional
Mint sprigs, for garnish
Fresh fruit or glace fruit, for garnish, optional
Cooking Instructions:
Extract all the mango flesh, including that from the skins and the central seed. Put the flesh in a blender with the Cointreau and cream and blend for 30 to 45 seconds. Pour into either a large serving bowl or individual dessert glasses. Chill until it sets. Before serving, decorate as desired with sprigs of fresh mint and fresh fruit.
Ingredients:
2 giant crabs, cooked whole in salted water, drained, and cut in half
1/2 cup cold water
2 pounds (1 kg) lean lamb shanks or chops, or shoulder of beef, cut into chunks
1 salted pig's foot, jointed and cleaned, optional
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 large yellow onions, minced
3 large tomatoes, blanched peeled, and pureed
1-1/2 pounds (750 g) palmnut pulp
1 cup boiling water
2 to 3 fresh red chile peppers, ground, or 2 whole habanero chiles, optional
4 large mushrooms, cleaned
2 pounds (1 kg) fish fillets or cutlets, smoked, grilled, deep-fried or sundried
Potato dumplings
Cooking Instructions:
Remove the stomach flaps on the underside of the crabs and then cut them in half, from top to bottom. Place the water, the meat, and the pig's foot in a very large, heavy-based pan (not a crackpot, becuase the initial cooking process requires fairly high heat, which a crockpot does not provide). Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the onions and cook "dry" on high heat, stirring continuously, until the outside of the meat is sealed and browned on all sides. Add the tomatoes, reduce heat, and continue to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the palmnut pulp with the boiling water, beating with a wooden spoon to form a creamy, smooth consistency. Add this to the meat mixture, as well as the ground chiles, mushrooms, and crabs. Simmer on medium heat for 40 minutes to 1 hour, stirring only occasionally to keep food from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Prepare your choice of fish by removing any residual bones. Add the fish to the soup, either whole or in chunks, during the last 20 minutes of cooking to prevent the fish from breaking up too much and becoming mushy. Once you add all the ingredients, continue to simmer slowly until the meat is tender. Serve hot with the dumplings.
Ingredients:
3 large, very ripe plantains
2 teaspoons Fresh Chile Sambal
1 cup rice flour
Salt
1/4 cup corn oil
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 cup salted peanuts, as accompaniment, optional
Cooking Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Peel the plantains, cut them into small chunks, and put in a large, deep mixing bowl. Mash into a thick paste with your fingers or an electric blender. If you use a blender, you may need to add 2 to 4 tablespoons water for smoother blending. Add the sambal, rice flour, and salt and mix well. Gently heat the corn oil in a small skillet and add the turmeric. Stir well, remove from the heat, and blend it into the plantain mixture, which should be thick yet soft enough to pour. If it is too soft, add small amounts of rice flour (a tablespoon at a time); if too stiff, add small amounts of water. Grease a standard loaf pan, and pour the plantain mixture into it. Bake for 1 hour, or until cooked and firm. Remove from the oven and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before turning it out on a wire rack. Slice and serve with salted peanuts or as an accompaniment to other dishes.
Ingredients:
2 cups cold water
1 cup (1/2 pound/250 g) long-grain white rice
1 pound (500 g) cooked liver or other variety meats or meat, minced
1 yellow or red onion, minced
1 egg
1 teaspoon garlic powder, or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
2 cups whole-wheat bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
1 cup vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Cooking Instructions:
In a pan, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice and stir. Cook over low heat, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the water is absorbed. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes, then remove the lid. Once the rice has cooled, combine in a large bowl with the meat, onin, egg, garlic powder, garlic salt, and pepper. Mix well. Form into small balls (the size of Ping-Pong balls). Roll each ball in the bread crumbs and then the egg-and-milk mixture. Heat the oil in a small skillet and, when it is hot, fry the balls until they are cooked inside and golden on the outside (check the first one cooked). Drain and serve.
Ingredients:
4 chicken pieces, rinsed and patted dry
6 lage shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails intact
2 teaspoons garlic salt and 2 teaspoons sweet paprika, mixed together
1/2 cup peanut oil
2 yellow onions, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon saffron powder
3/4 teaspoon saffron powder
3/4 cup long-grain white rice
4 to 6 cups chicken stock or equal quantities sweet white wine and chicken stock
Parsley sprigs, for garnish
Butter, for garnish
4 romaine lettuce leaves
Cooking Instructions:
Season the chicken and shrimp with garlic salt and paprika, and let sit for 2 to 4 hours in the refrigerator. In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the chicken and shrimp. Remove the shrimp when they turn pink and the chicken when it is browned on all sides. Set both aside. Add the onions and garlic to the same oil, and saute until the onions start to brown; then stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, chiles, cinnamon, nutmeg, and saffron. Simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat, then add the chicken, rice, and 2 cups of the chicken stock. Taste and season. Cover the skillet and simmer on low heat, stirring periodically to avoid sticking or burning. Add the remaining stock as necessary until the rice is soft and the meat is cooked and moist. (This dish is not meant to be dry.) When cooked, transfer to individual bowls, and garnish each portion with parsley and a small amount of butter, and the shrimp. Serve hot with a lettuce leaf covering each serving.
Ingredients:
8 to 10 chicken drumsticks
Vegetable oil for frying
Corn flour, for dredging
Chicken Seasoning:
1 tablespoon peeld and finely grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon garlic salt
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Stew:
2/3 cup oil from frying chicken
3 large yellow or red onions, minced
8 green onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced
3 to 4 hot chiles, seeded and minced
4 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and pureed or 1 13-ounce (410 g) can Italian peeled tomatoes, undrained and pureed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 pound (125g) button mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons fresh or frozen corn
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro, for garnish
6 cups hot cooked long-grain rice or couscous, as accompaniment
Lettuce leaves, for garnish
1 or 2 tomatoes, sliced, for garnish
Cooking Instructions:
Rinse and dry the chicken pieces. Mix the seasoning ingredients and combine them with the chicken drumsticks. Toss well so each piece of chicken is well coated. Cover and set aside in a cool place for about 4 hours or, preferably, overnight in a refrigerator. Heat vegetable oil for frying in a large, heavy-based, nonstick, deep skillet. Dredge each seasoned drumstick in cornstarch and fry in the hot oil to seal and quickly brown the outside (about 3 to 4 minutes each). Turn chicken to ensure even browning. When it is golden brown, remove the chicken from the oil and drain on paper towels. Repeat the process with all the chicken pieces. Cover and set aside.
