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Stefan (who is shown cooking, left) is what I would term a 'natural cook'. Taught by her grandmother she has an almost instinctual knowlege of foods, ingredients and how to put them together into amazing dishes. In a culture where recipe books are unknown and recipes are handed down through families it's far more about a feeling for ingredients rather than cooking by rote. The first time I began to look at her cooking and to copy and write her techniques in my notebook (I always have a notebook on me for recipes, and bits of poetry) she thought I was weird. When I showed her a draft recipe that I'd copeid from here and redacted to standard recipe book format she thought it was even weirder. How could those instructions on a page begin to approach what she made in her pots?
These are all traditional recipes from my wife's culinary homeland, Liberia. Each one of these recipes has been demonstrated to me and I've prepared them all myself, at least once. Just one note. Liberia is the land of hot chilli peppers and just about every real Liberian recipe has lots and lots of chillies in them. Personally I really like hot chillies (and surprised the Liberians of Senegal by being able to eat a boiled Scotch Bonnet). Please note this and dial-back the chillies to your own taste!
In addition to hot peppers (chillies) the other two tastes characteristic of Liberia are ginger and cinnamon. Liberia grows cassia and dried, powdered, cassia bark is sold as cinnamon there (just as it often is in the USA). If you are interested in these recipes and would like to see my complete description of Liberian recipes (as well as learning a little about the country itself) then please visit my Liberia Recipes page.
The image shown here is a typical serving of Liberian 'Dry Rice and Fish', the recipe for which is given below. This is a typical West African communal dish where everyone simply dives in to a large tray served in the centre of the table.
Hot Pepper Sauce
Hot Pepper and Anchovy Sauce
Cabbage Soup with Spicy Meatballs
Cow Skin
Peanut Soup
Cassava Soup
Perch Benachin
Pepper Soup
Chicken Pepper Soup
Dry Rice
Dry Rice and Fish
FuFu
Dumboy
Beef and Cassava Leaf Soup
Meat and Potato Stew
Hot Chilli Paste
Steamed Crawfish
Cassava and Plantain Mash
Rice Flour FuFu
Okra Rice and Red-oil Fish
Potato and Plantain Hash
Stuffed Grilled Fish
Eggplant Soup
Palm Butter Soup
Greens with Green Pepper
Cassava Cake
Irish Cream
Stewed Mangoes with Cloves
Coconut Candy
Ginger Cookies
Stewed Mangoes with Cloves
Liberian Palm Nut Soup
Palm Soup Base
Peach Fool
Liberian Fruit Fool
Fried Sweet Potato Greens
Goat Soup
Lemongrass Tea
The following recipes have all been prepared by my wife. They either originate elewhere in West Africa or a version of this dish known from elsewhere in West Africa is more well known than the Liberian version. The majority of these recipes are Senegalese in origin (as that's where my wife currently resides) but soon I will be adding Guinean recipes here as well.
As a matter of interest, the image shown here is that of a finished Senegalese Cëebu Jen (chubby jen as it's pronounced) in the 'country style'. The posh feast version is slightly more elabourate but the basic look of the dish remains the same.
Stefan's Cëebu Jen
West African Fish Rub
Chilli Um'bido
Nyembwe Sauce
Crumbly Pap
West African Meat Kebabs
Bissap
Bissap Gin
West African Pizza
Stefan's West African Seasonings
Stefan's grandmother unfortunately passed away in August and her recipe books and notes came into my wife's hands. We've been busy pouring over them and the two recipes below represent the start of our attempts at re-creating some of the classic Liberian baking recipes in those volumes:
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Barbecuing, or cooking meat directly above a flame, is a very traditional cooking method and probably represents humanity's oldest cooking technique. There is nothing like a summer outdoor barbecue and here you will find recipes for a classic kebab and sticky ribs both designed to make the most out of barbecuing.
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Here is a simple step-by-step guide to letting you get the most from your cake baking. This article takes you through some of the history, science and practicalities of cake making so you will know not only what to do, but why your should do it. Armed with this information you can turn out perfect light and creamy cakes time after time...
A crockpot (also known as a slow cooker) can be an excellent means of cooking proper meals slowly for a long time. It allows you to make the most of poor cuts of meat and lets you cook your food over night or slowly throughout the day whilst you are at work. There are lots of recipes for crockpot meals on the internet, but you can adjuist pretty much any recipe for a stew or braising dish to the crockpot. This article shows you how to do this using a classic Turkish lamb and onion stew as an example.
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