A Spoonful of African Flavors

Food can be boring if there aren’t enough spices enhancing the dish but when you have crisp fresh produce without a doubt you’re better off slacking on the heavy pungent herb blends. This was the first time I ate fresh okra and fresh black eyed peas that I shelled. I shelled black eyed peas. As weird as this sounds to some, it was an incredible experience. Now to only go from growing to harvesting to cleaning and finally cooking - I can’t wait! Virginia is amazing in my eyes. One woman Phil and I encountered at a gluten free store (yes there is a store that carries GF stuff alone!) said she hated it here because it was so different from DC, her home. I stared at her, dumbstruck, but still pulled on my smile. How can you hate it here? She really loathed the serenity and lack of air pollution? That’s something I will never comprehend.

The GF store, EarthMunchies, is okay. They have the basic ‘specialty’ items that GF individuals would use like marshmallow crème, frosting, cereals, etc. She said that the granola was gluten free but it obviously had oats in it. For some, it may be gluten free but it wasn’t 100%. There were additional silent gripes I held towards the store but I’m not going to be bothered by it; it’s way too expensive anyway. I’ll stick to Kroger, which has a HUGE supply of GF stuff for less money, and the farmer’s market.

Everything I bought nearly went into this recipe - Riz Seneglais or Senegal Rice. It’s considered a less elaborate version of Ceebu Jen, it’s cousin, which consists of stuffing a whole fish with vegetables, stewing it I believe, then removing it from the pan then cooking the vegetables in the pan, adding rice and then reintroduce the fish into the dish and let it cook further. I took the concept of Riz Seneglais except I omitted the rice. So, basically, I made African rice pilaf. It’s very plain, nothing fancy since it hails from Eastern Africa. It’s western that usually deals with the groundnut and coconut milk. I’m sure you can use coconut milk in this recipe as well. I just didn’t feel like it since my stomach was a wreck since I drank mall coffee. Yes, I know; it was stupid - very stupid.

And it was good as usual. D tasted some as well and thought it was fantastic but I had already made him and J spaghetti with chicken and homemade tomato sauce~

Pilaf Seneglais
½ small onion, chopped coarsely
¼ cup cooked black eyed peas, fresh or frozen
½ red bell pepper, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 medium-small yam or potato, diced into ½ inch cubes
1 small eggplant, diced into ½ inch cubes
2 small tomatoes, chopped (or use ½ cup canned diced)
1 small yellow zucchini, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped into ½ inch pieces
7 whole okra pods, cleaned and chopped into 3rds
1 small ear of corn shaved, or 1/3 cup kernels

¼ cup rice, cooked
1 ½ cups water

Salt
Pepper
Crushed pepper flakes
Garlic

In a large pot, spray with nonstick cooking spray and sauté the onions and peppers until just soft. Add the eggplant, yam, and black-eyed peas with 1 cup water. Bring this to a boil and let it cook for fifteen to twenty minutes or until the yam is penetrable and the eggplant is mostly cooked. Add the tomatoes and the okra with garlic flakes and salt. Stir, cover, and cook about ten minutes.

At this point add the corn, carrots, and zucchini and cook for an additional minutes without the cover. Re-season with salt, pepper flakes, and pepper then finally stir in the rice. Cover and let sit for ten minutes then serve.