Benin

One of the great things about cooking the world is learning about different cultures and experiencing them.  Benin in West Africa for example is where voodoo originated.   Beninese cuisine is varied and flavourful.  I was lucky to get in touch with a person from Benin and learnt a very valuable lesson in cuisine and how what works in Benin...  only works in Benin.  I was excited to use a new ingredient too dried shrimps.

The Menu

Akra Funfun

With a name like this how could one not cook it.  It was a simple recipe that I found online and was shared by a Beninese person I met online.   Unfortunately Akra Funfun was not fun fun at all for me. Simple soak white beans overnight,  cook,  grind into a paste,  add onions, touch of cayenne,  shape and fry.  My new online contact said its that simple.  All was good until the frying part.  My first attempt at deep frying the fun fun ended up in a thousand mini crumbs...  Hmmm I thought they must be using some binder,  like egg, flour etc.  I checked online again and no binder.  Ok then I shall do a quick pan fry....  no go...  I then decided there was little salvage left and put the whole mixture into a non stick pan, fried and baked it.   Three pans later the results were not original but tasty.  My conclusion is the beans they must be using locally have a different structure and hold its shape compared to what I used.

Callaloo

When you think of Callaloo you think Caribbean cuisine.  But fact is that its origins are from Benin.  The secret ingredient was dried shrimp.   Various different meats can be used from beef, chicken or seafood when making Callaloo,  I used beef skirt steak.   The slow cooking for several hours completely hides the shrimp flavour and give this dish an Umami flavour that no one in the family could detect that shrimps were used.  This dish was a win,  and very delicious.  I served this with rice and want to be Akra Funfun which was not so bad after the fry bake it got.




Banana's with Orange glaze and Ice-cream

Brown sugar,  orange juice,  reduced to a thick syrup then add bananas and warm through.   Such a simple desert but so delicious when served warm over vanilla ice-cream.  I really wanted to flambe the bananas with Grand Marnier,  but resisted the urge this time.   This is such a simple dessert but yet so flavourful and nice.  My only regret was not making home made ice-cream.