Hello June

So my lovely husband came home bearing gifts for me on  recent trip away.  He brought me African Coconut Chin Chin which are West African crunchy pastry snacks that originated in Nigeria.  Next to it is a rather large tin of Ghanian Palm Nut Soup with Herbs known as Abemudro .   If any one has had it before, please let me know, otherwise I will wait until I eat it. 

I know there is so much controversy around Palm oil, but have been told that Carotino Palm Oil is a good one to purchase; and isn't good that he came back with it.  I am looking forward to making a Ghanian Black Eyed Bean dish called Red Red again, when I made it a few years back, I never too a picture of it and therefore did not get round to sharing it.  I need to find that recipe first!   

Next we have is a box of Instant Plantain Fufu. I am guessing its like instant mash, which is not something I eat at all, but it will be interesting to try this Plantain Fufu.  I've had Plantain chips before and they have also featured on my blog in the past, so some of you will know that I am quite partial to them, they also make a nice change from potato chips or crisps.

Talking about crisps, we have Tyrrell's Vegetable Crips: parsnips, beetroot and carrot.  I do like these, but when you open the bag, the crisps are really shrivelled!

In our efforts to reduce plastic, we are trying to buy our oils in glass bottles, but its not that easy as most are in plastic bottles.  We did however find some extra virgin olive oil in a canister tin that will be decanted into a glass bottle at home.

Someone else other than my husband likes me, as I was gifted a bag full of presents from Greece including Sesame Pistachio Halva, Greek Delight and some Greek ingredients from my nephew.  It was very thoughtful .  Bless You and Thank you.  I will be tucking into these sooner than  you think.  

I also have some herbal and fruity Teapigs tea bags: Lemon and Ginger and Super Fruit.  I don't usually buy this product as its expensive for me, but as it was more than half price so how could I not. 

While D was away, I bought some blueberries from M&S and enjoyed  most of the with Greek Yogurt and a drizzle of runny honey.  It was good, though I must admit I am looking forward to homegrown blueberries.

Finally, we were both tempted by this Scottish Tablet Dairy Ice-Cream, hoping it would transport us back to our times in Scotland.  It was okay as an ice-cream, but tasted nothing like it promised, so that disappointed a tad.

For those of you who may have missed my In My Kitchen blog post from last month, for those of you who may have missed it, but today I am sharing this blog post with Sherry's Picking for the In My Kitchen series.  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by the 13th of the month.  

Savoury Purple Rainbow Carrot Rice Pilau

I have more autumnal coloured food coming your way, but here is one that you may want to consider making for your grown up Halloween Party.  I made this Carrot Rice Pilau with some rainbow carrots.  I was quite surprised how the purple carrots bled into the white basmati rice and tainted it with a purple hue.  It actually looked quite pretty and quite nice to eat.  

As I had some left over, I decided to take some into work for lunch as a savoury rice salad dish.  You could reheat it in the microwave or eat it at room temperature. So I have decided to share it with Soup, Salad and Sammies Sundays hosted by Deb over at Kahakai Kitchen. 

By the way this is not the traditional way of making pilau rice that comes from the Indian Sub Continent, but it was still very flavourful.  I adapted a recipe that was also adapted by the cookbook authors.  

Other Rainbow Coloured Vegan Recipes 

Savoury Chestnut, Rainbow Carrot and Lentil Cake

Rainbow Carrots, Puy Lentil and Barley Salad

Rainbow Chard Bundles

Harissa Rainbow Carrots with Maftoul

Mosaic Carrot Pie

Rainbow Bell Pepper Spaghetti

Rainbow Vegetables with Soba Noodles

Simple Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Salad

Somalian Shahan Ful (Fava Beans in Xawash Tomato Sauce)

Refugee Week is a continuation of World Refugee Day and marks a collective acknowledgement across the world to raise awareness  of the plight of refugees and asylum seekers across the world.   

The theme for Refugee Week for 2016 is Welcome.  As my blog is a vegetarian food blog my Simple Act is to Cook A Dish from Another Country and try and raise some awareness that way among some colleagues and some of my readers.

Today I will share a vegetarian Somalian dish, that also happens to be vegan.  It is Shahan Faul, Ful Sahan.  This is a bean dish that is also very common in Eritrea, Ethiopian and Sudan.  But before I share the recipe, you may be interested to know that Somali's have been in the U.K for over a century, arriving here as merchant seamen and settling in port cities like Bristol, Liverpool and Cardiff.  However, it was in the 1990s following famine and further conflict in the region in 2011 that many Somalis began to arrive in the UK after being granted with a refugee status.  

A refugee is "a person who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of 'race', religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it" 

The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. 

So back to the recipe...when I originally asked a Somalian colleague in my workplace could he give or suggest to me a vegetarian recipe that I could cook at home and he immediately put his hand to his mouth and tried to contain the roar in his laughter - we are big meat eaters.  

This is true, Somali cuisine is meat orientated.  Vegetarianism is quite rare.  Vegetables appear to largely be side dishes, or a combination of meat and vegetables.  By the way, you may be interested to know that in Somalia pasta features quite a bit a part of their cuisine. This arrived with the Italians n the 1880s and sweet dishes came with the Arabs.

Anyway, after musing at my question he mentioned this fava bean dish and here it is a bronze gold bowl of loveliness.  Ful Sahan is often served with anjara, injera bread or Sabaayad which is made with a sourdough starter, but we had it with chewy brown rice.  The slow cooking of the sauce intensified the flavour and made the beans soft inside, but still retaining its wholesome shape.  I totally loved it and could have just easily eaten this from a bowl.  I am sharing this with My Legume Love Affair #96 hosted by Lisa's Kitchen;  and No Croutons Required.

African Aubergine Coconut Cassoulet

There are no fiery or smoky chillies in this African Aubergine Coconut Cassoulet , but it is immensely flavourful.  

The recipe for African Cassoulet is originally made with Boerewors which are South African sausages, I liked the sound of the flavour's in the rich ochre coloured sauce, so decided to make a vegetarian version which also happens to be suitable for vegans.  In place of the Boerewors I sliced some aubergines length ways in a manner to mimic the look of the Boerewors.   

Vegan Vegetarian Jollof Rice

Early in the week, whilst I was doing some research for work (honestly I was), I stumbled on The Best Jollof Rice Competition held in Brixton, London today.  It the UKs first ever Jollof competition, in past there have been Best Rum Cake. Its hosted by The Afrikan Family Works. I  love these grassroots community spirited competitions.  I thought I would compete virtually with my vegan Jollof variation, but I sincerely wish the hosts and the participants the best and hope the event is a success.  

For those of you unfamiliar with Jollof.  Jollof rice or Benachin which means 'one pot' originates in Senegal.  Jollof is eaten all across West Africa and has recently become appreciated alongside the South Indian Pilaf and the Spanish Paella.

So here it is my vegan Jollof  rice.  I added peppers, okra and chickpeas to the Jollof rice only because I didn't have an accompaniment with it.  I am no expert at making Jollof, in fact this is my first time and I adapted and combined two different recipes, so I hope my blog readers of African descent will approve, or point me in the right direction, just please don't be mean.  

As a person of South Asian heritage who has seen so many much loved curry and dal recipes completely changed that they are no longer recognisable as curries or dals, I completely understand the reaction to this version of Jollof and I would agree we should not allow that version to become the official one just because it rates high in page rankings due to its celebrity association; and should respect it origins and roots.  Just think about it.  

The recipe will feed up to six greedy  people for sure, so we have eaten some today and will reheat tomorrow for our evening supper and some to spare.  Although I have written two Scotch Bonnets in the recipe instructions, I should be honest and point out that there is only one whole Scotch Bonnet in this pot, you can keep the seeds in it if you wish, but I won't begrudge you if you do wish to remove them.  

African Sweet Potato, Kidney Bean Groundnut Curry

I make this African Sweet Potato, Kidney Bean Groundnut Curry every so often.  The sauce is both sweet and spicy, thickened by the groundnuts. Sometimes I will make this African Curry with butternut squash, or throw in a bag of baby spinach to bulk it up when cooking for other people.   Its very popular with friends and acquaintances, except for one....

A vegan Ponkie – Ghanaian Pumpkin

No, this is not a derogatory term to describe my vegan friends, this is my interpretation of a Ghanaian dish known as Ponkie.

So what is Ponkie? Ponkie is the Ghanaian word for pumpkin. The dish is traditionally made with beef. I substituted the beef with textured vegetable (TVP) protein also known as soya mince.

I know the name will set of little ones in fits of giggles and maybe some grown ups too. I chose to make it for two reasons, pumpkins are everywhere at the moment. I’d like to say pumpkins are everywhere because it the season, but the other than the butternut squash, once Halloween is over, you’ll be lucky to find a pumpkin here. Therefore, I recommend you make the most of it now, even if it is for soup. The other reason this recipe appealed were the ingredients, some of which reminded me of a kind of vegetarian chilli bean dish but without the kidney beans.
In my previous job, I had a good Ghanaian friend HA. He had these cat like whisker scars on his face. When I first met him I was fascinated by them and thought I’ll ask him the significance later, but as time passed. I no longer saw the scars on his face, it was just another feature, so never got round to knowing the reason. I’m guessing it had spiritual meaning as well as being a tribal mark to identify the family. I’d ask him, but he moved away and we lost contact. Anyway, I digress I think he would be disappointed at me for subbing the beef with TVP (textured vegetable protein) aka soya granules. HA is like my brothers, he loves eating his meat. Whenever we lunched together, he would often add ‘I could never be vegetarian. I so love my meat’. I wonder though if I could tempt him with this version of Ponkie. I wonder what he would say?!

This is a dry dish, similar to the okra salan. Traditionally ponkie is served with boiled yam and flat bread. It also goes well with other grains such as rice, couscous and even tortilla wraps, just please don’t tell HA. I think he will roll his eyes even more.
Ponkie: Ghanaian pumpkin
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
4 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
1 – 2 fresh red chilli, minced or 1 - 2 Teaspoon Chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Salt to taste
250g TVP or soya mince dehydrated
1 green pepper, chopped
400g tin of tomatoes, chopped
400g Pumpkin or Butternut Squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 Aubergine, diced
Method
Heat oil in pan and saute the onion until soft and translucent, then add in the spices and chilli, cook for a couple of minutes for the spices to combine. Add in the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes or so before adding in the soya mince, pepper and pumpkin pieces. Cook for 10 minutes before adding in the aubergine. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste. This particular recipe is adapted from Oxfam Fairworld Cookbook which acknowledges the original coming from Ola Olaore s book Traditional African Cookery.