Voyage a l'Afrique! merci Marcus Samuelsson

Skål!

Clockwise: Bobotie, mango "sambala," toasts, bulgur wheat with pecans and raisins




Your public library has many wonderful things to offer: including 'free' trendy cookbooks!

Officially I like Marcus Samuelsson very much. His last restaurant to open in New York was Merkato 55 on Gansevoort st. in the West Village: it's African food..mostly of the pan-African persuasion, with dishes from around the continent. But, Samuelsson himself was born in Ethiopia so the North definitely gets some attention. Ah, but Marcus grew up in Sweden, which is where Aquavit comes in, the delicious Swedish restaurant in Midtown.


Here's where I come to last night's meal, and the library. I got out The Soul of a New Cuisine yesterday and made sense of it along with what I had in the kitchen. The book is basically the spirit of Merkato 55, African deliciousness. Thus far I've liked such food: hearty, nutty, saucy.

The spread

Bobotie: traditional dish of South Africa. It's usually made with ground beef but I had ground turkey so I used that and added butter to compensate for the fat.

Bulgur wheat salad: cracked wheat is a popular grain in the Mediterranean lands (all around the big old sea) and goes well with dried fruits and nuts

Sambal: chili-based sauces used in South Africa originally from Malaysia and Indonesia
The real one is much classier but I just cut up some red onion, mango, and added ginger and spicy peanut butter, sounds gross but it's good


The bobotie is pretty easy to make..but you need about 2 hours since there's a lot of time the food hangs out and soaks in itself..so worth it!

1 1/4 pounds ground beef
red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tb green masala or curry
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp crushed coriander
2 tomatoes/canned diced tomatoes
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup crushed peanuts or unsweetened peanut butter
2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs + 2 yolks
pinch nutmeg

cook beef and onion, add garlic, spices, and tomatoes then reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes
Stir in bread crumbs, peanuts, salt (you don't need all of it), and 1/2 cup water, cook for 15 more minutes.
Drain the mixture if you want and then refrigerate fro 20 minutes
Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a baking dish.
Pour the mixture into the pan and cover with the mixture of eggs, milk, nutmeg, and a bit of salt.
Put the pan into another pan of water so that the water rises up an inch on the side of the actual food dish.
Cover with foild and bake for 25 minutes, then take off the foil and bake for another 20
Cut into squares and serve...he says with mango sambal and creamed swiss chard.

I failed a bit with the whole water bath thing, the water wasn't deep enough and the egg was NOT cooking so I turned up the heat and added more water to the dish. This recipe sounds sort of complicated but it's just a little time heavy..soo worthy it and ground turkey definitely matches the flavors.

S.