Angola is in Southern Africa, situated on the Atlantic
coast and bordered by
Namibia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is the seventh largest country in Africa.
Angola became independent from Portugal in 1975 and so the
main language is Portuguese. Most of the country’s wealth comes from oil and
its economy is one of the fastest growing in the world but the standard of living
is low with life expectancy being one of the lowest in the world.
Obviously the cuisine is influenced by Portuguese cooking and beans, rice, fish, pork and chicken as well as sweet potato, tomatoes and okra are staple foods. Palm oil is used in cooking and Funge - a type of porridge made from cassava flour - is eaten for most meals in poorer homes.
Our son came home to sample out Angolan feast with us so he was able to help with the preparation. He was also able to track down Red Palm oil - the prefered Angolan cooking oil, which we had been unable to source locally.
We use olive oil, ghee and coconut oil for everyday cooking so introducing red palm oil into our cuisine was going to be interesting.
We made Camarao Grelhado Piri Piri - grilled prawns with peppers - as a starter and the Angola national dish Muamba de Galinha - chicken stew - as main course.
Red Palm oil has a distinctive colour and aroma - not nice, not nasty, just distinctive!
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| First we had to portion and marinade the chicken in lemon juice, salt, garlic, white pepper and chicken bouillon. Then the portions were fried in a lot of red palm oil and olive oil until the skin was golden. |
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| Then we added onion, tomatoes, butternut squash, and chillies. The okra gets added towards the end of the cooking time. |
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| Finally everything was stewed together in chicken broth for about 30 minutes. |
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| While the stew was bubbling away we took the prawns - which had been marinated in garlic, green onions, minced habanero, cumin, white vinegar and water - and put them under the grill (broiler). |
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| They were delicious - and quite spicy. The extra marinade made an interesting dipping sauce. |
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| The finished Muamba de Galinha, served with boiled rice. |
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Last week we embarrassed our daughter
- this week we had to embarrass child number 2!
If I am honest I have to say this wasn't my favourite meal at all - although Gary and Thomas went back for seconds! I think it was the palm oil.
As I said, the palm oil has a very distinctive smell, and I think by the time I had smelt it from frying the chicken through the whole stewing process I was feeling very overwhelmed by it. The smell then was multiplied by the taste in the chicken and vegetables.
I'm hoping that we don't have to revisit palm oil in a recipe for sometime and maybe even then I might substitute it for coconut oil. Still we wanted to experience Angolan food and palm oil, smell and taste, is part of that experience.
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