38 and 39 - Congo-Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo

There are two countries with Congo in their name. We have decided to combine them on our food journey because the food is pretty much the same. However we are aware of the many differences between these countries.

Congo-Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, or The Congo, is a country situated on the western coast of Central Africa, to the west of the Congo River. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. It was formally part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa.

Democratic Republic of Congo, was know for a time as Zaire. It is in Central Africa and is the second largest country in Africa. It is bordered by, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola and the South Atlantic Ocean. It was first inhabited 90,000 years ago, more recently it was a Belgium Colony.

The cuisine of Congo-Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo represents food of all the indigenous peoples. Cassava, fufu, rice, plantain and potatoes are the main staple foods. Congolese meals usually comprise of a starchy food along with vegetables and meat in the form of a stew. 

For our visit to these two counties we decided to make Moambe Chicken with rice and fried plantain. Moambe is both countries national dish. 

The ingredients included, chicken, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, cayenne, paprika and bouillon.
You add peanut butter later.

After sautéing the onion and garlic and adding the spices you put in the chicken and tomato sauce.

This is brought to the boil and cooked for 15 minutes.

Now the peanut butter is stirred in and it's
cooked for another 10 to 15 minutes.
I put it in the oven to finish cooking.

Meanwhile we prepared the rice

and the plantain

You slice the plantain and gently fry it (we used avocado oil) until caramelized on each side.

Then you are ready to serve the Congolese food.

Chicken Moambe

Fried plantain

Plain rice

The complete meal.

The Verdict

We really enjoyed this meal. It had a lot of flavour and the plantain was very ripe so they had a slightly sweet taste which made them delicious.

We made something similar to this from another country. The traditional recipe calls for palm oil to be used. We found this oil had such a strong and unusual taste that it spoiled the food for us, it is also usually unethically harvested, so we used our usual choice of avocado oil.