Korean cuisine

African influence on other cuisine

Many people might not associate Chillies with Africa. In fact, Chillies and Africa are irrevocably linked through the history of the continent, its people, and the type of cuisine eaten there. From South Africa, right through into Central Africa, East, and West Africa, you will find Chillies being used in everyday cooking. Be it curries in Durban, South Africa, Rolexes in Uganda or Frango Piri- Piri in Angola, Chillies can be found in Africa in all their glory

One particularly unpleasant part of the continent’s history resulted in the Africans’ love of Chillies spreading far beyond its borders. This was a consequence of the slave trade. During this awful era, millions of Africans were forcibly removed from their homelands and coerced into working as slaves. They were transported from Africa by sea (or by crossing the Sahara desert  to North Africa) and then on to Europe, the Caribbean, the USA, and South America.

In the Caribbean and South America, slavery would probably have meant working as labourers on sugar cane plantations. In the American South, it could have involved toiling in the fields of tobacco farmers, working in rice plantations, harvesting cotton or as domestic servants. In Europe, the enslaved people would have been put to work as domestic servants, cooks, or labourers in agriculture.

The Portuguese were one of the first to participate in the slave trade in Africa, but the English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Danish soon followed them. These slave traders kidnapped their slaves mainly from West African countries, like the modern-day Senegal and Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Angola, and then sold to work as unpaid labourers at the beck and call of their masters

The influence these enslaved people had on the cuisines of the countries they were sent to is truly amazing. It is a powerful legacy from that terrible time that is thankfully here to stay. Dishes like Jerk pork from Jamaica, Feijoada from Brazil, and barbequed hog from the American South all carry the hallmarks of cuisine that has its origin in the cooking of enslaved peslaves from Africa. And what fine cooking this is!

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A perfect match

In a previous post, I mentioned that I would be experimenting to make a hot sauce with mangoes and Aji Amarillo paste. To me, they promise to be a perfect match in a hot sauce . On the one hand, their colours are similar – a bright orange yellow – and the other, the flavours are bound to complement each other.  Aji Amarillo has a fruity taste. I can imagine it will combine exceptionally well with the tropical taste of mango. It is certainly worth a bash

Making hot sauces is great fun, but it requires a lot of trial and error to get it right. Sometimes you can get it spot on, but other times it takes a bit of tweaking here and there before it finally becomes just right.  I was hoping this sauce would fall into the latter category. I have made sauces like this along a similar theme in the past, but never with Aji Amarillo paste.

Previously, I would have used Scotch bonnets to make this type of sauce, because it leans towards Caribbean type hot sauces. Indeed, the sauce I am about to make can be successfully made with fresh Scotch bonnets. To substitute, simply blitz two to three Scotch Bonnets with the other ingredients. From there, if you follow the other steps I took to make the sauce below, you will have a delicious Caribbean sauce

That being said, now is the time to try something new. A totally new hot sauce needs to be be created . So, let’s roll up the sleeves, don the apron, and get into the kitchen.

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Fusion food

Caribbean cooking is fusion food of the highest order. It has influences, among others, from Africa, South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition to Chillies, which are massively popular, other common ingredients are rice, plantains, beans, cassava, cilantro, bell peppers, chickpeas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and coconuts.  These are expertly combined with garlic, onion, herbs , spices and various meats like beef, poultry, pork or seafood like fish or prawns

One spice, besides Chillies, that stands out is pimento or allspice. It got the name allspice in the 17th century (when it was first imported to Europe), by virtue of the fact that it tastes like a combination of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Allspice is used together with nutmeg, black pepper, thyme, cayenne pepper, paprika, sugar, salt, garlic, and ginger in dishes like Jerk Chicken and pork.  The wood from the Pimento tree is also used to smoke jerk meats.

One of the most important Chillies in Caribbean cooking is the Scotch bonnet.  It is so important that the Ministry of Agriculture in Jamaica has even created a classification system for them. The MOA Scotch Bonnets, as they are called, have three grades.  The best grade should have a cup and saucer shape with three to four well shaped lobes, be not less than 4,5 cm in diameter, and have a uniform colour typical of the variety. The second and third grades are far less stringent in their requirements, with the lowest grade not even requiring the lobes to be distinct. It doesn’t necessarily even have to have the distinctive cup and saucer shape of the classical Scotch bonnet.

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Where does BBQ come from?

I am currently reading a book by Michael Pollan called “Cooked”. In this book, there is a chapter that discusses how barbeques arrived in the American South. He states they came to this region with the slaves who had passed through the Caribbean en route to the South.  The slaves had seen the indigenous Indians cooking whole animals “split and splayed out on top of green branches stretched over fire pits”.  The Indians called this type of cooking Barbacoa. The slaves brought the idea to the South and soon  perfected the art of making them.

The term barbacoa gradually became what we know today as a barbecue or BBQ. This form of grilling meat has become popular around the world. There are few countries (if any ) where food is not prepared in this way. It has become ingrained into many cultures and is part and parcel of many cuisines

Barbeque may, however, mean different things to different people. In the Southern USA, it will mean the slow roasting of whole hogs over wood fires. In South Africa, it will mean the “braaing” of meat, satays and sausages over a charcoal fire. In the United Kingdom & parts of the USA, it might mean cooking hamburgers and sausages over a gas grill, and in Jamaica, barbecued jerked meat or poultry.  The list is by no means comprehensive and can go on forever in terms of different variations

This is common knowledge. However, one thing that may not be so well known is just how closely Chillies and BBQ are linked. Sure, we have all seen  BBQ rubs, marinades, and sauces etc made Chillies, but do we know how much Chillies and barbeques are historically connected? Let’s explore the links.

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