Congolese Feast!!!

After postponing due to sickness (cough cough, blurgh) over the weekend, I finally hosted a Congolese Feast tonight!! I was going to cook just for myself, but Dad inspired me to share this experience, even though I had no idea how it was going to turn out, which makes me super nervous. But, all in all, an excellent evening was had by all (I hope!).

I did some research online, and decided to make saka saka, legumes en sauce Z'ara, Liboke ya Mbisi (bundle of fish), the excitingly named "Banana Condiment," Peri Peri marinade, and, of course, FUFU!

Here are some pictures of the process:

This is when I was assembling the "Liboke ya Mbisi" - bundles of fish. I have never worked with banana leaves before, but I think I'm going to again - it was kinda fun to assemble and cook food this way!!!

Tying them up was a bit of a challenge:)

I put Kevin to work, stirring up the Fufu. Ok, so the Fufu was really strange, but I looked up fufu online and the pictures online look nothing like the fufu I made, so maybe I made a mistake, but it was literally just mixing the fufu flour with boiling water,

so I don't see what we could have done wrong!!

Help!!!! Does anyone know the proper way to make fufu??

It basically had the consistency of chewed gum. Yikes!

And why did it turn purplish grey? I can't believe we ate it!...well, some of it:)

This is how the Liboke ya Mbisi looked after it came out of the oven.

It was fun to cut it open and see it all cooked inside! I want to cook everything this way now! It's like opening food presents!

So here's the finished product. At the top right you'll see the oh-so-delicious fufu (eeek!)

which everyone tried a little bit of, and Brandon actually ate an entire serving of -

I was quite impressed by his stamina:) Underneath that is the Vegetables in Z'ara sauce,

which was a favorite, and beneath that is the banana condiment.

To it's left is some Salmon with Peri Peri marinade, and above that is Saka-Saka on rice

(yes, of course, there were the absolutely necessary "Congolese-a Rice" jokes),

and above that is the Liboke ya Mbisi removed from the Banana Leaves.

Whew! It took me about 5 hours from when I started to cook it all, eat and clean up, and I didn't even have to pound Manioc for fufu flour - I don't know how the Congolese women do it!

Quite an adventure. and I'm gonna try some stuff again...but not the fufu...definitely not the fufu:) Don't mind Shannon's look of disgust in this picture, she loved everything, including the fufu...ok that's a lie, but she did like some things, I swear!

Those of you who are new to my blog - I'm researching a country each month, and this month it's the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Check out some of my other posts!

Getting ready to make a Congolese feast!!!

I basically think about food all the time - I barely finish one meal before I start thinking about my next, so an exploration of Congolese food seems very fitting as part of my "armchair traveling". San Diego has no restaurants featuring food from the Congo (at least none that I could find online - if you know of one, please let me know!), so I'm attempting to make a few dishes on my own. I'm going to make "Liboke ya mbisi" (a fish stew of sorts), "Legumes en Sauce Z'ara" (a veggie stew with peanut butter base....this one scares me a bit....), "Saka Saka" (cassava leaves - kind of like spinach), and of course, FUFU!

I went to an African-Caribbean grocery store today with my friend Kevin (who luckily is always up for an adventure) and I picked up a few specialty items (red palm oil, ground cassava leaves, fufu flour, and banana leaves), and I also checked out what manioc is like in it's original form...I definitely will not be buying any to pound into fufu flour, that sounds like W-A-Y too much work for this girl:)

I'll be cooking tomorrow and will absolutely photo document my culinary adventure!