Wakanda Forever

I saw Black Panther when it came out opening weekend a couple weeks ago. I loved it so much, I went and saw it the next weekend too. Aside from all the incredible and timely political and social messages of the movie, the film itself is visually stunning. It's nice to see Africa portrayed as more than just the savanna or the desert. The clothes, hair, and make up are just as stunning too. There was so much attention to detail, except for one area: food. The only food we see in the film is something that looks like chicken cooking on a grill, and plates of food at an outdoor cafe. None of the main characters ever eat or have a dining scene. As a foodie, I was sad that I had nothing to draw from to envision how people in Wakanda eat. Food is how I see the world and understand people and cultures, so, I decided to figure it out for myself!

The first step was to find where Wakanda is. According to the movie, it's on the eastern side of the central part of the continent, near Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. I researched recipes from those countries and contemplated certain issues like, what sorts of ingredients do they use in Wakanda? New World ingredients like tomatoes, corn, and beans, are prominent in a lot of African recipes, but don't come from Africa. Because they come from the New World, they are a symbol of colonialism, which we know Wakanda was not subjected to. But those ingredients are so prominent, and with me being in Seattle, I have limited ability to get my hands on foods native to that region of Africa, so I decided to partake of those ingredients. Wakanda never had to deal with colonialism, so they could freely enjoy the foods of the New World without the history behind it, if they wanted to.

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I chose four recipes, and will write about my experiences in cooking them. I will not be writing out the recipes, because I want to promote the sites I got them from, because these recipes are definitely not mine! I'm just enjoying them and signal boosting. I was very happy with the results and I'm sure you will be too!

Here is one of my favorite types of pictures: the grand total of ingredients before they've been prepped. It took about three hours to prep and cook the meal last night, and about two hours this morning for the dessert that I ran out of time to do, but I guess I shouldn't be too shocked it took that long with this amount of ingredients!

Up first is Ndizi na Nyama, aka, Plantains with Meat. The recipe can be found here.

After the original shot of all the ingredients, I separated them out by recipe and did a smaller one for each recipe. This is what I needed for the Ndizi na Nyama. The original recipe calls for beef, but I chose chicken since I don't eat beef. Any meat that you like most will work. And if you didn't want meat, you could probably use canned garbanzo beans. I think the texture would work pretty well with the plantains.

Here's all the ingredients, prepped and ready for cooking. The plantains took a lot of effort to get out of their skins. I don't know if it was because they were as green as they were or what; I don't have much experience with plantains. But be patient and ready to dig them out with your hands if you need to. Don't worry, I was wearing gloves the whole time!

This is what the stew looks like when it's done. The chicken is cooked separately from the vegetables and coconut milk, and then it's all mixed together at the end. The tasted great, not very spicy, but very flavorful. It was even tastier reheated the next day for lunch. 

Next up, is East African Rice Pilau, courtesy of Immaculate Bites. I'm sure we're all well acquainted with rice pilaf, some of us eat it in Rice-a-Roni form rather often(guilty as charged). The recipe originated in the Middle East, so how did it end up in Africa? Well, just as the western side of Africa had trading with Europe and the Americas, the eastern side had trading with Asia and the Middle East. They're all connected via the Indian Ocean, after all. It makes a lot of sense that recipes would be traded along the way as well as ingredients.

 The pre-prepped pile!

 Post prep!

Just like Rice-a-Roni, this pilau starts off with frying the ingredients. We start with the cashews and spices. The aroma from this was incredible!

 Then we add the rice and veggies and fry those for a bit.

I used a combination of chicken stock and coconut milk for the liquid. I had the rest of the can of coconut milk from the Ndizi na Nyama recipe, and poured that into a 1 cup measuring cup. It ended up being about 3/4 cup. I rounded that out with chicken stock and then did 3 more cups of stock. If you wanted, you could use vegetable stock and this would be completely vegan.

This is what it looks like while it's cooking. I had the wrong kind of rice for this, so it needed a little more stock than it called for. Just taste it when it's nearly done and see how it tastes. Add more liquid if it's too crunchy still. The recipe calls for basmati rice, and I bought basmati rice in bulk from the grocery store. But the next day, when I opened the bag, I could smell the rice and saw it was in fact, jasmine rice, not basmati. The store had put the wrong kind of rice in the dispenser!!! The two are totally different kinds of rice! I'm generally not a big basmati fan, but I would like to try it in this recipe. 

This rice is a little spicy from the jalapeno, but it works well with the coconut milk. And don't underestimate the amazing inclusion of the cashews. That was brilliant! I also forgot the tomato for this recipe, but I fished some out from the Ndizi na Nyama and tossed them in with it so at least there were a few. I knew I was bound to make a mistake with attempting three big recipes like this simultaneously, but at least I found a bit of a work-around for it!

Today I ate some of the rice reheated with the Ndizi na Nyama mixed in with it. The flavors really mesh well, so I recommend eating the two together like this. The rice says it makes 5 servings, but I don't know, I think it made way more than that. I gave some to my parents to try and I have enough for a least two more lunches and will be able to share some with coworkers who want to try it out tomorrow.

My vegetable side dish was Sukuma Wiki, or stewed collard greens, via Tasteofsouthsudan.com. 

 Before...

 And after!

An action shot as it cooks on the stove. Very exciting with the steam!

This recipe could be made with any combination of collard greens and/or kale. I opted for only collard greens, and I found it too bitter for my tastes. The next time I do this, I think I'd try it with kale and see how that works. The baking soda was a brand new trick for me and I really think it worked well. It made the greens super soft and didn't make it taste salty at all like I thought it might. This is a great trick, a little baking soda in your greens to help them cook down faster!

This was the finished product. I plated everything separately because I didn't want the flavors to blend at first. I wanted to taste each item for its own flavor profile. Everything was amazing! The plantains were soft like potatoes, the pilau was an explosion of spices but no one spice took over the dish. The coconut milk tempered the heat. And if you look closely, at the top of the plate is one of my Africa ornaments I bought from Etsy. This ornament currently lives on my ancestor shelf, and was in my pocket when I went to see Black Panther. I thought it was appropriate for it to be in this picture!

But wait, there's more! I ran out of time last night for the dessert, so that became breakfast today. My final recipe was Kenyan Coconut Mandazi, courtesy of Talkingtonelly.com.

I got up early this morning to make sure these would be ready by the time my parents dropped by so they could try some. This is the first step of the recipe. Flour is measured, water/sugar/yeast mixture is thickening, and the coconut milk/oil/sugar/cardamom mixture has been stirred together.

All of those are combined and then kneaded into dough. I found mine to be very tough and a little dry at first so I added a couple spoons-full more of coconut milk and that helped. Just keep kneading for a while until it's smooth and elastic. I did not need the full ten minutes. And I discovered the best place to let this rise. In the oven! Just turn your oven to Low, cover the bowl with a towel, and set it in there for the last half hour or so of the rising time. Prior to that, I let it sit on top of the stove, above the burner with the stove outlet on it.

After you punch down the dough and divide it in half, you roll it out. I was happy with how well it rolled out without bouncing back like you see a lot when you roll out bread dough.

The original recipe calls for these to be cut into 8 per half, but I couldn't justify something that large. I think mine rolled out way bigger, so I did 16 per half.

 They fry really quickly and are not heavy and greasy at all. They are akin to a beignet, but way lighter and less greasy. Sometimes you eat a beignet and feel like you've eaten bricks by the time you're done. This was quite the opposite, actually...They are light and airy and you sort of forget how many you've had after a while...You just keep going back for more.

My parents ate some, and so did my sister and I have had well beyond my fair share of these delectable treats. I won't tell you how much are left, but there's a lot less than this picture portrays...It's the cardamom that makes it. I sprinkled a little bit of powdered sugar on them and they are perfect!

Making this food was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love. I spent three hours yesterday preparing the dinner. I went into a bit of a trance, as I often do with large amounts of prep work. There's something comforting and soothing about the repetition of movements with chopping and slicing.

With every collard leaf I washed, watching droplets of water roll off their backs like ducks, I thought about the ancestors. Those who grew and ate them in Africa, in freedom, and those who were forced to grow and eat them in the US, while enslaved. The ingredients and recipes bridged the divide between the motherland and the new land from which there was no return.

Spices from all around the world filled the air of my kitchen and tickled my nose, making me sneeze(not into the food!). I could see India, Madagascar, and the Middle East all swirling around in the Indian Ocean and making their way to Africa on the ocean currents. The west, the east, and the center of the world all found their way to my plate last night and it was beautiful and delicious. I felt privileged to have been able to try these recipes. I would eat every single one of them again.

I also thought of Wakanda and what T'Challa, Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye would think of the meal. I hope they would enjoy it! Hopefully in the next Black Panther movie, we can get a meal scene and find out exactly what sorts of foods they eat. But until then, try these recipes out, or look up others from the region and see what you think. If you are a fan of big flavors, you will not be disappointed!

Until then...

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