Benin

The 14th country in our Eating Around the World Adventure is Benin.

A very important part of any trip around the world for me is discovering new foods and people, and getting a glimpse of local traditions. My family discuss the country, what they eat, how they eat. Who their neighbours are, where is the country, what continent. It's a great way to discover the world, even though we don't really go there.

I always find it interesting trying food from countries I know nothing about. I love researching recipes, trying to find something that the people in that country eat.

In Benin they have largely a vegetable diet as meat is quite expensive. Of the meats, chicken and fish is cooked mostly there, however they do also eat beef, pork and goat. They tend to serve there food with either a peanut or tomato based sauce.

The food I have tried has been delicious and my family have loved our visit to Benin.
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This is what I made:

​Spicy Peanut Sauce
​Beninese Peanut Soup
​Moyo
Yovo Doko
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Spicy Peanut Sauce: This spicy peanut sauce is so easy to make and is delicious. It can be served over meat, rice, sweet potatoes or other vegetables. Before serving, I drizzled some of the peanut sauce over the chicken and sweet potato I served it with, then put the remainder in a bowl for my family to drizzle over the rice and bok choy that I cooked to accompany this dish.

Here is how I made it:

1 large brown onion, roughly chopped
1/2-1 Habanero chilli, to taste
2 beef stocks cubes
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups water
1 cup peanut butter 

Blend onion and habanero pepper together in a food processor until smooth. 
In a frying pan over medium heat, add oil, the onion and chilli, tomato paste, salt, and stock cubes. Fry for about 5 minutes. 
Add peanut butter and water to the pan. Mix to combine. 
Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, add more water 1/4 cup at a time, if your mixture is too thick. The oils in the peanut butter split, it will come back together with constant stirring.
Serve with pan fried or barbecued meat, roast vegetables, rice, or potatoes.
Enjoy!
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Beninese Peanut Soup: If I am going to go on this adventure I am going to try dishes I would not consider cooking otherwise. This soup is something I would never have considered cooking if it wasn't for our visit to Benin. This was delicious, the flavours were amazing, but the discussion from my family at the table was this is not a soup. Now in Benin this is a soup, it is filling, flavourful, and if you don't have meat, you need a hearty soup that will fill you up. But for my family, they call this a delicious satay sauce that would be amazing with meat or fish. Now this made a large quantity so we all had soup the first night and with the leftovers the next day I did use it as a satay sauce with skewers I made of fish, prawns, beef and chicken, and my family were right it was delicious. But here I post it as a soup, but it really can be used as a delicious satay sauce.

Here is how I made it:

2 cups vegetable stock
2 x 270g cans coconut milk
1 small brown onion, diced
4 shallots, diced
1 stick celery, diced
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large jalapeño, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon powdered turmeric
1 sweet potato, diced, you need around 2 cups of it
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
½ tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon Maggi seasoning
1 ½ tablespoons Berbere spice mix
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander

Fresh coriander leaves, chopped, for garnishing

Place the vegetable stock in a 3-4 litre saucepan. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the peanut butter and coriander. Place over medium-high heat, bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove about 1 cup of the liquid and place it into a small bowl. Add the peanut butter and stir until creamy. Return the mixture to the pot, stir well, add coriander and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Use a stick blender and purée the soup to a smooth consistency. Garnish with chopped coriander before serving.
Enjoy!

And here it is, the same soup served as a satay sauce, which was absolutely delicious with chicken, prawn, fish and beef. Not traditional, but oh so delicious. I served it with Asian greens.

Moyo: This is a salad popular in Benin, similar to a south american salsa really, tastes absolutely delicious and goes with so many dishes. Everything is finely diced and it just freshens up a meal.

Here is how I made it: 

​3 ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 green capsicum, diced
1 chilli, optional, I used a jalapeno, finely diced
3 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
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Try to dice everything in similar sizes so it looks pretty. In this recipe you do not throw out the tomato pulp, the whole tomato goes into the salad. 

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season, adjust vinegar, if needed, to taste, refrigerate for an hour, before serving.​
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Yovo Doko: Yovo doko is typical Beninese street food they are fritters that are traditionally topped with powdered sugar. They can be deep fried for round fritters or fried in a little oil for flatter fritters.
Attempt 1: Now we didn't love these, I found them dense and they took way too long to fry them. Now maybe I should have deep fried them, but the recipe I used, didn't. These were okay, but not something I would make again. 

Yovo Doko Attempt 2: For some reason after yesterdays failed attempt, I wanted to try these again. I found another recipe, nearly identical to the first recipe, the only difference was these used 20g less sugar and the main difference was after you mix the dough, you set it aside for 2 hours before frying. What a difference, the mixture puffed up, so when I went to fry them the puffed up into little light and airy doughnut like balls. These I deep fried. This is like Croatian fritule, which I had all the time growing up. These I would definitely make again and again. 

Here is how I made them:

500g plain flour
1 x 7g packet of dry yeast
150g sugar​
1 x 10g sachet of vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons (10ml) vegetable oil
​500ml of lukewarm water

Vegetable oil, extra, for deep frying

Put flour, yeast, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, oil and water in a bowl. Mix with a fork or whisk until the mixture is well combined.
Cover with cling film and a tea towel, and let stand at least 2 hours.
Heat oil over medium heat in a medium sized saucepan or deep frying pan. You need at least 4cm of oil.
Take 2 teaspoons, using one spoon take a dollop of batter, and using the second spoon carefully push the batter into oil, being careful not to overcrowd. Fry until golden on the bottom. Turn over once to brown both sides. The first batch will be your tester to see if your heat setting is right to ensure you get the right oil temperature. If they burn before they cook through, turn down the heat, if they take too long to cook, increase the heat, they should only take 2-3 minutes, depending on their size. 
Remove the fritters with a slotted spoon onto layers of paper towels to drain. Repeat until batter is finished. Sprinkle fritters with powdered sugar while still hot.
Enjoy!
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​Now to add another sticker to my world map.

Next Stop Greenland.