African night

Last night for our cooking group, we went to Francesca's house to learn how to make African stew and African soup. Francesca's family is from Nigeria and it was absolutely fascinating to learn about the foods from her culture. She said they had so much more variety of seeds, roots, spices than over here. Just with mushrooms she could reel off 100 different types which all had completely different tastes.

Francesca said the main staple meals were stew and soup but that you could make so many varieties of them to keep them from being boring. One of the side dishes she made was semolina mixed with water which turned out a bit like mashed potato but more dense. Over in Nigeria they eat with their hands and they would dip the semolina into the soup to eat.

A big thankyou to Francesca for a wonderful night that we could all learn and appreciate a different culture.

groundnut soup and semolina

chicken stew

STEW

1 large chicken or 10 pieces of drumstick chicken, 1kg beef, pork, goat meat (lamb), sheep or kangaroo.
225g fresh chillies or pepper (optional)
1.5kg fresh tomatoes (put thru blender) or tinned
2 large onions sliced
4 cloves garlic
2 small tins tomato puree
1/2 to 1 tsp thyme, coriander seeds, chilli powder, ground ginger, Allspice, ground parsley flakes, cinammon, mixed herbs, curry
250g mushrooms
salt to taste
500ml oil

Wash and cut meat into pieces (not drumsticks) Season with salt, onions and other spices. Add mushrooms and cook in 1/2 to 2 litres of water for 20-30mins until meat is tender. Use 1/2 the oil if you then want to fry cooked chicken until brown (this is optional). In another pot, heat 250ml oil and fry onions, garlic, chillies and fresh tomatoes for 10-20mins until fairly dry. Add tomato puree and chicken stock (what is left after chicken or meat removed) next. Stir thoroughly and add chicken or meat pieces. Simmer gently for 10mins until well blended. Drain off excess oil and stir in any chopped vegetables you want. Serve with boiled rice, semolina, sweet potato.

In Africa they serve it with yam cocoyam, cassava or cooked or fried plantain.

Groundnut Soup

500g roasted groundnut (peanuts) blended in processer
1litre of chicken stock (use from chicken stew)
4 fresh tomatoes.
Spices if desired.
Silverbeet
bok choy
fresh mushrooms
50g blended fresh or dry pepper
2 onions
1 capsicum
salt to taste
Optional - washed meat or fish, dry crayfish

Place wash meat in pot and add chicken stock. Season with salt and spices, mushrooms and pepper and boil for 10-20mins. Add fish and cook for another 5-10mins. If not using meat or fish, go straight to boil blended fresh tomatoes, onions, pepper and groundnut for 5-10mins until smooth. Add vegetables and rest of stock and simmer for 3 mins. Serve with same side dishes as above.

VT Dinner

On Saturday The 28th of June, we held our visiting teaching gratitude dinner. Instead of a convention this year, we decided to put on a dinner for the sisters to say thankyou for all their efforts and time and sacrifice that they put into supporting each other and their leaders in the VT programme.

So my counsellors being, Kit Porter, Mel Corona and secretary Barbara Young and I cooked up a storm for the night. Barbara came up with the beautiful table decorations. We just did as we were told and put plates, serviettes, etc where she said.



On the night we started with nibbles (thanks Deidre) and then moved onto mains - lasagne, one of which was this most scrumptious vegetarian one, salad and garlic bread. For dessert we had a choice of mudcake, strawberry and white chocolate cheesecake and a peach cobbler with ice-cream. Jackie and Vicki did the drinks which was so yum - a punch made up with mixed berries. In between the main and dessert we just went around the room and said what it was about the VT programme that we were grateful for.

Phyllis and Jackie cleaning up

Emma Porter with Tyren Corona

Nan Triffitt, June Bounds, Peggy Pitcher, Bev Scott, Phyllis Moores, Ali Christie

The sneaky part so that we were not left with the dishes was announcing at the end that, you had to wash the dishes of your visiting teacher that visits you to say thankyou. That way we weren't left with a HUGE pile of dishes. That was probably the best idea of the night.

It was a great evening and sharing our positive thoughts and blessings of the VT programme brought a warmth and the Spirit to the room that we could all bond and share together in. Special thanks go to Deidre Triffitt, Jackie Webster, Vicki Ziesel, Rikki Wilson, Emma Porter, Peggy Pitcher, Barbara Young, Kit Poter and Mel Corona for bringing the night together so succesfully.