Culture Night: Comoros

We ended up drawing from our jar another African country! Y'all I am in love with Africa. I have been since my mission in Germany. HUH? Yes, Germany. While serving in Germany, I met and taught a lot of Africans. They were always so kind, loving, and welcoming. They even would make my mission companion and I yummy African food. Beans and plantains was what I always requested when they asked. Anyways, I could go on and on with stories I have with the many wonderful Africans I met. I am still friends with some of them too.

Let's focus on Comoros. Our culture nights right now consist of us making some kind of dish from that country and learning something about it. It always seems it creeps up on us, and I never get to do all that I want us to do for culture night (such as a game or activity that is common in that country). Maybe next time.

For our night out in Comoros we had:

Chicken in coconut milk (Akoho sy voanio) 

• 1 kg chicken breast meat 
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tomatoes 
• 2 cloves garlic (I just used powdered)
• 5 cm root ginger (I just used powdered) 
• 1 can coconut milk
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 
• Sunflower oil 

Skin and chop fine onions and the garlic. Slice the tomatoes. Peel and grate the root ginger. Fry the chicken in a little sunflower oil until well browned all over. Add the onions and garlic and fry until turning brown. Add the ginger and tomatoes and fry briefly. Add the coconut milk, and adjust seasoning to taste. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

*This was a yummy dish. It is more on the sweeter side, and I would probably make this again. 

Ladu

*This dish is said to be more of a dessert. We used this as a side dish, and I did not shape them into bricks. Maybe next time I will. 

• 100 g coarsely-ground raw rice (I used brown rice)
• 100 g powdered sugar 
• 60 g ghee (I used butter) 
• 1/4 tsp powdered cardamom (I used nutmeg--It is also one of the common spices in Comoros) 
• 2 tsp coarsely-ground black pepper 

Mix the sugar and pepper and set aside. Meanwhile, melt the ghee in a cast iron pot, add the rice and cook on a low flame, stirring all the while, until the rice is fully cooked well. Add the cardamom powder and stir thoroughly to mix. Take off the heat and pour onto a plate. Allow to cool completely then mix together the rice mixture and the sugar and pepper blend. Divide into 7 equal portions and shape into laddus (bricks). Allow to cool completely and dry completely. Serve as a dessert. 

*I cooked the rice in the rice cooker and added the butter in at the same time. After it was cooked, I put it in a different bowl and mixed the remainder ingredients in. I served immediately as a side instead.of shaping into bricks.* It was a yummy dish. 

Fruit for dessert

It is common to have fruit as a dessert. Comoros has many locally produced ingredients like vanilla, coriander, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. So, for the fruit I mixed together oranges, bananas, and apples. I added some vanilla and cinnamon to the mixture. It was a yummy dessert. 

Comoros islands have been settled, conquered, and resettled and reconquered many times over the centuries. Influences in the country include African, Indonesian, Malagasy, Arabic, and Portuguese. 

A little more on the country: