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| Wagashi, the local cheese... the only cheese |
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| Akassa, the fermented version of pate (corn flour porridge) |
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| Akassa with sauce... lunch! |
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| Local grains (sorghum and millet?) that can be ground to make other varieties of pate |
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| Breakfast! Pate noire (black pate made from dried yam flour) with local cheese (fried) and sauce |
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| Delicious tapioca made by my neighbor in Dangbo. She says the secret is to make it with coconut milk. This bowl is served with sweetened condensed milk and roasted peanuts. |
The cheese must be goat cheese. If so, lucky you. We pay a premium price for it here and it is delicious. Would be good with the mangos you are expecting. What makes up the sauce of akassa? Pate noire looks more like dishes in the US. Tapioca, one of my favorites, with coconut milk. I'll have to try to make it that way sometime. Served with condensed milk and peanuts makes a pretty filling dessert. Tapioca is my comfort food, maybe it will be yours too. :)
ReplyDeleteI wish we had goat cheese! Wagashi actually comes from cows. There are goats here, but no one milks them, to my knowledge. In Kandi, the cheese is red on the outside because it has been wrapped with sorghum leaves. In village, the cheese is quite fresh and thus hasn't been wrapped. I have been told that once you purchase it (from a Peulh since they own the cows), you have to soak it in salt water. Then you cut it up and fry it to eat with your dish. Wagashi is somewhat like paneer in that it doesn't melt. It stays firm like tofu.
ReplyDeleteI think the akassa sauce was oil-based. It wasn't a particularly interesting sauce. Akassa itself is consistently among the least favorite foods of Americans here.
The tapioca pictured is indeed delicious. I have had tapioca a few different places in Benin, but no one makes it like my neighbor (the one who was pictured in an earlier blog posting). I think the coconut milk is a major part of what makes it so great. If you like tapioca, you should come to Benin and I'll take you to the best place.
Alex
Well, maybe you could suggest that they try making cheese from goats milk. It's kind of surprising they haven't thought of that, unless there is some religious reason for not doing that.
ReplyDeleteJean Ralley
David has suggested that as well. He thinks I should start a goat milking project. I don't think I want to get close enough to a goat to milk it.
ReplyDeleteNow that the dry season has started, cheese has gotten a lot more scarce and expensive. Apparently, the cows here produce little milk during the dry season.
Alex
What is it about goats that you don't like? :) Surely, the people who milk cows would be willing to milk goats. I would think cows would produce more milk in the dry season if they had more water to drink, much like nursing mothers. It's just a matter of supply and demand. I assume that there is not enough ground water to give the cows the amount of water they need to produce milk. Yes, the possibility for another Alex project.
ReplyDeleteJean Ralley
I get nervous whenever an animal's teeth get too close. The Peulhs own the cows and make the cheese, but to my knowledge it's the Bariba who have the goats. I don't know, then, if the better approach would be to give goats to the Peulhs or to teach the Bariba to milk their goats.
ReplyDeleteI have also heard the explanation that cows produce less milk because there is less plant life to graze on when the rains stop, thus they are eating less. We teach women that they should eat two extra meals per day when breastfeeding, as well as drink more water, as you mentioned.
Alex