Having a go and letting you know; Senegal, I think my version looks good…
03 Apr 2021
Dear LPG,
After last month’s almost successful attempt at making one of Tunisia’s national dishes, I began working on today’s attempt at cooking something new with renewed confidence, but then I came across one of those more fundamental problems. I am getting a little better at the preparation needed to be more successful when cooking and have learned to take a good look at the ingredients in advance so that, if necessary I can send off for the ones that are really difficult to get in one of our high street supermarkets.
There was one this month but I actually found a small jar of ‘Ras el hanout’ in Tesco’s. It was the very last jar in the shop so God had to have been giving me a bit of a hand. It was while I was busy checking the ingredients that I came across what was going to be my biggest problem this month and it had nothing to do with cooking the dish.
As you must realise, each month I actually make my attempts to produce these recipes about a week in advance of the day of celebration so that I have time to report on my efforts and make sure that LPG has time to edit and post it. So, as Senegal’s Independence Day happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year, I realised that one of the most fundamental ingredients would force me to cook without tasting. I have become a Lent ‘giver upper’. One of my housemates got us all started a few years ago and we all give up meat for Lent.
As you can appreciate, this made tasting the dish quite impossible if I was going to follow my conscience, so I have to offer readers a visual version of my Senegalese Maffe having not actually tasted it or even tested it on either of my housemates. I have to say that it smelled very good and having taken a picture of it for comparison, I think that it bears a reasonable resemblance to the original, but I will have to tell you what our taste buds thought next month, because, once cool enough and having taken a picture of my efforts, I put the whole lot in a plastic storage container in the nether regions of my freezer.
On the morning that you read this, it will be in the process of defrosting in preparation to become an interesting addition to our first meal that includes meat in a month and a half, and I cannot wait to see how it tastes.
I am not planning to give up any other foods for the rest of the year, so there should be no problem with my attempt to help with the celebration of Guyana’s National Day which is May 26th. I think that this one is guaranteed to add a little spice to your life as I attempt to produce a plate of Guyanese Pepperpot. I suspect this will be one for those who can take the heat…
CB, Lewisham
CB, as ever, has found a few recipes for anyone planning to take a culinary trip to South America in time to introduce your taste buds to a Guyanese experience…
