Dja Sauce

                                                                    Receta en Español

This is a very popular Sauce in Benin, it is made with tomato's concentrate ,spices and dried prawns that provide the taste from the sea.  Benin is a big exporter of prawns, they even export to Europe.

This sauce can be used to accompany rice, Amiwo, Igname and Atassi. This is a sauce full of taste and very easy to cook.

Ingredients:

• 100 g onions.
• 4 tablespoons Peanut oil.
• 600 g mature tomatos.
• 2 dessert spoon ground dried prawns.
• 1 dessert spoon paprika.
• Salt.
• Pepper.
• 1 dessert spoon ginger.
• 1 dessert spoon ground garlic.

Method:

1-  Pour peanut oil in a pan , sautée onion.

2-  Add diced tomatos. Put on a low heat.

3- Crush tomatos with a wooden spoon, cook until the meat is well separated from the skin. 

4- Use a food mill to obtain the meat of tomatos without the skin and seeds.

5- Grind dried prawns.

6- Put salt, ground dried prawns, pepper, paprika, ginger and garlic together with tomato meat. Cook on a low heat for 30 minutes to have a concentrated sauce.
If you are using pear tomatos you don't need so many time, 10 minutes is ok.

My comments to the recipe

This is a sauce full of taste , it is a great sauce to accompany rice and other food.

Where to buy the ingredients

Dried prawns and peanuts oil can be bought in Madrid at General Margallo street, metro Tetuán.

Benín

Yucca and Banana Cake

                                                                       Receta en Español

Yucca cake is the most typical dessert in Fiji Islands, it is also typical in other countries like Philippines.
Sometimes yucca is accompanied by banana, the recipe I bring today is with banana.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon sugar.
• 240 ml coconut cream.
• 4 ripe bananas.
• 1 Kg yucca.

Method:

1-  Cut yucca in half and peel it.

2-  Cut yucca alongside to get rid of the root that goes through the inner side:

3- Grate the yucca.

4- Put grated yucca in a strainer and crush it to get rid of the liquid.

5-  Put coconut cream and sugar in a bowl, mix well.

6-  Put bananas in other bowl and blend. Then put blended bananas into the other bowl that contains coconut cream.

7-  Add the mixture of coconut cream and bananas to the yucca and mix well.

8-  Line an oven proof recipent with parchment paper, put the mixture inside.

9-  Preheat oven at 175ºC.

10- Cook the cake in oven for 45 minutes at the same temperature, until it gets gold and you know it is cooked when you poke the cake with a knife and you take it out clean.

My comments to the Recipe:

To grate the yucca is very hard. 
Bananas must be black and ripe to give a sweet taste to the cake, otherwise you should add more sugar.

Where to find the ingredients:

Coconut cream is a kind of thick coconut milk, you can buy it liquid or powder, I bought powder to make the cream as thick as I wanted.
I bought coconut cream at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).

You can also buy it on the internet:

coconut cream



Fidji Islands