Benin

By Fawaz.tairou - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Books from Benin

Recipes from Benin that I cooked:

 

Dja Sauce

Atassi o Watche (Rice and Beans)

Yovo doko (benin fritters)

      

Benín

Yovo doko (fritters from Benin)

                                                                      Receta en Español

This is the most typical dessert in benin, people send it at bus, train stations or street stalls.

They are called Yovo doko but they really are fritters, cooked in Peanut oil that provides a special taste.

Ingredients (5 or 6 people):

• Peanut oil.
• 500 grams wheat flour.
• 170 grams sugar.
• 1 sachet sugar vanilla taste.
• 1 sachet yeast.
• 1/2 liter water.
• Salt.

Method:

1-  Put flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water in a bowl. Mix with your hands until the mixture is uniform.

2- The consistency of the mixture should be like in this picture:

3- Heat oil in a frying pan.

4- Fill a spoon with some dough and pour it in the frying pan to fry it.

5- You can see that the dough swell when it is heated, you fry it until it gets golden, 10 or 15 minutes.

6- Sprinkle powdered sugar over the fritters, to do this use a strainer to sieve the sugar.

 

My Comments to the Recipe

it is very easy , and the test is very good . The Peanut oil is very good to fry because it endures high temperatures and its taste is very interesting.

Where to find Peanut oil

Here you can see where I bought this oil:Peanut oil.




Benin

Atassi or Watché (Rice and beans from Benin)

                                                                         Receta en Español

Atassi is also known as Watché, it is a very popular dish in Benin.
It is made with basic ingredients like rice and beans.
The different touch is given by  Dja Sauce (I presented you the recipe in my last previous post), very typical in this country. 

Ingredients:

• Dja Sauce.
• 250 grams beans , sokaed overnight.
• 250 grams rice.
• 1 l water.
• Salt.

Method:

1-  Put beans in a pressure cooker together with 1 liter water. 
Close pressure cooker, put on high heat, when steam comes out from the valve put heat on low heat and cook beans for 1 hour.

2- Add rice, cook for 20 minutes without a cover, take care of the quantity of water, if it is dry add a little water.

3- Serve accompanied by  Dja Sauce.

Benin

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