Gingered Green Tomatoes

Gingered Green Tomatoes

To one peck small green tomatoes allow eight onions. Slice all together and sprinkle with one cupful of salt. Let them stand twenty-four hours, then drain and cover with fresh water. Make a strong ginger tea, allowing one quart of boiling water to a pound of bruised ginger root. Let it simmer gently for twenty minutes until the strength of the ginger is extracted. Scald the chopped tomatoes in this. Drain. Mix together one ounce ground ginger, two tablespoonful’s black pepper, two teaspoonful’s ground cloves, a quarter pound white mustard seed, one-half cupful ground mustard, one ounce allspice, three ounces celery seed and three pounds brown sugar. Now put the sliced onions and tomatoes in a kettle with sugar and spices in alternate layers, and pour over them enough white wine vinegar to cover well. Cook the pickle until tender, and then pack in jars and seal.

Read More

The order of mixing is important in its effect in batters and dough’s

Methods of mixing are important, where several ingredients are combined.

Examples of the type of mixing are: · Sifting, or putting materials through a fine mesh, is used to lighten flour that has been packed down, to remove coarse portions, or to mix thoroughly several dry ingredients.
· Stirring is done with a spoon, and is a round and round motion, used for mixing a liquid and a dry ingredient.
·  Rubbing is used for combining a dry ingredient with a semi-solid substance like butter. Creaming is a term used for the rubbing of butter until it becomes soft and creamy. A spoon should be used, not the hand.
·“Cutting in” with a knife is used for combining butter with flour in biscuit and pastry where the butter should not be softened.
· Beating with a spoon, or beater of the spoon type, is a free over and over motion, the spoon being lifted from the mixture for the backward stroke. This is used for increasing the smoothness of the mixture after the first stirring, and for beating in air. It needs a strong free motion of the forearm. Beating is also accomplished by the rotary motion of a mechanical beater like the Dover.
· Cutting and folding is the delicate process of mixing lightly beaten egg with a liquid or semi-liquid without losing out the air. The spoon is cut in, sidewise, a rotary motion carries it down and up again, and it folds in the beaten egg as it goes.
· Kneading is a motion used with dough, and is a combination of a rocking and pressing motion, accomplished by the hands. A good result can be obtained by some bread machines, and this is the cleaner method.
· Rolling out is just what the term denotes, a rolling of a thick piece of dough by means of a cylindrical wooden “pin” to the thickness proper for cookies and crusts. Dry bread is also rolled to break it into fine crumbs.
·Pounding and grinding are usually accomplished for us now in factories in breaking of spices and coffee. It is better to have a coffee mill at home.

Read More

What is a recipe?

A recipe is a bit of experience handed down for us to make useful. Someone experimented at some time long ago, perhaps failed at first, tried again, finally succeeded, and passed on the result by word of mouth to others. There were doubtless good cooks long before there were printed or written recipes. Some recipes, however, have been handed down word of mouth from Africa to America, and recipes were printed as early as the sixteenth century. Modern recipes are much more accurate than the old, as you may see if you have opportunity to read some old cookbook. Make some plan for recording new recipes that you test and find good. It may be a printed recipe, or one that a friend gives you.
At first in using a recipe follow its directions exactly. Notice the proportions, and read carefully the directions for combining the ingredients, noting those points that are most important. Have the whole process well in mind before you begin work. Do not let it be necessary to refer to the printed page at every move you make. This is poor technique.
When you are no longer a novice you may take liberties with a recipe, even a new one, scanning it with a critical eye, and perhaps giving it a cool welcome. It may not be new at all! For this is the secret of recipes,—there are really only a few, and the key to their use is the recognition of the old in the new garb, and the having of a few type recipes clearly in mind. Each kind of prepared dish has one, or two, or three basic forms or mixtures. Learn these, and then with experience you will become inventive, and make your own variations. For example, there are but two kinds of cake,—those made with butter (or other fat) and those without butter. You will not attempt to memorize many recipes, but you will find that in studying these type recipes you have learned a few proportions so well that you cannot forget them. When you have reached this stage of freedom you will still do exact work, but your ingenuity and taste will have free play and you will not be tied to other people’s recipes. But you cannot well begin at this end.

Read More

A Personal Thank You from The African Gourmet

The main objective of our blog Everyday African Food is to promote a cross-cultural understanding of Africa through its food and art. Thank you for your support over the last four years!

Read More

Eating with your hands

Well technically eating with your hands means eating with small pieces of bread. Eating food with your hands in today’s society is observed as being unsanitary, unclean, bad mannered and even gross. Eating with your hand instead of using a fork and spoon is a skill that can be gratifying when done in the approved manner. Etiquette should be observed when dining in any culture that eating with your hand is a tradition. The hands must be thoroughly washed; hands are washed before and after eating. Typically you eat with your right hand since bodily functions are taken care of with your left hand. Therefore, obviously it is considered rude and improper to use your left hand.

You may think you are reaching into the plate of food with your naked hand however; you will actually use a small piece of bread to scoop up the food. Just think of it as you are replacing utensils for pieces bread the same way some recipes replace a bowl for a large loaf of hollowed out bread. You will reach for food with your bread in hand from the side of the bowl that is facing you, not across the bowl. This is your space in which you eat but please don’t lick your fingers. Eating is a physical and social act and you should enjoy eating with your hands as much as possible. Eating with your hands enables you to feel closer to people you are dining with because you are sitting around the same table sitting close together eating from the same plate. Still think eating with your hands is weird? Well consider the fact that you eat with your hands from shared plates when you:
1.       Eat dip at a social event
2.       Eat from a large platter of wings

4.       Eat shared appetizers such as nachos
5.       Let me have a piece… ok, I did not bite from that side go ahead and break off a piece

Read More

The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder

In the olden days the thunder and lightning lived on the earth amongst all the other people, but the king made them live at the far end of the town, as far as possible from other people's houses. The thunder was an old mother sheep, and the lightning was her son, a ram. Whenever the ram got angry he used to go about and burn houses and knock down trees; he even did damage on the farms, and sometimes killed people. Whenever the lightning did these things, his mother used to call out to him in a very loud voice to stop and not to do any more damage; but the lightning did not care in the least for what his mother said, and when he was in a bad temper used to do a very large amount of damage.
At last the people could not stand it any longer, and complained to the king.So the king made a special order that the sheep (Thunder) and her son, the ram (Lightning), should leave the town and live in the far bush. This did not do much good, as when the ram got angry he still burnt the forest, and the flames sometimes spread to the farms and consumed them.
So the people complained again, and the king banished both the lightning and the thunder from the earth and made them live in the sky, where they could not cause so much destruction. Ever since, when the lightning is angry, he commits damage as before, but you can hear his mother, the thunder, rebuking him and telling him to stop. Sometimes, however, when the mother has gone away some distance from her naughty son, you can still see that he is angry and is doing damage, but his mother's voice cannot be heard.

Read More

Why the Cat kills Rats

Ansa was King of Calabar for fifty years. He had a very faithful cat as a housekeeper, and a rat was his house-boy. The king was an obstinate, headstrong man, but was very fond of the cat, who had been in his store for many years. The rat, who was very poor, fell in love with one of the king's servant girls, but was unable to give her any presents, as he had no money.
At last he thought of the king's store, so in the night-time, being quite small, he had little difficulty, having made a hole in the roof, in getting into the store. He then stole corn and pears, and presented them to his sweetheart.
At the end of the month, when the cat had to render her account of the things in the store to the king, it was found that a lot of corn and pears were missing.
The king was very angry at this, and asked the cat for an explanation. But the cat could not account for the loss, until one of her friends told her that the rat had been stealing the corn and giving it to the girl. When the cat told the king, he called the girl before him and had her beaten. The rat he handed over to the cat to deal with, and dismissed them both from his service. The cat was so angry at this that she killed and ate the rat, and ever since that time whenever a cat sees a rat she kills and eats it.

Read More

Stewed Ox Tongue

In a large coved pot braise a tongue with two glasses of wine, 1 cup carrot, 1 cup onion, thyme, bay-leaf, for two hours on low. Take tomatoes, carrots, pearl onions, and braise them all together, add salt and pepper. Braised tongue eats very well with spinach and carrots.

Read More

Speak Zulu

Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with well over 9 million speakers most of whom are in South Africa. Zulu is one of South Africa's eleven official languages since 1994.
Below are four easy Zulu words with their English phonetic pronunciation: iGoli [e-go?li]- Soil ihembe [e:him:mbe]- Bed uju [oo?jew]- Jumpisibili [is:see:bill?li]- Bead
 

Read More

Enchanted Safe Travels Bracelet

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

Read More