Remember my declaration last time that this reboot of our Alphabetic dinners will be all about themes? Well, erm, not yet, as it turned out.
We’re having Angolan food today!
Dorottya is hosting, with her friend Val; Lianne is still up in Scotland, and Idit is too ill to attend 🙁 Bernhard and I promised to come with big appetites.
If I’m very honest, I was a tiny bit miffed that Dorottya went geographical again rather than choosing a theme. But she quickly did away with that sentiment by serving us sweet & zingy Banana Daiquiris as we walked in!
(apparently, a misguided friend gave her a bottle of banana liquor for New Year’s, and she had to get it drunk somehow).
These cocktails were like beach-holidays-in a-glass, on a very cold January night.
Once we were all appropriately boozed, we could all turn our attention to the business at hand:
Angolan Cuisine.
From Wikipedia: Angola is a country in southwestern Africa. It was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies, before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. In the 15th century, Portuguese colonists arrived and began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal ruled the region as as a colony from 1655. After a long, bloody War of Independence, Angola achieved independence in 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola entered a long period of civil war that lasted until 2002.
Amongst many other impacts, this created a west-African cuisine with many Portuguese influences. Dorottya chose to represent this with a goat curry and a fish curry, served with fried plantains and Funje – a cassava-flour pudding.
There was a strange discrepancy between the smells which emanated from Dorottya’s kitchen, which were spicy, warm and promising all things delicious, and the voices – which sounded a mix of worry, amusement, and disgust. This needed urgent investigation.
So: the wonderful smells came from the curries: the Calulu De Peixe: Fish & Vegetable Stew, and the Caldeira de Cabrito: goat (kid) stew. Apparently, they both did exactly what the recipe said they’d do and turned out perfectly (they were, indeed, delicious).
The Funje, however, did not.
According to Dorottya and Val, it was all going according to plan until that stage in the recipe which required putting the Cassava flour porridge – which at that point was of the colour and consistency the recipe described – in the oven.
What came out of the oven can only be described as a weird BLOB of nondescript colour and texture.
Theories abounded as to what that thing is like. None of them were appetising:
But, you know what they say – the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. And it didn’t taste that bad. As a carrier for the aromatic, very juicy curries, it served well.
And the Fried Sweet Plantains were the perfect side dish.
As it turns out the Angolans aren’t big on deserts, so Dorottya served a tasty, fresh fruit salad with toasted peanuts. Perfect after a big meal.
The last portion of the evening was given to playing Articulate! (Kinda like Charades, but using words rather than mime) – Val & Dorottya Vs. Bernhard and me. I honestly can’t remember who won, but it was awesome!
so, next is B – hosted by Idit, and she promises to do a Themed dinner… let’s see what she pulls out her sleeve!
