We had a terrific thunderstorm the other evening, the kind that seems to rattle your teeth with the ferocity of the thunder. My dog was somewhere in the house having abandoned me long ago because, as a human, I was obviously too stupid not to hide under the bed. As I listened to Mother Nature doing her thing, my mind raced back to those days in Africa when, during the rainy season, we lived in a seemingly never ending season of monsoons. Life was dialed to a slot rot. Everything remained damp and it was a breeding ground for every little creature those you could and could not see. School days were damp and at home it was damp sitting at the dinner table. It was less than pleasant. I suppose my idea of discomfort palled to those of our staff “les boys”. I’m sure for some of you, this must smack of colonialism redux but there you have it and without apologies. One day Albert, our head “boy” arrived in tears explaining that his entire house had been washed away by the monsoon-like rains. It happened every year. He lived in what was then called “la cite” an indigenous city within a city where houses were for the most part made of mud, straw, and a piece of corrugated sheet metal for a roof. A white face was hardly ever seen nor welcomed. Plain and simple. My father would always try to help out by providing some extra cash or and advancement on wages and my mother would offer some extra food. We did what we could. I did not mean to digress, it was just a sidebar. Reality as I knew it.
Now, in the center of Kinshasa was a wonderful restaurant called “Au Plein Vent” a somewhat wishful sounding name as there was hardly a breeze to be found but certainly in spirit. The restaurant was on the seventh floor of an apartment building giving diners a panoramic view of Kinshasa by night, with lights twinkling everywhere and just beyond the darkness of the Congo River one could make out the lights of Brazzaville (that’s right Casablanca fans, the same Brazza where Bogey and Claude Raines were supposedly going as the movie ended.) The restaurant in question had a wonderful and, dare I say, colorful menu ranging from the house specialty, a fondue Savoyard, to local chicken dishes and of course everything was served in true Belgian tradition with pile high platters of frites. Dinner was washed down with a cold local beer or maybe a Danish import at three times the price. The restaurant, I understand from talking to an old Congo hand is still very much alive.
Ingredients:
Chicken
1 whole chicken cut up
1 t salt
a few dashes of ground ginger
1/2 cup green onion (chopped)
1/2 stalk celery (chopped)
bay leaf
1 small white onion (chopped)
8 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
vegetable oil
Sauce
2 big tomatoes
1 small onion
1/2 cup green onion
1/2 stalk celery
1 big green bell pepper
1 small eggplant
1/2 cup water
1/3-1/2 cup all natural peanut butter, depending on taste (I used a fine local varietal -crunchy PB and worked great)
1/2 t salt
1-3 small chili peppers (chopped or whole), depending on taste (in order of increasing spiciness: jalapeño, fresno, serrano, or Thai chili peppers would work well)
Prepare the Chicken
Cut whole chicken into quarters or pieces. Cut small gashes in the meat and rub with ground ginger.
Put chicken in a big pot and add salt, ginger, green onions, celery, bay leaf, onion and garlic.
Cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat, flipping chicken pieces once. Remove the chicken and set aside the remaining juice and cooked vegetables.
Cover the bottom of a pan with oil and brown chicken on one side (about 10 minutes), then flip and brown the other side (about 10 minutes)
Set chicken aside. Save oil for the sauce.
Prepare the Sauce
Chop all vegetables and then add tomato, onion, green onion, celery and bell pepper (all veggies except the eggplant) to the pot. Add the cooked vegetables that were set aside in Step 3 above (not the juice yet, keep saving that!)
Add a few tablespoons of the oil that was used to cook the chicken in Step 5 above. Cook on high heat for about 5 minutes
Add chicken, chicken juice, water, peanut butter, eggplant, salt and chili peppers. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Add additional salt to taste, if needed.
Eat with rice and/or fried or boiled plantains if you dare.
And in true Congo-fashion, let me add “Indépendance cha cha tozui e” (Independence cha cha, we have won it)
Now about those wines….
I wanted to hang around the continent to pick my selection of wines for this truly local dish so I jumped on the next flight out of DRC’s Ndjili Airport on some local airline (help) and headed down, way down, to the Cape. Let me tell you I found more than enough great wines and it was terrible to have to decide among so many great wines. Terrible, just terrible. You know how it is.