African Relief Society Enrichment Meeting

I have really enjoyed getting to know the ladies in my Relief Society. They are a fun, social bunch of ladies. Today was an Enrichment meeting. They are not as well attended as back home, but it was fun nonetheless. They were teaching how to cook BANGA JOLLOF RICE, which a traditional spicy African rice dish. We had it twice last week. I tried to take down directions and list all the ingredients, but I don't think I can find many of the ingredients at home. Sister Gold is our leader, and she is the one doing the cooking here. The red and white think is a kerosene single burner cooker. Most homes would have something similar (remember no dependable electricity, no natural gas). We are spoiled with a nice propane stove.

The video shows a sister mashing the cooked palm fruit to extract the red oil. The palm fruit is the size of a extra extra large olive. They grow in large clusters at the top of palm trees. I noticed them on a tree in Hilo, Hawaii, but didn't know they were. Anyway, after mashing the things, then water is added and swished around and poured into a pot. This is done several times. The rest of the smashed stuff is saved to use for something else. Then she added ground fresh tomato, ground crayfish, ground locust bean (smells just like bad stinky feet!), salt, curry powder, thyme. After that cooked for a little bit, then she put in sliced onions, scented leaf that was somewhat dried and and cut up. Of course there were no measured quantities! Next the rice gets rinsed two or three times to get rid of some of the starch. This then got partially cooked. Then she took it off the cooker and poured off the water, added new water and stirred it around and then drained off that water. Then she started added the soup stuff to the rice until she had the right amount and continued the cooking process. That is how you get spicy rice that isn't all stuck together in a big gooey glob. I was so glad that I went because it was neat to learn something new, even if I probably won't ever be able to replicate it. The video shows the pounding of the palm fruit. You will notice that they also use the "5 second rule" here when food hits the floor.