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Learn to COOK - Zainabu's African Cookbook with Food and Stories
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $11.96
Your Save: $ 2.99 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
Manufacturer: Citadel Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.596
EAN: 9780806525495
ISBN: 0806525495
Label: Citadel Press
Manufacturer: Citadel Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 293
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Publisher: Citadel Press
Studio: Citadel Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A dissapointing portrayal of the diversity of African dishes
Comment: Zainabu's African Cookbook was a great disappointment. Her recipes and narratives are poorly researched and generalize what should be, distinct regional cultures and dishes. She portrays the African region as one homogenous landscape without recognizing the cultural, and environmental differences. Although she attempts to pay homage to the various African countries from which she draws these recipes, her information is misleading and at times far removed from reality. The book is all but a complete failure at celebrating the great spectrum of ingredients and regional tastes within the African region. To read the book, you would think that African people were a single small and homogenous nation as opposed to the 54 countries, where hundreds of different dialects are spoken, and where they most certainly prepare different foods in very different ways with different ingredients. The biggest disappointment is Zainabu is quick to inform us that she is herself an African from Sierra Leone; it has become apparent to those of us who grew up in African countries that she knows little about the continent and our wonderful differences.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exciting and fresh cooking!
Comment: I haven't been this excited over a cookbook in a couple of years. I have been looking for a good African cookbook, but have not had much success. Therefore, it was a real treat to find this one.
The author is from West Africa and I would venture to say that the recipes are focused on the cooking of her region. Although she does include some indentifiable dishes from other parts of Africa, it is not a comprehensive "all-Africa" cookbook, but I think that this is its strength, as it gives an in-depth view of one region.
I was able to find what I needed for the recipes at the local supermarket - the most exotic ingredients were coconut milk and fresh ginger. The first recipe I tried was Lagba Lagba Chicken, a kind of sweet and sour lemon chicken cooked in coconut milk with lots of fresh ginger and bell peppers. It was just terrific, so fresh-tasting and different.
I also tried Maama Lahun's Chicken in Kponwoh Plasas, a chicken stew flavored with mushrooms, tomatoes, and ginger, and chockful of vegetables - lima beans, okra, asparagus, and spinach. Like the Lagba Lagba Chicken, this dish was very easy to put together and the resulting dish unbelievably fresh and delicious.
All of the recipes emphasize the use of fresh vegetables and although some deep-fried items are included, this is naturally healthy cooking. As the author urges people to experiment on their own, this is also very flexible cooking. I cut the hot peppers out of the Lagba Lagba Chicken so that my young sons would eat it, and everyone was happy. I substituted turnip greens for spinach in the Chicken in Kponwoh Plasas and the result was fine. The presentations and some of the garnishes suggested (such as spiced nuts or beans) seem original to this American cook.
I learned some surprising things - for example, that mushrooms are used in West African cooking. The author's stories are heartfelt, finely told, and interesting, and add to the experience. I am really enjoying this book and am looking forward to the next dinner that comes out of it.
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