African flavours flood Casa África's patio

Delicious pasties made from aubergine ratatouille from Morocco, the famous Senegalese bissap which is optionally flavoured with mint or the surprising peanut and prawn pudding that is prepared in the kitchens of Equatorial Guinea. These are three of the options in the tasting menu that Habitáfrica and Casa África offered yesterday during the presentation of the recipe book that they publish together as part of the Africa in the kitchen campaign. The event, which took place in Casa África's patio at 18.00 horas, included a tasting of dishes from Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Benin and Senegal, watered down with bissap and bouille, the fruit juice made from baobab. There was also a demonstration on how to prepare bissap and slilo, a type of nougat that is typical in traditional Moroccan parties made from almonds, anisette, cinnamon, roasted wheat flour and walnuts.

The awareness campaign Africa in the kitchen is an initiative from the  Habitáfrica Foundation that has the support of the Directorate General  of African Relations of the Canary Islands Government,  Casa África,  Agüimes Town Council and Arucas Town Council with the collaboration of the Federation of African Associations in the Canary Islands (FAAC) and CEAR. The participating African cooks showed off their culinary skills at the Fiesta África Vive 2011 and have taken part in different events to promote African gastronomy.

 Amongst the activities undertaken, we find several courses on African cookery, the participation in Festival Cine +Food or the presentation of African gastronomic delicacies in different town councils and restaurants in the Canary Islands that they have already won many people over. This campaign also has the main aim of training these cooks and empowering them so that they can devote themselves, if they wish, to professional cooking.

The sampling menu was completed with oregano biscuits and Moroccan slilo, sardine meatballs and  bol (yucca, coconut and mince) from Equatorial Guinea, fish meatballs and brochettes (a brochette of mince and spices) from Mauritania, cokada (a sweet made from peanuts, caramelised sugar and coconut) and pasquette (a flour fritter made with egg and fish) from Benin and Senegalese dishes such as coconut beignet  (a sweet filled with coconut and currants ) and fataya yape (a fritter filled with meat).