Today Marcel
kindly shared his lunch with me and another
co-worker. We enjoyed Marcel’s “Fish Stew” or Low Country folk called it “Gumbo”. This Gumbo was made with Salmon, spinach, carrots, mushrooms and I don’t know what all else – It was very tasty!
co-worker. We enjoyed Marcel’s “Fish Stew” or Low Country folk called it “Gumbo”. This Gumbo was made with Salmon, spinach, carrots, mushrooms and I don’t know what all else – It was very tasty!
This amazing Fish Stew/Gumbo can be served as a soup or over some rice – OK – let’s have Marcel tell
you in his own words how it's done.....
In Africa the cooking is
mostly what you will call adaptive cooking. That is there nothing such as
using weight but a lots of tasting. The goal is that the end result must be
very sweet and delicious and as you cook you add spices, tomato, pepper,
onions, mushrooms, in quantities to meet that goal depending on the size of the
family. You can therefore have many variations of the same food. Since I cannot
find the same ingredients as in Africa, I have to use alternatives. Remember
cooking in Africa takes a long time. For instance there a type of food I can
cook with meat and tomatoes and other ingredient that can last about a month
without being refrigerated bit It takes hours to cook. Though Africa is
characterized as a starving continent people know taste and dislike food that
are not delicious.
For this salmon stew/sauce
it’s a recipe I came up with ad hoc something very common in Africa
- Clean it well with lemon/lemon juice and Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar.
- I baked it to avoid the fish disintegrating during the long cooking
- Put a little oil in the pan and add onions to remove what is called the crude taste of the oil
- Progressively add fish, water, two types of sauces onion, mushrooms, ginger, garlic and other sweetening spices. No salt or pepper used in this case (just me)
- Spinach at end
I can talk more about this
later but above is the main.
