Tag: smoky

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(67) Comoros – Mbawa Ya Tomati

Today I make up for my spacy posts and do have a double post day. We head back to Africa to an island country I had never heard of..

The old harbour of Moroni, Grand Comore, Comoros. Source: Lifestyle – Michael Runkel /Robert Harding World Imagery / Corbis

Comoros is a volcanic archipelago made up of three major islands and several smaller situated in the Indian Ocean superior to Madagascar. Like Madagascar, it is a large producer of vanilla production (coming in second) and also exports the most ylang-ylang in the world (which is often used in perfume essence). French, Arabic, and Comorian are the three primary languages spoken here. Mount Karthala is an active volcano on the largest island of Comoros, Grande Comore island. If you are interested in visiting Comoros you may want to try scuba diving and snorkeling since it has some of the biggest coral atolls and diverse marine wildlife.

The cuisine of this smaller African country consists of several local ingredients including coconut, mango, pineapple, cassava and plantains. Fresh seafood is more commonly used as the protein of their meals, however chicken and goat is used as well. Rice, beans, and other grains also accompany their meals. For Comoros I made a dish that is better known as a popular street food mbawa ya tomati or chicken wings with tomatos. If you wish to try this dish you can find the recipe here.

This was yet another recipe I found easy to follow and did not require fancy ingredients. I found it difficult to find a cooking pan/pot that would fit all of the chicken, the cast iron wok is what I ended up using. To break up the meat focused meal I added a side salad.

Comoros brought us another flavorful sauce which was well absorbed by the rice and coated the crisp chicken wings. The sauce (from the liquid smoke since we didn’t have smoked paprika) was very BBQ-esque. It was simple yet delicious, something we can’t get enough of- we rated it 8/10.

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(44) Iraq – Masgouf

Iraq’s capital Bagdad. Source Britannica .

Growing up in the United States, discussions of Iraq were often about war and conflict. Despite the media’s portrayal, we know this country is full of amazing, kind people and has a very rich history.

Credit- Wikipedia

Iraq has two major rivers – the Tigris and the Euphrates. Seated between these rivers is part of the region known as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is considered by many as the birthplace of modern civilization and is home to the world’s earliest known forms of writing, mathematics, and the wheel.

Masgouf is Iraq’s national dish. This dish typically involves a large carp fish covered in curry and a well-spiced tomato-based sauce which is traditionally cooked over an open fire. The recipe we used is here. In this recipe, she also recommends baking and finishing with the broil setting which is what I did.

Rub the fish with curry and salt and then begin to prepare the sauce.

Prepare your ingredients and begin by sautéing onion and garlic briefly first.

Add the chopped tomato, parsley, tomato paste, vinegar, lemon juice, water, salt, curry, and cayenne pepper mixing well. Occasionally stir the sauce while it simmers for 5 minutes. Since I didn’t prepare this over an open fire, I added some liquid smoke to bring some of that element into the dish.

Cover the fish with your sauce and top that with slices of tomato and onion. Bake this in the oven for about 30 minutes at 375-degrees. Turn the oven to broil for the last 3-5 minutes to add a char to the dish.

Finally, serve with your favorite rice! The sauce for this dish was delicious and the addition of liquid smoke helped give this dish the authentic flavor. We felt however the dish was missing something.. Final score: 7.5/10. This sauce would pair well with any meat!