santomense 2

Obô Vegetables and Pineapple Rice

It was a dirty old afternoon in Budapest. True to form we came together for this quick lunch after a visit to the csarnok or market to secure other supplies like fresh lamb kidneys and sardines.

This dish in inspired by Francisco Alamô, Guide in Obô National Park, Sao Tome. Obô means nirvana, sanctuary, place of nothing.

The artichoke is our local replacement for matabala, a tuber vegetable, very nice and crunchy from Sao Tome.

The Habanero’s are very hard to get here. Hungarians don't know about them. You’ll have to bring them from Berlin, Vienna, or London. The malagita and piripiri could be replaced with Thai peppers, but take it easy. The aroma and heat of the Habanero’s should open your mouth’s glands like a sorbet. After the meal the rest of the flavors will follow.

Other combinations of vegetable like yam and cabbage are also good.


Obô Vegetables

Four-six Jerusalem artichokes, peeled
Two small potatoes, peeled
Half head brocolli, cleaned

Boil above to al dente in salt water, first artichokes, then potatoes

2 thin slices of Habanero/Scotch Bonnet pepper—fresh
Malagita/malagueta pepper (1)
Piripiri peppers (5)
10 grains of white pepper
25 grains whole cumin
2-3 garlic cloves
Teaspoon sea salt
Dried lime skin to taste
Teaspoon ginger (strong, wild if possible)
Cilantro
Juice from half a lemon
Juice from two key limes
Palm oil

Make above into fine paste, pound well, except palm oil.
Add lime/lemon juice, emulsifying

Scorch very quickly the mixture in two teaspoons palm oil once the vegetables are ready.

Lemon grass might be added (I forgot).


Pineapple Rice

1/3rd of a sweet pineapple, diced finely
1 piece fresh turmeric (try an Indian or Thai grocery for this), julienned and diced
5 white pepper corns
1 slice of Habanero
1 cup basmati rice
1 ½ teaspoons ghee/oil
Pinch of salt to taste

Soak rice for minimum 15 minutes in cold water, drain
Saute turmeric, pepper corns, pineapple a few minutes.
Add rice, stir.
Top up with 1 ½ cups water
Bring to boil, cover, lower heat, ready in 10-15 minutes
Then uncover and allow to sit and steam on its own accord

Serves two.
Creola beer from Sao Tome was missed.
Rice left over for tacos later in the day.

food memory

After Christmas I had an encounter with food memory.

Apparently, the homemade Transylvanian sausages and goose hadn't worked over the holidays. So I decided to make some friends a proper English Sunday Nostalgia Pheasant.

The bread sauce and forcemeat recipes are from the head of my mother on the phone. It was like a taste road trip of childhood, maybe dating to some weekend return of father from a pheasant shoot in Wyoming and my mum's cooking of the game.

Forcemeat (for pheasant or chicken)

Breadcrumbs homemade from dry bread
Rind of whole lemon more or less
Parsley to taste (lots—4 bunches)
Salt and pepper
Grated butter (2 nuts or more)
Beaten egg (2 or 3)
Make “paste,” mould in spoon with a cupped hand, cook in piping hot dripping, duck fat, lard four to seven at a time, crispy and brown.

Bread sauce

Onion spiked with cloves
Warm in milk (half liter) to give flavor
Breadcrumbs (2 oz or so, added at last minute, not cooked or roasted)
Nutmeg and salt and white pepper to season

Roast potatoes and parsnips

Five potatoes, five parsnips, cut in halves/quarters, preboil in salted water to softer than imagined softness of al dente
Last 20 minutes of pheasant cooking, on lower shelf, bung this in, having about 50 percent of the drained substantial grease from the roast pheasant. Turn occasionally, so relatively golden brown in about ½ inch of grease.

Nostalgia roast pheasant legs

Eight frozen pheasant legs (1.5 kilo)
Defrost, clean (looking for shot), wash and drain
Rub with salt, lavender, summer savory—sprinkle with a shot of whisky, put aside
Make a fat mixture of foie gras fat, goose fat, and pork fat (bacon, belly) (all Christmas leftovers)
Bake 75 min in preheated oven hot
Cover lightly after 30 mins
Baste frequently, make sure bottom does not burn

With cabbage salad and 2002 Duzsi Tamas Kadarka
Also good with game chips

santomense picky nicky

In Sao Tome, you forget that everyone's black within about two minutes. Not much hassle. There are few tourists in Sao Tome, so it's kind of paradise unspoiled unlike places like Bali, Thai, etc... We had a young taxi driver named Bubu we used regularly to get around when we needed him.

Accommodation ranged from a botanical garden to church dormitory to colonial house to flat above a bar to a bungalow on the beach... If you need contacts, write.

We brought back all kinds of stuff: local lemon grass (folio de principe), tiny little gingers, fresh turmeric, different kinds of peppers (chilis and piment), seven fresh cocoa pods, jackfruit, about 50 vanilla pods (bought for about 10 bucks), 4 kilos or more of wonderful coffee (just 20 euros a kilo in Lisbon for the stuff from Sao Tome), a few parafin lamps made from sausage tins, cloth, kola nuts, safu, micondo, ossami, malagita...

Tomorrow, we'll make dinner at our house. The menu, for a select few, is:

Ementa:

Amendoas de kola
Cacau fresca

Safu
Feijoada a moda da terra com bacalhau e farinha de mandioca
Arroz com ananas e acafrao-das-indias
Carneiro com malageta e limao

Jaca fresca
Cafe de monte cafe

Até logo! Leve leve só!

pretravel note

Please watch this space for postings of good food made at home, the result of raids to the local markets and a few specialty shops as well as my own efforts to import what's needed. I have a large bank of recipes, photographs, etc., to post in future, but will be traveling the next few weeks. Other writers, artists and freelancers will be encouraged to contribute in future.