Tonight: NIgeria



I have no experience with west African food. Nigeria is the first of four west African countries participating in the world cup, along with Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

We made Yassa and chinchin.

Yassa:

Yassa is a traditional chicken and rice dish from west Africa.





I quartered and skinned the chicken, cut the onions, then marinated for 24 hours in fresh squeezed lemon juice, vinegar and peanut oil. I browned the chicken in peanut oil, fried the onions, and then filled a pot with the reserved marinade, water, thyme, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, onions and chicken.











Final product served over steamed rice and pouring on a bit of the marinade:



Chinchin:

A common dessert in Nigeria, chinchin is a fried bit of dough with sugar.











We later improvised by adding raspberry jelly.



Results:

The yassa was surprisingly good. The marinade had almost equal parts of vinegar and lemon juice and I was a bit skeptical, but I really did like this dish. We had friends over for dinner and they enjoyed it as well.

The chinchin was a fun party dessert. We all gathered in the kitchen and made them fresh, then ate them hot.