Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We headed to West Africa for a Beninese feast tonight. Present-day Benin was the site of the African kingdom of Dahomey and, then, a French colony. And its cuisine reflects both its location on the African continent, on the Gulf of Guinea, and its historical ties to France. Riley cooked, Dylan folded laundry (to stay out of the way), and, for his part, Jake had Benin-born Angélique Kidjo streaming on pandora. A full family affair on this Friday night... Riley and I created a Benin-style Crab Stew that was a mixture of a few different Beninese recipes. Slow-stewed okra and tomatoes were a delicious base for this seafood concoction. "Mushed" and "smashed" seem to be the texture of choice for Beninese food. They have a dish called 'Pâte Rouge' which translates, literally, as "red paste." Not a very appetizing name, in my opinion. I opted to cook cassava and plantains until 'mushable' and then I put Riley to work with the potato masher. ...

This wasn't a real recipe I found from Benin, but rather a combination of a few different recipes. I liked the flavors of  sauce gumbo (slow-stewed okra and tomatoes) and ago glain (crab seasoned with pili-pili ). So I combined them and came up with this. Pili-pili most often refers to African Birdseye peppers, but since  pili-pili simply means "pepper-pepper" and is a generic term for any African chile, I used a poblano chile I had in the fridge. I learned this today: the name for okra sounds like 'gumbo' in several African dialects. For something to be called a gumbo, it should contain okra. Interesting. okra poblano chile minced garlic sliced tomatoes chicken boullion crab meat, cooked and cleaned paprika smoked sea salt In a large flat-bottomed pan, soften the garlic and chile in a pat of butter with a splash of olive oil. Add the tomatoes, okra, and chicken boullion. Cook until the okra is cooked through. There's a reason Peace Corp volunteers...

I have made Crème Brûlée countless times, but, somehow, I've never made flan. Tonight I changed that and it brought a flood of memories - I remember hunting high and low, all over Cabo, for the best flan with my friend Jalene. After ten days in Mexico, we decided that the creamiest flan to be had was at the restaurant at our hotel. Ironic. Next time I'll use smaller ramekins; these were very thin...but delicious nonetheless. For the Caramel 6 T organic granulated sugar 1 T water For the Flan 2 eggs 1-1/2 C milk 6 T organic granulated sugar 1/2 T cornstarch zest and juice of one lemon Butter your ramekins and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the caramel, heat the sugar and water until a golden syrup forms; it will go through some "ugly" stages that look nothing like caramel. Don't worry, eventually the sugar will melt and turn a gorgeous shade of amber. Pour into the ramekins. To make the flan, beat the eggs with the sugar. Add milk, cornstarch, ...