A Day in the Kitchen

The other day, I helped in the kitchen to make my favorite Gambian dish, benechin. Here in The Gambia, we eat a lot of rice. I mean 3-meals-a-day-kind of a lot of rice. This dish, benechin, is Wolof for one cooking pot. Unlike other Gambian dishes which are usually plain rice with a sauce on top, the ingredients of benechin are cooked in one cooking pot so that the rice takes on all that yummy flavor. 

1. Go to the market and buy your ingredients. 

Tomato, cabbage, eggplant, onions, tomato paste, jumbo, salted fish

 2. Clean the kitchen, be sure to have enough firewood.

 3. Scrape the scales off the fish. Do this with a mostly dull knife and just scratch at it for a while. Don't stress about removing the bones. Save time by doing this while you eat.

This fish is a treat for people in my village. Every once in a while a
 truck from the river will bring us some fresh and delicious fish.
Once in a while.
 Luckily, dried salted fish is always readily available.
Today we're grateful for a treat. 

 4. Fry the fish in oil.

 5. Cut up the vegetables and add them in.

6. Give the American a small task so that she feels included in the cooking.

Chopping onions with a dull knife and no cutting board like a professional.

 7. Pound the onions, pepper, jumbo, garlic, and a flavorful-tangy-bean-thing-that-I-forgot-the-name-of together. Set aside.

 8. Remove the cooked fish and vegetables.

9. After sifting through the rice to remove small rocks and noticeable bugs, steam it over the pot. Tie a wet strip of fabric between the sieve and the pot to prevent any leaking of the steam. 

10. After steaming for a good while, add the rice into the pot.

 11. Stir, then let the rice soak up all that flavorful broth.

 12. When the rice is finished, divide it amongst the food bowls. One for the women, one for the men, and another for people out working to eat when they get back.

13. Evenly divide the vegetables, onion mix, and fish among the bowls. 

14. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. In my host family, we all use our hands, and of course everyone was very impressed that I cooked the lunch (remember the onion chopping).

Nu leeka! (Let's eat).