#36 Republic of the Congo
- Jen
- Apr 28, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Do-do-do come on and eat in Congo… Haha! Sorry not sorry for that!
The Republic of the Congo is not to be confused with its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here, we are in an ex-French colony, making French the official language.
The Congo River forms part of the border between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Brazzaville and Kinshasa, the their capitals, lie directly across the Congo River from one another and are the closest pair of capital cities in the world.
Bonus fun fact of the day: the Congo basin is the second largest rainforest in the world!
Congolese cuisine
Similar to Guinea-Bissau, where we have just visited, the staples here are rice, cassava, plantain and fufu. Tomatoes, peas and nuts are also common, just like in Guinea-Bissau.
Plenty of river fish is eaten and can be steamed, grilled or smoked, or cooked together with tomatoes and onion wrapped in a banana leaf, known as liboké de poisson; a similar dish with meat is (unsurprisingly) liboké de viande.
Meals are usually starch-based, with meat, typically too expensive for everyday, reserved for special occasions. Goat and chicken are the most widely consumed meats. Grasshoppers and caterpillars also form part of the diet.
Rice is usually mixed with beans and can be served as side dish or meal on its own. Other starchy sides include lituma, baked or boiled balls of mashed plantains, and kwanga, a fermented cassava bread, which is reported to be rather tasteless and serves its purpose only as an accompaniment to soup.
Peanuts grow well in the Congo area and peanut sauce is often served with carbs or veg to add both protein and yum. Peanuts are one of the main ingredients in poulet à la moambe, which is considered to be the national dish, and is a beautiful rich stew of chicken cooked with spices in a sauce of peanuts and local red palm oil. The red palm oil is what gives the dish its characteristic taste and cannot be substituted. (Link to my sales pitch for West African red palm oil.)
Fumbwa
Fumbwa is a type of wild spinach which grows in forests in tropical regions of Africa, and is also the name of a dish comprised of said wild spinach. The leaves are cooked down with tomato, onion, peanuts and salted, dried or smoked fish. West African palm oil is added towards the end of the cooking; it’s typical in the region to use palm oil to add flavour and colour rather than to help cook the food.
I followed a recipe from Thespruceeats.com, a recipe site I recommend; I’m yet to cook anything less than fantastic from this site. I boiled chopped spinach, added tomato, garlic, spring onion, a chicken stock cube, smoked mackerel (tin leftover from Russia) and let it simmer for a few minutes, before mixing in crunchy peanut butter and beautiful red palm oil.
Well! This thick peanut butter spinach stew is actually delicious, no word of a lie! The peanuts dilute the pungency of the smoked mackerel and that lovely red palm oil adds an extra hint of earthiness.
Popeye would be all over this.
I had fully intended to serve this with cornmeal (polenta) fufu, which I talked about in my previous blog, Guinea-Bissau, but I did that thing where you go to the shop for one thing, buy about 20 things but not the one thing you went for, so I had this with brown basmati rice instead…I figured that using what you’ve got in the cupboard is probably the right ethos for Congolese cooking.
I will definitely write a shopping list for…ROMANIA!
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