Chapter 2           METHODS OF COOKING.

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STAPLES.

Nyelengo or nyelling: Term used in connection with findo, suno, sanyo and kinto, but not rice, meaning steamed.

Findi nyelengo: The grain is washed and steamed whole, water being added during the steaming process.

Sanyo and suno nyelengo: The grain is washed (sometimes after overnight soaking), pounded and the flour removed for futo or mono (see below). The grain is steamed, with water being added during the steaming process.

Kinti nyelengo: As for sanyo.

Nyelengo is customarily flavoured with dried baobab leaves (naa) to give it a slippery consistency. It is usually eaten with tia durango, dajiwo, domoda, palm fruit soup, bukolo orjambo. It may also be eaten with baobab.

fruit `juice' (sitajio) or cows' milk fresh (ninsi kekeo) or sour (ninsi nono kumungo), usually at breakfast. Nyelengo is rarely eaten alone.

Futo or Cherreh: This is also produced by steaming and the term is used in connection with sanyo, suno, kinto and tubanyo but not rice or findo. The fine flour obtained from pounding the grain is sifted to make it evenly fine and a little water is added so that stirring produces small balls or clumps of powder.

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These balls are steamed (kankatango). The balls are quite large at this stage but become very fine at the end of the process. They are then removed from the steamer and put into a large calabash and broken up with the back of a smaller calabash, using it as one might a spoon. Occasionally this is done in a mortar. The broken particles are then re-steamed (fulanjango), removed from the steamer and sieved to make small even-sized particles. Water is then added to make the mixture damp and it is steamed a third time (this third steaming is sometimes omitted). It is finally removed from the heat and pounded again when flavourings such as baobab leaf (dried) or bunbango may be added. No salt is added, as it would be added to the sauce (dajiwo) or hot water that is added to the futo just before eating. This dish is often taken to the bush in the farming season as it is a `dry' food easily carried in a piece of cloth. In some areas today, and much more frequently in the past (Gordon, 1944 12), manankaso or duto flour would be added to the cereal to make it go further in times of shortage. Futo would rarely be eaten with durango, but mostly with water or dajiwo (e.g. tia, njeng, jambo, nyambi, soso, papaya etc.) or sour or fresh milk.

Fajiringo: Term used for boiling and usually in connection with rice only, i.e. mani fajiringo. The rice grains are washed, steamed and then boiled or they may only be boiled with no preliminary steaming. Any excess water is drained off before the rice is fully cooked and it is dried out by steaming. When cooked, mani fajiringo is white and fluffy, as very little of the outer layers of the grain remain after the preparation of the grain for cooking. Mani fajiringo is served with most types of sauce, particularly tia durango, kulango, jambo and kucha durango, also meat and fish. It is occasionally eaten with sour milk but not sitajio. When oil (tulo) is available the fajiringo would be served with this poured over it.

Serengo: Term used for boiling cereals e.g. suno, sanyo and kinto but not rice or findo. The grain is de-husked and pounded until very `clean', then washed, steamed and boiled. It is finally drained and steamed dry. In some areas it is normally only boiled without the initial steaming. Because so much flour may be wasted in the preparation, this method is only used after the harvest when cereals are plentiful. Again, if oil is available this is poured on before serving - particularly palm oil (teng tulo) or palm kernel oil (teng keso tulo). Serengo is often eaten with groundnuts, dried fish and pepper, also durango, kulango, jambo, but not sitajio or sour milk.

Nyankantango: This refers to a further steaming of alreedy cooked cereal (fajiringo or serengo usually) together with pounded raw groundnuts plus dry fish, locust beans, oil or onion on top of it. The dish is often taken to the fields during the wet season. Soso nyankantango is made by adding whole beans (Food No 44) to rice and steaming them together.

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Faro: Also called Fallo. A term used with tubanyo. The grain is pounded to break it into pieces (not powdered), and steamed. It can contain dried fish, groundnuts and other ingredients. It is similar to nyankantango.

Sato: Teron used for preparation of a type of thick pudding using rice, sanyo, suno, kinto or findo. The grain is washed and left to soak for about 10 minutes, drained and pounded till smooth. It may be sifted and repounded to achieve this. This powder is then added to boiling water whilst stirring. Depending on quantities used, it will turn out like thick or thin porridge with lumps, as some unsplit grains will be incorporated. Sato may be served with sour milk, baobab fruit `juice' and sugar if available, but not with fresh milk. It is also served with kulango and often with palm oil, palm oil and fish, or it maybe eaten alone. It is not served with durango or j ambo.

Churo: Term used for preparation of a type of porridge using rice only, i.e. mani churo. Whole de-husked rice grains are boiled to a thick paste or porridge rather like a rice pudding. It is boiled for a long time and salt may be added during the cooking. It may be served alone or with sour milk, tinned milk or sugar, or milk and sugar, never with durango, kulango or jambo. Tiakere churo is made by pounding rice and raw groundnuts together. The rice remains in largish pieces, but the groundnuts become flour. This mixture is boiled in water with salt to a lumpy gruel. Sour milk, sitajio or sugar may be added.

Faso and bero are similar to churo, but they are thicker.

Mono: Again, a term used for the preparation of a kind of porridge,.

this time a thinner variety. This thin gruel can be made with the powder of any pounded grain - rice, sanyo, suno, kinto, findo or tubanyo, or even cassava (nyambo). There are several methods of preparation. It can be made by adding the powder to cold water and mixing and then adding this to boiling water, stirring all the time. Variations on this method are called potewo (or potayo) mono, gidyo mono and gisuma mono (jisuma mono). Another type, yerenke mono, is made by adding water to the powder (enough to dampen it, like the process used in making futo) and making it into small balls by stirring.

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These balls are added to boiling water, stirring continuously to prevent them from sticking together.

Monos are usually eaten at breakfast by adults, or as a light meal, e.g. for pregnant women or sick children, or when food is scarce in the wet season. It is generally considered children's food and mono is the first food offered to a child other than breast milk. Mono may be served alone or more usually with sugar or sometimes with milk or sour milk, honey (lio) or baobab fruit 'juice' (sitajio), also with raw or roasted groundnuts or a combination of these. Mono is not served with sauces.

Dempetengo: Newly harvested rice is pounded in a mortar, and the resulting powder heated in a dry pan and pounded again to make flakes. It is used as a snack food.

Munko: Cereal flour or powder that is used for thickening sauces and making mono or futo. Munko may also refer to small uncooked `cakes' made from raw cereal powder and pressed into balls and eaten with salt or sugar. If cooked they are called tufulo. Sadah munko are `cakes' made by pounding cereal flour with sugar (optional but preferred) and a little water. They are made on special occasions e.g. naming ceremonies, funerals and at the start of the rice harvest.

SAUCES.

Durango: A general term for a thick sauce, but the main use is with groundnuts.

Tiadurango. Groundnuts are roasted in a dry pan with sand, peeled, pounded, then rolled or crushed on a board (tia sirango) , using a bottle as a rolling pin, to make a paste. This is added to boiling water and stirred with a special four-pronged stick (furufurulango, furu-furandango) until a smooth sauce is obtained. Salt and chilli pepper are usually added and dry orfresh fish or occasionally meat or chicken may also be added together with any of the following vegetables: onions, bitter tomato, tomato, sour leaves (kucha), baobab.

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leaves or green pepper. Jambanduro, nebedayo and suro leaves are never added to tia durango. Tomato paste (tomato) and stock cubes (jimbo) are more recent common ingredients. If there is a shortage of groundnuts, baobab seeds (sitakulo) or gingerbreed plum seeds (tambakulo) may be pounded and used instead. Locust beans (tulingo) may be used as flavouring (see Food No 64) Tia durango is often thickened with rice or other cereal flours and extra oil may be added, either groundnut oil or palm oil. Tia durango is the most commonly eaten sauce, being served with mani fajiringo, nyelengos and serengo.

Kucha durango (or kucha) is a sauce made from sour leaves (kucha) (Food No 6) usually without the addition of groundnuts. It has a sour taste, as the first cooking water is not always thrown away, and the leaves go slimy when cooked. Additional ingredients are sometimes dried fish and dried baobab leaves (naa) or more rarely tomato paste, flour, onion, sweet pepper or locust beans (tulingo). It is a similar sauce to domoda, and the names may be used interchangeably in the West Kiang area.

Na durango or nada is a sauce made from dried baobab leaves which sometimes also contains groundnuts. Nada kolikolo is a similar sauce, but does not contain groundnuts.

Kulango: Raw groundnuts are pounded to a flour, then boiled together with some whole groundnuts and chilli, salt, onions or tomatoes. Leaves are not added.

Jambo: A term used for any leaf sauce except kucha durango or domoda. Leaves are usually boiled first and the water thrown away to remove any bitter flavour. They are boiled again and are sometimes served as a sauce with salt alone, or more usually with the addition of groundnuts (raw and pounded, but not roasted). Onion, tomato, okra, bitter tomato, stock cubes, dried fish and palm oil are sometimes added 34.

Dajiwo: This refers to a thin sauce usually eaten with futo. It is frequently just the water in which fish has been cooked, but may have various additions. Tia dajiwo is made with raw pounded groundnuts and is similar to durango, except that it is much thinner. It usually contains chilli and salt. Other types of dajiwo are made with beans (soso), pumpkin (njengo), leaves (jambo), cassava (nyambo), pawpaw (papaya), or palm fruit (teng kulo). They may contain groundnuts as well as the usual chilli and salt.

Bukolo: (or ngalida). Aflour based sauce, which usually contains fish and tomato or tomato paste. The fish is cooked in the water in which the tomato was cooked. The fish is removed and the water thickened with flour. Finally the fish and tomato are returned to the sauce, and chilli is often.

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added. Occasionally dried baobab leaf powder (na munko) is added. This sauce is served with findi nyelengo or more commonly with mani fajiringo.

Domoda: A thick sauce having different meanings in different areas of The Gambia. In the Lower River Division, domoda is sauce made from sour leaves (see Food No 6) usually without the addition of groundnuts. Other ingredients may be chilli pepper, dry fish, okra, baobab leaves (dry), cereal flour, locust beans, salt, stock cubes and palm oil 34. It is a similar sauce to kucha durango, and the names may be used interchangeably in the West Kiang area. At the coast and in Upper River Division, domoda usually refers to roasted groundnut sauce with added fish or meat, tomatoes, salt, chilli, `tulingo' or `yet' and often bitter tomato or sour leaves (kucha), but the sour leaves are not an essential ingredient.

Sauso (or chew) (oil stew): Asauce made from oil (usually groundnut oil, but sometimes palm oil) in which vegetables are first fried, then water is added. Chilli pepper, onion, tomato or tomato paste are common ingredients, as are salt and stock cubes. Other vegetables such as aubergine, bitter tomato, okra and sweet pepper may also be used, but not leaves or groundnuts 34. The sauce rarely contains dried fish, but fresh fish or meat may be cooked in it.

Benechin: A rich dish made from rice, tomatoes, aubergine, green pepper, meat or fish in oily chilli-flavoured sauce somewhat like a risotto. Eaten mainly at the coast, but also in rural areas on festive occasions.

Plasas: An introduced Creole dish from other parts of West Africa (probably Sierra Leone). Made from palm oil, leaves of various kinds, meat and dried fish. It may be flavoured with ground sesame (ogeree) or netetuo (locust bean) and very occasionally contains pounded water melon seeds. Other ingredients are chilli pepper, onion and green peppers.

PREPARATION OF INGREDIENTS USED IN SAUCES.

Leaves are first boiled in water often more than once to remove the bitter taste, and the water is discarded. Kucha leaves are the exception, the water being retained to enhance the characteristic sour taste. Some leaves such as baobab (naa) and occasionally sour leaves (kucha), are usually dried before using, and are added to sauces (such as durango or bukolo), or to cereals during cooking (such as futo and nyelengo), to give them a slippery texture.

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Fish is dried by splitting, washing in salted water, sprinkling with salt, and drying in the sun for 3-4 days. If well dried it should keep for up to one year. Fresh fish is cooked by frying first, in palm or groundnut oil, and boiling, or by merely boiling in water to which may be added salt, chilli, onion and/or tomato. Dried fish is pounded and used as a flavouring for groundnut (durango) or leaf sauces (kucha). Fresh and dried fish may be used together. Bitter tomato is often added to fish dishes, but there are innumerable combinations of ingredients e.g.

1. cereal flour, dried fish and tomato (bukolo);.

2. fish, groundnuts, chilli pepper, tulingo (locust bean seed) and green okra pods; or.

3. dried fish, dried baobab leaves, chilli pepper and onions.

Shellfish are boiled in salted water and served in a sauce of oil, salt, onion, tomatoes and chilli or green pepper. Shellfish left to decompose for a few days and then dried in the sun (yet) are used as a flavouring in domoda at the coast by Wolof people.

Meat is usually prepared by frying before boiling. Salt, chilli, pepper or onions are usually added, and sometimes tomato, bitter tomato, tomato paste, groundnut paste or locust bean seeds. Meat is served with boiled or steamed rice or millet. Liver is usually stewed with vegetables to make a `soup' or a `stew'. Meat may also be dried.

Ghee or clarified butter (ninsi tulo) is made by boiling the cream from cows' milk with water. This is allowed to cool and the fat removed from the top. It is used on rice (e.g. nyankantango) or for frying meat. The water from which the fat is removed may be used for making mono. Ghee is also used as a cosmetic.

Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil (teng tulo and teng keso tulo). Palm oil is made in the home quite frequently, but the kernels are usually sold for commercial extraction. The orange fruit is boiled for about one hour. The fruits are then removed and pounded in a mortar until the flesh is separated from the nuts. The flesh is then reboiled and the orange oil that rises to the top is skimmed off. The residue is used for palm fruit soup/sauce (teng kulo dajiwo). The kernels are dried in the sun. To extract the kernel oil, the kernels are pounded to release the seeds, which are then themselves pounded. Water is added and the mixture left to stand overnight. This is repounded the next day and kneaded in water. If left, the oil rises to the surface and can be skimmed off. The residue is also said to be used in sauces.

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Sour Milk (ninsi nono kumungo) is prepared by leaving the milk to go sour in a covered container with no starter, as the containers harbour a mixed culture including Lactobacillus acidophilus, the yoghurt bacillus. If the milk is not considered sour enough, baobab fruit `juice' (sitajio) may be added. The liquid is drained off and used in sauces. The more solid part is usually served with monos, churos, satos and nyelengos, and usually at breakfast.