Food

les trois pieces or tree pieces recipe

The « three pieces » is one of the Congolese famous dish. It is made of ground nut soup,Mfumbu or coco depending of which part of the Congo Brazzaville you are from and  salted fish ( or you can replace it by beef or chicken). Mfumbu is really essential for this dish. it is a plant that you find in the equatorial forest or tropical forest in the Congo Brazzaville and almost every forest. in the basin of the Congo region. the following video will help make this dish.

Easter Lamb leg recipe

Ingredients:
-lamb leg
-salt
-pepper
-garlic

-rosemary
This is a really simple recipe. Easy to make even for those who are still beginners when it comes to cooking.
For Easter lamb, you do not really need to marinade the meat for long hours in order to get a well seasoned lamb.
First, you wash your meat really good.
Put it in a roasting pan that has a rack. Then season the meat with salt, olive oil pepper, and garlic that has been chopped in a blender. After this step, put it in the oven and let it cook for 45 minutes .
You will then pull the roasting pan out of the oven and season the meat with rosemary on both side. Then put it back in the oven until it is completely cooked.
The final step is to decorate your dish by putting carrots and potatoes or any other vegetables of your choice around the lamb.
Notes:

can be served with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and sautéed green beans which recipe is below.

Sautéed green beans 

Ingredients:
-green beans
-salt
-pepper
-oignon
-2 tablespoon of olive oil or butter

This is a really easy side dish to make .   Instead of green beans you can use spinach. Whichever you like the best.

Put oil in a frying pan. Let it heat up. Then put diced onions let it cook for 2 minutes or so.  Add the beans, salt and pepper for the taste. Once the beans are cooked, you can then serve it with any meat of your choice.

just remember not to over cook the green beans. Also, you can dress it up with Parmesan cheese or almond.

Saka Saka or Pondu recipe (cassava leaves)

Cassava leaves are one of the most popular dish in the Congo. They are served during big family dinners and special occasions such as weddings, birthday parties, kids baptism and Eucharist. It a pretty complicated dish to prepare. Normally the first step is to pound the leaves in a big mortar with its pillar. This is the traditional way of getting the leaves ready.
However, modern life has saved us from that step. So we get buy already pounded cassava leaves in the store. There are plenty of brand to Choose from. And in the Congo Brazzaville there are two versions of cassava leaves . Here are the ingredients for version number 1:

ingredients

2 lbs of cassava leaves
1/ 2 liter of palm oil or olive oil
2 to 3 onions
garlic
scallions
2 green peppers
2 teaspoons black pepper
3 fish
2 big eggplant
1 can of peanut butter

Préparation

In a big pan, put the cassava leaves and add 1/2 liter of water. Let it boil until the water completely dry out add an other 1/2 liter of water. Let it dry out again . This step is really important because it helps get rid of the green color of the cassava leaves . Once the leaves turn into a more yellowish green , cut the eggplants into pieces add them to the pan with another 2 cups of water or 1/2 liter.

Meanwhile, wash and cut onions, garlic, scallions and green peppers. Then put them in a blender to get a purée. Add it the pan along with salt and black peppers. Let it boil until it completely blend with the cassava leaves an the eggplants.

Meanwhile, in another pan, put the fish to a boil. Once it is cooked, get rid of the bones and add it to the cassava leaves pan and follow it with the peanut butter. Let it cook at a low temperature. Once the peanut butter is completely melted and blended with the cassava leave, the next step will be to add the palm oil.

For this last step, cut another onion and 4 to 6 garlic into pieces. In a frying pan pour a 1/2 liter of palm oil . Once the oil is hot add garlic and onions to it. Once these are cooked pour the oil into the cassava leaves pan. Let it boil for another 15 to 30 minutes at low temperature. Your cassava leaves are ready to be served.

tip: serve your cassava leaves with rice, fufu and either fried fish or chicken.

RECIPE
My turkey recipe for Thanksgiving

Préparation 6 hours
Serves 8 people
Cooking time 3  hours at 350°F

Ingredients
18 to 20 pounds Turkey
2 cups of salt
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
12 cloves of
6 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of whole peppercorns
2 ½ teaspoons of dried rosemary
2 ½ teaspoons of dried thyme
2 ½ teaspoons of garlic powder
2 ½ teaspoons of oregano
1 gallon of water
Preparation
In a big pan, put a gallon of water
Add all the ingredients ( salt, brown sugar, cloves, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, garlic, peppercorns and oregano)
Stir all the ingredients in the water.
Put the pan on the stove until it come to a boil.
Let it boil for about15 minutes so all the flavors mix come out and bring a homogenous flavor.
Take the pan out of the stove and let it cool down to room temperature
Then after washing your Turkey, dip it in the mixture for at least 6 hours. This should be enough time for the bird to be flavored by all the ingredients
When you take out the bird from the mixture, wash it again before putting it in the oven. As we said at the beginning, you will need at least 3 hours for the bird to reach 165 °F. Once it reaches 165 °F , it is ready.
Tips
Instead of waiting for the mixture to reach room temperature by letting it sit for a while,you can use a bucket of ice to let it cool down to room temperature.