Mataba-Isombe- Saka saka-Cassava leaves

Here is one of my ultimate comfort food. The cassava leaves are called Mataba in Comoros, and Isombe in Burundi and Rwanda. In Congo, it is known as Pondu or Saka saka. It is the taste of my childhood.  They are healthy and high in protein. According to studies, consumption of 400g cassava leaves is equivalent to protein intake of 45 to 50 grams. In Comoros, it is often cooked with coconut milk, probably like Filipinos would cook it. However, I called my mother for her recipes. It takes a long time to cook this healthy green. It took me 3hours. So I did a big batch, and froze small portions.

Ingredients:

24 oz of frozen chopped cassava leaves

4 large leeks sliced
2 chopped garlic

5 medium onions sliced

6 Tbsp of olive oil

4 Tbsp of peanut butter
Salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper 

1.      Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add  Cassava leaves,  cook for 1h30

2.      Add remaining ingredients to the cassava leaves and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

3.      Simmer until the water is mostly gone

4.      Then taste if the leaves are still hard add water and keep on going until greens are really tender.  This is where, I become impatient.  Most of the water should be evaporated, to get a creamy green sauce.

I like to eat this with a side of ultra garlicky pan fried eggplants, large shrimps and brown rice.The taste is a mix of spinach and collard green with  the familiar taste of cassava root. I love it!!!

Buttery Croissants

It all started with making bread and purchasing a baking stone.
I am experiencing with bread baking. I even made my own levain or "sour dough like starter". I think that mine is not sour or acidic, well so far. I love it! Croissants came up after watched a you-tube video of Pierre-Dominique Cécillon pour Larousse Cuisine. And the result was great. However, I always do it over two days.
I rather wait and let the dough rest then fight with a leaking sticky dough.
Then I used my own bread dough and made good buttery croissant.
Recipe is coming 

Wakame Seaweed salad

It is healthy and smell like ocean. I am a coastal girl. I love sushi, and the wakame salad often served. I made my own little wakame salad after I bought a very cheap bag of dried wakame in a Asian store.
Recipe is coming

Langues de chat

An easy classic that use all your left over Egg whites.
I am not comfortable yet with pastry bags so, I simply used a teaspon to drop and slightly spread the dough to form circles.
Recipe is coming

Rousquilles from Perpignan

My younger brother is born in Perpignan, France. He is our African-Catalan. I was missing him so I made these cookies, because he loves them. Now,Ismael likes them too.I still need to perfect the icing of this cookies
The Recipe is coming

le goûter- snack time by Ismael:Strawberry cake.

Well, it is easy to cook, eat and cook some more. However, it is hard to blog about it, and take decent pictures.Kudos to you all for keeping in up with amazing recipes and scrumptious pictures!!!  It is an extra step that we are still practicing. We will get there with time. So please bear with us!

Here a piece of Strawberry cake that survived us, I was going for an express Frasier.I did a regular genoise-sponge cake using the terrific recipe from Une plume dans la cuisine .We used a leftover, reddish pink fondant that  we made for his birthday. For the filling, I mixed a warmed homemade strawberry jam with creme fraiche, vanilla extract and fresh strawberry. Voila!!!

For the cake genoise/sponge cake

-4 eggs

-1  cup of flour

-3/4 cup of flour

-1 tsp of Baking powder
For the filling:
-1 cup of warm strawberry jam
-1 cup of creme fraiche
-1 cup of sliced fresh strawberry
-1 tsp of vanilla extract

Napa cabbage salad with warm turkey bacon

Napa Cabbage salad with warm turkey bacon  is my latest favorite salad because my son who does not like cabbage loved it. Then I did confess that it was cabbage!!! Easy and fast.
Here my recipe:

• 3 tablespoons light olive oil,
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 medium minced onion
• 6 tablespoons of green onion
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
• 4 cup Napa cabbage, cored and thinly sliced crosswise 
• 8 slices of package of Turkey  bacon 
• Ground Black Pepper and salt to taste

Place finely shredded cabbage in a large bowl
Sauté onion  in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft.
Add bacon to onion  and cook until bacon gets crispy.
Add green onion and chives.
Add rice vinegar  to the pan, warm up  for a minute.
Pour the warm dressing on cabbage and mix well. 
Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Toasted Almond biscuits

Here an adapted recipe of Martha Stewart-Wholemeal-Almond Biscuits
But I saw the pictures first on J'en reprendrai bien un bout...
I had some organic whole meal pastry flour  and ground almond.
If a recipe calls for brown sugar and almond, I am all in.


* 1 cup ground blanched almonds that I toasted 
* 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
* 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
* 1 tsp of vanilla extract, one pinch of salt

1.  Mix flours and brown sugar. Add butter mix with fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal. 
2. To shape dough into a ball and vanilla extract and one tablespoon of cold water if needed then wrap in plastic.
3. Refrigerate until cold and slightly firm, no longer than 30 minutes.( I forgot about it for 1h30)
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to cut out circles (According to Martha more than 1/4 inch thick)
5. Space them  apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until edges are golden brown, about 20 minutes in my oven. Let cool on baking sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Cooking Nomads Verdict:
They taste really nutty almost like honey roasted almonds, but a little too sweet for me. I did put too much brown sugar but a perfect reason to have a  lemon green tea without sugar!!! They are cute, and a nice way to use wholemeal flour.
Next time :1 cup of wholemeal flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and toast my almond a little longer, for a darker brown finish. I will use this recipe to experiment with others flavors and flours, and less sugar.