Wild Kivu pepper, forest treasure, a hundred percent Congolese spice delight

By: Clémence Denavit Follow

A wild pepper, a gustatory wonder originating in Kivu in the east of the DRC, ambassador of another look at this region of the world. This is the ambition of the Congolese, Sandrine Vasselin Kabonga, for this pepper. She created Misao, a fair and sustainable company to highlight this wild pepper and the spices of her country, offer a new image of her country and participate in its influence.

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A treasure just waiting to be discovered

No one paid much attention to Kivu pepper in the DRC. Its clusters like other wild berries are part of everyday life, picked if necessary, and directly poured into pots, herbal teas, rarely used as a “spice” strictly speaking until Sandrine Vasselin Kabonga opens one day, when from a family reunion, a jar of this wild pepper, picked in his native region and gets carried away: “ As soon as you open the jar of pepper, you feel that you are in the rainforest, there is the scent of undergrowth, and a long pepper on the palate, something very fresh. Discreet fire, the flame ignites after a few seconds ”. Sandrine Vasselin kabonga set out to make it a fair, sustainable industry, she works to obtain the grail: the IGP label, protected geographical indication, issued by the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) obtained for now with Penja pepper in Cameroon.

“ This is all that drives me into the Misao adventure, what motivates me. I don't just want to sell spices, I really want to highlight another image of the region, to highlight the DRC, Kivu. It's not a question of money, it's a question of outreach . ”

For an organized, fair, sustainable sector
Wild pepper, the berries grow freely, and derive their flavors from the soil and their environment. A field that the NGO Cinerdi knows perfectly, with which Misao has collaborated since the beginning of this adventure. Cernadi has been working for more than 20 years in the reintegration and support of displaced populations in Kivu and with refugees, since the early 2000s in border countries, Rwandra and Burundi. With Misao, they transmit know-how around pepper: from culture to drying, to treatments, work to achieve a pepper with quality and international commercial standards: added value for the product, new knowledge for the he team in the field, with the ultimate aim of creating a production and work sector for pepper and Congo spices.

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With Sandrine Vasselin Kabonga, creator of Misao:
MISAO opens this summer “Le coin gourmand et Bar à épices”, in the antiques district, at 70 Rue Blaes, 1000 Brussels. Partner: Origins & Flavors

Some points of sale where to find Misao spices and wild Kivu pepper in France:
* Agrology, Fine food - 15, Rue de Prague, Paris XIIème, France (75012 Paris)
* Les Épicentriques, Fine food oriented products of exception - 357 rue Gambetta 59000 Lille.

In DRC  : La Petite Épicerie (Crossing Av. 24 November & Bvd of 30 June) - Kinshasa, Commune de la Gombe, DR Congo.

In Belgium  :
* AfricaShop, Musée d'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium
* Yaka, Afrotoria, 33 Rue de la Madeleine, 4000 Liège, Belgium
* La Porte de la Tortue, 2 rue Saint Ghislain, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.

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RECIPE

Mini dark chocolate fondants & Kivu wild pepper. Recipe - pepper - Misao
For 12 People / Preparation: 15 minutes / Cooking time: 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
125 g of pastry flour (wheat or buckwheat) / 115 g of soft butter / 80 g of sugar / 3 eggs / 100 g of dark chocolate / 10 to 15 grams of Kivu Wild Pepper (black, in grains).

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. In a container, whisk the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one by one while continuing to whisk. Add the flour and then the melted chocolate. Butter mini-mussels and flour them. Crush your grains of wild black pepper from Kivu coarsely (with a mill or mortar and pestle). Put the preparation in the molds and sprinkle each portion with wild pepper from the crushed Kivu. Bake your molds at 180 ° C for 15 minutes.

Good tasting…

The wild pepper of Kivu being very fragrant and fresh, it also goes very well with fruits. You can make a declined version of this recipe for peppery chocolate mini-fondants, by incorporating summer fruits such as strawberries or raspberries which you make a reduction that you incorporate into each mini-fondant (1 teaspoon per cupcake ), then sprinkle your Wild Pepper with crushed Kivu, before baking. If you want to stay in the exotic flavors, a reduction of fresh mango will be just as delicious.

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