The African roots of North American cuisine

By: Clémence Denavit Follow

The obvious only appears to those who wish to see, it is the same for traditions, heritage, heritage, gifts from Africa to the world. "Black" cuisine is at the roots of flavors from the new world, from an entire hemisphere, from New Orleans to Bahia, Cuba, Port-au-Prince, Kingston or Pointe-à-Pitre.

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A black hand

African cuisine has transformed the world. Its oral culinary traditions, its know-how, its vegetable gardens, its cuisine: The sons and daughters of Africa forcibly deported during the slave trade took with them a little of their land, and certainly the wisdom of their ancestors. " Black American cuisine is cuisine made by blacks. It is the very basis of American cuisine. For example, with slavery, my ancestors, were at the bottom of the food chain. They had to plant, harvest, prepare, preserve, cook, serve at the table, all without people being grateful to them. In China, a saying speaks of the hand of the wok, the utensil. The cook's hand is still in the pan, so to speak. There has been a slight but gradual and true transformation, from the American taste especially from the south of the United States, but also from the taste of the hemisphere.

In Cuban cuisine, it is undeniable: there is the black hand! We can talk about Brazil, without talking about the cuisine of Bahia, we didn't talk about Brazil. If we talk about Brazil without talking about dze Azeite, palm oil? We didn't talk about Brazil. Causas from Peru, red beans from Jamaica, or from Cuba, Haiti or Louisiana. If we take a step back and observe these clues, inevitably the conclusion is obvious: of course that African cuisine, the cuisine of blacks had a contribution. And it's global ”. History is still little known, little mentioned, forgotten by the media, but today it has an opening and a new curiosity, in particular great grandchildren of African emigrants, eager to understand and discover their roots and Africa of their ancestors, often surpassing the reluctance and "complexes" of their elders.

With:
- Jessica B. Harris is a professor of languages ​​at Queens College in New York (CUNY), food historian, founder of the Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures at Dillard University in New Orleans, and author of twenty books, and most recently " Vintage postcards from the african world: In the dignity of their work and the joy of their play ", published by the University Press of Mississippi.
His site
- Anto Cocagne is a chef, cook, caterer, organizer of the We Eat Africa festival, author of " Tastes of Africa " with Aline Princet, published by Mango.

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To go further
- The podcast - tasty and intelligent - by Jessica B. Harris: My welcome table.
-  High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America , Jessica B. Harris - Bloomsbury Publishing USA, January 11, 2011
- Iron Pots & Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking , Jessica B. Harris. Simon & Schuster, February 3, 1999
- The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent , Jessica B. Harris. Simon and Schuster, 1998
- Russel, Malinda. A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a careful selection of useful receipts for the kitchen by Malinda Russel, a free woman of Color. Paw Paw MI 1866.

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Princess of Africa of the Gabonese rapper , Lord Epony Ndong

RECIPE

Cajun okra

For 6 people: 3 smoked sausages, 12 fresh prawns, 1 green pepper, 1 kg okra, 4 celery stalks, 3 shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, half a bunch of flat parsley, 1 onion, 3 drops of tabasco, 90 g of flour, 90 cl of rapeseed oil, 1 l of chicken broth, 2 cc of Cajun mixture.

For the soup:
Peel and chop the onion and the shallots.
Peel and cut the celery stalks and the pepper into brunoise.
Peel and degerm the garlic.
Wash and chop the flat parsley.
Cut the okra, also called okra, into pieces of about 1cm.
In a saucepan, make a brown roux with the flour and rapeseed oil. Once well colored, but not burnt, add the chicken broth to obtain a creamy sauce.
In a saucepan with a drizzle of olive oil, sweat the onions and shallots, add the garlic, the brunoise of celery and peppers, cook for about 3 minutes.
Then add the okra and cook again for 3 minutes.
Finish with the thickened chicken broth and cook for another 10 minutes.
Once the okra is cooked, mix everything, add the flat parsley and keep warm.

Filling:
Shell, remove the hose, and clean the prawns.
Cut the smoked sausages into pieces of about 2 cm.
Season the sausage pieces and the prawns with the Cajun mixture.
In a hot pan with a drizzle of olive oil, cook the sausages and prawns for about 3 minutes.

Dressing:
In a deep plate, prepare the soup and arrange the garnish on top according to the tastes of each, add a drop of red tabasco, taste everything very hot.

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