Kwanzaa
121 recipes found
Bananas Foster Poundcake
Named after a customer at Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans, bananas Foster is traditionally served over vanilla ice cream or over pound cake. But what if we told you that you could have your bananas Foster baked into cake and glazed with that same sauce? This slightly dense, buttery cake is delicious warm, and super moist. Take care when flambéing — keep a lid nearby to smother any flames — or skip it altogether: Bypass adding the alcohol in Step 3 and simply reduce the sauce on the stovetop. And don’t forget to add that scoop of ice cream and a dollop of fresh whipped cream. You’ll thank us later.
Chicken Yassa
Popular across West Africa, chicken yassa coaxes deep flavor from a handful of simple ingredients: smoky grilled chicken, sweet caramelized onions, tangy lime, bright ginger and spicy Scotch bonnet chile. This version comes from “The Fonio Cookbook” by chef Pierre Thiam (Lake Isle Press, 2019). Mr. Thiam, who was born and raised in Dakar, is the chef and owner of Teranga, a West African restaurant in Harlem. His recipe calls for bone-in chicken legs, but, in southern Senegal, where the dish originated, you might be served other chicken parts, fish yassa or even lamb yassa. The cooking method is flexible: The chicken develops the best smoky char when grilled, but will still be delicious seared in a grill pan or cast-iron skillet.
Dodo (Fried Plantains)
Fried, grilled, boiled, dehydrated and pulverized, sweet or savory, plantains are a staple of Nigerian cuisine. Dodo, as it is called in Yoruba, refers to fried sweet plantains. For the plantains to caramelize properly, use ripe plantains (the skin should be deep yellow and speckled with large black dots). If you can find only green plantains, you can seal them in a paper bag and let them ripen for 2 to 3 days. Cooking the plantains in hot oil brings out their caramelized sweetness, and a quick toss with pickled onions adds an acidic bite. Enjoy these sweet, tangy morsels on their own, or serve this dish alongside jollof, plain steamed rice, frejon or plain cooked beans.
Doro Wat (Ethiopian-Style Spicy Chicken)
Doro wat is a popular chicken dish in Ethiopia, and for Ethiopian Jews like Meskerem Gebreyohannes, it is also a fine centerpiece for a holiday like Hanukkah. Mrs. Gebreyohannes makes her doro wat with a Berbere spice mix imported from Ethiopia, but for this recipe, it is not needed, as the spices are listed individually. Doro wat is easy to make and can be prepared ahead of time. You can lower the heat by ratcheting up the sweet paprika, rather than the cayenne.
Spiced Pickled Celery
Tangy and crunchy, with the tingle of warm and assertive spices, this pickle recipe from Ricky Moore, the chef at Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, N.C., can easily be made with kitchen staples, yet its sweet, nuanced pucker belies its no-frills ingredient list. Each component, even those used in the smallest measure, works overtime to ensure that this pickle is more than the sum of its parts. With a heady but not overpowering bite, this condiment has tremendous range and can be used to top savory soups and stews, like Mr. Moore’s Peanut Fish Stew, or brighten omelets, sandwiches and salads. It keeps, refrigerated, for two to three weeks.
Pimento Mac and Cheese
This recipe combines two classic Southern dishes to create something special: Pimento cheese, a spread for sandwiches, crackers and vegetables, meets mac and cheese for a peppery and spicier version of the traditional baked casserole. The core ingredients of pimento cheese — sharp yellow Cheddar, pimento peppers and cream cheese — cook into a sauce that’s creamier and tangier than the usual purely cheese base.
Fish Pepper Soup
Pepper soup is a spicy dish made from a distinct blend of ground seeds, spices and fresh herbs. A generous spoonful might make your nostrils tingle, and even make you break a sweat, as you might during the humidity of noontime Lagos. Pepper soup can be made with any type of meat or seafood, and even obscure cuts and scraps can be elevated by the bold broth. This version uses a whole fish, taking the bones to make the stock, then poaching the fillets in the flavorful liquid. Ground pepper soup spices can be found easily at markets all over Nigeria; here in the United States, you can find them at African grocers or online. For the adventurous, I’ve included a recipe using whole spices that you can toast and grind into a blend of your own. Serve the dish alongside steamed white rice, steamed plantains or Agege bread, if desired.
Fried Snapper With Creole Sauce
Best enjoyed using local snapper, this bright dish represents the protein part of fish and fungi, a classic duo on dinner tables in the Virgin Islands. The fish is topped with plenty of thyme-laced, tomato-based Creole sauce and is typically served over a bed of fungi, the classic Virgin Islands side dish of buttery cooked cornmeal with sliced, boiled okra. Michael Anthony Watson and Judy Watson, husband-and-wife owners of Petite Pump Room in St. Thomas, traditionally use whole fried snapper for this recipe, but you can use fish fillets. For authenticity, serve them with plenty of hot sauce on the side for a little extra heat.
Edna Lewis’s Biscuits
Edna Lewis mastered dozens of bread and biscuit recipes over the years, and in “The Taste of Country Cooking,” she offers two for biscuits; this is the flannel-soft version. Be sure to use homemade baking powder, which you can make easily by sifting together 2 parts cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda. It leaves no chemical or metallic taste.
Shiro (Ground-Chickpea Stew)
Shiro is a simple, silky ground chickpea stew that takes little time and effort to bring together. In Eritrea and Ethiopia, it’s a most beloved and important dish — a vital source of flavor and protein. In those countries, it’s made with widely available shiro powder, a mixture of ground chickpeas, garlic, onion and spices. This version, based on Ghennet Tesfamicael’s recipe published in “In Bibi’s Kitchen,” by Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen, cleverly suggests replacing shiro powder with chickpea flour and a homemade blend of berbere spice. You’ll be transported as your kitchen fills with the aroma of toasting warm spices and ground chilies. Traditionally, shiro is served alongside cooked greens and injera or other flatbreads. But it’s also delicious spread in a thick layer atop sourdough toast rubbed with garlic and finished with slices of tomato and a fried egg.
Mashama Bailey’s Pecan Pesto
This recipe, from the chef Mashama Bailey of the Grey in Savannah, Ga., came to The Times in 2015. The pesto’s roots are Italian, of course, but its flavor and texture nod first to the South, with pecans swapped in to the paste in place of more traditional pine nuts, and then to the wider world, with the inclusion of both Thai and opal basils to the mix. But use whatever basil you can find. Ms. Bailey’s cooking is more about bending the rules than enforcing them.
Lemon Cake With Coconut Icing
A version of this golden, tart-sweet confection was served at the 76th birthday of the legendary Southern chef, Edna Lewis. It is a true labor of love, so be sure to set aside a full afternoon to make it; this is not the sort of cake you want to rush.
Roasted Carrots With Yaji Spice Relish
A fragrant combination of dried spices and aromatics, yaji, also known as suya spice, is as ubiquitous as salt and pepper in homes across Northern Nigeria and West Africa more broadly. Often used to cure meats and finish other dishes, the spice blend is made depending on taste and access to ingredients, so the recipe can range from home to home and vendor to vendor. Common among blends is the addition of a warming chile powder, ground ginger (although fresh is used in some cases) and pulverized peanuts. Here, a basic yaji spice blend is incorporated into a fresh, piquant relish of scallions, lemon zest and juice as a finish to liven up roast vegetables.
Edna Lewis's Corn Pudding
This buttery, fluffy dish comes from Edna Lewis, the African-American chef and cookbook author credited with preserving countless recipes from the old South. It serves as not only a seasonal bridge — a farewell to summer, with winter chill waiting in the wings — but also as a sweetly welcome blurring of the lines between a side dish and a dessert.
Rutabaga-Potato Mash With Bacon
For the food historian Jessica B. Harris, humble rutabagas laced with rich, smoky bacon fat were the highlight of every childhood Thanksgiving. The ones her mother cooked were sharper than the ones we buy today, so she cut them with mild potatoes, but you can adjust the proportions to your liking. If bacon is off the menu for you, add butter or olive oil to the pot instead, and more to taste after mashing.
Beef Suya
Suya is a popular Nigerian street food made of thin strips of meat that are seasoned, skewered and grilled. The term “suya” can refer to the preparation technique or the resulting dish, and can apply to other meats, such as goat and chicken. This recipe is similar in style to the suya made from a fattier cut of beef called tozo, which comes from the hump of the zebu cattle, found in northern Nigeria. A well-marbled piece of boneless short rib is a great substitute. Ask your butcher to thinly slice the meat into strips, or pop it into your freezer for 30 minutes and use a sharp knife to slice. Suya spice, or yaji, is available online or at African groceries, or you can make your own (see Tip).
Rum With Iced Hibiscus Tea
Hibiscus tea creates an almost-instant punch. If you prefer it sweeter, add simple syrup to taste. And be sure to plan ahead; the tea steeps for eight hours.
Jamaican Oxtail Stew
Here is a midwinter cook-up of deep fragrance and lingering heat, a trade-wind stew that emerged in Jamaica and made its way north. It is oxtail stew, brown and steaming, light with ginger and thyme, pungent with allspice and soy, a taste of the Caribbean to warm winter’s heart. You could make and eat it today while reading Derek Walcott poems as the afternoon vagues into indigo — or allow it to cure into greater magnificence overnight, and stretch out its gravy for the course of a week. Paired with bowls of coconut-scented rice and peas, a staple of the Caribbean diet, it makes for an excellent family dinner or a transporting lunch, as if the flavors within it were a spur to memories of better times, in warmer climes, with soft sand on your feet and a kiss of sun upon your shoulders.
Bananas Foster Bread Pudding
Here is a nod both to the original bananas Foster at Brennan’s restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans and to the luxe version of bananas baba au rhum that the Louisiana chef Allison Vines-Rushing once cooked at Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar in the East Village. Silky and rich, deep with the flavors of bananas, rum and custard, it is not much work to make, and pays off in incredible flavor. Do not be afraid to use an even darker sugar than the brown called for in the recipe, though molasses may be a step too far. You are looking for a deep caramel hue and flavor in the sauce, to complement the rum and the fruit. (And if you're looking to try the original, make our bananas foster recipe.)
Kuku Paka (Chicken With Coconut)
This rich dish of chicken in a spiced coconut sauce comes from Kenya's coast, though creative cooks now produce variations of it all over the country. This simple version was adapted from many of them, including Kirti Patel, Agnes Kalyonge and the author Madhur Jaffrey. It requires slowly grilling the marinated chicken, ideally over charcoal — a little extra work that lends the finished kuku paka a wonderful smoky flavor — though in a pinch, you can use a grill pan on the stove. Note: The coconut sauce should be creamy but not flat, so be sure to spike it at the end with enough lemon juice to give it the edge of sourness that is one of this great dish's defining characteristics.
Sorrel
This Jamaican drink, traditionally made with hibiscus flowers and spices, is both bracing and thirst quenching. If you’d like a boozy version, it can serve as the base for a rum punch. Or follow the advice here and serve it with simple syrup and rum on the side as an option for guests.
Ghanaian Spinach Stew With Sweet Plantains
This recipe is an adaptation of the smoky spinach stew served at Papaye, Samuel Obeng's restaurant in the Bronx. Built on a base of onions and ginger sauteed in palm oil, made fiery with habanero, and thickened with ground pumpkin seeds and tomatoes, the stew calls for African smoked, dried shrimp powder; its flavor is amazing. (Asian versions are typically unsmoked and chewier.) But smoked paprika and fish sauce make a serviceable substitute.
Chicken Mafe
This West African favorite, adapted from Rama Dione and Papa Diagne, balances the richness of peanut butter with tomato and aromatics, cooked down to a thick gravy. The addition of Southeast Asian fish sauce gives the dish depth and is somewhat traditional, given the Vietnamese influence, via the French, in Senegal. But absolutely traditional would be to eat this with guests, directly from a large platter, to demonstrate welcome and unity.
Pilipili Oil
Pilipili, chiles in Swahili, infuse oil along with aromatics like herbs and onion to create a spicy condiment. Similar to hot sauce, these chile oils, found in Africa and across the African diaspora, provide a kick when drizzled on a dish. This version from the chef and author Bryant Terry uses fresh, small bird’s eye or Thai chiles for their vibrant taste and their availability in most supermarkets. Smoked paprika adds a bit of depth and helps to make the oil fire-engine red.