Ngunja

 Here's my husband, Doug, last week, on his 51st birthday.


 But when I met him?   He was 27, and he looked like this:








And before that, Doug spent two years in Central African Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English then biology to high school students.

 

His pictures from this experience are stunning.  A few samples:

I adore this picture. Doug and his colleagues.  Can you find Doug?

Safari!

Shirley & Eric came to visit

I met Doug post-peace corps and heard lots of stories about the people in his community (warm and generous),  the landscape (lush),  and the isolation (he was a two-day truck ride from the capitol and the only volunteer in his town).  This was decades before the internet and cell phones and mail took a month - so for two years it was Doug, his work, his African community, his books and lots of amazing experiences with his fantastic fellow volunteers.



He also talked about the food (you knew I'd get there, right?), particularly one dish called ngunja.  Ngunja is a spicy dish made from cassava leaves that was usually
served with gozo,  a starch made from the cassava root.

As I understand it, making gozo is incredibly laborious;  the root needs to be harvested, soaked, peeled, chopped, dried then boiled and ground into a paste.  Here is a description I found for the end product, I kid you not:  The consistency is like that of oatmeal that has been left out on the counter for 3 days, or first grade paste.  Doug said he hated gozo when he got there - but grew to love the stuff.   And he missed ngunja.

So we gave it a shot.  Obviously, trying to replicate gozo was out, but we decided to try to recreate ngunja using local ingredients.  And it was goooood. So it's a regular now, and my kids LOVE it.  Try it!

NGUNJA

Start with lots of fresh spinach.  I used three bunches

Chop up a large white onion or two

Heat some vegetable or peanut oil in a large frying pan or wok, add loads of garlic

Add the onion and some cayenne and/or crushed red pepper.  If you're like us, add LOTS of it.

 Then add some ground or cubed beef.  I used about a pound of ground sirloin.  Brown it, drain the fat, then add the spinach leaves, a little water and cover until spinach is wilted.

Then, the key step:  add a couple heaping tablespoons of natural, creamy peanut butter.  Cover again to let the peanut butter heat up, then mix well. 

 Serve over rice or on a pizza crust or with tortillas. 

 The flavors are amazing together.

Corey, on her first bite the other night said, "Why is this so good?"

Because it's ngunja.