Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust

Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust. Now doesn't that sound tropical? One of my favorite Thanksgiving desserts has always been my mum's signature apple crumble. With a perfectly crispy crust and delicious apple base, it's a hit at the dinner table.

Because I'm living in Ghana, I missed American Thanksgiving this year, so I was happy when a few friends decided to throw an epic Ghanaian Thanksgiving in Legon Botanical Gardens. The table was a decadent mash-up of Africa and America: sweet potato casserole, kelewele, jollof rice, and other goodies. While I love to cook, I always pick desserts during potlucks because baking is my first love and it gives me a chance to be creative. In my attempt to harmonize Africa and America, I thought about combining a traditional American favorite with local flavors you can find on the streets of West Africa.

The dessert was a hit among all my friends. The tart flavor of the passion fruit was brought out by a hint of lime juice while the sweet mango balanced the dish. I ground some tiger nuts with a mortar and pestle and added it to the crust. 

If you've been following my culinary exploits lately, you'll see that I've got baobab on the brain. The superfruit has one of the highest vitamin C concentrations of any fruit, and has numerous benefits for the skin, heart and liver. It also has a slightly sweet yet tart taste which makes it easy to reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe. I doubled the superfruit effect by adding tiger nuts, which despite their name, aren't actually nuts. They're tubers, and are gluten-free and high fiber. Often called "earth almonds," they have a wonderful sweet, nutty taste and are sometimes used in horchata (one of my next adventures). You can produce tiger nut milk by soaking them, and they can be ground and used as a wheat flour substitute. If I were to reproduce this recipe again, I would attempt it with a tiger nut flour.

Check out the recipe below, and let me know what you think!

Mango Passion Fruit Crumble with a Baobab Tigernut Crust

1 cup tigernuts
1/4 cup baobab pulp (You can purchase some from UK company Aduna)
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter, cold and cut into pieces  
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats (I prefer these to quick-cooking oats because they have a thicker texture)
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut
3 passion fruit
Juice from one medium lime 

1. Grind the tigernuts with a mortar and pestle or food processor until they become a smooth powder. 
2. Cut the passion fruit open, remove the pulp and set aside in a small bowl.
3. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 9x13 baking dish.
4. Mix the baobab, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, oats, butter pieces and stir well.
5. Place the mango in the greased baking dish, and spoon the passion fruit on top, drizzle the juice of the lime over the mango-passion fruit mixture. Mix the fruit evenly.
6. Cover the fruit with the flour topping, and sprinkle a little cinnamon and nutmeg evenly on top.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until the top has browned and the fruit is tender, about 20 minutes.*

*If the top is not browned after 20 minutes, broil the crumble for 3 - 4 minutes, watching carefully to ensure it does not burn. 

Passion Fruit Baobab Brownies

Constant access to a supply of fresh and affordable passion fruit is one of my favorite parts of living in West Africa. With Its sweet yet tart pulp and crunchy seeds, a little passion fruit goes a long way in adding a tropical twist to any dessert. Given that I bought a huge bottle of baobab pulp, I've been brainstorming different ways to use it. When a friend suggested I make a dessert for her potluck, I decided to experiment in the kitchen, and whip up some passion fruit baobab brownies. My rendition of these brownies was lighter in flavor and texture than your usual run-of-the-mill brownies. I'm typically a fan of slightly undercooked brownies, but at the request of my friend Mike (who'd like me to let you all know that he is currently single and knows how to cook), I fully cooked this batch. However, to my surprise, because of the passion fruit in the batter, the brownies remained moist and fragrant.

I used Kingsbite chocolate from GoldenTree, a Ghanaian-based confectionary company. When chocolate melts, it is usually a smooth, homogenous mixture, but I was disappointed when I melted the chocolate because the cocoa separated from the vegetable oil. I later learned that this process is called "seizing" -- it usually occurs when melting chocolate comes into contact with a few drops of water. Lesson learned. I now know that the best way to melt chocolate is to heat it over a water bath or in 20-second increments in the microwave, while stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn't burn.

Passion Fruit Baobab Brownies

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
2 bars chocolate (about 140g chocolate)
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup baobab pulp (You can buy some via Aduna)
1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix oil and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla, and blend until smooth.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Stir dry ingredients into the oil/sugar mixture, alternating slowly to make the process easier. 
5. Pour into greased 9 x 13 square pan.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until sides just start to pull away from the pan.
7. Cool completely before cutting.
    

Chicken Coconut Curry with Sweet Potato, Lentils and Green Beans

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1-2 teaspoon red curry paste (2 if you like it really hot)
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stalk lemongrass, first outer layer removed cut in half
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups boneless chicken breasts, cubed
3 sweet potatoes, chopped thickly
1 handful of green beans
1/2 cup of red split lentils

1. Boil the lentils for 10 minutes in a small pot. 
2. Heat the oil in a deep frying pot or wok, stir in the curry paste and fry for 1 minute. 
3. Add the chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans, and lentils and stir to coat in the paste, then pour in the stock and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked fully and the potatoes are soft. 
4.  Season to taste before serving

Fanciful Beet Salad

I first tried beets when I was eighteen years old during the first week of my freshman year of college. I walked into the Yale dining hall, full of its delicious treasures, and spotted the deep purple vegetable among the salad offerings. I've been in love with beets ever since. Particularly common in Africa, Europe and Asia, beets are one of nature's healthiest vegetables. They detoxify the body, help with blood pressure, act as antioxidants and have great anti-inflammatory qualities. 

Originally people consumed the beet's tasty leaves before they discovered that the root was equally as appealing. Considering how common beets are across the continent, I find it rather surprising I encountered them so late in life. In Ghana, I've been happily consuming my fair share of beets. I grow bored with traditional salad recipes quickly, so I decided to make this fun, fanciful beet salad with avocado, cucumber, mint, goat cheese, sunflower seeds, couscous and quail eggs. I typically prefer to pair beets with quinoa because the texture holds up a bit if there's some excess beet juice, but as import prices are not in my favor... couscous it is!

Fanciful Beet Salad
Makes 2 large salads or 4 small salads.

½ cup cooked couscous
1 cup sunflower seeds
3 medium raw beets, peeled and cubed
2 medium avocados, cubed
2 medium cucumbers, sliced thickly and cut into quarters
Handful of mint
½ cup goat cheese
5 quail eggs
 

Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. To cook couscous: I love this simple technique via The Kitchn.
2. To prepare the quail eggs: Fill a small saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Add the quail's eggs using a spoon and boil them for 4 minutes for perfectly hardboiled eggs. Remove with a slotted spoon and cool down under cold running water or in a bowl filled with ice water. Peel carefully to avoid puncturing the eggs.
3. To prepare the salad: Cut all pieces into fairly even cubes. Combine with the goat cheese and sunflower seeds. 
4. To prepare the vinaigrette: Whisk together all of the ingredients.
5. Finally, drizzle dressing over the mixture (you won't use all of it) and gently toss to combine.
6. Season again with salt and pepper as needed. 

Want even more color? Add some red bell peppers and/or some grated carrots. 

Baobab and Coconut Pancakes with Honey Bananas

In recent years, baobab has garnered a fair bit of attention as a "superfruit." Companies like UK-based Aduna have publicized the myriad benefits of baobab pulp, which contains vitamin C, thiamin, potassium, calcium and vitamin B6. During the rainy season, baobab trees absorb water, storing it in their trunks, which allows them to produce fruit in the dry season. When Aduna first started in 2011, over 95% of people in the UK had never heard of baobab; however, across Africa, baobab is nothing new. 

The majestic baobab tree is one of the iconic images of the Sahel region. With a lifespan of over 5000 years, these "grandmothers of the Sahel" can reach 90 feet. In The Gambia, my mother's country, we call the fruit of the baobab buoy and use it in a traditional desert called naan mburu that is served at Easter. Baobab pulp has an acidic, tart flavor that tastes like a combination of grapefruit, pear, and vanilla — aka delicious. When I found the pulp at a local market in Cantonments, I figured I would try to develop new ways of using it, and then settled on pancakes. The sweet coconut balances out the tart baobab giving the pancakes a unique flavor. Try it out and let me see what you think. In the US and UK, you can buy baobab from Aduna. 

Baobab and Coconut Pancakes
Serves 3 – 4

4 tbsp of baobab powder (in the West, you can get some through UK company Aduna)
4 tbsp of desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 cups of flour
1 cup milk (add more if the mixture is too dry)
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
½ oz butter, melted
2 large eggs
Canola oil, for brushing
Maple syrup or agave syrup for servings

In a large bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder, sugar, salt, desiccated coconut and baobab powder. In another bowl, mix the milk, the eggs, and butter.  Mix the dry and wet ingredients until combined. Make sure not to over-mix—there should still be a few lumps. Let the batter sit for a 5 minutes.

Heat a griddle until hot then brush it with oil. Ladle ¼ of a cup of batter. Repeat with the remaining batter. You should have 6 – 8  pancakes. Dust with a fruit-based coulis or fresh fruit if you are feeling fancy. I topped these pancakes with fried honey bananas. (See recipe below).

Serve immediately with maple or agave syrup.  

Honey Bananas

2 bananas, sliced
2 tbsp. oil (I use coconut oil)
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. water
Cinnamon and nutmeg (optional)

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add bananas to the skillet in one layer. Fry for two minutes on both sides. Remove from heat, then combine the honey and water. Cover the bananas with the mixture then top with cinnamon and honey. Serve over the pancakes.  

Pan-Seared Tilapia & Okra Tempura

What's a girl to do when she's short on time and expecting friends over for dinner? A cross between Southern and Mediterranean cuisine using two pillars of Ghanaian cuisine: tilapia and okro (as Ghanaians call it). Okro is prominent ingredient local stew like okro soup (which I've blogged about in the past) while tilapia is one of the most common fish found in the Volta region of Ghana. Tilapia is a very forgiving fish that absorbs flavors well and, when cooked at the right temperature, melts in your mouth.  Although simple, this marinade was a bit of an experiment, but ended up working out well. 

Pan-seared tilapia topped with scallions, basil and tomatoes alongside some fried okra, green beans and brown rice. 

Pan-Seared Tilapia

4 tilapia fillets tilapia
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon corinader
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 lemons
3 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of scallions
2 tablespoons, olive oil
3 medium tomatoes
1/4 cup basil leaves
 

1. Squeeze three lemons and set aside the juice. Crush garlic cloves and add to the lemon mixture. Add half of the scallions to the mixture.
2. Rinse the tilapia fillets before covering with the lemon mixture. Set aside in the refrigerator for 10 - 15 minutes. 
3. Place the marinated fillets on a flat plate or baking dish and lightly sprinkle them on both sides with the flour, salt, pepper, and coriander.
4. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the tilapia until it flakes easily with a fork, about 3 - 4 minutes per side. Serve immediately.
5. After removing the fish from the skillet, add another tablespoon of olive oil and tomatoes. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. 
6. Garnish with the remaining scallions, basil and tomatoes.

Okra Tempura

5 cups of oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buttermilk (see below for a substitute if you don't have it on hand)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 pounds fresh okra, sliced thickly
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 cloves of garlic
 

1. Heat oil in a large pot. 
2. In a bowl, combine the milk with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to make buttermilk if you don't have it on hand. 
3. In another bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. Dip the okra in buttermilk and then coat it in the cornmeal-flour mixture. Carefully add okra to the hot oil and cook until golden brown.
4. When removing it from the oil, drain it with a slotted spoon and place it on paper towels to absorb the oil.  

I also made some green beans and brown rice to go along with this dinner, which serves about 4 people.