Freedom Over Me Recipes

Book

Freedom Over Me
by Ashley Bryan

During the slave trade in the United States, Black people were taken from West and Central Africa and brought to the U.S. to work on plantations.

People from Senegal, Gambia, Angola, Congo, and other countries in West and Central Africa grew up eating food like Senegalese Chicken Yassa, Jollof Rice, and Fried Plantains.

Cook

Senegalese Chicken Yassa

Complexity: Several components spread over a long time period, including preparing the chicken, onions, and cooking.
Time: Marinate for 3+ hours, 30 minutes prep and cooking, plus 80 minutes in the oven.

Ingredients

Chicken

3 chicken leg quarters (leg and thigh)
3 chicken breast halves (bone-in)
5 onions (about 2 pounds) peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
1 habanero or scotch bonnet pepper

Marinade

½ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup canola oil or olive oil
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
4 medium garlic cloves, crushed
½ teaspoon salt

For Browning and Braising the Chicken

Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil (olive, canola, or grape seed)
1½ cups low-salt chicken broth (I recommend Swanson's)
1 cup pitted green olives, sliced, for garnish

Directions

Marinate the Chicken

Put the chicken and onions into a large glass bowl. Cut a few slits in the habanero pepper and add it to the bowl.
Whisk marinade ingredients in a small bowl and pour on top. Toss to coat.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours or, preferably, overnight.

Brown the Chicken and Caramelize the Onions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and sprinkle pieces with a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper, to taste.
Brown chicken on both sides in batches, three pieces at a time, about 5 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Spoon out some of the chicken fat from the pot, leaving about one tablespoon.

Caramelize the Onions

Set the hot pepper aside and scrape the onions and all the marinade into the pot over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium-low. Let the onions cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes more, until they are soft and starting to caramelize. Reduce heat as needed so they don't burn.
Use a spatula or wooden spoon to move onions aside, as you lay chicken pieces into the bottom of the pot, and then mound the onions on top of the chicken pieces.
Place the hot pepper in the middle of the pot.
Pour in chicken broth.
Turn the heat to medium high and bring the broth to a simmer. Cover the pot and put it in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Serve with jollof rice and sliced green olives.

Cook

Jollof Rice

Complexity: Requires a blender, mixing ingredients, and cooking rice.
Time: 20 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking.

Ingredients

2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped (about 5 ounces each)
½ medium Scotch bonnet pepper (or use a habanero pepper), stem removed
½ medium onion, roughly chopped
3 small red bell peppers, roughly chopped (about 5 ounces each)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 ½ teaspoons hot ground chile pepper, such as African dried chile or cayenne
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 heaping teaspoon onion powder
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 ½ cups medium-grain rice

Directions

In a blender, combine tomatoes, scotch bonnet pepper and onions; purée.
Pour out half the purée into a bowl; set aside.
Add the bell peppers to the purée remaining in the blender and pulse until smooth.
Add to the mixture that was set aside and stir to combine.
Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add blended vegetables along with the salt, curry powder, ground chile pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, bay leaves, ginger and thyme. Bring mixture to a boil.
Stir in the rice until well mixed, then reduce the heat to low.
Cover pot and let cook until rice is al dente, about 45 minutes. Check after 30 minutes; if rice is sauce-logged, remove the lid to cook off the excess sauce. If rice seems dry, stir in 1 to 2 cups water. Allow the rice at the bottom of the pot to char a bit to infuse it with a smoky flavor.

Cook

Fried Plantains

Complexity: While this recipe is quick, frying involves hot oil and can be messy. It’s important to be cautious when frying. Kids should just observe for this one.
Time: 10 minutes.

Ingredients

2 ripe plantains, peeled and cut diagonally or round, into 1/4-inch thick slices
Canola or vegetable oil
Sea salt (optional)

Directions

Drizzle oil into frying pan just enough to coat the bottom of the pan and place on medium heat.
When oil begins to shimmer, add plantains (work in batches), and fry for 1 and 1/2 minutes on one side, flip and cook for 1 minute on the other side.
Remove plantains from pan and rest on paper towels.
Continue frying in batches until all the plantains are fried.
Sprinkle lightly with sea salt if desired.

Notes on buying plantains

Plantain ripeness is evidenced by the color of the plantain's skin, which can range from cream, to bright yellow, to dull yellow with patches of black, to completely black. For excellent fried plantains, choose a plantain with dull yellow skin and patches of black or one that is completely black, indicating peak ripeness.
A plantain at its peak of ripeness has exchanged all its starch for natural sugars; frying it at this stage of full ripeness brings all the sugar to the surface, resulting in a nice brown color when fried (and a wonderful taste from the caramelization). When frying ripe plantains, you are coaxing the sugars to the surface of the plantains. This is another reason why people opt to cut the ripe plantains diagonally – it provides a larger surface for caramelization.
Apart from choosing a plantain at its proper stage of ripeness, there are three other important things to take into consideration when frying ripe plantains.

The Pan
Use a non-stick skillet as this will aid in the easy release of the cooked plantain from the pan. Because sugar burns quickly and sticks, a non-stick skillet is essential.
Oil
Use a neutral tasting oil such as canola or vegetable oil. The amount of oil used for frying should be just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Too much oil will cause the plantains to soak up the oil resulting in soggy plantains. After frying each batch, drizzle additional oil if needed.
Heat
Use medium heat to fry the plantains. You may have to lower the heat depending on the size of your stove burner and pan. If you don't, your plantains can be burned in no time or brown too quickly.