Dahomey Fish Stew

Dahomey was an African kingdom (part of the region called the "Slave Coast") that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in what is now Benin. The modern nation of Benin was known as Dahomey in the early 1970's when this recipe was published.
stilthouses built over water in benin

What you need

* two porgies (or sea bream, scrup, tilapia, or any firm, low-fat flesh fish), one to two pounds each; cleaned
* flour
* salt, black pepper, to taste
* one quarter cup palm oil or vegetable oil
* two onions, finely chopped
* two tomatoes, chopped
* one cup fish stock or water
* red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper (optional)

What you do

* Cut the fish crosswise, into two-inch sections. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Roll the fish in the flour mixture.
* Heat the oil in a skillet. Cook the fish in the oil, turning it until it is golden brown all over. Remove the fish and set aside.
* Fry the onions in the skillet for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes. Stir and cook for about ten minutes. Add the fish stock (or water). Reduce heat, cover and simmer for ten minutes more.
* Return the fish to the skillet. Add red pepper if desired. Simmer for twenty to thirty minutes. Serve with Rice.

Adapted from The New York Times International Cook Book by Craig Claiborne (Harper & Row, 1971).

Maryse Condé
What a strange fruit it was, the tomato!

Tomatoes, both fresh and canned, are so commonplace in African cooking today that many Africans might be surprised to learn that tomatoes originated in the Americas and were brought to Africa soon after Columbus sailed to the new world. It is easy to imagine Italians feeling the same way. In Segu (New York: Viking Press, 1987), Maryse Condé recounts traditional Bambara beliefs concerning the tomato. (Segu, once a Bambara empire, is a city today's Mali.)

Naba put his tomatoes carefully into a large gourd. What a strange fruit it was, the tomato! The god Faro used it to make women pregnant. It contained the germ of the embryo, for its seeds were multiples of seven, the figure linked to the twinning which lay at the origins if the human race. In Segu, beside her hut, Nya had a little bed of tomatoes which was dedicated to Faro; she used to crush the fruit and offer them up to the god in the altar hut. And so whenever he picked his own tomatoes Naba felt himself back near his mother, back in her smell and warmth.
(Part One: The Word That Descends by Night)

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