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Dinner for Friends and Family

Weddings can be so formal. Processionals, registers, invitations, respondez s'il vous plait. But if you're having a dinner with your close family and friends to celebrate, why not be more familiar and homey? Reach into your family tree and your African heritage for recipes. And reach into your grandmother's cabinet for tableware.

First let's talk about food. This dinner party would be a good time to try out some African delights. So everything won't be so new to your guests, blend African cuisine with dishes you grew up with. When deciding your menu, make a list of the foods that you enjoy. Choose African, Caribbean, and even South American dishes to complement your menu. You'll find that your African brothers and sisters around the world eat more like you than you thought. Even so, I suggest that you try your new dishes before you add them to your menu. You may need to make a few changes to the recipes to appease your diet or your taste buds.

Here are three excellent African cookbooks worth reading:

A Taste of Africa by Dorinda Hafner, Ten Speed Press; Berkeley, California
Traditional African Cooking by Ola Olaore, W. Foulsham & Company; New York
The Africa News Cookbook by Tami Hultman, Viking Penguin Inc.; New York

Menu

Cornbread
Soup or stew
Ginger Fried Fish
String beans
Rice
Banana Fritters

Ginger Fried Fish

The fish used for this Ghanaian recipe is rock or mullet. Rock is a rather large fish usually weighing around 3 to 4 pounds while mullet is smaller at around 2 pounds. This is from Traditional African Cooking.
4 pounds rock fish or mullet
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 onion, ground or liquidated
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
Salt to taste
Cooking oil to fry

Clean fish and divide into cutlets. Put fish in a bowl and mix with the ginger, onion, tomato and salt. Allow to stand for about 15 minutes. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry fish, ensuring that all sides of the cutlets are cooked. Arrange decoratively on a platter and garnish with parsley and tomatoes.

Chapati Ya N'dizi Tamu {Banana Fritters}

Banana fritters can be used as a sweet appetizer. It is such a common African dish that I found a couple of different ways to prepare it. This particular recipe is Tanzanian from A Taste of Africa.
3 large, very ripe bananas
4 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup caster sugar
2-4 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Vegetable oil for shallow frying

Peel the bananas, cut into halves, put in a mixing bowl and mash into a thick, coarse paste with your fingers, a wooden spoon or an electric blender.
Stir in all the ingredients except the oil and mix together thoroughly. You may need to add more or less cornflour (cornstarch) but the finish mixture should be thick and slightly coarse (which is why it is preferable to mash the bananas initially with your fingers).

Heat the oil in a skillet or frying pan until the oil starts to smoke. Fry one tablespoon of the fritter mixture first as a test. If it burns immediately, the oil is too hot, so reduce the heat. If it does not burn immediately but browns nicely, turn it over and cook the other side until both sides are golden and the fritter is firm.

Continue to fry the remaining mixture in small batches. Drain the fritters on paper napkins or on a wire sieve and keep them in a warm oven until all fritters have been cooked. Serve hot.