plate 19: congo

Yes I know, Congo - it's a bit random. A late night documentary - Don't Tell My Mother on the National Geographic channel - led me to this week's journey. The doco wasn't about food, but about the country's battle with AIDS, gangs, corruption and other not-so-lovely things that I didn't know about the Democratic Republic of Congo. I also didn't know that: it has the highest frequency of thunderstorms in the world; it's larger in size than Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway combined; it sits in both hemispheres (one-third in the northern and two-thirds in the southern); there's an estimated 242 languages spoken; and its national dish is moambe, which apparently means "eight" (in which one of those languages I'm not so sure!). Trivia buffs: remember these facts.

Moambe is a meat-based dish with a sauce that's traditionally made from the fruit and oil of the African oil palm. Oddly enough I didn't have this at my disposal, so I went for a recipe that was slightly more Aussie-kitchen friendly. Moambe features flavours of tomato, onion and cayenne pepper, and when the recipe I found called for tomato sauce and peanut butter, I must admit I was dubious.

On the upside, the dish was really easy to cook - just coat chicken pieces in cayenne pepper and salt, throw it into a pot of boiling water, cover and cook for about 35-45 minutes until tender. When that's almost done, sautee some onion in butter, add tomato sauce and simmer for a bit. Add the chicken, cover and cook for a little more, then add a big dollop of peanut butter (uh huh, that's what you can see above in the pot). Stir it all up and there you have it.

Surprisingly it was pretty yummo - the flavours worked quite well together. While the peanut butter was a little strong, it gave a nice sticky texture and rich taste. I doubt this is Congolese, but we served it with a side of steamed brussels sprouts and it made a simple but relatively tasty Monday-night dinner.

Sadly, though, our humble midweek dinner would be a luxury for many people of the Congo who are faced with famine. So the nice-tasting dish was, in fact, slightly bittersweet.