The Fairest's Fare

I love to cook, and I'm pretty good at it. But I don't have much range. I mean, to buy fresh is expensive, as are nicer cuts of meats, so I'm pretty much limited to chicken, ground beef, round steak and an occassional roast. Personally, just for tastes and digestive preferences, I don't eat pork, but I made it a lot for my husband and son.

We've had a houseguest/roomate for the last eight months. Our roomy, Ibriham, is from West Africa and doesn't eat pork. His favorite meat is lamb, something I admit, I really don't know how to cook, and he doesn't like lamb from a chain, so when we have it, he cooks it.

Now I've watched him and watched him to see how he creates his lamb and chicken dishes. The spices are so deep and rich and causing the mouth to water. But for a long time, no matter how hard I tried, I was missing something. It never came out the same.

Sometimes, we go on Saturdays to the different Indian markets in town. This is a great city for seeking out authentic foreign ingredients, and we have everything from hispanic, asian, eastern europe and middle eastern.

On one of our outtings, we picked several boxes of spice mixes, all filled with peppers, currys, cumin, corum...so lovely and fragrant. Agobe(found right in the grocery chains) is one of his favorites, and by golly, Ibriham has to have his msg.

I've been fixing this chicken dish for him. I found his secret and it's very simple. Don't measure anything and throw everything into the pan. I marinate the chicken in Lousiana Red Pepper Marinade for about 30 minutes. A few small, chopped carrots, a medium potato, chunks of onion, green peppers. Then systematically go through the spice rack and add spicy. Garlic powder, Chipoltle seasoning, red pepper flakes, Agobe, black pepper. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the chicken and veggies. It goes in a 350 degree oven, covered, for about an hour. I always drain off the juice and use that to cook my rice in.

One day Ibriham took the left-over chicken to his work. He put it in the microwave and he said he got it very hot, so hot that the aroma spread throughout the cafeteria. A Jamaican man there made a comment, asking what kind of food was that, Jamacian?

Another woman, also from Jamaica asked him if his wife cooked it for him. He answered, no, his roomates wife had cooked it.

"Is she Jamaican? Is she African?"

He said, "No, she's a white girl."

Yes, sir-ree, folks. I have arrived. I can now cook African food(and it's yummy!)