Benin

The Bs have been quite a challenge so far and Benin was no exception. Not only is there no restaurant serving Benin cuisine in London but it seems that Beninese cuisine is not massively accessible. For a start, the national dish demands live crabs which aren’t that easy to come by in Turnpike Lane. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it turns out that peanut sauce is a staple for a lot of the other dishes. Bleurgh.

Fortunately, hidden among the peanut sauce slathered food, we found a recipe for Dahomey fish stew.

Dahomey fish stew is basically white fish in a slightly spicy sauce. Not massively exciting, I’ll admit, but far more palatable and far less dangerous than the other options. Plus, it used up the Tilapia that had been lying around in our freezer since the Bahamas experiment. Result.

It turns out that Dahomey was an African Kingdom from 1600-1900 in what is now known as the Republic of Benin. The Fish Stew that is named after it is pretty simple and consists of lightly battered white fish cooked in chopped tomatoes and onions with a sprinkling of something spicy. Easy.

Also, totally forgettable.

Roll on Burkina Faso.Here’s the remarkably under-watched Benin national anthem to end on:

Map: By United States Central Intelligence Agency [Public domain], <a href=”http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABenin-CIA_WFB_Map.png”>via Wikimedia Commons</a>