Mali, a landlocked country in Western Africa, boasts a rich culinary heritage influenced by its location on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and its history as a crossroads of trade. Malian cuisine varies by region, but certain dishes are popular throughout the country.
The cuisine of Mali consists mainly of millet, corn, or rice porridges served with a variety of stews. These sauces can be made with peanuts, okra, baobab leaves or sweet potato leaves. Beef, lamb, chicken, and fresh or smoked fish are all popular in Mali. Common vegetables are onions, tomatoes, eggplant, plantains and yams. West African dishes like poulet yassa and foutou are eaten in Mali too.
Malian cuisine will vary in its variety and ingredients depending on the region. Mainstay staples, such as millet, rice, and cereal grains, comprise a large percentage of Malian cuisine. More often than not, the grains are cooked with tomato and/or peanut sauces, the preparation of which includes edible leaves available, like spinach and the incredibly nutritious superfruit baobab. Meats are often grilled, to go with the saucy grain dishes.
All meals in Mali are prepared by women. And food is eaten with the right hand. Eating with the left hand is considered highly improper in this mostly Muslim nation. Meals are often finished with strong, sweet tea. Tea service in Mali, as in many countries, is a highly ritualized affair.
Malians take their food very seriously. So we invite you now, to take the trip into Mali and taste the wonders they create for meals.
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Due to Mali’s long history as an important part of extensive trade networks, there are many foreign influences on the cuisine. This is mostly evident in the staple dishes, which use more spices than in most other West African countries.
Common vegetables are onions, tomatoes, eggplant, plantains and yams. West African dishes like poulet yassa and foutou are eaten in Mali too.
Here’s a closer look at some typical Malian dishes and foods:
Popular Malian Dishes
- Jollof Rice
- Fufu
- Maafe
These dishes are popular throughout all Malian cuisine. Actual recipes for this were particulary tricky to find so I’ve basically winged it.
Malians take their food very seriously. So we invite you now, to take the trip into Mali and taste the wonders they create for meals.
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Let's delve into some specific recipes that capture the essence of Malian flavors.
Tigadeguena: A Peanut Paste Stew
Versions of Tigadeguena are available throughout West Africa but it is from the Mandinka people of Mali that it originates. In the local Mandinkan language it literally translates as ‘peanut paste sauce’, where tige is ‘peanut,’ dege is ‘paste,’ and na is ‘sauce’.
Tigadeguena is essentially a stew with peanut paste (plenty of it) included for flavour and as a thickening agent. As this dish appears to have been stolen by most of West Africa there is one element which can keep this dish as Malian as possible. Elsewhere in the region this would be accompanied by rice, couscous or fufu but fonio or tô seem to be most frequently found in Mali.
Thieboudienne
Ingredients for Tigadeguena
- Cocoyam x 2
- Sweet Potato x 1
- Onion x 2
- Red Pepper x 1
- Garlic x 4 cloves
- Carrot x 2
- Stock x 600ml
- Tinned Chopped Tomatoes x 400ml
- Peanut Paste x 3 tbl
- Scotch Bonnet Chili x 2
- Kale x some
- Paprika, Cayenne, Cumin
Ingredients for Fonio
- Millet Flour (Wholewheat flour)
- Water
- Cumin
- Cayenne
- Tamarind Paste
Method
- Peel and dice the yams and sweet potato into thumb sized chunks. Careful with the yams as apparently they are toxic when raw. It is advised to wear gloves whilst preparing. Add to roasting tray with vegetable oil, paprika and salt. Roast for one hour at 180 C.
- Roughly chop onions, pepper, garlic and carrots and throw into a large saucepan with oil, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt (careful not to over-salt at this stage). Soften for 15 mins on medium heat.
- Add tinned tomatoes, stock, peanut paste and scotch bonnets. Keep Chilis whole as we want flavour and not their intense heat. Lid on. I simmered for two hours but a quicker version could easily be served after 15 mins. The longer it stews, the more intense the flavour. Note: stir with a wooden spoon and not metal. I read this advise with the theory being that it maintains the texture of the sauce.
- 5 mins before serving throw the kale in. Don’t use the hard, woody stalks.
This stew is super flexible and I can easily see me making this on a regular basis with the rest of the peanut paste. Everything else in it could easily be swapped out for alternatives. This one was vegetarian but any meat or fish would work great too.
The Fonio was somewhat less successful. Think sour, spicy, wholewheat bread in a thick paste form. I think if i did this again then I’d make a thicker ‘dough’ and make it into a flatbread. The tamarind definitely helped to cut through the fat of the peanuts and I’d recommend trying this in rice in a similar way to how the Middle East uses preserved lemons.
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Fonio This was a bit of a learning curve! I’ve no idea whether this is remotely correct but it came out edible and actually pretty tasty.
- Add flour and water to a pan on low heat. I had to keep adding more water and then more flour to get the consistency as I wanted.
- It’s around equal quantites of both but play with the mix until it makes a wet dough which just about holds its shape. Make sure to thoroughly cook out the flour (about 10 mins). Add salt, cumin, cayenne and tamarind paste.
- Tamarind is a fruit pulp found all over African and Asian cuisine. It has a sour, citrus flavour but doesn’t burn like lemon juice making it ideal for long, slow cooking e.g. Indian Madras.
Tigadeguena is seriously delicious! Imagine a cross between Goulash and a Chinese Satay sauce but somehow better than both. The peanut paste completely transformed what would have been a nice, curry-like stew. I’d encourage anyone who likes any Asian curries to try this.
A couple of words of caution; the cocoyams ended up with a slightly odd, hard texture and were not pleasant. Usually I can work out where I went wrong but I’m a bit lost on these after they were roasted for an hour and then boiled in the stew for another hour. This should have been easily long enough for them to cook through. Secondly, the peanut paste I used was unsalted, and I knew the amount of salt in the stock I used, hence the note at the start of the recipe to season lightly given that more salt will be added later.
Tigadeguena
Other Popular Malian Dishes
Djaba Dji (Onion Sauce)
This dish was recommended to me by someone on the Malian subreddit, and I was able to find a recipe that seemed authentic since its source was a book written by someone who visited family in Mali. I do question why this is referred to as ‘onion sauce’ though because, although there is quite a lot of onion, there are also lots of other ingredients!
I started by sautéing some chunks of beef chuck, though meat is optional here. Then I added the onions, and a few minutes later I added garlic, ginger, onion powder, curry powder, salt, pepper, and tomato paste
Next, I added chicken stock and water, followed by potatoes. A few minutes after that, I added the remaining vegetables: cabbage, green beans, and carrots. The recipe also called for eggplant but I did not include it since I don’t like it. A few minutes before serving I added some Middle Eastern vermicelli; the recipe called for the ‘tiniest noodles you can find’ which would be even smaller, but since I had the vermicelli already I decided to use that.
I served this over rice. This was really pretty simple but I enjoyed it a lot!
The recipe I used can be found on the Choate Family’s blog.
Labadja (Beef and Rice)
This is a simple dish made from beef and rice with a few vegetables, flavored with dates.
I started by cooking some chopped chuck steak in butter, then added onion, garlic, and green chili. After a few minutes I added some ras el hanout seasoning. The recipe called for ‘fayoke spices’ but said a Moroccan spice blend would be a good substitute, and since I had ras el hanout, that was what I used.
Next, I added some chopped dates. I’d had them soaking in water, and I added the water too-just enough to cook the rice. The rice went in last, and then all I had to do was let everything cook until the rice was done.
I know this isn’t the prettiest dish, and it was very simple, but it was amazingly good. Ras el hanout and dates proved to be a winning combination!
The recipe I used is from Scoot West Africa.
Couscous Timbuktu (Lamb Stew with Couscous)
This popular dish, consisting of stew served over couscous, can be made with just about any kind of meat, but I chose to use lamb.
First I seasoned lamb chunks with salt and pepper, then I browned them in oil. I added onion and cooked that for a few minutes, before adding garlic and carrot. Next, I added the spices: cumin, fennel seeds, cardamom, ground ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.
After a few minutes more, I added canned tomatoes and enough water to cover the meat, and let the mixture simmer for about an hour.
I added pureed dates and cinnamon, and cooked until the lamb was tender and the sauce had thickened.
I served this over couscous with a sprinkle of parsley. It tasted pretty good!
I loosely followed the recipe from Cooking Around the World in 80 Days. I used all the same ingredients but added them in a slightly different order.
Tiguadege Na (Chicken in Peanut Sauce)
For the most part, African countries seem to use peanuts a lot, and this is probably just one of Mali’s peanut dishes. It is considered Mali’s national dish. The meat varies, but it’s cooked in a tomato and peanut sauce with some vegetables and served over rice.
First I sautéed some chunks of chicken thigh, followed by onion and garlic, then canned tomatoes and tomato paste. I brought the mixture to a boil, and then simmered for a few minutes.
Next I added chicken stock, peanut butter, Herbes de Provence, carrot, and potato. After simmering for a while longer, the dish was ready!
I’ve generally been a big fan of the peanut-based dishes I’ve tried from Africa, and this was no different. The Herbes de Provence combined with the peanut butter worked pretty well; it was a combination I had been apprehensive about.
The recipe I used here is from Together Women Rise.
Other popular Malian dishes include:
- La capitaine sangha - marinated and grilled Nile perch, typically served with rice, fried bananas, and hot chili sauce.
- Fakoye - soup made from jute leaves and spices, typically garnished with lamb or beef.
- Meni-meniyong - sweet made primarily from honey and sesame seeds.
This dish comes from the north of Mali, the area around Timbuktu, abutting the southern edge of the Sahara. This dish clearly has a very strong influence from the other side of the desert, with rich spices like cinnamon, and a slow, gentle braise evoking North African tastes and styles.
Emily says that a salad in Mali is a basic green salad - lettuce, onion, tomato, etc. - with two notable additions. One is that the dressing is made with a salt-and-MSG-laden Maggi bouillon cube. The other is fried plantain and french fries.
Peanut sauce is a classic West African preparation, and I chose to make this one with fish to reference the bounty of the Niger River. The sauce recipe is par for the course with what I've cooked from other nearby countries, however by this point I've learned my lesson, and I don't add much water to start - I've waited for an over-thin sauce to cook down too many times! You can always add more water.
We served this with fonio, a grain that's roughly the size and fluffiness of couscous, but with a nutritional value in the ballpark of quinoa. Back when we cooked the Guinea meal I estimated that it might become the next quinoa; since then, The Guardian wrote an article about a chef in New York who's trying to make it happen.
A dessert common to this part of the world involves various sorts of soured dairy mixed with grain. Given that I had fonio on hand, that's what I used. Whether or not you like this dish depends entirely on how much you like your dairy tangy, and whether creamy-mushy is your thing.
This is another African country that surprised me! Rather than the more simple food eaten in many parts of the continent, I found food from Mali to be full of interesting flavor combinations.
Mali is a landlocked West African country, south of Algeria, and it’s the eighth-largest country in Africa. It’s thought to have been inhabited since around 10,000 BC.
Mali used to be part of three powerful, wealthy West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. In the year 1300, at its peak, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest country in Africa and one of the wealthiest on earth. Not only did it have a strong economy, but it was a center of Islam, culture, and knowledge, and its city Timbuktu became a renowned place of learning-it has one of the oldest universities in the world that is still active.
The Songhai Empire absorbed the Mali Empire in 1468, but was defeated by a Saadian army in 1591. The Saadi Sultanate ruled present-day Morocco and parts of West Africa during the 16th and 17th centuries.
France took control of Mali in the late 19th century and made it a part of French Sudan. Mali and Senegal gained independence together as a federation in 1960, but Senegal withdrew and the Republic of Mali was established.
Mali has experienced a tumultuous last few decades, with armed conflicts, a military coup, and, more recently, two military takeovers.
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tags: #Africa
