Liberia

 Hello! This week we ventured to Liberia where the national language is English! There are more than 10 tribal languages spoken as well! It has a population of about 5 million people and covers an area of about 43,000 square miles.

This is the flag of Liberia. As you can see, it is very similar to the flag of the United States. This is due to the fact that Liberia was founded by free people of color and freed slaves from the US. The first president elected was a wealthy free-born African American from Virginia who relocated to Liberia. They declared independence in 1847 and elected their first president in 1848.

Since I am a week behind, I am just going to jump right into the recipe we chose for this week! We made Liberian Chicken Gravy! I found the recipe at https://www.africanbites.com/liberian-chicken-gravy/ .

This was one of my favorite meals we have done so far! It was very much like a stew served over rice. We are definitely learning to love many different African dishes!

Ingredients:

1/4-1/2 cup cooking oil

2-3 pounds of chicken cut up

You can add fried fish steaks if you want, we didn't!

1 pound large shrimp cleaned and deveined

2-3 large red bell peppers

1 green bell pepper

1-2 tablespoons tomato paste

2-3 fresh tomatoes (Or you can use canned tomatoes which I chose to do since I had them)

1 medium onion chopped

5 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger chopped (We have ginger paste on hand so I used that)

1 or more scotch bonnet or habanero pepper if you want

1/4 cup basil and parsley

1 Tablespoon chicken bouillon, optional

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Here are all the ingredients minus the chicken because it was thawing!

Ingredients:

1. Boil chicken with salt, pepper, paprika, chicken bouillon and some chopped onions in a medium pot until tender.

2. Reserve the stock for later

3.In a food processor or blender, blend tomatoes, bell pepper, onions, garlic, and herbs

4. Add 1/2 cup oil to heavy-duty pot/pan, and then add the bell pepper blend followed by tomato paste

5. Saute for about 10-15 minutes. Stir the pot frequently.

6. Add chicken (and fried fish if using) with 2 cups of stock- let simmer for another 10 minutes

7. Throw in shrimp if using and cook for another 3-5 minutes

8. Finally, adjust seasonings if needed

We chose to serve this with rice which is one way this meal is eaten.

This dish was fantastic! We loved all the flavors in this dish. We chose not to add the habanero so we all could enjoy the meal. We enjoyed the peppers and tomatoes mixed with the basil and parsley. It felt very much like a pasta sauce to us and I think I would use it even over some pasta as opposed to rice.

We loved this meal and will more than likely eat it again! 

I hope you enjoyed this and I am sorry I didn't post this last week. This means that this week, there will be two posts for the Ivory Coast and the Democratic republic of the Congo! I even learned how to cut up a whole chicken! So please come back to hear more about our adventure! 

Thank you!

Aerika, Nick, and Lily