Africana

by Lerato Umah-Shaylor

A culinary expedition celebrating cooking from across the African continent
Africana travels the continent showcasing its vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavour, diverse in culture and steeped in tradition.

Combining recipes passed down the generations with her own modern and inventive style, food writer and cook Lerato shares her own stories of Africa with a delectable sense of adventure.

Discover iconic dishes from Nigeria to Madagascar, Morocco to South Africa. There are over 100 recipes to delight and inspire, Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof.

Bursting with flavour and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to your kitchen.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Food and Drink, Africa

288 pages, Hardcover

Published September 29, 2022

Reviews

[Kate]

Read for our Cookbook Book Club, and when we showed up and were assembling our dishes, we all unanimously agreed this was the most confusing cookbooks we've read. The directions were overly complicated, the ingredient lists weren't structured well (one person found a recipe where an ingredient listed as required then wasn't ever used), and the instructions generally left you going, "Wait, what? How do I do that?"

Then we sat down to eat. And unanimously agreed it was hands down the best and most flavorful meal we've made yet.

Will any of us ever cook from this again? No, probably not. Have I written down a lot of the flavor combinations to use elsewhere + will always remember our feast with great joy? Yes, absolutely.

Menu
-Bisaap (spiced hibiscus and ginger drink)
-Cape Malay chicken curry
-Salade Mechoui (roasted pepper salad)
-Saffron potatoes and peas with ras el hanout
-Suya roasted cauliflower (and suya spice blend)
-Sticky apricot pudding

[Emily Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautifully photographed, first off, with lots of photos for cooks and readers who might be new to the cuisine. I appreciate a cookbook with some faith in the reader - so many recent cookbooks have loooong intro chapters going over every “new” ingredient. this has just enough info to jump in. be brave, buy a cheap food scale, try something new (to the reviewer who is mad the recipes are in metric 🤪)

[Jon Allanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading through this book. Excellent recipes, and lots of great info about the author and how she came up with all these recipes based on a life lived in and travels across the African continent.

[Corrie Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written recipes and stories of Africa. Creating recipes from this book can be time consuming, however once the spice blends are made, the recipes are easy to follow. Living in PEI, Canada, it has been difficult to source ingredients.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book covering a wide selection of African cuisine. Recommended.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

One to come back to - covering a wide range of african cooking traditions and flavors - come back to this with the kids.

[Barbara Harris Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved and tried so many!

[Dayna Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and the recipes I tried were really tasty - I did have to adjust the spice level though.

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always on the hunt for cookbooks that touch on East African cuisines. This book stretches a diverse continent and provides a balance between modern, sustainable, cooking and traditional dishes.

[Mesembryanthemum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book full of recipes that I can't wait to make, as soon as I have the time. However, some aren't in my plans, because Lerato Umah-Shaylor seems more tolerant of complicated recipes that I am (which is not surprising, as she is a chef and caterer). For example, the Hibiscus-Orange Chocolate Cake probably takes more time than I'm willing to spend on a recipe, but it looks delicious and I wish someone would make it for me.

I especially love the African-fusion aspect of this cookbook; the mixture of West, East, South, and even North African food is wonderful, and the recipes are approachable for a British (and adventurous American) audience. Her take on Chicken Yassa looks great, as does her online version of Poulet Yassa Roast). The double-handful of spice blends are especially appealing. And her fresh-fruit version of that famous Nigerian drink, Chapman, has my name on it — as soon as the Minnesota weather gets warm enough.


My thanks to the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Library for providing this ebook as a loan. It helped me decide that I need to own the print version.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cult Flav

Sarah
7

Writing a cookbook is fucking hard, and that's where this book struggles the most. From a handful of confusing instructions to ingredient quantities that sometimes asked a home cook to acquire a half ton of potatoes. If you're an intuitive cook, you'll know right away that she really means a pound, but if you're new to this type of cuisine Africana might pose a challenge or two.

That being said, don't let a couple of typos get in the way of putting some truly life changing dishes like the Mothered Oxtail Stew with Vanilla Mashed Potatoes and Braised Greens with Sweet Red Peppers on the table.

To have a cookbook that covers so many cuisines, makes them semi-approachable to newcomers, and truly delivers on flavor — even with a few bumps along the way — is a book we’ll be coming back to for a long time to come.

value 10
accessibility 8
flavor 8
writing 3

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up.

In theory, I love this cookbook. I love learning about and cooking little known cuisines.

In practice, I’m less than in love.

For my fellow ‘Mericans, be sure to have something you can convert with nearby. Measurements are done in metric. Another reason I’m less than thrilled with it is that many of these recipes look very time consuming even for “weekend recipes”. Likewise, there are many ingredients ended that are not easily accessible for those who don’t live within easy access to high end grocery stores, let alone have the budget to purchase in the first place.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hibiscus

Never seen a recipe book so much hibiscus, I definitely want to try that strawberry hibiscus ice cream. Yum. A lot of coconut peanut and black eyed peas.