Gabon, or the Gabonese Republic is a country in Central Africa and one of the most prosperous in Sub-Saharan Africa thanks to petroleum and private investments. Cuisine in Gabon has some clear French influences but staples that are also grown in Gabon are also commonly used.
While researching one of the things that stood out to me the most was a fruit known in Gabon as atanga, and across Africa as ube, safou, African pear, bush pear, African plum, butterfruit amongst others. Pictures reveal it to look almost like an eggplant but my understanding is that is is often boiled and then spread on toast – which is where I guess it gets the name butter fruit or bush butter. This sounds really intriguing and when I eventually visit a country where it’s available, I would be very keen to try it! I found it quite hard to move on from this discovery and I think it firmly set my mind on cooking something sweet for myself this week, which is why I decided to try chakery.
Chakery is a very easy and creamy dessert made with couscous, vanilla yogurt, sour cream and evaporated milk. It is reminiscent of rice pudding but a lot more savoury – it is often garnished with crushed pineapple or other fruits. I decided to try mango today and I threw some blueberries over is – which I know wouldn’t be available in Gabon normally, but they were about to kick the bucket in my fridge so this seemed like a good way to eat them up! I used this recipe here!
Serves 4
Ingredients
250ml of vanilla yogurt
120ml of sour cream
200ml of evaporated milk
1 dash nutmeg
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 cup of dried couscous
Fruit to serve
Method
Cook the couscous according to package instructions. For me it was 200g (1cup) of couscous to 300 ml of boiling water – add the water to the couscous and let it sit for 8-10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed the water. Allow it to cool.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the couscous. Stir well – if it looks a bit saucy don’t worry – just let it sit in the fridge for a while and the couscous will absorb the liquid.
Serve in a bowl and dress with fruit!
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