Guinea is located in West Africa and it is officially The Republic of Guinea. Colloquially is is sometimes known as Guinea-Conakry to differentiate it with other countries that also carry Guinea in their name such as Equatorial Guinea or Guinea-Bissau.
As a country it has a wide array of natural resources including at least 25% of the world’s bauxite reserves, bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a high aluminium content and the worlds’ main source of aluminium. In addition to aluminium it also has gold, diamonds, metals and a high potential for hydroelectric power. According Wikipedia 80% of the country is employed in agriculture, as Guinea is a major exporter of pineapple, coffee, peanuts and palm oil.
While researching what dish to cook this week I came across some which I recognised from previous research into some of the other countries, things like fou fou which is a paste often made from cassava or corn can be found across the Caribbean and Africa, fried plantains which are so common in one of my home countries were also prevalent. However the winner for me this week was Djindjan a delicious ice cold but deeply warming dish, equally refreshing and reinvigorating made with ginger, orange juice, lemon and sugar… a drink that I will definitely revisit. I used this recipe here!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
100g ginger root
2 oranges
1 lime
100g sugar (you can add more to taste)
2 litres of water
Method
Grate the ginger root into a bowl or jug. Add the water and then leave it covered in the fridge for four hours or preferably overnight.
Pass the water through a sieve, keep the water and discard the ginger.
Juice the oranges and lime, add the juice to the ginger water along with the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
To serve put about 2 tbs of the drink onto a saucer and about 2 tbs of sugar onto a different saucer. Then invert a glass over the saucer with the drink so the rim gets wet and then dip it into the sugar. Add the juice to the glass and enjoy.
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