‘Good Tastes in Africa’ : Cookbooks That Get Special Notice Because of Novelty or Timely Interest

Here is a report on a few ring-bound or paperback cookbooks that came to attention because of their novelty or timely interest.

The Africa News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens, edited by Tami Hultman, (African News Service: $12.95 ring-bound; $11.95 paperback, 166 pp., illustrated)

This timely book was written because “Africa’s cuisine is as little known as its politics, its economies or its art,” laments the blurb on the title page.

However, Africa’s politics, which have been thrust upon the world of late, should inspire interest in the cuisine as well, and the cookbook is a good place to start, if only for a sampling of the many regional African cuisines.

Politics and food are linked with equal passion in the book, however. “The causes of current African poverty are debated in scholarly journals, international forums and in the media. Hunger in the 20th Century has been attributed to many causes: the colonial legacy, the scars of the slave trade, contemporary economic relations between a wealthy, industrialized Northern Hemisphere and a poor, commodity-producing south; a lack of education and know-how; discrimination against women; incompetent and corrupt governments, and, of course, to the weather, which may be influenced by such human interventions as the destruction of rain forests. But all observers agree that, whatever the reasons, there is a crisis.”

The editors go on to implore readers to become part of the solution by taking some action. “One idea is to get access to a restaurant or community center and use the recipes in this book to prepare an African dinner to benefit famine victims.”

The book is an amalgamation of recipes from various and sundry sources, both public library and private, such as the library of the American Women’s Assn. of Rabat, Morocco, a book called “Good Tastes in Africa” by the African and Africa-Related Women’s Assn. of the University of Illinois, and dozens more. The recipes, however, have been adapted to “present a consistency of style and approach,” as well as to suit the American kitchen.

The Islamic-Arabic influence is undeniable in Northern African cuisines, with such dishes as the filled pastries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Cape Verde, whereas natural ingredients of the lands of the south dictate the essence of South African cuisines, with some influences from French, Italian and British colonizers, as well. India’s influence is also apparent in curries, vegetable stews and flat breads featured in the book.

The African diet is naturally low-cost and healthful because it relies chiefly on complex carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables and grains), with meat used as a supplement to the diet. Depending on the region, legumes and grains such as millet, rice and couscous; and fruits and vegetables, such as beans, corn, lentils, peas, cassava, tomato and soybeans are mainstays of the African diet.

However, spices, which brought spice traders to Africa 2,000 years before Portugal’s Bartholomeu Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope in quest of spices, play an important role in African cuisine, and you will find some familiar and not-so-familiar spices in the recipes. The editors provide a glossary of spices, including origins and uses of cardamom, cumin, fennel, coriander, fenugreek and turmeric as well as the more familiar ginger, pepper, sesame, mint, cloves and cinnamon.

There is a chapter devoted solely to spices, sauces and condiments. A Berber hot pepper seasoning used by Ethiopians is a hot and spicy mixture containing cumin, cloves, cardamom, pepper, allspice, fenugreek seeds, dried and fresh chiles, ginger and turmeric. Piripiri is the Mozambique counterpart to Indian curry, and several curry mixtures, which are used throughout Africa, are provided.

Recipes for soups, snacks and appetizers, chicken, meat and fish cover many regions of Africa. Couscous from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania differ in style and savoriness. The Mauritanian couscous is made sweet with dates and raisins, whereas Algerian couscous is garnished with mint.

From countries bordering the oceans, there are interesting fish dishes using curries and chiles. From Ghana there is a fish dish cooked with tomatoes and chiles, and from Kenya one baked with curry. A pastry dish from Cape Verde is filled with tuna and chiles.

The vegetarian seeking new ideas for using vegetables will find unusual dishes from Namibia, Rwanda, Gabon, Kenya and Malawi among many others, using okra, carrots, plantains, greens and yams, the highly nutritious, fibrous root vegetable considered a staple of many African countries. There are West African yam balls, Burundi boiled plantains used as a base for meat or vegetables stews, sweet potato puffs, potato balls made with garbanzo bean flour, and legumes, such as beans with coconut milk, spiced red beans, black-eyed peas, pinto beans with potatoes, spiced lentils and others.

The desserts should be equally inspiring, if coconut pudding, plantain gingerbread, date cake or mango snow appeals.

The “Africa News Cookbook” is available by sending $12.95 ring-bound; $11.95 paperback plus $2.50 mailing charge for the initial book and $1.50 for each additional book mailed, to Africa News Service, Box 3851, Durham, N.C. 27702, or calling (919) 286-0747.

The Beverly Hills Hotel Cookbook by Electra Lynn Anderson ($25 ring-bound, 106 pp., illustrated) Anyone who is a Los Angeles history buff will find charm in “The Beverly Hills Hotel Cookbook” by Electra Lynn Anderson, the great-granddaughter of Margaret Anderson, who opened the hotel in 1912 and owned it until 1928.

Anderson’s historic research of early land owners Maria Rita and Luciano Valdez, who built a house at Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive and owned the Beverly Hills area known as Rancho Rodeo de Las Aguas in 1831, adds charm to the story of her great-grandmother. Margaret Anderson first managed, then later purchased the land from Burton E. Green, who was corporation owner of Rodeo Land and Water Co., which owned most of Beverly Hills. The city was named after Beverly Farms, Mass., where Green had lived.

The menus, including a 1914 Christmas dinner, a Thanksgiving dinner given in 1918 and one in 1920, and the opening dinner in 1912, among others, illuminate the grandeur of the times when course after course was served in a manner only possible in times past. It is also refreshing to learn that California-grown products were as much heralded in 1912 as today.

One is given a glimpse of the society fads promoted by the hotel, such as fox and beagle hunting, which, according to a newspaper item, was the latest borrowed fad from Eastern society circles.

Such a breakfast after a hunt might have included fried liver and bacon, broiled steak or chops, fried ham or bacon, salt mackerel, omelets, popovers and instant Postum and chocolate along with coffee tea or milk.

Christmas dinner starts with grapefruit, followed by Toke Point oysters on the half shell, California salted almonds, hearts of celery, ripe olives, cream of tomato with croutons, bouillon in cups with bread sticks, fresh lobster a la Newburg in cases, hot-house cucumbers, Parisienne potatoes, brown bread sandwiches, roast Calabasas young turkey with cranberry sauce, creamed calves’ sweetbreads, prime ribs of beef with Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, glazed sweet potatoes, Beverly fresh green peas (Beverly indicating Beverly Hills as source of products), Beverly nut bread, frozen apple toddy, California fruit salad, green apple pie, pumpkin pie, hot and cold mince pie, Christmas plum pudding with hard sauce, Neapolitan ice cream, fruitcake, assorted cakes, apples, pears, grapes, melon, raisins and nuts, figs, dates, and a cheese tray of Roquefort, Camembert and Eastern cheese (probably Cheddar).

The recipes that follow the menus are certainly plain American recipes typical of the times. Braised fillet of beef with mushrooms, broiled lamb chops, bluepoint oysters on the half shell, broiled tenderloin of sole, creamed white fish in ramekins, brown bread, cheese straws, baked apple dumplings and apple fritters could not be more historical in culinary content.

According to the author, the book is available at most bookstores in the Beverly Hills area.

Musical Feasts by Bonnie Becker Cacavas, The American Symphony Orchestra League (Theodore Presser Co.: $10, paperback, 157 pp., illustrated) The American Symphony Orchestra League’s sponsorship of “Musical Feasts” should tip you off to the theme as much as does the name. What you have here are menus “in the manner of” famous composers, including Gioacchino Rossini (Italian), Charles Ives (American), Ludwig van Beethoven (German), Claude Debussy (French), Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (Russian) and Sir Edward William Elgar (English). The menus, while not particularly original, are certainly applicable and would be fun to duplicate for special musical or even non-musical occasions.

So if you are given to celebrating Tchaikovsky in the supra-dramatic Russian manner, using the anniversary, say, of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique,” which was his last performed work (he committed suicide two weeks after its first performance), you will have from the book not only a menu consisting of blini with caviar and sour cream, iced Russian vodka, cucumber salad, chicken Kiev, kasha in tomato baskets and Charlotte Malakoff Champagne with coffee a la Russe (given with accompanying recipes), but also a smattering of history of the Russian cuisine and something about Tchaikovsky’s life.

Ditto for the other composers.

For example, a meal in the manner of Rossini, who was a food connoisseur and charming raconteur, includes, not tournedos Rossini, but tortellini with pink pesto, an Italian chopped salad, herbed garlic bread, turkey cutlet piccata, tomatoes stuffed with Italian sausage and caramel pears with strawberries.

One may wonder how authors of such nonprofit organizations are enlisted for the often thankless hard work it takes to write a cookbook for fund-raising purposes. First of all, Cacavas loves to cook and entertain. She is also married to John Cacavas, who is a movie and television composer.

For a copy of the book, send a check or money order for $9.95 payable to Theodore Presser Co--ASOL Cookbook to: American Symphony Orchestra League Cookbook Offer, c/o Theodore Presser Co., Presser Place, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.