Guinea

My knowledge of Guinea before I started this challenge, I could have written on my smallest toenail! I now know that its on the west coast of Africa and it’s capital is Conakry. Guinea’s National Park of Upper Niger is inhabited by many species but most notably the Giant Pangolin, a scaly anteater, the meat of which is controversially consumed as a delicacy in China & Vietnam. I also discovered that there are 30 restaurants in Guinea, according to Trip advisor, 7 of which serve pizza!! My recipe research presented me with Kansiye (stew), Sauce feuille (spinach stew) and Soupou Gertö (chicken sauce with sweet potatoes), the latter is the recipe I decided to cook.

My rating: 5/10 – mainly because it was a little bit too spicy for me to enjoy it. It might have been improved if we’d had rice with it.

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This is how I made it:

Ingredients for 2 people

600g chicken pieces (I used thighs & breast, skin on)

1 & 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt, black pepper & chilli powder (according to taste)

1 & 1/2 cups water

2 small cloves of garlic

1 fresh tomato, roughly chopped

1 med onion, roughly chopped

2 spring onions, roughly chopped

1 chicken stock cube

250g sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed

150g butternut squash, peeled & cubed

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 bay leaf

1/3 scotch bonnet chilli pepper (optional) – I used a whole green jalapeno pepper as I couldn’t find a scotch bonnet

Vegetable oil

Place the chicken pieces in a bowl with the lemon juice, salt, pepper and chilli powder and let it marinate for 1 hour or more.

Place the spring onions, onions and garlic in a food processor with the tomatoes, crumbled stock cube, 1/2 cup water, salt and pepper and blend.

Heat the oil in a stock pot and cook the chicken pieces until browned on all sides.

Once the chicken is browned, add all the other ingredients to the pot and simmer over a medium heat for 25 minutes or until the squash and sweet potatoes are soft, serve either on its own or with rice.