The World is My Dinner Party: Kwanzaa

Coronapocalypse Christmas. Who knew years and years of not being with family for Important Dates would be a superpower. Sure, I miss home, but I am used to it. And this year, of all years, is THE year to not travel. Indeed, the grocery store was high preparation -- as it should be during the Coronapocalypse.

What to make for Christmas dinner? Usually we do North American Thanksgiving food, but we just did that at US Thanksgiving. However, we get Bon Appétit magazine, and the last issue of 2020 had a whole special on Kwanzaa! I feel the meaning of Kwanzaa for African Americans in particular, and this year the anti-capitalist aspect resonated with me in particular. The recipes looked amazing, so that's what we did! A bit more than a day of both of us cooking and hallelujah!

Yes, I made an effort. Thanks for noticing.

These are leek latkes - nope not actually part of the magazine's Kwanzaa dinner, but delicious! The Tzatziki was nice and spicy with garlic, and we do love dill....

Corn and crab beignets with Yaji (Suya spice) aioli. Just as delicious as it sounds. That Yaji spice is amazing on vegetables, curries, fish, you name it. We still have some, and I am OK with that. 

Some of the best beets I have ever had. Roasted beets with dukkah spice and sage. Again, that spice mix is delicious and I'm not sure it's not a controlled substance...

Roasted carrots with ayib (Ethiopian soft cheese) and awaze spice vinaigrette. That vinaigrette, people... I ate it with a spoon and have no regrets.

The recipe was beef rib tips or something, but we did it with venison tenderloin. We marinated it in a piri-piri marinade, sous vide cooked it, and then piri-piri sauce to top it off. Later, we put the suace on fried chicken and that was pretty good, too, but this, folks, was the BOMB.  

Aerial photo. Note the oils and extra spice mixes in little bowls. 

Gratuitous holiday pic with a hand made cross-stitch tablecloth and Moomin "pingelverk."

We loved these recipes so much, we went and bought the cookbook all recipes in the magazine we made, except the latkes, are from:

I am currently reading it out loud to the Fuzzband, and we have made more amazing things from it, like the best chess pie ever (in my opinion) and yummy chicken liver paté. The cookbook is divided into sections that have an introduction to various aspects of Black foodways in the USA, like the Great Migration, heritage, and trendsetting Black cooks right NOW. African American food is American food and has influenced American food in ways that has been obscured from history. Well, says Samuelsson -- an Ethiopian-Swedish-American food visionary -- no more! The recipes are dedicated to movers and shakers in the Black food world -- mostly African American, but also other Black folks - and there are short bios to introduce the reader to their work, history, contribution, experiences, and awesome. It is a lovely read and we are learning so much! I am also running out of bookmarks to flag all the dishes we want to make, but that is a good thing!