Following on from my earlier post about World Food Night, featuring a colourful bowl of fish benechin, I wanted to share with you the wonderful morning I spent with Ida Cham-Njai learning how to cook Gambian style!

I joined a small group of tourists on Ida’s cookery course one Monday morning. As soon as we arrive we are shown two clothes’ rails of Gambian traditional outfits. Everyone eagerly picks out their new look. I have always found Gambians love to see visitors embrace their culture in this way so I too select a beautiful bright green ensemble, including a matching head wrap, and get changed.

From Ida’s we head to Tanji fish market where all our senses are overloaded with the sights, sounds and smells on this bustling beach. Women are busy buying and selling, while the men are bringing in the latest catch in their colourfully painted wooden boats. Few people in The Gambia have access to electricity let alone a fridge so it is common for women to shop at least once a day at the local market. Ida decides what she is going to cook each day depending on what is available and looking good. Today fish benechin is on the menu and she selects a john dory fish and a red snapper.

Benechin literaly means one pot and can be cooked with chicken or other meat but fish is probably the most common variation. While the fish sellers scale and gut the fish, we’re off to buy the other ingredients: tomatoes, carrots, spring onions, sweet potatoes, onions, aubergine, cassava, bitter tomatoes and butternut squash are gathered into baskets. A small amount of dried salted fish will also be used for extra flavour.

Back in Ida’s courtyard we grab a seat and gather round to prepare the vegetables, many of which are left whole rather than chopped so that they are easy to scoop out and place on top of the finished dish for serving. Others are pounded together in a large wooden bowl.

A smaller bowl and a gourd are used to mash up the chillies and garlic which will be used to make a chilli sauce. They are fried in some oil with a dash of salt and Dijon mustard. This would normally go into the main dish but as some of us may not be used to spicy food it is prepared as a separate sauce.

The vegetables are cooked in a large pot over a charcoal fire and as the pot is stirred a delicious aroma fills the air but we are told it will 2 ½ hours before it is ready.

While we wait Ida teaches us the traditional game of wuri bringing out the competitive streak in all of us and before you know it we have a mini wuri tournament taking place! Sitting in the dappled shade of Ida’s courtyard I feel quite envious of this out-door life style. (I’ll tell you more about wuri and where I first came across it in another post.)

With an hour’s cooking time left to go the fish goes in to the pot.

Half an hour later the fish and whole vegetables are removed and the spring onions which have been pounded up with some garlic are added together with vegetable stock cubes and diced carrot. Pre-steamed rice is stirred in and it’s left to simmer for another 30 minutes.

Our tummies are rumbling as we all sit down on a rug in the courtyard. Dinner is served! As is the tradition we are not given plates but all eat out of a communal bowl, which looks and smells delightful. We have no skill at rolling the food into small balls with our fingers as the locals would so I’m pleased to say we were allowed spoons. I think the verdict is unanimous. Fish benechin is delicious! The chilli sauce, however, was not to everyone tastes but my neighbour on the rug adored it and I couldn’t believe how much of it he ate as it really did pack a serious punch!

More of my photographs from the day are on Flickr  and if you fancy trying some Gambian cookery yourself look out for my up coming post reviewing The Gambian Cookbook.

Ida, originally from The Gambia, studied hotel tourism and catering management in Twickenham in the UK but returned to The Gambia in 1989. Having spent some time working at the popular Senegambia Hotel and then the luxurious Mandina Lodges at Makasutu, she started running cookery courses from her home in Brufut with the desire to preserve and promote her culture.