Country 43: Democratic Republic of Congo / Repubic of Congo

I'm cheating a little bit on this meal because I'm combing both DRC and RoC. I'm only doing this because it's really difficult to find recipes for each country that differ from one another. I also could have done this as part of the C countries but I'm glad I didn't because I was really eager to move onto the next letter of the alphabet. The best thing about D countries is that there are only 5 including DRC, so I feel like I'll be able to get through them fairly quickly - although at the current rate I'm going I feel like it'll be summer by the time that I move on! 

 

The last two blogs were very quick, but again I'm really struggling when it comes to the blogging parts of things. I find it by far the most difficult to gain momentum and actually keep up to date with it. And then because I don't want to get too far behind on the blogging, I stop cooking as well. But I'm determined to do Cook the World once a week, and then hopefully I can actually make that manageable. Hopefully!

In other news, my flat and I all had COVID-19 over Christmas, which was tedious to say the least. However, we have all pulled through and actually none of us experienced really serious symptoms. I had the most long-lasting symptoms with a cough that stretched endlessly into January but by the end of the month I had fully recovered which is great. Interestingly, all of us had fairly different symptoms - the other couple had a temperature and a cough, whereas I didn't have a temperature at all but I had a terrible headache for about a week before I started coughing. Nick had a bit of a temperature but it wasn't long-lasting, and neither of us could smell anything, and our sense of taste was slightly altered too. I was really worried that we weren't going to be able to taste or smell our Christmas meal but thankfully everything started working again by then which was a relief!

The UK is back into lockdown again, I think this is the third one. It started right before Christmas and at this stage it is due to go until early March, although I think it will be pushed back to Easter. In the meantime, Nick and I are moving flats and I'm also in the process of beginning to apply for my Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK - something I never foresaw myself applying for but circumstances have dramatically changed since I first arrived. Shockingly, my visa is up on the 3rd March, only just over a month away and it is crazy to think that had it not been for the pandemic that I would be gearing up to leave. 

Anway, back to my meal from Congo. Again, it was really difficult to find these recipes but I am grateful to @letscookwithelle on Instagram and Youtube who specialises in cooking Congolese food, who's recipes I followed. 

I'm not going to type out the full recipes, but you can find them by following the links below. 

The first dish I cooked was called mbwengi which is a black eyed bean stew with dried fish. I'm not going to lie, the fish smelled absolutely terrible when I first took it out of the packet but after washing it a few times and letting it boil for half an hour, it turned out okay! Mbwengi takes a bit of time to cook as you have to wait for the beans to boil, as well as the fish, and after mixing everything together it still needs to simmer into a stew, but it turned out really decently. I served mine with loso ya bulayi which is essentially Congolese jollof rice, and the rice itself was really yummy.

Ultimately, the meal was pretty good. I didn't hate it. It was certainly edible and Nick rated it a 6/10 which I think isn't too bad. I wouldn't make it again because I didn't love the stew, but for what it was I was pleased with it. And I'm absolutely delighted to be cooking the world again - I actually cooked Cyprus in October and Czech Republic in November, so I feel like I've crossed a hurdle with Democratic Republic of Congo and am now back in the game.