To round out your holiday menu, consider “The Official Wakanda Cookbook” by Malawian-American chef Nyanyika Banda.
While at the University of Wisconsin Superior, Banda designed her history and writing majors around African Foodways and has been a life-long scholar of the topic ever since.
50 YEARS OF INSPIRATION
The collection of recipes, inspired by 50 years of “Black Panther” comics, include everything from sauces and condiments to desserts and drinks. Fans of Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will be intrigued to know that Banda’s cookbook features a new character, too.
The cookbook is narrated by a fictional character named Ndi Chikondi, who is credited as the Executive Chef at the Royal Palace of Wakanda. Throughout the story, Chikondi relates how the book’s recipes came about and why they exist as part of Wakandan culture.
ETHOS OF WAKANDA
According to Banda in an interview with marvel.com, the village-style curried chicken is a representation of Wakandan ethos in a pot of stew. The dish is commonly made during the tribal council meetings. The stew takes many hours — almost half a day — to braise, and so the tradition is for the chefs to start it a day before the tribal meetings are set to begin.
Traditionally, in the outdoor kitchens a large cauldron is set over a large fire pit and the stew braises for as long as the meeting takes place. This is why the stew is started far in advance. So that no matter when the consultation ends, there will be a filling bowl of curried meat and sauce over nsima.
When you pick up your copy of “The Official Wakanda Cookbook,” Banda recommends that you also pick up harissa spice mix, carrot ginger dressing and msuzi matmati. Msuzi Matimati is slow cooked with tomatoes and spices like cardamom, coriander and cumin.
You can get “The Official Wakanda Cookbook” on Amazon or any major bookseller.
