Cuisine is one of the highlights of a cruise on our ships. In the Culinary School on board the EUROPA 2, our guests are shown how to cook regional delights. We're sending greetings from faraway shores to you at home - with some recipes for African cuisine.
Unfamiliar fruit, cooked vegetables, fish and meat - what better way to delve into another culture than through its food? Our EUROPA 2 also gives you the chance to make one of the dishes from a region yourself, with professional instruction and local ingredients in the Culinary School on Deck 9. Many guests on board take advantage of this opportunity. While we can only dream about faraway travels at the moment, recipes from all over the world can help us to satisfy our hunger for adventure at home. The EUROPA 2 will explore the coasts of Africa again in spring 2021. The continent is already sending us a culinary postcard. Our recipes form the basis for a lovely dinner - maybe even one to share with friends - flavoured with a pinch of longing for Africa.
The diversity of a continent comes together in one menu. Whereas the peanut and leek soup is a typical South African dish, the mafe - also known as maffe, maafe or wolof - originally comes from Mali. It has long been a popular dish across the whole of Africa, but particularly in the west of the continent, and comes in a range of variations as peanut curry with lamb, beef or chicken, like in our recipe. It goes well with fresh bread or rice. The banana fritters are a sweet dish that is also found in many countries. In the Culinary School on board our EUROPA 2, we make them with cinnamon and nutmeg - soul food to round off a delightful evening.
1 clove of garlic • 1 onion • 2 carrots • 3 tbsp oil • 75 ml dry white wine • 1 leek • 1 tbsp honey • 1 tbsp sugar • 2 tsp curry powder • 750 ml vegetable stock • 175 g unsalted peanuts • 150 ml cream • 250 ml coconut milk (or creamed coconut) • 2 tbsp peanut butter • Salt and pepper • Chilli oil • 4 prawns
Peel the garlic, onion and carrots. Finely chop the garlic and thinly slice the onions and carrots. Sweat the garlic, onions and carrots together in oil, deglaze with the wine and allow to reduce.
Cut the leek into strips and add to the pan along with the honey, sugar and curry powder. Bring to the boil briefly, add the vegetable stock and leave to simmer gently on a low heat for around 6 minutes.
Fry the prawns in oil in a very hot pan for just under a minute on each side; put aside and keep warm. Meanwhile, toast the peanuts in a pan and stir into the soup with the cream, coconut milk (or creamed coconut) and peanut butter. Season with salt and pepper.
Then finish the individual portions with chilli oil if desired and add the prawns - for instance, on a wooden skewer.
3 carrots • 3 potatoes • Half a white cabbage • 3 onions • 3 cloves of garlic • 500 g chicken breast • 4 large (peeled) tomatoes • 1 sweet potato • 2 tbsp peanut butter • Half a tube of tomato puree • 500 ml vegetable stock • 2 small chillies • 2 tbsp soy sauce • Salt and black pepper • 1 pinch of allspice • 1 pinch of brown sugar • Peanut oil (for frying)
Start by peeling the potatoes, sweet potato and carrots and cutting them into bite-sized pieces, with the carrot pieces about the width of your thumb. Cut the cabbage into pieces around 3 × 3 cm. Cut the onions into eighths, chop the meat into small pieces and peel the garlic.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or saucepan and sweat the onions in the oil until translucent. After around five minutes, add the meat and fry it with the onions. Next add the peeled tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon. Leave the mixture to cook until almost all of the water from the tomatoes has gone. Then add the tomato puree and minced garlic and fry briefly while stirring. Deglaze with the half litre of vegetable stock. Now add the carrots and season with salt, pepper and allspice.
Add the chillies and simmer together for around 10 to 15 minutes before removing the chillies. Cover and simmer for around 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, cover and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the chopped cabbage, sweet potato and peanut butter and continue cooking. Finally, add the soy sauce and a pinch of sugar to taste.
5 bananas • 1 egg • 100 g brown sugar • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon • 1 pinch of ground nutmeg • 1 pinch of salt • 200 g flour • 1 tbsp baking powder • 200 ml milk • Oil for frying • Icing sugar for decoration
Peel the bananas and use a fork to mash them in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and nutmeg and then add the mashed banana and mix thoroughly. Next, mix together the flour and baking powder. Gradually add the milk to make a thick batter (150 to 200 ml milk should be enough) and combine this with the banana mix.
Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and drop the batter mixture into the pan a spoonful at a time on a medium heat. The batter should form small pancakes with a diameter of 4 to 5 cm. To finish, add a slice of banana on top and flambe with brown cane sugar.
