Congolese Cuisine: Makoso and Ndunda

As my few faithful readers may have noticed, this month I have been doing some random posts about Congolese food. I’ve posted about food in the past but I’ve doing it more often recently. This is for two reasons, one being that my sisters in law are staying with us right now and cooking lots of different things, and the second reason being that I’m learning to make new Congolese dishes along with my cooking partners!

Today we prepared makoso, otherwise known as makolo ya ngolu, or “pig legs,” with ndunda as the side dish. This meal is prepared with black pepper, nutmeg, garlic, green peppers, salt, tomatoes, onions, bay leaves and baking soda.

First wash and cut up the meat and add chopped green peppers, crushed garlic, black pepper, nutmeg and salt. Let this sit.

Fry the onions and tomatoes in a little water and oil over high heat (preferably a charcoal stove outdoors).

Wash the greens and cook over low heat until wilted and soggy. Add a pinch of baking soda (I think that’s what it is although I’m not totally sure) to prevent the greens from losing their color. Add salt and “cube” seasoning which is like boullion. The greens do not have to cook for very long.

When the tomato mixture is done cooking, remove from heat and cook the meat over high heat with a little water in the pot. Add bay leaves and add more water as needed as it evaporates.

When the meat is thoroughly cooked, add the tomatoes and onions mixture into the meat and mix well.

By this time the greens should be done (assuming you have two cooking places). Make mfufu (or buy kwanga) to serve with the food and your meal is complete. The greens can also be mixed in with the meat dish as an alternate method of serving this meal... see photo below: