Entrepreneur Hawa Hassan is known in the foodie world for Basbaas, her line of locally sourced, gluten-free, and vegan hot sauces and chutneys, inspired by her Somali roots. For her first cookbook, In Bibi’s Kitchen, Hassan teamed up with longtime OXO friend, author Julia Turshen, to explore recipes and stories from eight African countries: Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar and Comoros. Each chapter is focused on one country and includes a bit of history, portraits of bibis (grandmothers) and recipes to make at home. In Bibi’s Kitchen welcomes you into the home of twenty bibis and teaches the importance of passing on food traditions.
Hawa shares two recipes with us below. Find out where to purchase the book here.(Opens in a new window)
Piri Piri Sauce
It’s hard to go a day in Mozambique without eating something that’s touched with piri piri sauce (sometimes written as peri peri). The sauce, made with chiles, citrus, and oil, is Portuguese in origin, but peri is actually the Swahili word for “chile” and refers to a specific type of chile pepper that is said to have been first cultivated in Africa. While the sauce is traditionally made with piri piri chiles, all different kinds of hot peppers work well. We found that red Fresno chiles, readily available in the United States and not quite as hot as jalapeños, work really well. However, if you can only find jalapeños, just use three fresh ones in place of the red Fresno chiles. Use the sauce anywhere you would use sriracha. Try it on grilled chicken, toss it with raw cashews and then roast them for a great snack with cocktails, stir it into a seafood stew, or use it for Prego Rolls (below).
Prego Rolls
These sandwiches are best made by grilling the steak outside, but you can still make this recipe if you don’t have an outdoor grill. Just cook the steak in a ripping-hot cast-iron pan (turn on your exhaust fan and open your windows!). Look for Portuguese rolls at your local grocery store (they’re usually near the kaiser rolls), and if you can’t find them, a soft bread roll like a ciabatta roll or other flour-dusted roll will work well.
