Three years ago, I shared with you this recipe of mbika cakes made with egusi seed flour, a widely popular dish in central African countries. Usually in my family, we have them as appetizers, but you can have them as main dish as well. Back then, I told you how melon seeds were grounded into flour and used in various recipes either as thickener in soups or stews or simply as flour like in the recipe I’m sharing today.
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We are already in August and I decided for this month to introduce you to some of my favorite dishes, especially the African ones. And today, I’m making MBika cakes with Shrimp and smoked fish. MBika (the word used in Lingala) is commonly called Egusi in West Africa and Pistache in Cameroon. In West and Central Africa, Egusi seeds, protein-rich seeds of certain cucurbitaceous plants, like squash, melons or gourds, are ground into flour whose texture is similar to almond meal.
When the weather gets warmer, I usually hate to eat foods that are on the heavy side. During spring and summer, I prefer to eat lighter foods and less starch. That’s why, two years ago, I immediately fell in love with the idea of Zucchini pasta after surfing for new ideas on Pinterest. At first, I was skeptical because, for me, pasta normally meant made with flour and eggs. So I was certain that I wouldn’t like it. Then I tried it and I simply loved it. Since then, making Zucchini pasta is now part of my cooking habits.
Last week, I made Pork and shrimps potstickers and as always I was left with a surplus of filling. Since I wasn’t planning to use the filling in the day that followed, I put it a freezer bag and store it in the freezer. And I forgot about it. Well, almost forgot about it. Since we were having friends coming over, I had to come up with ideas for appetizers to entertain my guests. I wanted to do something that looked fancy but wouldn’t require a lot of time to make or money to invest. So I thought to myself “Hmm why not just use the rest of the filling and deep fry some wontons with it?”
I’m not an expert in Asian cuisine but I love to eat Asian food especially potstickers. So I decided to make homemade potstickers instead of buying the ones you can get in the freezing section at you local grocery store. And my verdict is: the homemade potstickers tasted better than the ones I buy at the grocery store, mainly because I was able to customize my filling with ingredients of my liking.
Rita's Notebook 