Eat the Book: “Mango Puree on Toast” | How to Cook Your Husband The African Way by Calixthe Beyala

September 23, 2020

If food be the currency of love, cook on. Eat on. In How to Cook Your Husband The African Way, Calixthe Beyala asks if it is possible to cook your way to a lifetime of happiness with a certain other. Beyala’s strange novel about love, sex, and recipes tells the story of Aissatou, a Paris-based Cameroonian belle, who cooks and cooks and cooks for her love interest Mr. Bolobolo. But nothing she makes, amazing as it is, changes his wily ways. Perhaps food is not the way to a lover’s heart. So what is?

“Mango Puree on Toast” is the 17th recipe in the book. It may not find you the love of your life, but it is worth the try. Unexpected delights is what this recipe brought me. I chose it really on a dare – to myself. I looked at the ingredient list and couldn’t believe it would transform into the deliciousness I experienced at the end. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart of this matter of love and affection and all the ways we coax and woo and buy love.

The recipe requires very little work and will reward you richly. Choose this. Make it. Today.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 large green mango, whole and washed

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 a shallot or small red onion, finely diced

1/2 a jalapeno or green chili pepper, finely diced

Fine zest and juice of 1 large lime

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Toast, to serve

Directions

Put the mango in a pot and fill with water to cover it. Set on medium heat and bring to the boil, then cook for 15 minutes
Once cooked, remove from the heat and run under cold water, allow cool then peel and remove the flesh into a blender. Puree till smooth
In a bowl, combine the mango puree with the olive oil, shallots, green chilies and 1/2 the zest and all of the lime juice. Stir well and season with salt and black pepper, to taste
Spoon over toast and top with more lime zest if you like

Refrigerate leftovers for a couple of days

Hungry for more?

Read: Eat the Book: “Efo, Nigerian Stewed Greens ” | My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Read: Eat the Book: Lemongrass & Coconut Milk Soup with Potatoes, Carrots and Greens | Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga

Ozoz Sokoh | CONTRIBUTOR

Ozoz Sokoh is a food explorer and exploration geologist passionate about food in its entirety – cooking, eating, dreaming, writing and photographing it, especially on her blog, Kitchen Butterfly. Her work has been featured on CNN African Voices, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, Food 52 and more. She makes her home in Ontario, Canada and wakes up to sun-streaked mornings on the couch, good book in hand with a pot of tea, a scene she plans to replicate in New York, Nairobi, Tokyo, Paris and Edinburgh sometime in her life.