I enjoyed cooking Côte d’Ivoire food. Most likely because I cooked it on Sunday, not on a weekday after a commute from work. Lately, the cooking-after-work routine started to become a burden. I especially hate the cleaning-after-the-cooking part. But OK, enough whining, and back to Côte d’Ivoire.

I’ve prepared two dishes: Kedjenou chicken and Caramelized Pineapple Tart. Both dishes were favorably met by my guys. Matthew praised tenderness of the chicken and even Eugene tried a bite-size piece of the tart. My husband tried everything and was completely happy about the meal.

Kedjenou chicken

Kedjenou chicken is a very easy-to-make dish, but the cooking time is 2 hours. So it is kind of a “set it and forget it” type of dish. I found a recipe on one of the French language cooking sites and translated it with Google. Ingredients 1 whole chicken 2 small eggplants 3 large tomatoes 1 large onion 3 cloves of garlic 2-3 bay leaves 1 tbsp of freshly ground ginger thyme, pepper, salt to taste Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut the chicken into pieces. Put in a dutch oven. Add chopped eggplant, tomatoes and onion, minced garlic and spices. Mix well. Put in the oven and let cook for 2 hours.

Tarte à l’Ananas Caramélisé — Caramelized Pineapple Tart

This dish was definitely designed under the French influence. I found the recipe here, but I improvised a little bit, i.e. I caramelized pineapples in sugar and butter instead of sugar and pineapple juice.