Not for the first time, this particular meal started with a fail. The research process to find a restaurant or food outlet that served Gambian food was fairly fruitless. At best all I could find were pop-ups, which at that moment in time none had popped up anywhere. But I did find a handful of listings and reviews for a food stall in East London called "The Gamby Shack". I even found Facebook and Instagram pages for the place, which was encouraging. You'd think I would've messaged ahead to make sure they were definitely open. Or at least checked recent activity on the aforementioned pages. Alas...
Of to Netil Market in Hackney we went, on a fairly hot midsummer's afternoon. Netil Market is actually easy to miss, tucked away between two long, not particularly interesting streets. It's also considerably smaller than I expected. And very quiet when we arrived. We took a walk around the dozen or so food, drink and retail stalls on the ground level, but no Gamby Shack. But there was a real feeling of plausibly missing the food stall on the first try, so we swept the stalls again. And again. No Gamby Shack. Then we noticed some wooden stairs, from where chill-out music was emanating upstairs. Up we went, to find a few seating areas, and a little wooden shack. Hosting a radio station, Netil Radio. Not West African food.
We went back downstairs to give the market one last sweep, but also to buy a couple of drinks at one of the stalls. We asked the guy serving the drinks if he knew where The Gamby Shack was. He confirmed there was no such place in the market, and didn't know if it was ever there as he only started working there last week.
We went back upstairs with our drinks, sat outside Netil Radio listening to their tunes and half-asleep DJ, and researched social media to the degree I should have done before the visit. And then discovered that the Gamby Shack disappeared a few months earlier. Fail.
We spent the rest of that afternoon and evening in East London, so it wasn't a completely wasted day. The following week, I did some research to find a traditional Gambian dish we'd enjoy. Then I headed to the kitchen...
One standout meal during the food research was Domoda. A Gambian peanut stew. This wasn't the first time a peanut-based meal came up in this project, as it's a common ingredient in some West African meals. But there was one ingredient that set this ahead of the rest. Scotch bonnet chillies. I was sold!
The process started by cutting 500g of chicken breast into half inch chunks, and browning this in 60ml of peanut oil. This is just browning - the chicken didn't cook through. It'll do this when it simmers with the rest of the ingredients.
Next up was bringing to the boil 1 litre of vegetable stock with two tablespoons of tomato puree, then adding 2 thickly sliced carrots, 130g of sweet potatoes, and two chopped Scotch bonnet chillies (wear gloves!).
While the above simmered slowly, I sauteed 2 large diced onions and 3 minced cloves of garlic and added this to the pot. Finally, in went a bay leaf, some salt, and the final, most important, touch - 130g of smooth peanut butter.
This needed a good stir, mostly to ensure the peanut butter thins and the whole sauce becomes consistent with no blobs of peanut butter. The browned chicken was added at this point, the pot covered, and the whole thing simmered for 45-50 minutes, adding water when needed.
I served this with white rice. Although it was technically a stew, it definitely felt more like a curry. And it was absolutely exceptional! One of my favourite dishes out of all the home cooked meals in this project. There's absolutely no denying that a large part of that was the spice. This had a real kick to it. Nothing too intense, but it was a serious hit. (If that level of spice isn't your thing, I'd recommend omitting one of the two Scotch bonnet chillies). But the rest of the flavours where amazing too. The chicken, onion and garlic together with the spice hit, and a very flavoursome but still delicate, sweet and salty peanut flavour made this pretty unique and really quite gorgeous. The chicken was also cooked perfectly, showing why the browning process was so important, to keep in the moisture and flavour.
As much as I would have enjoyed a meal on a wooden bench outside The Gamby Shack on that Sunday afternoon, I would have missed out on this fantastic meal which, thanks to cooking for far more than two people, also became lunch and dinner the following day!
