coarse semolina (available at Middle Eastern groceries).

I hear my uncle scurrying out the screen door headed for the waakye stall across the street on the corner of Palace Street, North Kaneshie—his first breakfast beckons.Waayke (pronounced WAH-chay).. Cook Mode.

boneless goat shoulder or mutton shoulder.(also known as grains of Selim).grains of paradise.

(also known as alligator pepper seed).chopped red onion.

(from a 2-inch piece), divided.

, seeded and coarsely chopped (3 cups).Sunday suppers with vast spreads of food across the table—greens and cornbread, macaroni and cheese, okra and tomatoes, white rice too—and plenty of hands to pass around the dishes.

It's a meal not easily made for one or two; it's meant to be shared like it was shared with us from our ancestors in West Africa who carried on their knowledge of growing rice and growing American civilizations.They took an ingredient they knew, and without their native red palm oil, they used the tomatoes the Spanish introduced to their diets and created something of their own.. READ:.

It took me years to finally perfect my red rice recipe; no one person in particular taught me.Truthfully it was an accumulation of different women across different parts of my life who each added their own little tips and tricks which led me to the "recipe" I go by now.