Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Bissap along with all the Bissap containing recipes presented on this site, with 19 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Bissap recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Bissap as a major wild food ingredient.

Unless you have travelled to South America or West Africa then you will probably not be familiar with bissap. Most famous in Senegal where a tea is made from this herb, Bissap is actually the dried red flowers of the roselle Hibiscus sabdariffa plant; a member of the hibiscus family. The plant itself is a woody shrub that grows to about 2–5 m tall. It is an annual plant that takes some six months to mature, when the flowers are produced. These are some 8–10 cm in diameter, white to pale yellow with a dark red spot at the base of each petal, and have a stout fleshy calyx at the base. The flowers are picked and dried and are generally made into a tea.



As well as Bissap (the Senegalese name [by which it is also known in the Congo and France]) the herb is also known as meśta/meshta on the Indian Subcontinent, wanjo in the Gambia, zobo in Nigeria, karkade (IPA: ['karkade]) in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, omutete in Namibia, sorrel in the Caribbean and jamaica (IPA: [xa'maika]) in Latin America, rosela in Indonesia. The red calyces of the plant are increasingly exported to America and Europe, where they are used as food colourings. Germany is the main importer. It can also be found in markets (as flowers or syrup) in some places such as France, where there are Senegalese immigrant communities.



A red dye can be made from the flowers by taking two cups of flowers, adding to two cups of cold water, bringing to the boil and boiling for about ten minutes. At this point the flowers can be removed and the infusion can be thickened by boiling further. The red colouring can be added to any foods that need to be coloured red. Traditional bissap tea (Jus de Bissap) is made by boiling three cups of the flowers with 2l of water and 1 cup of sugar. Once the mixture has come to the boil, remove from the heat and allow to seep for ten minutes. Filter to remove the flowers then add a sprig of mint and a teaspoon of vanilla sugar if desired. Alternatively add mint and half a cup of lemon juice. Transfer the strained drink to the refrigerator and serve on ice as a drink with any West African food. The drink is tart and brings to mind cranberry juice.



It is also common to make a double-strength drink by halving the volume of water. This can then be mixed with an equal volume of lemonade, soda water or ginger ale before serving.