Angola Unit

Growing up I watched Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. At the end of each episode, the winning team would have to put beacons on a map in a minute. Every time Africa came up the kids would groan and everyone would think, well that’s it, they’re not going to do well. How is this story relevant to an Angola Unit. Prior to learning about Angola, I don’t think I would have found it on the map beyond saying, “Somewhere in Africa.” Now, I know approximately where it is, and a few new fun facts about their landscape after this geography lesson.

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Angola Unit resources

I found no books at my library, which was rather sad, but, thankfully we’re early in the alphabet, and the Geography Now video was great.

And because I like to find a few more fun facts to share, here are a couple of places with fun Angola facts.

• Fun Angola Facts (see it’s even in the name), and some amazing pictures
• 22 interesting facts about Angola
• Angola Country facts

Angola recipe Coconut Dessert

Okay, so I usually try to cook a meal, but as I looked up the popular meals all I saw were meals I knew no one in my family would like. Since I already have enough complaints just cooking a regular meal as no one seems to share foods they like, there was no way I was going to go in and make a meal everyone was going to hate just based off the ingredients.

So, I started looking up desserts and after checking around a little bit I saw Angolan Coconut Dessert, and thought PERFECT! I love coconut, and this could be a fun challenge. Especially once I saw I needed a candy thermometer to make this. My luck with any recipe needing a candy thermometer is pretty low.

And that’s where it all went downhill.

Coconut Custard ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cloves (I did not have whole cloves, much to my surprise, so I added in 1/4 teaspoon of cloves)
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut
• 6 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• a pinch of salt

Coconut Custard Directions

1. Add the water, sugar, and cloves to a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat and simmer until the temperature of the sugar reaches 230 on the candy thermometer, around 15-20 minutes. This is probably where I went wrong. I swear it never got up to 230 degrees, even after stirring for what seemed like years.
2. Remove the syrup from the heat and discard the cloves (obviously I didn’t do this because I used ground cloves), stir in the coconut. Return to the heat and let simmer for another 10 minutes.
3. Beat the egg yolks with a pinch of salt until smooth and lightened in color. Side note, beat the yolks for much longer than you expect it to take, I learned this from when Batman and I were learning how to make lady fingers.
4. Slowly beat in the coconut mixture with the egg yolks.
5. Return the saucepan to low flame and cook stirring constantly until thickened and smooth about 5 minutes.

As you can see from my picture, it just looks like coconut soup. Reading the instructions I really thought I could make it, but my end result was terrible. It was super sweet, and hideous, and I know I did something wrong. I just don’t know what.

Re-reading the recipe and typing it up right now has me wanting to try again, but at the same time I don’t want to waste all of that delicious coconut…

Coconut Custard

Print

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cloves
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut
• 6 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• a pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Add the water, sugar, and cloves to a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat and simmer until the temperature of the sugar reaches 230 on the candy thermometer, around 15-20 minutes
2. Remove the syrup from the heat and discard the cloves, stir in the coconut. Return to the heat and let simmer another 10 minutes.
3. Beat the egg yolks with a pinch of salt until smooth and lightened in color.
4. Slowly beat in the coconut mixture with the egg yolks.
5. Return the saucepan to low flame and cook stirring constantly until thickened and smooth about 5 minutes.

Angola unit notebooking pages

Angola was an interesting country to learn about. Like so much of Africa it has been dramatically changed by colonization, and it’s got some pretty dramatic history.

• there’s a ghost town, ghost towns are always cool
• civil war in the 1970s
• world’s most expensive city

More learning fun

• Dog booklist
• War Horse book club
• Age of Exploration Unit
• Homemade Zoo Animals book
• Circulatory System Game

“Imbondeiro (Luanda, Angola)” by Denis Lopes / Serras Photography is marked with CC BY 2.0.