Let's explore Chad, another African nation. Chad is another one of those right-in-the-middle-of-Africa countries. Like so many other nations in this region, Chad's story is not an uplifting one. The country is plagued by violence and political upset, which includes attempted coups and outright battles between Chadian rebels and the forces of Chadian President Idriss Déby. The country is not only poor, it also suffers under a corrupt government.
The population encompasses around 200 distinct ethnic groups and has as many different languages spoken. The official languages of the country are Arabic and French, and religiously, about 52% are Muslim and 44% Christian.
Like other poor nations, the Chadian diet is limited. Fish is abundant in Lake Chad, so people living in the northern part of the country include a lot of perch, tilapia, eel, and carp in their diets. The staple crop of Chad is millet, which is pretty much eaten daily by everyone in one form or another - the most common being a sort of dumpling that’s used to bulk up soups or stews or dipped into sauces. Lake fish is the most popular, or at least most common, protein source, often dried or smoked.
Another country that finding a selection of recipes wasn’t easy. Initially, I’d wanted to make the national soup, daraba, but its main ingredient is okra, which is out of season here, and won’t be in season for another 7-8 months.
Chad is one of those countries divided almost linearly into zones, appearing almost like a striped flag from the satellite view. The sheer diversity of peoples, tongues, and cultures has had a massive influence on the food, but one of the staples which I just couldn’t avoid, was millet. Okra is apparently also dried out and then powdered to make a sauce ingredient/thickener, especially combined with a special mineral salt similar to the Kombo I learned about when cooking South Sudan.
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Here are some traditional recipes and dishes from Chad:
- Broiled Fish
- Millet Balls
- Cowpea Soup
- Kisra (Flatbread)
Broiled Fish with Rice and Banana Salad
One of the first recipes I chose was a simple Broiled Fish. Note: most of the ingredients in the original recipe included the words "fair trade," (as in "fair trade bananas") which means products that are obtained fairly and respectfully from growers worldwide.
Ingredients for Rice and Banana Salad:
- Brown rice
- Oil
- Lemon juice
- Zest
- Spices
- Honey
- Cucumber
- Bananas
- Raisins
- Almonds
Instructions:
- First, cook the brown rice. I just boiled mine on the stove for 45 minutes, then drained and rinsed it.
- Now mix the oil with the lemon juice, zest, spices, and honey.
- Mix the rice with the cucumber, bananas, raisins, and almonds and pour the dressing over.
- Stir gently to combine.
- Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving.
Rinse the filets and pat dry. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and fry the fish on both sides until golden brown. Cover the pan and let simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes, adding a little bit of water as necessary.
The fish was not really anything special, like I said--I've made other fish dishes that were really similar and they were just from basic American cookbooks. I really liked the salad in particular; the bananas, raisins and cucumbers made for an unusual combination of flavors.The dressing was tangy and a little bit spicy and the whole dish was definitely worthy of seconds.
Millet Balls
As I mentioned in our first post about Chadian food, millet is a staple grain in Chad. So, essentially I was left to my own imagination in creating this dish. This recipe uses whole hulled organic millet from my local co-cop, however, I gather that the more traditional Chadian millet balls would most likely be made of millet flour made into a paste. I like to keep my grains whole where possible, though, so I decided to make mine with whole millet. I also chose to bake them to make it more healthy, instead of frying them in oil.
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Ingredients:
- Whole hulled organic millet
- Flour
- Sunflower seeds
- Salt
- Tofu
- Olive oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Tomato paste
- Soy sauce
- Coriander
- Lime juice
Instructions:
- Cover the millet in plenty of boiling water and bring to the boil. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until cooked. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Mix the millet, flour, sunflower seeds, salt, tofu and 1 tbsp water.
- Take a bit of mix about the size of a walnut and press it gently into a ball (don't roll them too firmly or they will break up). Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Spray the millet balls with a bit of olive oil and bake at 180 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
Sauce Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan. Sauté the onion and garlic until softened.
- Add the tomato paste and water.
Soy Sauce Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a small pan and sauté the onion until softened.
- Stir in the soy sauce and water. Bring to a simmer for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the coriander and lime juice.
Cowpea Soup (Black-Eyed Pea Soup)
Various other possibilities presented themselves, and in the end, I simply picked one that I knew I could easily get all the ingredients for, a cowpea (black-eyed pea) soup. I wasn’t even able to find a traditional name for it.
Ingredients:
- Cooked cowpeas (black-eyed peas)
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Chili
- Sweet potato
- Tomato
- Water
- Spices
- Salt
Instructions:
- Cook the onion in a little oil until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Then add the garlic, ginger, and chili and cook for a couple of minutes more.
- Add the sweet potato, tomato, and half of the cowpeas. Cover with just enough water to reach the top of the vegetables.
- Coarsely mash the mixture, or use a stick blender to create a coarse puree. You could do this in a regular blender, but just pulse it a few times.
- Then add in the other half of the cowpeas, and top off with enough water to create a thick soup (it was roughly equal water to the volume of the second half of the cowpeas).
- Simmer together for about five minutes, adjust the seasoning - it definitely needed more salt at this point.
The soup has a good kick to it with the ginger and chili, plus the spices, and would be a great “bean soup” for cold weather, which we’re headed towards here.
Kisra (Millet Flatbread)
On the bread side, I could have made the millet dumplings, but I wanted something that was more bread-like, and I found kisra, a flatbread, almost more a crepe, that Chad shares with neighboring Sudan.
Ingredients:
- Whole grain millet
- Water
- Wheat flour
- Beef suet (or oil)
Instructions:
- First off, I couldn’t find any ground millet or millet flour, so this is whole grain millet. Added about half the volume in water, just enough to make a thick paste, and then left it sitting in a warm area for at least 12 hours to lightly ferment.
- I gave it a stir every few hours, just to mix up the exposed surface so it didn’t dry out, and fermented more evenly.
- Then, mixed the fermented paste with a little bit of wheat flour and some more water - it’s got the consistency of a crepe batter - a bit thinner than pancake batter.
- Over low heat, basically cook like somewhat thick crepes. …golden brown underneath.
The millet flatbread has a really interesting toasty flavor to it. I don’t eat much millet, but I like it. Probably the dumplings would be more traditional, to add into the soup, or dip into it, but the flatbread worked just fine, tearing off a piece at a time and scooping up the soup, which was thick enough to do that with.
Flag of Chad
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I’m about to receive my Romanian citizenship (through ancestry), and I know what the Romanian flag looks like. It’s vertical blue, yellow and red stripes. Unlike the Chadian flag above, which is clearly vertical blue, yellow and red stripes. Wait, what? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen flag doubles but this one was news to me! How odd..
Additional Chadian Dishes
I made a concerted effort not to let it get me down, and did plenty of research for these dishes. I was thrilled with the results and it got me back to being excited about the blog! To be fair, it’s up to us to choose recipes as tame or experimental, as familiar or diverse as we wish, and although I keep seeing variations on a theme for certain parts of the continent, there are plenty of gems to uncover if I just look hard enough. Chad was no exception, and it didn’t take long for me to find a few recipes that made a whole lot of sense to put together for a two-course meal.
Unfortunately the amount of time involved in dehydrating okra in the sun led me away from this idea and I instead made a goat and okra stew with millet dumplings, a salad to go with, a pineapple beer that I whip up once and again (whether it’s from Chad or not I’ll never know, but I wanted it) and a deep-fried pastry that originated in the middle east.
Goat and Okra Stew with Millet Dumplings
Ingredients:
- Goat meat
- Okra
- Millet flour
- Onion
- Capsicum
- Paprika
- Tomato paste
- Spices
Instructions:
- Heat oil in a large, heavy pan. When all the meat is brown, return it to the pot and add the onion, capsicum, paprika and tomato paste.
- Combine all ingredients in a double boiler. Mix to form a sticky paste, then once the water underneath is boiling, cover it up and leave it for 30 minutes.
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, drop balls in and simmer until they float, which should take about 10 minutes.
Rice Salad
Ingredients:
- Rice
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Salt
- Spices
- Honey
Instructions:
- Wash the rice, and cook it how you normally would (or you can use those new 90-. second microwave pouches if you want to take a shortcut, brown rice takes ages).
- Separately, whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, spices and honey to make the dressing.
This may not be a Chadian recipe at all, it’s something I make regularly and have adapted it from a recipe I found in a cookbook I had when I was younger, I think called “African Kitchen”.
Pineapple Beer
The story in that cookbook goes that the name of this drink means “strong river” because after drinking it you’d have the Dutch courage (or stupidity) in you to swim across a torrid river. I was at the farmers’ markets and saw amazing local pineapples at three for $1 so I couldn’t resist making a batch to go with this dinner.
Pineapple Beer
Ingredients:
- Pineapple skins and core
- Sugar
- Raisins
- Water
- Lemon juice
- Brewer's yeast
Instructions:
- Chop the skin and core away from the pineapple, just be rough about it because it doesn’t matter if we take some pineapple meat with us. Save the flesh for something else - we want the skins and core for this recipe.
- Place skins and cores into a saucepan with the sugar and raisins. Add enough water to almost cover them, and bring to the boil.
- Boil furiously for a few minutes to soften the skins, then reduce to medium-low and simmer for up to an hour.
- Add the lemon juice to the liquid, and once it’s cooled to a little more than body temperature, add the brewer’s yeast. Give it a wee stir, nothing too vigorous, and let it sit for 24 hours at room temperature, covered by a kitchen towel.
- Place into bottles with screw-cap lids and let fermentation continue for another 2 days.
Be aware that without something to measure the specific gravity you’ll have no idea how strong this is, so don’t go silly with it!
Deep-Fried Pastry
I have no idea what these are meant to look like, I only found a description and had to guess. Knead the dough on a floured board until little bubbles start to appear and burst while you knead. Deep fry until puffed and golden, you’ll have to turn them over because they’re so buoyant.
Swiss Chard Fritters (Crispeddi Chi Giri)
Swiss chard fritters, or crispeddi chi giri as we call them in Sicilian, made with tender swiss chard leaves fresh from the garden stirred into a pastella (batter) made of eggs; flour; water and parmesan cheese and lightly fried.
I absolutely adore fritters, especially my mom's cauliflower fritters (crispeddi cu brocculu), however she doesn't make these swiss chard fritters very often. That's because I had an aversion to most leafy green vegetables when I was a child! And, incidentally, in case you're wondering about the word giri, this is what we call swiss chard in Sicilian. My mom's crispeddi recipe is quite simple just as her family prepared them in Sicily. No herbs or spices added and that's how I enjoy mine.
Swiss Chard Fritters
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch swiss chard (8-10 leaves: about 10 cups loosely packed before cooking)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup water or more as needed
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2-3 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
Instructions:
- Rinse one bunch of swiss chard (about 8-10 large leaves) well making sure to remove all traces of dirt along the stems. Roughly chop the stems along with the leaves. You may choose to remove the stems, if you prefer, and reserve them for another use.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. If using, add the stems first and boil for 2 minutes. Add the leaves and boil for 1 minute longer. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl to cool.
- In a large bowl combine eggs; flour; baking powder; water; salt and pepper. Whisk the ingredients until smooth. The batter will have a thick, pancake like consistency. If it is too thick, add extra water 1 tbsp. at a time.
- Squeeze some of the water (it does not need to be completely dry) out of the swiss chard and add to the batter along with the grated parmesan.
- Heat vegetable oil on medium high heat in a large skillet. Spoon batter (about 2 tablespoonfuls) into the hot oil. Cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook until the underside is browned, about 2 more minutes.
- Transfer to a paper towel lined tray to absorb excess oil.
These fritters may be frozen in an airtight container or plastic wrap for up to one month. To defrost, place the fritters wrapped in foil in a 350 degrees F preheated oven until thawed, about 20 minutes.
Millet Bak Zhang
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