African Kachumbari (Chadian Tomato & Onion Salad)

Kachumbari is a common salad eaten in various African countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Congo and Chad. As part Chad Month (which was all the way back in February 2012!) I made this lovely fresh African salad (for other recipes see the links at the bottom of this post - but excuse the photos, it was right when the blog first started). I've remade it now because I really felt like eating it again, and because I thought it deserved some better photos! This time I've used a combination of red and yellow small roma tomatoes, because it just looks so pretty and these lovely yellow roma tomatoes are at my local supermarket at the moment. You can make it with a mixture of any heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes or just regular tomatoes (which would be most authentic). Given that tomatoes are the hero of the dish though, I'd encourage tasty vine-ripened ones, as if you buy tomatoes which taste like nothing then your salad won't taste like much!

The main elements of the dish are tomatoes, onion and citrus juice. There are lots of variations depending on region, this version includes cucumber and fresh chilli. If you like hot, add an extra chilli or just leave the hot bits in (the placenta -which is the white bit which the seeds are attached to - is the hot part of the chilli, not the seeds).  This salad is perfect paired with the Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters (see link below) and is a light and tasty addition to any gathering, potluck or group meal.

African Kachumbari

Ingredients

1 small red onion, thinly sliced (or diced)
4 tomatoes, sliced (or diced)
1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced (or diced)
1 chilli, seeds & placenta removed and sliced
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
The juice of two limes

How to make:

1.Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and toss until well combined
2. Serve immediately.

Serves 3-4.

Check out our other Chadian recipes: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio 

African Loz 

Maharagwe 

Chadian Recipes

Map from worldatlas.com

This month I have been featuring recipes from Chad - a landlocked central African country which is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has been a bit challenge to explore cuisine from Chad, as countries which struggle so much to feed their people don't often feature a haute cuisine! However, I managed to find reference to many ingredients and vegetables which would be eaten by Chadian people - although never having been to Chad I wouldn't be able to comment on how authentic the things I made were! It anybody has been or knows more about this area I'd love to hear from you! 

Despite the challenging theme I had a really fun time coming up with dishes! Here is a quick summary of what I made:

~Breakfast~

Breakfast Bouille (Rice and Peanut Porridge)

I loved having the chance to do a breakfast dish for a featured country! I'm always looking for great new vegan breakfast ideas and this was certainly different to anything else I've had. I recommend using it as a base recipe and adding your own favourite things to flavour it. Check out the recipe here.

~Savoury~

Millet Balls with 3 Dipping Sauces

I found a lot of references to Chadians eating millet balls dipped in sauces but I found no recipes or references to how it was made or even what sauces! So this is what I devised for it! The millet balls are baked with a lovely crunchy outside and the three sauces were great. Peanut Sauce, Saka Saka Sauce (Spinach & Okra) and Harissa Sauce. All the sauces are nice on their own served over rice as well. The peanut sauce from this recipe is one of my favourite things from this month's recipes!! Check out the recipe here.

Sweet Potato Fritters

You'll have to excuse the very average photo of this one! We were so keen to get in and eat them straight away that I didn't have time to style or photograph properly - but don't let that deter you because they were fantastic. They were my favourite of the savoury dishes from this month and were even more perfect eaten with the peanut sauce (recipe above). Check out the recipe here.

Irio

This dish of mashed beans, vegetables and potato is very versatile. It makes a delicious meal by itself when topped with Chadian Peanut sauce (above), it also makes a great and healthy side dish of vegies for any dish. Leftovers make great vegie burgers or bubble and squeak. All delicious options! Check out the recipe here.

Kachumbari

This refreshing and easy salad is eaten in many countries in Africa. It's simple but delicious and goes perfectly with almost any meal! Check out the recipe here.

Maharagwe I

This was a delicious dish or creamy coconut kidney beans. It is very easy to make and it was a big hit with the dinner guests I had around to help me eat the food. It's a perfect dish for a potluck or a group dinner. Check out the recipe here.

~Sweet~

Loz (Almond and Orange Blossom Water Bites)

I don't know if this is an authentic Chadian recipe! It seems more Middle Eastern to me but I found it and I wanted to make it anyway. They were INCREDIBLE. I cannot recommend this recipe enough - and my dinner guests agreed! Check out the recipe here.

I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me! I'm excited to announce that next month I will be featuring:

Bosnian Foods!

 

Chadian Recipes: Maharagwe

We've saved one of our best Chadian dishes 'til last. I hope you have enjoyed exploring the Chadian cuisine as much as we have.

Not only is maharagwe great by itself, it is also mighty fine as a side dish or served over rice, quinoa or even with tortillas. This dish was an amazing hit at our Chadian dinner party - one of the most popular dishes of the whole night. It's very easy to make and keeps and reheats well which makes it perfect to bring to potlucks or family gatherings. Feel free to drizzle this with lime juice for extra tang.

Ingredients:
2 cups of dry red kidney beans, soaked in water for 8 hours or overnight
400ml of coconut milk
½ tsp of ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 red onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped.
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 Tbsp of peanut oil
1 green chilli
fresh coriander for garnish.

How to make:

1. Rinse your previously soaked kidney beans and bring them to the boil in a large saucepan with plenty of water. Simmer, covered, for an hour or until the beans are tender. Drain and put aside.
2. In a large saucepan heat the oil and add the onion, garlic and chilli. Saute on a medium heat until the onion is transparent.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add coconut milk, beans, curry powder, salt and cardamom. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Serve, topped with fresh coriander, and enjoy!

Serves 6-8

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio (Mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables)

African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)

Kachumbari 

African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)

I've been reading a lot of blog entires lately and have noticed a lot of Valentine's Day bashing going on. It's mostly along the lines of "why do we need a special day to be shown love when somebody who loves you should show you every day". My answer to this question is: we don't - but what's wrong with taking a moment out to appreciate how lucky you are to have love in your life and celebrate it a little?

I'd like to put forward two points on this matter (before I get to the delicious point of this post): Firstly, if you are in a relationship in which your partner (he or she) ONLY shows you love on Valentines Day then you shouldn't be in that relationship full stop - so that shouldn't even be an issue! Secondly, although there is no need to get commercial or expensive on Valentine's Day, there is nothing wrong with taking a moment out to appreciate the people in your life that you love and who love you. I'm not just talking about partners/spouses, but about the friends and family who love you and want to spend time with you - having people in your life who love you makes you the luckiest person in the world - so celebrate it!

I have to admit, I'm not the kind of person who does Valentine's Day. I don't buy into all the commercial stuff they push at you to try and make you believe that "she" (notice how all the push is on giving gifts to women on Valentine's Day? Highly sexist - why not give flowers and jewellery to the men??) won't love you unless you  buy her a really ugly diamond bracelet costing $1999. However, I think that people immediately jump in to hate Valentine's Day because of the commercial side - but Christmas is very commercial too and do you hate Christmas??? (I hope not because Xmas is awesome).

As a final note in this opinion article, I'd like to point out that you could apply the logic of "why do we need a special day to be shown love when somebody who loves you should show you every day" could be equally applied to any other 'special' day of the year. Do you expect people to only be nice to you and be happy that you are alive on your birthday? No, you expect that all year round but you still celebrate your birthday! Do you only appreciate living in a great country with amazing first world problems on Australia Day? No, if you have any sense you realise how lucky you are all year round but you can still appreciate the public holiday and have a celebration with friends and family if that is your tradition. Do you only eat chocolate on Easter? No, chocolate is for all year round but that doesn't mean you can't indulge on Easter! (As you can see from that I am not religious and the only think Easter means to me is chocolate). In SUM! Of course Valentine's Day shouldn't be the only day that your lover/friends/spouse show you that they love you - but what's wrong with it if they want to show you they love you on Valentine's Day as well?

After that very long intro - let's get to the recipe. When the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop girls announced that this month's theme was to be Love At First Bite, I thought that it was a pretty easy topic because it's so broad you can really post whatever you want, so I though this month I would combine it with the theme for this month on our blog: Chadian Food. Here on Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo we like to take a different  country each month to explore their foods and learn as much as we can about recipes and ingredients from that country (if you'd like to check out our past months posts or to suggest a country for us to feature then hit up this post here!). This month we are featuring food inspired by Chad (to learn more about Chad and Chadian food check out this post here!) and we are continuing that this month with these incredible little African/Middle Eastern sweetmeats called Loz.

This is the second 'Valentines' themed blog hop I've participated in this month - check out the other hop too by checking out my entry - Vegan Strawberry Cherry Sago Trifle!

In my opinion there are 3 flavours which just ooze the idea of love: rosewater, orange blossom water and raspberries. These three ingredients always make your food so sensual! In this case these little babies are laced with orange blossom water and their aroma will make you fall in love at first smell whilst their incredible taste will be love at first bite!

I mean, look at it! What's not to love??

Ingredients:

230gm almond meal

120gm icing sugar

7 tablespoons orange blossom water

30gm shelled pistachio nuts finely chopped

30gm caster sugar

Icing sugar for dusting

Extra pistachio nuts for garnishing

How to make:

1.Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar with enough orange-blossom water to

form a stiff paste.

2.Knead until smooth and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

3.Combine the finely chopped pistachio nuts and caster sugar, grind in a mortar and  

pestle until fine, and set aside.

4.Roll the paste into balls the size of a walnut, and using a teaspoon handle, make a small hole in each ball and and fill it with the combined pistachio mixture, then close the hole over the filling so it is once again a ball. This takes a bit of technique, as the powdery sugar filling makes it difficult to close over the hole - after a few tries I perfected a method of sort of pinching the seam together and smoothing in over by tapping it repeatedly with my index finger. It worked really well, but sadly I don't have a YouTube channel so I can't really show you how I did it!

5.Roll the balls in icing sugar and place in small paper cups or on a serving plate.

6.Decorate the top of each ball with a pistachio nut and serve.

Makes approx 13.

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio (Mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables)
Kachumbari 

Maharagwe 

Chadian Recipes: Irio

Keeping up with the Chadian food we're now offering you this delicious Irio! Irio is a staple base to a meal common in Chad and Kenya, where it is generally served with a sauce such as our delicious Chadian Peanut Sauce. It is essentially mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables and as far as I'm concerned you can't really go wrong with that! It tastes delicious on it's own, and even better when eaten with peanut sauce and our Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters - a perfect meal!!

This recipe makes quite a lot, so if you don't want to have a big dinner party so that there are plenty of people to help you eat it (like I did), you can still make the full amount because the leftovers make a delicious vegie burger! Just shape the leftovers into patties, roll in breadcrumbs and fry for quick, easy, healthy and delicious vegie burgers.

Ingredients

1 cup dried lima beans, soaked over night

1 cup dried peas (or use fresh or frozen)

5 potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 cobs corn

1/2 bunch fresh spinach (silverbeet) - or use more to taste

1 tbsp salt

Black pepper to taste

To Make:

1. Boil lima beans in plenty of water until completely cooked (you can even over cook a bit) and the skins have split. Drain and set aside.

2. Bring a really big pot of water to the boil and add the salt. Add the dried peas and boil for about 15 mins (if using frozen peas forego this step).

3. While the peas are cooking cut the corn off the cob (give the cobs to your guinea pig - they'll love gnawing on it).

4. Add the corn, potatoes and spinach to the boiling pot. Boil, covered, until the potatoes are well cooked.

5. While it is boiling, head back to your drained lima beans. The skins should be loose and split so just peel the skin off the outside and discard (this will give your Irio a smoother consistency). Add the middle bits of the lima beans back into the boiling pot and remove from the heat. 

6. Once the potatoes are well cooked, drain the whole pot of vegies into a big colander and then immediately put back into the pot.

7. Use a potato masher to mash the whole mixture together into a thick paste/mash. Obviously the corn won't mash down and the spinach will only mash up to a degree. But the rest of it should mash into a nice thick mash. Taste and add salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Serves about 8 as a side dish, serves 4-5 as a main accompanied by a sauce.

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)
Kachumbari 
Maharagwe 

Chadian Millet Balls with 3 Dipping Sauces (Peanut Sauce, Saka Saka Sauce & Harissa Lime Sauce)

So... let's continue to explore Chad shall we? As I mentioned in our first post about Chadian food, millet is a staple grain in Chad. Whilst trawling through websites for precious mentions of any form of Chadian food I cam across a lot of websites with the same regurgitated piece of information: in Chad they often eat millet balls which are dipped in sauces (if you want to see what I mean see these websites here, here and here). Yet, despite this piece of information being repeated on many different websites I couldn't find any recipes for this, pictures of this dish or any description of all of what these 'sauces' might be. So, essentially I was left to my own imagination in creating this dish. As a result I am sure that it isn't very authentic Chadian fare, however, it was most certainly inspired by my efforts to find a recipe or description of the elusive Chadian millet balls with 'sauces'.

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. For my sauces I decided to go with: Chadian Peanut Sauce, Saka Saka Sauce (Spinach and Okra) and a Harissa Sauce with corriander and lime.

1) MILLET BALLS:

Ingredients
250g millet
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
5 tbsp millet flour
1/2 tsp salt
100g silken tofu
Olive oil spray

To Make
1. 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. Set aside to cool.
2. Toast the sunflower seeds in a frypan or oven for 1-2 minutes or until slightly browned (keep your eye on them as they burn really fast!).
3. Mix the millet, flour, sunflower seeds, salt, tofu and 1 tbsp water. Mix well into a thick pasty mix.
4. 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. Continue until all the mix is done.
5. Spray the millet balls with a bit of olive oil and bake at 180 degrees for about 30-35 minutes. (Every oven is different, so you might want to taste one when they come out to make sure they're not too doughy on the inside - if they are give them another 5 minutes).
6. Serve immediately with sauces (below).

2) SAUCES:

Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup shelled unsalted peanuts
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water

To Make
1. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan. Saute the onion and garlic until softened. Add the chilli.
2. Chop the peanuts very finely.
3. Add the nutmeg and peanuts to the onion and garlic. Sauté for a further few minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.

Saka Saka Sauce
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
4-5 okra, chopped
5-6 leaves of spinach (silverbeet)
Salt to taste
2 cups water

To Make
1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion, garlic and chilli until the onion is softened.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
3. Process with a hand held blender or in a food processor until smooth.

Harissa sauce with Coriander and Lime
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 tbsp Harissa spice mix (available in most health food or you can buy it online at Herbie's Spices)
1 tsp soy sauce
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup finely chopped coriander
The juice of 1 lime

To Make
1. Heat the olive oil in a small pan and sauté the onion until softened. Add the harissa spice mix and saute a further 2-3 minutes.
2. Stir in the soy sauce and water. Bring to a simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the stove.
3. Add the coriander and lime juice. Serve.

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio (Mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables)
African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)

Kachumbari 
Maharagwe 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille (Rice and Peanut Porridge)

Welcome to February on Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo! We're pretty excited about all the incredible and fascinating foods we'll be offering up for you to devour with your eyes and it's certainly going to be a journey into the unknown for us because this month we are exploring the cuisine of Chad. Thanks to our reader, Sophie, for requesting Chad as our feature country this month. Firstly - it must be said that neither of us have been to Chad (yet!) nor do we know anybody from Chad with whom we could consult on these, so any comments on authenticity would be welcomed! If you have been to Chad or have a knowledge of Chadian cuisine we'd be over the moon if you contacted us!

First, a bit about Chad for those who aren't very familiar with it. Chad is a landlocked country in Northern Central Africa. It borders Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan.

(Map from worldatlas.com)

(Map from lonelyplanet.com)

Chad has a chiefly dessert climate and is one of the poorest countries in the world. For these reasons the Chadian diet consists mainly of grains, beans, vegetables and meat. Often dried vegetables are used with grains as the staple foods for Chadians. Millet, rice and sorghum are commonly consumed grains, whilst okra, cassava and peanuts are often used to flavour and thicken dishes.

To start Chad month off I've made a breakfast dish called la bouille - a rice porridge flavoured with peanuts. I found a base for this recipe on this website, however, this exact same recipe is on a dozen sites over the internet and none of them credit a source so I can't be sure where it actually came from. My version is veganised and slightly altered to my personal tastes. Even so, I found it very nice but a touch bland. I'm guessing this might speak to it's authenticity, but it would be even nicer used as a base to which you can add anything you like. I ate mine with fresh banana and a sprinkle of brown sugar and it was quite a delicious breakfast and a very healthy way to start the day.

Ingredients
1 cup rice
4 cups hot water
3 tbsp millet flour (you can substitute other flours)
1/2 cup soy milk
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanuts (no skins, unsalted)

To Make
1. Bring the water to boil and add the rice. Lower the heat to a simmer.
2. Finely chop the peanuts while the rice is simmering and set aside.
3. Mix the millet flour with 3/4 cup warm water until dissolved completely. Add this mixture to the simmering rice.
4. Once the rice is cooked and the porridge has thickened, add the soy milk, lemon juice and salt.
5. Remove from the heat and stir through the chopped peanuts.

Garnish with any toppings you choose - I suggest fresh fruit, tinned fruit in syrup, chopped nuts and/or brown sugar.

Serves 3-4.

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio (Mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables)
African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)
Kachumbari 
Maharagwe