Lumpiang Hubad

 

 

You might have noticed a lot of lumpia on the blog this month - here is another! Lumpia are Filipino spring rolls and they come in all varieties. I've already shared fresh (lumpiang sariwa) and gorgeous fried (lumpiang prito) spring rolls, you can find links to those recipes at the bottom of this post. Lumpiang hubad is essentially the filling of the rolls and the sauce, but without wrapping them up into rolls. Same great flavours, but a 'lazy' version which doesn't involve taking the time to roll them. The peanut sauce all over it is just delicious.

 

I've chopped my veggies bigger than I did when making the lumpiang sariwa and prito, because I knew I wouldn't be rolling it up. You can also just make a double batch of lumpiang filling and use half for rolls and half with peanut sauce like this for another meal.

 

 

Lumpiang Hubad

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
400g hard tofu cut into cubes
1 cup sweet potato cut into cubes
1 large carrot, cubed
1 cup chopped celery
2 tsp vegan fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup sliced green beans
1 cup cabbage
Shallots, for garnish

For the peanut sauce:
2 cups water
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup finely chopped peanuts
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp cornstarch

To make:
1. Heat oil in a large frypan or wok and add the onion and garlic. Sauté until translucent and then add the tofu and sweet potato. Cook for about 3 minutes and then add the carrots, celery and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add the fish sauce and soy sauce. Once the carrot is tender, turn off the heat and stir through the green beans and cabbage. The residual heat will cook them just enough. 
3. Set the filling aside to cool a little, it can be warm but not hot when you wrap up the rolls.
4. To make the sauce: Combine 1 1/2 cups water, soy sauce, brown sugar and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Once all the sugar is dissolved add the peanuts and garlic and simmer for 3-4 minutes. In a cup, combine the remaining 1/2 cup water with the cornstarch and stir until smooth. 
5. Stirring the sauce continually, add in the cornstarch. Stir continuously over a low heat until the mixture thickens up a bit. Remove from the heat. 
7. Arrange lumping hubad in a bowl and pour the peanut sauce over the top. Garnish with chopped shallots.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food the Philippines.

Check out my other Filipino recipe posts:

Tofu Adobo with Pineapple & Bamboo

Lumpiang Sariwa

Coconut Mango Float

Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Pancit Canton

 



Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Any excuse to make spring rolls is good with me! These veggie spring rolls are particularly good and the vinegar dipping sauce was sensational! I tend to always have my spring rolls with sweet chilli, sweet and sour or chilli dipping sauce, so I wasn't sure how this vinegar sauce was going to turn out. It was so delicious, I think I'll make it for all my future spring rolls and rice paper rolls!

Lumpaing Prito
Ingredients
2 tbsp. oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups diced sweet potato
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups sliced celery
1/2 cup finely chopped peanuts
1 tbsp. Soy sauce (or vegan fish sauce)
1 cup sliced green beans
2 cups shredded green cabbage
20 spring roll wrappers
Lots of vegetable oil, for deep frying.

Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

To Make
1. Heat the 2 tbsp. oil in a wok and sauté the onion and garlic until just softened and translucent. Add the sweet potato, carrot and 1/4 cup water. Simmer for a few minutes and then add the celery and peanuts. Once the sweet potato and carrot are just tender (they can be just slightly undercooked), turn off the heat and add the soy sauce, green beans and shredded cabbage. The residual heat will just slightly cook them.
2. Cool the filling (while it's cooling, you can make your vinegar dipping sauce) and then roll up the spring rolls. Use about 2 heaped tbsp. per roll.
3.Once your rolls are all done, clean out the wok and then fill generously with oil. Heat the oil and then test it by throwing in a corner of spring roll wrapper - if it floats to the top and look like it's fizzing then your oil is hot enough.
4. Deep fry the spring rolls in batches until golden brown (if you prefer, you can shallow fry them and make sure you turn them while cooking to cook both sides). You will probably need to turn them over to cook both sides as they'll float on the surface. Once golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a bit of paper towel to absorb excess oil.
5. Serve hot with vinegar dipping sauce.

Vinegar Dipping Sauce:
1. Combine all ingredients and mix well until sugar is completely dissolved.

Makes 20 medium sized spring rolls.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food the Philippines.

Check out my other Filipino recipe posts:

Tofu Adobo with Pineapple & Bamboo

Lumpiang Sariwa

Coconut Mango Float

Pancit Canton

Lumpiang Sariwa

In the Philippines, spring rolls (or lumpia) come in many varieties with many fillings. Often it's ground meats, but can also be a mixture of vegetables. The rolls can be fresh, fried or even absent (I'll explain this in a later post). I love spring rolls in any form, so I took the opportunity to make several different types of Filipino Lumpia. These ones aren't so much Spring rolls as they are Summer rolls, as I've used easy rice paper rolls as a bit of a cheat. Usually Lumpiang Sariwa refers to spring rolls which are not deep fried and are made with a special kind of egg wrapper (halfway between a spring roll wrapper and a thin crepe?) . You can make your own wrappers, or you could use fresh spring roll wrappers (or indeed, frozen spring roll wrappers - just defrost and use them as they are without frying). The drawback of using spring roll wrappers is that they're usually square, and lumpiang sariwa are made with round wrappers which allow you to leave one end open so the lettuce can poke out and you get a glimpse of the yummy colourful veggie filling. If you want to try making your own wrappers, just google it. There are lots of websites with recipes and instructions. If you want to take the easy road, improvise with what you've got! Like this lovely rice paper version. 

Lumpiang Sariwa

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup hard tofu cut into small cubes
1 cup sweet potato cut into small cubes
1 cup julienne carrots
2 tsp vegan fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup thinly sliced green beans
1 cup cabbage
5 lettuce leaves
10 rice paper rolls (or fresh spring roll wrappers)

For the peanut sauce:
2 cups water
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup finely chopped peanuts
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp cornstarch

To make:
1. Heat oil in a large frypan or wok and add the onion and garlic. Sauté until translucent and then add the tofu and sweet potato. Cook for about 3 minutes and then add the carrots and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add the fish sauce and soy sauce. Once the carrot is just slightly cooked, turn off the heat and stir through the green beans and cabbage. The residual heat will cook the cabbage just enough and finish cooking the carrots. 
3. Set the filling aside to cool a little, it can be warm but not hot when you wrap up the rolls.
4. Cook each rice paper roll wrapper according to the packet (usually by immersing in hot water for 30-60 seconds). Lay 1/2 lettuce leaf in the top middle of the wrapper and add about 1/10th of the filling. Wrap the bottom upwards and then roll the two sides over it nice and tightly, leaving it open at the top. Continue with the rest of the filling and wrappers.
5. To make the sauce: Combine 1 1/2 cups water, soy sauce, brown sugar and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Once all the sugar is dissolved add the peanuts and garlic and simmer for 3-4 minutes. In a cup, combine the remaining 1/2 cup water with the cornstarch and stir until smooth. 
6. Stirring the sauce continually, add in the cornstarch. Stir continuously over a low heat until the mixture thickens up a bit. Remove from the heat. 
7. Arrange lumpiang sariwa on a platter and drizzle the peanut sauce over the top.

Makes 10 large rolls.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food the Philippines.

Check out my other Filipino recipe posts:

Tofu Adobo with Pineapple & Bamboo

Coconut Mango Float

Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Pancit Canton

Jamaican Peanut Punch (Peanut Milkshake)

I can't resist trying some of the more unusual recipes which come up in my research, because I think it's great to try things a little out of your comfort zone. This traditional Jamaican drink is flavoured primarily with peanuts, which is certainly a new experience for me. It is sometimes made with sweetened condensed milk, and sometimes with regular milk sweetened with honey or sugar. I've used home made oat milk and sweetened it with lovely dark brown sugar. It was actually really nice.

It's not part of the traditional recipe to blend the peanuts twice but I wanted to get as much peanut-y-ness out of them as I could. I ended up saving the peanut mush I was left with and I'm planning to throw it into my next cupcake batch.

Peanut Punch

Ingredients
1 cup chopped roasted peanuts (unsalted)
2 cups oat milk
3 cups water
2-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar (more or less to taste, depending on how sweet you like it)
1 tap vanilla extract
1/4 tap nutmeg, plus extra to sprinkle on servings

To Make:
1. Place the peanuts in a blender with 1 cup oat milk and 1 cup water and blend thoroughly.
2. Strain the liquid into a jug or bowl and then return the peanut mush back in the blender with the remaining oat milk and water and blend again. Strain again and then discard the peanuts.
3. Rinse out your blender and return your strained liquid to the blender along with the remaining ingredients. Blend again until frothy and serve immediately. Or, store  in the fridge and blend or whisk just before serving. Serve sprinkled with some grated nutmeg.

Makes about 4-6 servings.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Jamaica.

Check out my other Jamaican recipe posts:

Jamaican Rum Punch

Jerk Tofu & Pineapple Skewers

Gizzada (Coconut & Brown Sugar Tarts)

Old-time Jamaican Lemonade

Jamaican Ginger Cake

Pineapple Salsa

Callaloo

Jamaican Patties

Jerk Sweet Potato Chips

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Time to share with you another delicious recipe from the lovely cuisine of Myanmar. This sticky rice cake is so more-ish because it's incredibly tasty and not too sweet! Flavoured with peanuts, sesame seeds and coconut with the use of brown sugar to make a caramelised sticky treat. This is a nice one to get out for your new year celebrations, it's nice to bring in the new year by trying something new :)

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Thai sticky rice
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup chopped peanuts
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
2 1/4 cups water
Handful of peanut halves
1/4 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

To Make
1. Rinse the sticky rice with cold water and place in a large non stick saucepan. Add the brown sugar, sesame seeds, salt, chopped peanuts, raisins and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let cook, covered, for about 25 minutes. When it is done cooking it will have absorbed almost all of the water. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
2.  Lightly grease a 9 inch by 9 inch (or similar) size dish and line the bottom of it with non stick baking paper. Gently stir the rice and transfer to the prepared dish. Press down lightly to evenly distribute and compress the rice. Sprinkle the peanut halves and coconut on top and gently press down so that they stick to the top.
3. Let stand for 30 minutes or so and then cut into squares to serve. Do not refrigerate. Store any leftovers on an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes 1 x 9 in by 9 in rice cake, approximately 20-25 slices.

This month I'm featuring vegan recipes from Myanmar (Burma).

Check out my other Burmese recipe posts:

Vegan Fish Sauce

Ohn No Khao Swe with Chickpea Tofu

Burmese Tomato Salad

Gin Thoke (Ginger Salad)

Gin Thoke (Burmese Ginger Salad)

I came onto the blog today thinking to share another great Burmese recipe with you for Myanmar month, I was halfway through posting up my Burmese Sticky Rice cake when I realised that so soon after Christmas most people are probably well and truly dessert-ed out! So instead I'll share with you this rather special, very healthy and very fresh salad.

It's a ginger salad, yes, ginger. You might think that is a bit too strong to be a main ingredient in a salad, but this salad uses beautiful fresh ginger which you pickle yourself the night before making the salad. The pickling softens the ginger and smooths the punchy flavour and the end result is really so delicious. I served it up at my Burmese Dinner party and everyone absolutely loved it. It makes a perfect addition to a big meal because the fresh crunchy salad and zingy ginger are so refreshing and make a light and tasty accompaniment to heavier dishes.

Ingredients
1/2 cup grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup lime juice (or a mixture of lemon and lime)
1 tbsp. sesame seeds
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. peanut oil
1 small quarter green cabbage , finely shredded
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 green chilli, finely chopped
1/4 cup peanuts, finely chopped
2 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. chickpea (besan) flour

To Make
1. Combine the grated ginger and lime juice in a jar and shake well. Let sit in the fried overnight, or for about 12 hours. If possible, take it out and shake it a couple of times during the 12 hours.
2. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a pan over a low-medium heat until slightly browned. Remove and set aside to cool. Heat the peanut oil in the pan and fry the garlic slices until they start to brown and go a bit crispy. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon to cool. Keep any remaining oil from the pan in a jar or small bowl.
3. Squeeze the lime juice from the ginger and add any juice squeezed out to the jar with the cooled garlic oil. Combine the shredded cabbage, tomatoes, ginger, chilli, peanuts and chickpea flour in a large bowl and toss to combine.
4. Add the soy sauce to the jar with the garlic oil and lime juice and shake to combine. Pour over the salad and toss through. Top the salad with the fried garlic chips and serve.

Serves 4-6 as a side salad.

This month I'm featuring vegan recipes from Myanmar (Burma).

Check out my other Burmese recipe posts:

Vegan Fish Sauce

Ohn No Khao Swe with Chickpea Tofu

Burmese Tomato Salad

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Cambodian Cucumber & Vermicelli Salad

I've been looking forward to sharing this salad with you since June last year! I made it originally for Cambodian Food Month, but I was so anxious to eat it's deliciousness that I quickly snapped a quick photo without bothering with good light or good styling and then I gobbled it all up. Sooooo good!

But then - I had a look back at the photo and it was pretty dreadful. The bad light made the salad look very soggy and yellow, which is a far cry from the bright fresh and crunchy salad that it is! So when I got together with friends at the end of last year to celebrate by eating some of the dishes that we had enjoyed the most from the world food challenge, I wanted to make this salad because then I could get some better pictures and because honestly it was one of my favourites. Guess what I did the exact same thing again! Anxious to eat quickly = terrible photos! See what I mean?

Attempt 1 - June 2012

Attempt 2 - December 2012

So - I had to make it again (not so much of a chore - I was happy to eat this salad three times!). What do you think? A big improvement? Either way this is such a wonderful salad that I'll be making it again and again and again. So there will be plenty of other opportunities to get more photos - if I can hold myself back from eating it for long enough!

Cambodian Cucumber and Vermicelli Salad
1 x 250g packet rice vermicelli
3 lebanese cucumbers
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 tbsp soy sauce
1 red chilli, finely chopped (you can remove some of the placenta if you want it less hot)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
2 shallots, chopped

To Make
1. Soak the rice vermicelli in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain and then soak in hot water (just tap hot water - not boiling water) for 10 minutes. Drain again and rinse in cold water. Set aside.
2. Thinly slice the lebanese cucumbers. To get these nice and thin and ribbon like I like to use a potato peeler  to do this, peeling strips off the cucumber on all four sides until you are just left with the squishy middle bit which it too soft to cut with the peeler, then I just finely slice the middle bits. If you prefer, you can just cut the cucumber as thinly as you can using a knife.
3. Combine the chopped garlic, soy sauce, chopped chilli, sugar, vinegar and sesame oil in a bowl.
4. Place the vermicelli in a big bowl and toss the shallots, peanuts, dressing and cucumber through it.
5. Top with more chopped peanuts and drizzle with extra sesame oil to taste. Eat immediately!

Serves 4 as a meal or 6-8 as a side dish.

Check out my other Cambodian recipe posts:

Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup

Kho Manor Nung To Hu (Pineapple and Tofu)

Cambodian Spiced Eggplant

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Parfait (Borbo Skor La-Pov)

Num Chet Chien (Banana Nuggets!)

Khmer Lemongrass Vegetable Curry

Nem To-hu Sap (Vegetarian Summer Rolls)

Tirk Salouk Swai (Mango Chilli Salsa)

Lontong Paris (Caramel & Peanut Coated Biscuits)

I tend to get overwhelmed by options. Whenever I have an array of options in front of me I just have so many things that I want to do that I find it hard to focus and choose one. Like choosing electives in high school (even though that was a long time ago now), I couldn't pick just two - I wanted to learn it all! I could have picked ten. I'm the same with choosing degrees, choosing careers, choosing classes. I just want to do so many different things, and learn as much as I possibly can!

I've been getting a lot of requests lately from readers to make a cookbook, which is something I have thought about doing for a little while. Since I am working only two days a week at my clinic at the moment, I decided recently to use that time to make it happen. Nothing huge, just a small, fun ebook. But, of course, being me, I have so many ideas on what kind of cookbook to write that I'm having difficulty focusing on one! So I need some help, please jump onto this facebook poll and vote for or suggest a theme. You can also like this page on facebook so you can get my recipes and news updates straight into your newsfeed. Your help is much appreciated!

But now to the finger-licking point - these little balls of heaven. Well, I say little, but I actually made mine rather big. They are called Longton Paris, an Indonesian sweet comprising of a soft melts-in-your-mouth biscuit coated in crisp caramel and rolled in crunchy chopped peanuts. I used salted peanuts for this, so it has the added flavour sensation of salted caramel. They were quite special, and the guests I was feeding them to expressed unmasked adoration for them - i.e. they were a HUGE hit.

They're a little bit fiddly, I grant you. However, definitely worth the effort. If you want a little less effort you can skip rolling them in peanuts and just put one on top (like I did to some of mine, above), but they don't quite have the same amazing bang of flavour in your mouth without the salted peanuts.

Ingredients
250g non dairy margarine,butter
3 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered confectioners sugar (or use soft icing mixture)
Egg replacer for 2 eggs (I used Orgran), plus a little extra water to make the mixture stay together.
2 tsp vanilla extract

Caramel and Coating
4 tbsp non dairy margarine
1 tbsp golden syrup
300g sugar
2 cups roasted salted peanuts

To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Combine the margarine, flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, egg substitute and vanilla and beat with a hand held electric mixer until smooth and combined (I'm sure you can do this with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease if you don't have an electric mixer).
3. Line a baking tray with greaseproof baking paper. Roll out piece of the dough about the size of a ping pong ball (you can make them smaller if you wish, just reduce the cooking time). Place on the baking tray, you will most likely need to do two batches.
4. Bake for 18 minutes, remove and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack. Repeat using any remaining dough.
5. While the second batch is cooking you can get started on your caramel: place the margarine, golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat. Leave on the heat, stirring often, until all the sugar is dissolved. This may take up to 30 minutes.
6. Chop the peanuts up finely and place in a bowl ready to roll.
7. Once the biscuits are cooled and the caramel is ready, start rolling. The caramel will be hot so you'll need to use a couple of forks to dip them in the caramel and then transfer them straight to the peanuts and coat generously. Transfer to a serving plate. You'll want to work quite quickly, as the caramel will thicken as it cools. If you find it becomes too thick to roll the biscuits in, you can put it back on the heat for a few minutes to melt it again.

And then you're done!
Makes 30 biscuits.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)

Rujak (Spicy Fruit Salad)
Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Rendang Tofu

Gado Gado (Indonesian Salad with Peanut Sauce)

I know I'm terrible! We are 13 days into November and I haven't posted any world food month recipes yet!  I'm very excited that November is Indonesian food month and now that I have done my big feast of cooking up Indonesian food (I have some friends over on Friday night to help me eat it all and they were very happy) I will make up for the fact that I haven't posted any Indonesian recipes yet by posting at least 8 over the remaining days of the month. How does that sound? Do you forgive me?

I'm starting off with an Indonesian classic. Gado Gado is something I'm sure most of you will have heard of. I've seen it in cookbooks and online for years and always thought to myself that I really wanted to try it. But, I would then forget about it which is why I had actually never even tried it before Friday. I was definitely missing out, because this salad is something special. It's also very easy.

Ingredients

The Salad

350-400g hard tofu

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large desiree potato (or other waxy variety)

2 handfuls green beans, ends trimmed

2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

1 carrot, thinly sliced (I used a peeler to create nice ribbons)

A handful of fresh bean sprouts

The Sauce

3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 shallots (scallions)
2 long red chillis (this will make the sauce "medium", just 1 if you want mild or as many as you want for hot)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup roasted salted peanuts
1 heaped tsp tamarind puree, dissolved in 1/3 cup hot water
3 tbsp soy sauce

NOTE: I made my sauce quite chunky, so I just roughly pounded it up in a mortar and pestle. If you want a smoother peanut sauce, you can just puree the whole sauce in a food processor at the end. Alternatively, you can substitute a food processor for the mortar and pestle in every instance in the below recipe, and your sauce will be smoother.

To Make
1. Drain the tofu and gently squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. Cut it once horizontally and once longitudinally (so that you end up with 4 large thin pieces).
2. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok and fry the 4 pieces of tofu, turning over half way, until they are brown and crisp on both sides. Remove from pan and set on some absorbent paper to soak up some of the oil. Set aside.
3. Slice the potato in half and then into 1cm thick slices. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and then add the potatoes. Cook until just tender. About 1-2 minutes before the potato is cooked, throw in the trimmed beans.
4. Drain the potatoes and beans and rinse well under cold water immediately.
5. To make the peanut sauce: Roughly chop the chilli, garlic and the shallots and place in a mortar. Pound with the pestle until you have a thick paste.
6. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small frypan. Add the paste and fry over a low heat for a few minutes.
7. While it's frying, pound up the peanuts using your mortar and pestle. You can pound them however fine you like them, I left mine a bit chunky.
8. Add the peanuts, tamardind (in water) and soy sauce to the pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for about 3 minutes. Now add as much water as you like so that the sauce is thinner and pourable (probably between 1/2-1 cup). If you add lots of water, taste for seasoning and add more soy sauce as needed. (If you want a smooth sauce, add the whole thing to a food processor now and puree until smooth).
9. Layer a large plate with the cabbage, carrot, potato, tofu, beans and bean sprouts. Pour the sauce all over the top and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)

Rujak (Spicy Fruit Salad)
Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Rendang Tofu

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