Day/Country #11 -- Somalia

Somali Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 637,657 km²

Population: ~10,000,000

Capital: Mogadishu

GDP (PPP) per capita: $600

Official Languages: Somali, Arabic

Known For: Civil war, Laas Geel Neolithic rock art,

pirates,  

It's back to Africa for us and this time to semi-arid Somalia--a place most of us probably associate only with pirates and civil war.  But I, and I hope you, will be pleasantly pleased to discover that of course, there's a lot more to it.

During the Middle Ages Somalia was the home of several powerful empires or sultanate states, and it is generally believed that in antiquity Somalia was part of a land known as Punt that was an important source of trade to the Ancient Egyptians. The country has (or possibly had; see below) world class beaches, and has one of the worlds best preserved and impressive collections of Neolithic rock art.  It also has one of the lowest incidents of adult HIV/AIDS in Africa (as low as 0.7%), attributed primarily to the country's widespread adherence to Islamic beliefs and principals.

But yes...Somalia has long been a land of conflict.  In the 1800's the British and Italians each claimed part of the Somali coastline (the longest belonging to a single country in Africa) and by 1920 the British had also claimed the interior of the country by finally defeating the Dervishes (yes, as in 'whirling dervishes'...although strictly the British defeated the Dervish army, which had previously conquered so many of the previous sultanates...).

Somalia enjoyed a little stabilty following the establishment of the Somali Democratic (read 'communist') Republic in 1969 after a coup d'etat by military general Mohammed Siad Barre, who can be credited with the adoption of the first national standard Somali language and writing system (yes, in 1969, hard for some of us other ex-British Empireans to imagine!).

Somalia, not all civil war and pirates; children
swim in a stunning river (www.earthtrek.com)
and beautifully preserved rock paintings at Laas
Geel caves (mikegreenslade.photoshelter.com).

Then comes the bit we all know about...the collapse of the communist government and
outbreak of civil war in 1991, which raged for over a decade and saw the development and dissolution of various autonomous regions, notably Somaliland (which is the only region Lonely Planet advises you to visit, mentioning that the necessary armed guards are much cheaper to hire there than in the capital).  Civil unrest in Somalia continues to this day despite a permanent federal goverment being established in 2012.

One last thing I came across during my quick google that is so disturbing I have to share it with you (I mean besides the usual atrocities associated with civil war), is that the war was used as an opportunity by two European companies (one Swiss, one Italian) to sign a contract with the self-styled Somalian 'president' (presumably he just happened to be the most powerful rebel leader at the time) to dump millions of tonnes of toxic waste off the Somali coast (presumably saving themselves the millions of dollars it would have cost to dispose of the stuff properly whilst also contributing millions of dollars to the further arming of that particular rebel faction).  All might have gone unnoticed had the 2004 tsunami not stirred up and washed a lot of the toxic waste ashore and caused the incident rate of symptoms consistent with radiation sickness to spike all along the northeast African coast!  Disgraceful!!

Anyway, this is a food blog, so I'll get off my soap box and present to you an exquisite Somali-inspired dish of mango chicken curry with Ambe sauce and fragrant rice that I enjoyed so much I had seconds, and then had the rest for dinner (Mum wasn't quite so inspired, but she did say she'd definitely make the fragrant rice again, and again).

Made with mango pulp, curry powder and coconut milk (plus a little sugar and garlic) the Ambe sauce was hearty with a tropical zing that went well with the chicken and array of vegetables (I also enjoyed the whole chunks of mango Mum chucked in on a whim--yum!).  In addition the rice, flavoured with cinnamon, cardamon and cloves, would make a simple but extremely tasty side dish to any number of meals, including this one.  Delicious!

The Somalians apparently drink a lot of chai tea so Mum tried an original chai tea-based cocktail she called Bur Massif (although I argued it should have been a mocktail as Muslim's don't drink alcohol).  The blend of chilled chai tea, vodka, cranberry juice, limoncello and sugar syrup was okay...we drank it...but we won't make it again in a hurry; a pity, as it was such a nice colour!  I think some tweaking may be in order to get this one right.

Rating (out of 5):

Mango Chicken curry with Ambe Sauce 4/5

Somali Fragrant Rice_4.5/5
Bur Massif Cocktail 2/5

Day/Country #4 -- Uganda

Ugandan Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 236,040km²

Population: ~35,873,253
Capital: Kampala
GDP (PPP) per capita: $1,414
Official Language: English; Swahili
Known For: Gorillas, Lake Victoria

After a short excursion it's back to Africa for us--this time I landed Uganda as my country for the day.

Within a few minutes of googling (there's a surprising number of resources out there) it was clear that whatever I made it was going to have to include cooked bananas (on their own forming the basis of a dish called Matoke), and I soon found a dish that looked like an interesting mix of flavours and an interesting challenge to cook: Luwombo.

Apparently a Ugandan 'Royal Christmas Dish' Luwombo combines panfried chicken with smoked fish, steaming it together with vegetables and peanut sauce in banana leaf-wrapped parcels.  Sounded like fun!

The hardest part was finding banana leaves at short notice...in short I couldn't.  Happily we have a couple of grapevines in the garden mature enough to be sporting some decent sized leaves and I found about three of these was enough to wrap one parcel sufficiently to stop the sauce oozing out of corners (dipping the leaves in hot water first makes them more supple and stops them tearing).

Steaming was a bit of a challenge as I didn't have a steamer big enough to steam three parcels and half a dozen plantains (I used the smallest green bananas I could find at the supermarket) all at once.  I improvised, using a large, deep roasting dish half filled with water, a roasting rack (to hold the parcels and bananas out of the water, and a larger shallow tray weighed down as a lid.  The fit wasn't perfect however so in our fan baked oven the bananas (which were skinless) dried out a little and went a bit leathery on the outside, but they still tasted surprisingly good!  The parcels cooked to perfection and it was fun to dish them up and have to open them before eating--like little dinner presents! (I wonder if that is an intentional Christmas connotation??).

One interesting thing was that in making the sauce and in particular adding the smoked fish (which I've not hitherto been a fan of) the flavour pre-steaming was overwhelmingly salty...and I was a little worried I'd made something rather unpalatable!  Happily once steamed for an hour with the chicken and mushrooms the flavours all infused together nicely.  Both the peanut flavour and the saltiness diminished resulting in a nicely blended dish that miraculously turned out to be Mum and Dad' favourite thus far!

Luwombo parcels ready for steaming (left) and the finished dish ready to eat! (right)

Rating (out of 5):

Luwombo 4.5/5 (even with smoked fish, though use a bit less if you're not a fan of this flavour)
Steamed bananas 2.5/5 (would rate higher if I'd steamed them properly and they stayed moist)

Day/Country #2 -- Mauritania

Mauritanian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 1,030,700km²

Population: ~3,359,185
Capital: Nouakchott
GDP (PPP) per capita: $2,121
Official Language: Arabic
Known For: Desertification

Day Two and my first country proved to be Mauritania (already we are beginning to appreciate that due to the ratios of countries to continents we can expect to be eating a lot of African food!).

Mum had teased me that I would find it impossible to find a traditional Mauritainian dish to cook so I had a bit of a chuckle when the very first website I clicked on had the perfect recipe: the national dish of Mauritania, Thieboudiene.

This dish, composed of seasoned fish, stewed vegetables and rice is quite straight forward and contains ingredients most people would have readily available (with the exception of okra; we also didn't have cabbage or eggplant on hand but I threw in kumara/sweet potato and some kale for a bit of variety).

While the recipe calls for the fish to be deep fried, Mum and I both try to watch our grease and oil intake so I pan-fried the seasoned fish and set it aside before gently reheating it to lay on top of the finished rice and vegetables before serving.  Both the fish seasoning (red pepper, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper) and the sauce that forms from stewing the vegetables (in tomato paste, onion, garlic and water) are very simple and yet remarkably tasty!

I perhaps went a little overboard with the quantity of vegetables I used so my final dish ended up being a highly fortified version of the one pictured in the original recipe (which I suspect is the non-tomato version) but it tasted great and I'd happily make Thieboudiene again...although I'd use less water and try and make my sauce a bit thicker next time!

(Again, appologies for having no photo of our dish...we started taking photos after the first week, I promise)

Rating (out of 5):

Thieboudiene 4/5

Day/Country #1 -- Zambia

Zambian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 752,618km²

Population: ~14,309,466
Capital: Lusaka
GDP (PPP) per capita: $1,473
Official Language: English
Known For: Zambezi River; Victoria Falls

Our first day and Mum drew a country from near the end of the alphabet--Zambia.

At first apprehensive she googled with gusto and soon came up with a Zambian-inspired trifecta of 'village chicken' in a peanut sauce, served with nshima (a kind of cornmeal porridge) and homemade pineapple chutney. 

Mum wasn't all that impressed with any of the dishes but I liked the blend of chicken, banana and peanut (peanut butter) in the stew, sort of like satay chicken with a sweet fruity banana twist.  The banana also gave more texture to the dish, with soft (but not mushy!) slices mixed in with the coarser flakiness of the chicken.  All in all it made for a summery dish, especially if not served piping hot.

We both agreed the cornmeal was bland and a little soupy (would recommend making a drier mix!), but it was made more palatable by the intense flavour of the chutney.  I think nshima would be great when readily available in places where other sources of nutrition were scarce, but our version will not be making a place on our 'Top Discoveries' list.

(Appologies for having no photo of our dish...we did not anticipate cataloguing our culinary adventure at this stage!)

Rating (out of 5):

Village Chicken 4/5
Nshima 1/5
Pineapple Chutney 3/5