Define Labor...

So today is Labor Day which normally equates to a three day weekend for most of us. But for all you cooking fanatics out there I'm sure it was an excuse to make some good food! Now I'm fully aware that Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers, but I know there are many more hard working people... or dare I say children out there. After a little research I was able to find the country with the highest percent child workforce. While it may sound insensitive to make a special culinary tribute to 4-16 year old children around the world, at least I am being aware of the problem instead of pretending it doesn't exist. So the winning country with a whopping 60% child employment rate goes to....

CHAD!

Chad??? Yeah that's what I was asking myself too. With all my garments and electronics carrying a label of "Made in <insert Asian country here>", their numbers pale in comparison to this interesting country in Central Africa. Looking up Chadian recipes, I was afraid there wasn't going to be too many, but I was surprised to find several appetizing recipes to try out. Since 60% equates to a lot of kids, I decided to make two dishes. The first being a meat dish cooked in a peanut sauce and then a dessert that uses millet. Apparently millet is the "mashed potato" in many regions of Africa and each country has very different recipes using ground millet. Chadians have an interesting snack made of millet which I decided to try. So how did things go?? Let's go over the recipes first!


Peanut Sauce Meat (I couldn't find the real name to this so if anyone knows, help a brotha out!)

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 lb beef cubes (1/2 inch - 1 inch cubes)
- 1 cup whole grain flour
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 medium onions chopped (size is up to you)
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 3/8 cup tomato paste
- 2 cups water
- red pepper flakes (You can be a wuss or put your mouth on fire... up to you!)
- 1/4 cup peanut butter (natural or freshly ground is best)
- cooked rice of your choice

DIRECTIONS
1. take beef cubes and roll in whole grain flour
2. heat oil in large skillet and add beef cubes
3. as beef is cooking add nutmeg and chili powder
4. after meat has browned add garlic, onions, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and water
let this simmer for 30+ minutes. (the longer you simmer, the more tender the meat will be)
5. heat peanut butter with 1 tbsp oil and mix
6. add peanut butter/oil mixture to the beef cube mixture, stir, and let simmer for 20 minutes

So what did I think? Making this dish was fairly simple and just by looking at the ingredients you can tell this dish will be on the bland side. Luckily, I LOVE peanut butter and would eat it every meal if I could. It really made this dish worth making!! When you first take a bite, the peanut sauce is the first flavor detected by your taste receptors. Once you bite into the meat, you start to taste the subtle hint of chili steak. The peanut sauce is far less overwhelming like peanut butter chicken over at Hong Kong Cafe, which makes the dish all the more enjoyable. So while I don't imagine myself making this dish too often, I would recommend it and even make it for other people to try. Now on to the millet snack...

Millet Snack

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup ground millet
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg

DIRECTIONS
1. mix millet, wheat flour, and melted butter
2. blend sugar with egg
3. add sugar/egg mix to flour, mix, and kneed
4. cut into ribbons and fry in peanut or sesame oil

So the directions look pretty simple right??? Well I will let you know that I am horrible when it comes to any kind of bread recipe as I can NEVER get a good consistency of dough when following recipes... So I did everything the recipe stated below and instead of dough I had batter... like I wanted to take my beef cubes, dip them in my new batter and fry them.... NOT GOOD! So I decided to add more millet. I thought why not? If the Africans love them I will too...

Still runny...

I add more of millet....

Still runny...

I get a little tired of adding millet so I add more wheat flour...

I'm starting to not like this...

more millet...

fml...

After several iterations (because you never want to go overboard with dough) I finally got the right dough consistency. I probably added an extra cup of millet and an extra half cup of wheat flour. After my endless battle with the dough, the rest was simple. The directions said to cut it into ribbons... I'm not an arts and crafty person so I translated into "cut dough into 1 inch wide strips of dough". I guess ribbons makes it sound more cool? I opted for sesame oil as I feel it has more flavor and the final result???

Average

Yeah... just average. I liked the crispiness and subtle sweetness but I felt like it needed a little more. I actually dipped it in the peanut sauce from the meat dish and that was good! I actually made a lot more than I should have so I'm going to add a cinnamon/sugar mixture to it and bring it to work tomorrow. Anything fried goes over well where I work :)

So there you have it! If you're ever in need of some Chadian cuisine try these two recipes (and make sure to double the dry ingredient portion for the Millet Snack!!!) And with that, I leave you with a song from a Brazilian band called Marina Gasolina. What does Brazil have to do with Chad you ask? Well in the song they say something like Africa Africa... so it works. And the video is so weird it makes me giggle like a Japanese school girl eating a Hello Kitty cupcake. Enjoy and Happy Labor Day!!



DPM