Sinasir

Sinasir is a delicacy popular in Borno. It is a very soft and slender dish that takes time, patience and a little skill to make, but once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to make; and yet it tastes delightful. Traditionally eaten with okro, it can also be accompanied by stew or vegetable soup. One advantage of Sinasir is it is light enough for a starter, and you can make it sweet for a dessert, with chocolate or any other sweet sauce for added comfort.

Ingredients:

White rice - 1kg

Sugar - half a cup

Onion - 1 medium size
Yeast - 1 teaspoon 

Potash - Any size will do

Direction:

Soak the rice for 30minutes, grind together with the onion to a smooth paste. Then cook half a cup of white rice and combine with the paste. Sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast and let it sit overnight to ferment. 

It should look like this after the fermentation process.

Soak potash in water, leave to sit for 20 to 30minutes, then add to the paste and mix. Pour half a cup of water into it and mix (you can reduce or increase the sugar quantity, just add to your taste). 

Put a non-stick frying pan on the stove, add about a teaspoon of oil and leave until hot.

Pour a ladle full of the paste, cover and leave to cook for 3 to 5minutes.

Open the lid and remove your cooked Sinasir.

Continue until desired amount reached. Enjoy!

Shawarma

                          

                     

This is a dish loved by almost everyone. You can serve it as breakfast, or mid afternoon snack, or in my own case even as brunch :-D. You can eat it alongside a hot cup of tea or a cold drink. And home made shawarma's are tastier and obviously cheaper than buying from a restaurant.

Ingredients:

Lebanese / shawarma bread 

Chicken/ meat - cooked

Sausages 

Cabbage

Mayonnaise 

Ketchup 

Salad cream 

Pepper sauce- you can buy this at a supermarket or you can make at home. To make the pepper sauce, simply grind together a small onion and a reasonable amount of pepper and fry with a little oil for a few minutes.

Direction:

Dice the cabbage, mince the chicken/meat and keep aside. The next step is to cook the sausage using whatever method that is convenient for you. I find that it is easier to cook in a microwave for a few seconds - not a second longer! I once made the mistake of leaving it for 2 minutes, all that was left of it was a dry piece of stick. Lol!

Mix the salad cream and mayonnaise to form a paste. 

Tip* I mixed together the saladcream, mayonnaise and pepper sauce, its alot easier this way.

     

Place the bread on a clean surface, spread the diced cabbage on the bread, then the meat, followed by the sausage, then squeeze the saladcream/ mayonnaise paste on it.

 

Squeeze the ketchup on it.

Partially close from left to right, then from right to left.

Place it in a sandwich toaster for 2 minutes, or if that is not available, simply place in a heated frying pan. Enjoy! :-D

Grilled fish with stuffing

    

It's not only chicken you can stuff with fillings and grill/roast, you can do it with fish too! And the fun part is you can stuff it with any filling of your choice; potatoe, rice, mushroom, vegetable. 

I prefer this method of cooking fish because of its delicious and unique taste. 

Ingredients:

Cat fish - Any size will do

Potatoe - 5 pieces medium size, cooked

Garlic - one whole bulb
Onion - 1 medium size 
Pepper - 4 small sizes
Maggi - 5 cubes
Cucumber - 1 medium size
Curry powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger powder - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon power - 1 tsp

Direction:

Pour hot water over the fish to remove the slime. Using a sharp knife, slit the fish from the gut, to the tail and remove the entrails.

Grind the onions, garlic and pepper. Mash the potatoes roughly and dice the cucumber.

Put them all together in one bowl, add the cinnamon, curry, ginger powder and Maggi cubes. Mix very well

Stuff the fish with the filling.

                                                                          Place an aluminium foil on your oven tray, transfer the fish. Using a sharp knife, make three or four slashes on each side of the fish. Cover the sides with the remaining filling, roll it up with the foil and put in oven to cook for 20minutes.

Note* Grill with the foil first, for 20minutes, open the Foil and grill further to get the crispy texture. Grill each side for 5minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

Mardam (Kanuri Kunu)

      

Mardam is a Kunu drink made from pearl millet (gero) and is mostly loved by Kanuris. Apart from its delicious taste, it has a high nutritional value.

Ingredients:

Ground millet- 4 cups
Nono (sour milk) - 4 cups
Water- 2 cups
Sugar- 4 cups
Millet grains- 1 cup
Rice grains- 1 cup
Ginger powder- 2tbsp

Direction:

Sieve the ground millet and strain the nono (sour milk), mix together with sugar and water, add the ginger, seperate into two equal parts and keep aside.

 Put 6 litres of water to boil, add the rice and millet grains and allow to cook until tender ( but I prefer mine half done because I like the chewy texture). Turn off the heat and pour into half of the paste, stir and slowly incorporate the other half. Stir and serve.