Say (smoked) cheese!

Smoked mozzarella, Gouda, Swiss, Cheddar and custom cheese orders are now available in Dakar!

Dakar has a wide international presence, but smoked cheese was nowhere to be found… until now, that is. The cheeses are hardwood-smoked with a mixture of local woods, including mango wood.

This week Shawn will have smoked Emmental (4500 cfa / 500g) and smoked Gouda (7000 cfa / 500g) available for purchase in Point E. Call 77-385-99-02 (English or French) for pricing and to place your order.

Unsure of what to do with smoked cheese? Four words: smokey mushroom Swiss burger. HEAVEN!

Chick Faux La sandwich

Tonight I tried a copycat recipe for the famous Chick Fil A sandwich, a favorite that we miss from the US. Here’s my Dakarified version that got thumbs up all around.

Makes 4 sandwiches

Marinade:
1/2 cup pickle (cornichons) juice
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika or piment fort moulu
1/2 tsp sugar
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (Poulet Express!)

Egg dip:
1 egg
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp. milk powder

Coating:
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. milk powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Cajun seasoning

Peanut oil

4 buns from Shady Shack + butter
Pickles
Lettuce
Tomatoes

Cut each chicken breast in half so you have four thin slices. Wrap in plastic wrap and pound until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Put chicken and all the marinade ingredients in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and shake. Place in fridge for at least thirty minutes to let chicken soak up the marinade.

Put enough peanut oil into a deep frying pan to cover chicken halfway (about 1/2-inch) and start to heat. In a bowl, whisk together the egg dip mixture. In another dish, combine the coating ingredients.

Dip chicken into egg mixture and cover. Immediately place into the next dish and coat completely. Shake off excess, and place in oil. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.

Fry in peanut oil until chicken is cooked and the coating turns a nice, golden color, about four minutes on each side.

Butter the insides of the bun and toast for just a minute.

Put together your Chick Faux La sandwich and dig in!

Vegetarian recipe: Mocha Granola

Today we continue a recent monthly feature: a vegetarian recipe, made from ingredients available in Senegal. Our guest is P. and she blogs at For the Love of Fulani. This recipe isn’t what you might think of when you hear ‘vegetarian’, but by the technical definition it fits, right? I saw it on her blog and loved it! So I asked her to share with us.

I used to buy granola all the time in the States and eat it for breakfast with fresh berries and yogurt. When I moved to Senegal I went for almost a year before I finally found some muesli, which I promptly devoured. But because we live so far away from convenient plentiful shopping I couldn’t ever buy enough to make it until our next shopping trip. So when I came across this recipe I was elated. I mean coffee and granola in one bite?! How can you not love this?! Unless you don’t like coffee . The amount of coffee is completely adjustable depending on how strong you like it and if you happen to have espresso powder then use about half of the amounts listed below.

Enjoy your mocha granola with a nice scoop of fresh plain yogurt and a teeny tiny drizzle of local honey (you know to help with all the allergies the rains can bring)!

Mocha Granola

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup sliced walnuts or almonds
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 tbsp. canola oil
1/2 cup honey
3-4 tbsp. ground instant coffee
¼ cup ground flaxseed (optional)
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of grated nutmeg
½ tsp. salt
4-6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Place a large skillet over low heat. Add the chopped hazelnuts and almonds. Cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the oats and canola oil and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the oats are lightly toasted, about 2 minutes.

Transfer the oat mixture to a large bowl and stir in the honey, espresso powder, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Spread out onto the prepared baking sheet in an even layer. Bake, stirring every few minutes, until the granola is light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Move the granola to one side of the baking sheet and using a spatula press gently into a thick slab.  Let cool to room temperature.  Break the dried and cooled granola into small clusters, mix in the chopped chocolate, and store in an airtight container.

*If you prefer a more subtle coffee flavor, use 2 tablespoons of coffee powder. For a more prominent flavor, use 3-4 tablespoons.

Starbucks coffee has arrived!

Attention, coffee lovers in Dakar!

A new shipment of whole-bean Starbucks coffee has just arrived in town, but you need to move fast if you’re wanting to buy some.

The good news is that more will be on its way soon!

Requests for a certain roast or blend? Leave a comment below.

House Blend, 1lb bag: 6500cfa
A medium-roasted blend of coffees with balanced flavors and a hint of nut and cocoa.

Sumatra, 1lb bag: 7000cfa
A dark-roasted, full-bodied coffee with spicy and herbal notes and a deep, earthy aroma.

French Roast, 1lb bag: 7000cfa
Our darkest roast. Light-bodied and intensely smoky, for a bold start to your day.

Caffè Verona, 1lb bag: 7000cfa
Dark Cocoa & Roasty Sweet

Café Estima, 1lb bag: 7000cfa
A smooth, well-balanced blend of Fair Trade Certified™ coffees.

(Prices are comparable to the Starbucks Store online in the US.)

Pick-up is available in Fenêtre Mermoz. Leave comment below or message Dakar Eats on Facebook for more information.

Better run – coffee’s ready!

Vegetarian recipe: My Moseltha Griddle

Today we continue a recent monthly feature: a vegetarian recipe, made from ingredients available in Senegal. Our guest is P. and she blogs at For the Love of Fulani.

In my opinion, breakfast is one of the hard to make original or exciting. I worked for a while at a bed and breakfast and I was constantly trying to find new ways to cook the same old things. Pancakes, eggs, and biscuits… they are sometimes hard to transform. I mean an egg is an egg, right?

So when I recently had a griddle breakfast like this while on vacation at Mosetlha Bush Camp, I knew I had found something different, quick and easy for breakfast or dinner. When we got home this was first on my list of things to make. I think it’s a great, easy and versatile meal that suits veggie lovers and meat lovers alike. My husband added bacon to his side of the griddle, but sausage would be another great option.

What would you add to make it your own?

My Moseltha Griddle

3 small tomatoes (about 1 ¼ cups) diced
1 cup corn (frozen or canned)
½ med onion ( ¼ cup) diced
2 good size garlic cloves, minced
½ cup diced bell pepper
1-2 eggs per hole
½ cup shredded cheese
1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Salt and pepper

In large sauté pan, sauté onion, peppers and garlic in EVOO for about a minute. Dump in tomatoes and corn and mix together. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook for another minute.

Make “holes” in your sauté by moving things to the side (see pictures). Dump 1-2 eggs per hole. You don’t want the holes deep because you want the egg white to run out a little and hold everything together. Cover and continue cooking for another 30 seconds-1minute and then add your cheese over the top and cover again for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Remove from heat and let sit for 1-2 minutes while still covered. Serve and enjoy!

New shipment at Dior Diarama!

Today at CityDia

CityDia is having a ten-day sale on many popular items. They will be open the mornings of April 1st (Easter Monday) and April 4th (National Holiday). Here’s what caught my eye at their Mermoz location…

Yellow lemons! Also in their produce section, they have nice ‘long’ celery and a selection of grapes (seedless even) on sale for 2,800cfa/kilo.

I haven’t yet tried this Tunisian sauce that looks like a mayo/ketchup cross, but I hear it tastes just like hot wing sauce. So pick up a bottle and call Poulet Express!

Also, Calvé mayonnaise (my favorite) is marked down about 500cfa for the medium sized jar.

Local organic strawberries are cheaper than the fruit stand!

Vegetarian recipe: Spinach burgers

Today we continue a recent monthly feature: a vegetarian recipe, made from ingredients available in Senegal. Our guest is P. and she blogs at For the Love of Fulani.

When I was little I was terrified of spinach. I think it was one too many reruns of Popeye the Sailor man that stirred up images of gloopy green stuff in a can. It wasn’t until high school that I realized that fresh spinach was actually amazing and frozen spinach could be used in some great ways like in frittatas or soups.

In thinking of how to incorporate more good for you greenness in our meals, I stumbled up the idea of spinach burgers. Some experimenting later and a quick, easy and yummy meal came together.

Spinach burgers

1 ½ cups of thawed and well drained chopped spinach*
1 whole egg**
1/4 c diced or grated onion
1/2 c shredded cheese (parmesan, cheddar or emmental all work nicely)
1/2 c bread crumbs, preferably Italian seasoned
½ tsp red pepper flakes
½ – ¾ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder

*OR use a large can of spinach, rinsed and well drained. Be sure to reduce the salt if using canned spinach.

**OR use 1 T ground flaxseed mixed with 3 T of water. Let rest for 2-3 minutes until thickened….this is what I prefer instead of eggs!

Mix well in a bowl, form into patties (4-6 depending on size) and grill over low-med heat approx. 3-4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Enjoy!

HelloFood Senegal: a guest review

Today’s review of HelloFood is by Marianne, a Dakar Eats reader. In case you haven’t seen the ads yet, HelloFood is a delivery service that works with 30+ popular restaurants around town, including Happy Days, Times Café, Eric Kayser, Saveurs d’Asie and more.

HelloFood has a variety of Dakar’s finest restaurants (but they are not just the most expensive ones) and new restaurants are added almost weekly. Availability depends on where you live. Some areas have almost all the restaurants available for delivery (Point E, Fann, Plâteau, so on).

On the site you’ll find the restaurant’s full menus, from the entrees to dessert and drinks, everything! Some restaurants have minimum order amount, but for most of them there’s no minimum and they have everything you can order from breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks at work or at home. You just order what you want and confirm online and within seconds you will get a confirmation SMS with the estimated arrival time.

They start the deliveries at 11am and go to 10pm. Delivery fees range from 0Fcfa to 500 Fcfa, so not bad at all. Delivery speed usually sucks in Dakar. But so far so good – they did not go over the estimated time of delivery, so they really did their homework on that.

And the most important thing they have a live chat that’s available all the time anytime you are connected someone will greet you through the chat (customer service, right!).

You can always give them suggestions I already told them that it would be wonderful if we could pay online with a bank card and if they could also have an English version of the website and they did get back to me in a very efficient manner.

I love Mexican food, so the first time we ordered was from “The Sombrero” and everything was so spicy and tasty and so yummy I tried the “beignets de calamari”, the “fish burritos” and the “fondue de chocolat” and it was with skewered fruits and a warm fondue to dip it in it was great! And my husband tried the “nachos poulet” and we had some chicken wings for the kids and, as I already said, it was delicious!.

The second restaurant we tried wasn’t far from our home so delivery was like within minutes. The restaurant’s name is KISAKALA and they specialize in both Senegalese and international food and they have kind of a full-course menu bundle called the “KOOL BOX”.

What else to say? I am impressed, but I will not scream victory just yet. I know most of the time in Dakar the new things are the best, but once they have you they do nothing to keep you.

Has anyone tried HelloFood? What did you think? Thanks, Marianne!

Recipe: ‘le ginger’ drink

Today’s guest post is by Aleyna Diouf, also known by her blog handle: Une Toubab à Dakar. She’s a French mom of three with a Senegalese husband and an incredible talent for writing about the joys and struggles of living cross-culturally.

I’ve asker her to share some of her recipes with us so that we can learn to make the most of ingredients  that are locally available, but that we may not be very familiar with in the US. Thanks, Aleyna!

Here in Senegal there are many refreshing drinks: bissap (both red and white), bouye, ditakh, ginger drink, sow and many others that I’m sure I don’t know of!

One of my personal favorites is ‘le ginger’. Below I’ll share my favorite recipe, but there are many variations.

Le ginger
Makes 2 liters

300g ginger root
300g of sugar
50 cl pineapple juice
juice of one lemon

Peel the ginger and cut it into pieces. Grate or crush the root. Place the pieces in a glass container with 1/2 liter of boiling water. Let it sit at least one hour, but preferably overnight!

Strain out the ginger and add 1.5 liters of water. Add the sugar, lemon juice and pineapple juice.

Pour it into a bottle or pitcher and chill it. For best results, let it sit 24 hours before serving. It gets even better!

On a sidenote, I’ve tried the chemical versions of juices (like Foster Clarks) but nothing is as good as real pineapple juice. Same goes for the little bottles of artificial flavorings – natural is always my preference!

For those who may be interested, I’ve heard ‘le ginger’ goes particularly well with white rum!