Millets are so 80s - We're in Chad
We've now traveled back to Africa to the country of Chad. I'm seriously experiencing some jetlag here! I'm wondering if maybe we should have planned our trip a bit differently, like all of the countries on one continent and then moved to another continent. Oh well, we didn't, so here we are back and forth across the world again.
While researching Chadian pancakes, we discovered that millet is the important grain in this country. At first we found lots of references to something called aiysh in Northern Chad and biya in Southern Chad. We soon learned that these are the same thing, balls of fried millet, in both regions. For some reason they just have different names. We were a bit disappointed to find out that these were balls, because we don't really consider fried balls of dough to be pancakes (with the exception of abelskivers of course, but we'll get to them when we get to Denmark). So we continued to look for Chadian pancakes. We did discover that they make pancakes out of millet as well, however, we weren't able to find a truly authentic Chadian millet recipe as we weren't able to discover the name for pancakes in Chad. So intstead, we looked for a millet recipe that sounded good, and this is what we ended up with. For these millet pancakes you will need the following:
The first thing you'll want to do is cook the millet so that it has a chance to cool. You don't know how to cook millet you say? Well, neither did we. We had to do a search for cooking millet, and this is what we learned. First toast the millet in a frying pan until it smells nutty (about 4-5 minutes on medium heat with frequent stirring).
After toasting the millet, place it in a pot and add two cups of water. Heat on high heat until boiling, and then lower heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from heat and let cool. It only takes about 5-10 minutes for the millet to cool. If you want to, you could precook the millet the night before and store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Once the millet has cooled, peel and shred your apple. We used a slightly sweet, but still tart apple, but you can use whatever type you like.
Now all you have to do is add all of your ingredients to the blender and give it a whirl. This is what ours looked like:
Remove batter from blender. Heat your favorite oil in a frying pan, and then add 1 - 1 1/2 cups of batter to the pan. Fry until browned on both sides.
Remove from heat and enjoy! We poured some sourwood honey over the top, which we had purchased on our recent trip to Savannah.
We also added some some scrambled eggs seasoned with thyme and havarti for a little bit of protein.
I thought these were yummy! Sam thought they were just O.K. In hindsight, we probably should have added some water to the batter to make it truly more like a batter. Our batter was a bit clumpy, and our pancakes didn't look anything like the picture in the original recipe (which can be found here). All in all, I enjoyed them, and I would eat them again exactly as they turned out.
While researching Chadian pancakes, we discovered that millet is the important grain in this country. At first we found lots of references to something called aiysh in Northern Chad and biya in Southern Chad. We soon learned that these are the same thing, balls of fried millet, in both regions. For some reason they just have different names. We were a bit disappointed to find out that these were balls, because we don't really consider fried balls of dough to be pancakes (with the exception of abelskivers of course, but we'll get to them when we get to Denmark). So we continued to look for Chadian pancakes. We did discover that they make pancakes out of millet as well, however, we weren't able to find a truly authentic Chadian millet recipe as we weren't able to discover the name for pancakes in Chad. So intstead, we looked for a millet recipe that sounded good, and this is what we ended up with. For these millet pancakes you will need the following:
- 1 millet (once you cook this, you will only use about half of it)
- 1 large apple shredded
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
The first thing you'll want to do is cook the millet so that it has a chance to cool. You don't know how to cook millet you say? Well, neither did we. We had to do a search for cooking millet, and this is what we learned. First toast the millet in a frying pan until it smells nutty (about 4-5 minutes on medium heat with frequent stirring).
After toasting the millet, place it in a pot and add two cups of water. Heat on high heat until boiling, and then lower heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from heat and let cool. It only takes about 5-10 minutes for the millet to cool. If you want to, you could precook the millet the night before and store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Once the millet has cooled, peel and shred your apple. We used a slightly sweet, but still tart apple, but you can use whatever type you like.
Now all you have to do is add all of your ingredients to the blender and give it a whirl. This is what ours looked like:
Remove batter from blender. Heat your favorite oil in a frying pan, and then add 1 - 1 1/2 cups of batter to the pan. Fry until browned on both sides.
Remove from heat and enjoy! We poured some sourwood honey over the top, which we had purchased on our recent trip to Savannah.
We also added some some scrambled eggs seasoned with thyme and havarti for a little bit of protein.
I thought these were yummy! Sam thought they were just O.K. In hindsight, we probably should have added some water to the batter to make it truly more like a batter. Our batter was a bit clumpy, and our pancakes didn't look anything like the picture in the original recipe (which can be found here). All in all, I enjoyed them, and I would eat them again exactly as they turned out.
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