At Last, Our Plane Arrives in Djibouti
We have finally made it to the African country of Djibouti, where they call their pancakes laxoox. At first glance, the recipe for laxoox looks more bread like than pancake like. This is because it calls for yeast. However, it doesn't require kneading, and once you mix all of the ingredients together, it is definitely a batter and not a dough. Last, you fry it. So once again, it meats all of our criteria for a pancake.
Upon first looking at this recipe it reminded me of Algerian pancakes because it requires yeast in the batter, and you only cook it on one side. I recalled not being overly fond of the Algerian pancakes, so I was a little concerned about how the Djiboutian pancakes would turn out. I was hoping Djiboutian pancakes would taste better since they used a different type of flour. So, with an optimistic outlook, we set out to make laxoox, and here is what we used to make them:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour (the original recipe called for millet flour, but we couldn't find it anywhere, and didn't want to wait yet again for ordering it online. The original recipe said you could substitute sorghum flour, so that's what we did).
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups water
This recipe requires quite a bit of rest time, either a few hours on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator, so plan accordingly if you decide to make these. The first thing you'll want to do is mix all of your dry ingredients together. Then add the water, give it a good mixing, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside either for a few hours on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight. Sorry I have no pictures of this process. I made the batter while Sam was still sleeping in the morning, and I forgot to take pictures.
In Djibouti, they traditionally eat their laxoox with some sort of stew, so we opted for a high protein vegetarian lentil stew. These lentils take about an hour to prepare and cook, so plan to start making them at least an hour before you want to eat. To make Djiboutian lentils, you'll need the following ingredients:
2 cups dried brown lentils; picked over and washed
6 ccups water
3/4 c anaheim green peppers, seeded and chopped (I used much less than this, since Sam isn't fond of hot spiciness)
2 cups red onions; peeled, chopped
1/4 cup salted butter
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic; peeled, crushed
1 tablespoon berbere spice mix
ground black pepper to taste
Bring the lentils and water to a boil in a pot.
Once the water is boiling, allow to boil for 5 minutes. While it's boiling, begin chopping your onions, peppers, and garlic. Also, grate your ginger.
Make sure to wear gloves while chopping the peppers, or wash your hands very well after handling. If you don't, the burn will remind you to do this the next time you handle peppers.
After 5 minutes of boiling your lentils, drain them, making sure to reserve the drained liquid. You will use it again shortly.
In the same pot you were boiling your lentils in, melt the butter.
Then add the chopped onion, peppers, and garlic and cook until onions are soft. After the onions are soft, add 4 cups of the reserved liquid (it was pretty much all of the liquid that was reserved), the lentils, and all of the rest of the ingredients to the pot.
Bring to a simmer, and cook for 35-40 minutes, making sure to stir them occasionally to prevent sticking.
When your lentils are all cooked, take the plastic wrap off of your laxoox batter, and it should be all bubbly and look something like this:
The batter might separate, and it's O.K. if it does. Just mix it all back together. Now heat a nonstick frying pan and lightly oil it. Add a ladle full of batter, and gently spread it around the bottom of the pan.
The batter will begin to form bubbles as the yeast pancake from Algeria did.
Cook until the batter is completely dry. You can see in the next photo that it is almost finished cooking.
Once the top is completely dry, remove from heat without flipping. Lightly oil the pan again, and continue cooking in the above manner until all of the batter is used up. We got 6 pancakes from this recipe. After all of the pancakes are cooked, ladle some lentils over the top and enjoy!
I can't tell you whether or not these would freeze well, since our big freezer broke the next day, and we ended up eating all of these up before we could even get them into the smaller freezer. I finished off the lentils for lunch during the week as well, so I don't even know if they would have frozen well, but I assume both probably would. These were an outstanding ending to our weekend and beginning to our week!
Upon first looking at this recipe it reminded me of Algerian pancakes because it requires yeast in the batter, and you only cook it on one side. I recalled not being overly fond of the Algerian pancakes, so I was a little concerned about how the Djiboutian pancakes would turn out. I was hoping Djiboutian pancakes would taste better since they used a different type of flour. So, with an optimistic outlook, we set out to make laxoox, and here is what we used to make them:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour (the original recipe called for millet flour, but we couldn't find it anywhere, and didn't want to wait yet again for ordering it online. The original recipe said you could substitute sorghum flour, so that's what we did).
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups water
This recipe requires quite a bit of rest time, either a few hours on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator, so plan accordingly if you decide to make these. The first thing you'll want to do is mix all of your dry ingredients together. Then add the water, give it a good mixing, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside either for a few hours on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight. Sorry I have no pictures of this process. I made the batter while Sam was still sleeping in the morning, and I forgot to take pictures.
In Djibouti, they traditionally eat their laxoox with some sort of stew, so we opted for a high protein vegetarian lentil stew. These lentils take about an hour to prepare and cook, so plan to start making them at least an hour before you want to eat. To make Djiboutian lentils, you'll need the following ingredients:
2 cups dried brown lentils; picked over and washed
6 ccups water
3/4 c anaheim green peppers, seeded and chopped (I used much less than this, since Sam isn't fond of hot spiciness)
2 cups red onions; peeled, chopped
1/4 cup salted butter
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic; peeled, crushed
1 tablespoon berbere spice mix
ground black pepper to taste
Bring the lentils and water to a boil in a pot.
Once the water is boiling, allow to boil for 5 minutes. While it's boiling, begin chopping your onions, peppers, and garlic. Also, grate your ginger.
Make sure to wear gloves while chopping the peppers, or wash your hands very well after handling. If you don't, the burn will remind you to do this the next time you handle peppers.
After 5 minutes of boiling your lentils, drain them, making sure to reserve the drained liquid. You will use it again shortly.
In the same pot you were boiling your lentils in, melt the butter.
Then add the chopped onion, peppers, and garlic and cook until onions are soft. After the onions are soft, add 4 cups of the reserved liquid (it was pretty much all of the liquid that was reserved), the lentils, and all of the rest of the ingredients to the pot.
Bring to a simmer, and cook for 35-40 minutes, making sure to stir them occasionally to prevent sticking.
When your lentils are all cooked, take the plastic wrap off of your laxoox batter, and it should be all bubbly and look something like this:
The batter might separate, and it's O.K. if it does. Just mix it all back together. Now heat a nonstick frying pan and lightly oil it. Add a ladle full of batter, and gently spread it around the bottom of the pan.
The batter will begin to form bubbles as the yeast pancake from Algeria did.
Cook until the batter is completely dry. You can see in the next photo that it is almost finished cooking.
Once the top is completely dry, remove from heat without flipping. Lightly oil the pan again, and continue cooking in the above manner until all of the batter is used up. We got 6 pancakes from this recipe. After all of the pancakes are cooked, ladle some lentils over the top and enjoy!
I can't tell you whether or not these would freeze well, since our big freezer broke the next day, and we ended up eating all of these up before we could even get them into the smaller freezer. I finished off the lentils for lunch during the week as well, so I don't even know if they would have frozen well, but I assume both probably would. These were an outstanding ending to our weekend and beginning to our week!
Hey guys. Marc from Galapogas travels. I've been waiting for the blog to restart since returning. 3 interesting ones to start me off with. The lot you had to bin looked a bit of a shambles. I am however going to give the lentil stew a go - looks tasty. Anyway you can now include England as part of your international fan base. I sympathise with the classroom predicament. Although I haven't got 39 in one room mine seem to be more than making up for it at present. Who'd be a teacher?
ReplyDeleteHey Marc! If you haven't tried the lentils yet, you should. They were delicious! You might also want to add a little salt to them after you've cooked them. The original recipe didn't call for salt, but we decided a little salt would have made a nice additional layer of flavor. We'll be restarting our pancake blogs soon!
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