That's right, as of Thursday night I am one quarter through my cooking goal! I am pretty proud that it only took me four months. Although I do realize that means I am trending to complete my goal in 1.25 years instead of 1 year. But, you never know.... I've been known to step up to the plate and work hard when it really counts.
Djibouti is a relatively small country on the Eastern coast of Africa. It is about the same size as the state of Massachusetts. The cuisine there is unremarkable. Most people adhere to the Islamic laws of no pork and no alcohol. Goat and grains top the list as food staples.
One recipe that kept popping up for Djibouti was Samboussa. I recognized the dish as being the same as the Indian "Samosa", which I just had for the first time this month and loved. Samboussa is basically ground beef wrapped in dough and fried, and was fairly easy to make. Even creating the dough seemed like a breeze as compared to my recent dapple in dumpling wrappers. Sifted flour, salt and water was all I needed to make a dough with good consistency. I let it rest while I made the filling. I sauteed ground beef, chopped onions and leeks, and added plenty of cumin and salt and pepper. I rolled the dough out, cut it into triangles, filled with a spoonful of ground beef mixture, and folded them over. Peanut oil seemed like the best option for frying these, and I cooked them just four at a time so as not to overcrowd.
I also whipped together an African Hot Sauce, as the Samboussa recipe suggested. Pili-pili was the name of the African hot sauce I made for Burkina Faso, but this time I found a slightly different version that was equally tasty and equally hot.
My Samboussa was not as delicious as the Samosas we recently ordered from Southie's new Indian restaurant, Cafe Mamtaz. But they were pretty darn good, and the hot sauce gave them an awesome kick. We gave Djibouti a 3.5.
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