The first stop on our tour is the African nation of Sudan. Want to know more about this country? Click here. Wiki won't let you down.
Day 1 on the menu: Shaiyah and African Kidney Beans. Click the links in the post for the recipes I used.
Starting off strong
With all of the ingredients purchased, and the recipes left open on the computer, I was finally ready to kick this thing off!
For our first day, I paired two dishes together to make a well-balanced meal. I found an extremely nice looking meat dish, and thought that perhaps beans would go well with it for a vegetarian side.
I worked on the African kidney beans first. It's very simple, but it takes several hours to prepare because you have to soak the beans for two hours, and then boil them for another two hours before you can move on to combining them with the sauce and spices. Once they were almost done boiling, I started prepping the ingredients for my next dish so I would be able to cook it all at the same time.
The meat dish is called Shaiyah. It is pan-fried lamb. You can also use beef or goat, but I stuck with lamb, which is what the lady did in the video. I bought my lamb at the halal place since they had exactly the right cut at a price that doesn't make you want to bawl your eyes out (instead you only tear up a little).
I was surprised at what a simple, easy recipe the shaiyah was to follow. It required a little more attention than the beans because I had to stir more frequently to prevent the meat from getting overly brown or burnt. A nice caramelized covering is what you want to go for!
It took about an hour and a half from start to finish for the shaiyah, and almost five hours for the beans. So was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY.
Results are in
The beans were very good, filling and flavorful, but I'm here to talk about the meat. Oh, the meat!
When you've never tried a certain food before, and you can't even pronounce it correctly, it's hard to tell if what you've made is the real deal. But one bite of the shaiyah and I knew I did everything right. It was delicious! Soft, tender chunks of meat with a savory, caramelized coating. And my plate looked nearly identical to the one in the video. Success!
I say 5/5 stars, and Younes gave it high praise, too. We're not exactly sure what our rating system is, but my taste buds are dancing.
Can everything please turn out this well?
Seriously, I'm blown away by how tasty this meal turned out to be. The bar has been set HIGH.
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