34 - Chad

The Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in northern-central Africa, it is bordered by Libya, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Its official languages are Arabic and French although there are over 100 different languages spoken.

Chad was first populated in the 7th millennium BC and has been ruled by people controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes. France conquered the area in the 1920's but Chad regained its independence in the 1960's.

Chad has more than 200 distinct ethnic groups originating from all parts of Africa and they follow their own customs and beliefs. Chad is the seventh poorest country in the world with 80% of its population living below the poverty line. 

Millet is the staple food and it is used to make paste like balls to dip in various sauces. Fish is also popular. Meals are served on a large communal plate but women eat separately from men.

For our visit to Chad we made the vegetarian dish Daraba, a creamy peanut vegetable stew.

We luckily had all the ingredients at home so we didn't have to go shopping for this meal. 

We used a small butternut squash instead of pumpkin and baby spinach for the greens. The okra was frozen so we didn't cook it for as long as suggested in the recipe - we didn't want it to go slimy!

The recipe has North American measurements of cups, I always find this slightly bizarre when measuring strange shaped objects but there you go! 😁

You basically put everything in a big pot and cook it in a mixture of coconut milk, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock.

We made steamed rice to go with it.

The dish is garnished with fried onion 

and garlic and crushed peanuts. 

The finished meal.

The Verdict.

It was delicious, it was like a really yummy spicy peanut soup. 

We had seconds.

The only improvement would be to add some more chilli, our chilli powder is very strong so I hadn't used as much as the recipe called for.

33 - Central African Republic

The Central African Republic or Centrafrique is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo and Cameroon. It has a population of about 4.7 million.

The area has been inhabited for millennia but was colonized by the French in the 19th century. It became independent in 1960 and has been in a state of civil war since 2012.

Despite having mineral deposits, uranium reserves, crude oil, gold and diamonds CAR is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. It is estimated to be the 'unhealthiest' country in the world!

The nation is divided into 80 ethnic groups which each have their own language, the earliest settlers - about 10 - 8,000 years ago were probably the Aka or pygmy tribe.

In most CAR families the women are responsible for gathering, producing, preserving and preparing the food, hunting, trapping and fishing are done by men. Staple foods are cassava, rice, squash, pumpkins and plantains. Okra features in most meals along with peanuts and peanut butter.

For our visit to Central African Republic we made the popular Kanda a pumpkin seed and meatball dish, a spinach stew and steamed rice.

The meatballs were made from ground pumpkin seeds,
ground beef, onion and garlic.

You just squeeze all the ingredients together and
then make them into golf ball shaped balls

The sauce is made from onion, chopped tomatoes and chilli peppers

The spinach stew ingredients are onions, tomatoes,
green pepper (we used yellow as we had one that needed eating) spinach, cayenne pepper and peanut butter.

After I had made the meatballs and put them in the fridge I made the tomato sauce. Then the meatballs were placed in it, the lid put on the pan and they were left to cook for about half an hour. It was weird not to fry the meatballs first to brown the outsides but we followed the recipe!

As they cooked they did become a little darker 

but still looked pretty raw! 😬

When they were ready to eat I sprinkled chopped parsley over the top.

As usual the vast pile of spinach disappeared to nothing once they had been steamed and mixed with the peanut butter paste.

We made steamed rice to go with the meatballs.

Our finished meal

The verdict

hmm, well it was an experience!. 

It tasted pretty bland despite the addition of chillies. We actually added salt to it  which we rarely do - but there wasn't any in the recipe - it needed some.

The pumpkin seed made the meatballs texture very grainy, I guess they are used as a filler when meat is scarce.

The spinach stew was the best bit. I liked the peanut butter addition, although we didn't cook it for the 30 minutes recommended in the recipe - that seemed excessive.

32 - Canada

Canada is in the Northern part of North America, and consists of 10 Provinces and 3 Territories. It is the second largest country in the world. It borders the USA as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans and its capital is Ottawa.  

Various Indigenous people inhabited the land before European settlers arrived in the 16th century. The French and British colonized the east coast and it wasn't until 1867 that the independent country of Canada was formed, initially including, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Gradually Canada expanded to include the other provinces and territories, the last being Newfoundland and Labrador in 1934.

Canada's culture is diverse due to the many nationalities that call the country home. Quebec is the only French speaking province, (New Brunswick is bilingual French and English), and it maintains a French/Canadian culture.

We moved to the east coast of Canada nearly 15 years ago. It was weird realising that we have never made the foods that are apparently the National Dishes of Canada even if we have eaten them a few times. 

We discussed what we should make with some friends and eventually decided on these three dishes.

Poutine, Donair and Nanaimo bars.

Nova Scotia - the province we live in - has an amazing wine industry. Since we have lived here small vineyards have popped up all over the place making the most amazing white wine and some not-too-bad reds as well.

We spent some time in the liquor store trying to decide which we should have for or Canadian meal and eventually settled on a Muscat by Gaspereau vineyards. It was one of the first wineries we visited and we've always loved their wine. 

Now onto the food!

Authentic Canadian Poutine (pronounced pooTEEN) originated in Quebec in the 1950's although there are many claims to who actually invented it.

Chips or fries are the basis for this extraordinarily healthy dish!!!!

We don't have a deep fryer so we made ours in the oven. 

While they were cooking we made the gravy. A friend of our daughters is from Quebec so we asked her for advice. She suggested buying one of these shop mixes! 

Then she suggested this gravy recipe. 

You basically make a roux (butter and flour) and add a mixture of beef and chicken broth, thickening it with cornflour and mixing in a little tomato ketchup and tabasco sauce.

Once the gravy is made and the chips are ready it's time for the cheese curds! Yep, moist pieces of curdled milk!!! 😁

Now to plate up.

Put the cooked chips in a bowl.

Sprinkle the cheese curds over the chips.

Tip the gravy over everything and mix it together.

And now you are ready to eat!

Enjoy!!!!

After the ultra light and healthy appetizer it's time for 

an equally satisfying main course.

Donair

(not to be confused with the British doner kebab!!!)

The 'legendary' Halifax donair was allegedly invented in the 1970's by Peter Gamoulakos who was originally from Greece. He started making a similar Greek dish using lamb. He noticed that the locals weren't keen so he swapped the lamb for beef and added the sweet donair sauce and the late night food source was born. It soon became Halifaxs official food. Roll over fresh lobster!

Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and so we had to make a local dish.

First to make the meat.

Oregano, flour, black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper are mixed with ground beef (or burger meat as its called over here). The meat needs to really stick together so you have to throw it into the mixing bowl 20 times to make the grains or ground beef mush together.

I used a small loaf tin to shape it then it went into
the oven for and hour and a quarter.

Looking good!
It went into the fridge overnight.

When we were ready to eat we sliced the meatloaf thinly.

And fried it lightly on each side to heat it through.

We needed pita breads so I made some using the 

sourdough we use for making bread.

Rolled out and ready to cook.

Some made pockets and some didn't, but that's what 

happens with homemade pita bread.

The final part of a donair is the donair sauce! 

There is nothing quite like it 😬, it is popular with pizza too.

The ingredients are evaporated milk, sugar, 

garlic powder and white vinegar.

I made the mistake of trying it by sticking my finger in and then sucking that finger. The sauce wasn't as sweet as I was expecting but the large quantity of garlic powder certainly left an after taste!!

So to assemble the Donair you make a pocket in the pita bread and fill it with slices of meat, some diced tomato and onion and of course the donair sauce!

Delicious! and it has some vegetables in too! 😂

Now for our final treat. 

Nanaimo Bars.

It's a dessert bar that doesn't require cooking and is named after the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia. It became  popular in the 1950's although several places claim to have invented it. 

At a state dinner in 2016 Justin Trudeau served nanaimo bars

 as the dessert for his guests Barack and Michelle Obama!

First the base, it contains butter, cocoa, sugar, graham crackers, 

egg, unsweetened coconut and chopped almonds.

You melt the butter, sugar and cocoa until smooth and then beat in the egg. Then the crushed graham crackers, coconut and nuts are stirred in. 

This is pressed firmly into the base of your cake tin 

and left to cool in the fridge for a while.

The next layer is a custard. 

You use icing sugar, butter, milk and custard powder.

This is spread over the biscuit base.

Finally you make a chocolate topping from 

melted chocolate chips and some more butter!

And spread that over the custard.

Then when everything is set you cut into small squares 

and eat with a strong cup of tea or coffee!

The Verdict.

This was a fun experience. Homemade food always tastes different from shop bought and although this isn't a particularly healthy meal it was delicious to eat as a treat. The nanaimo bars can be frozen so we have a little stash in the freezer for a special occasion.