Yet another interruption from beignet.

There was a local food fair in Dakar. I had to write a post on it. One of these days I'll get back on track with my beignet story.

FIARA 2012, or le Foire Internationale de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales - the International Agricultural and Animal Resources Fair - took place about a week ago in Dakar. And it was about a half mile from our house. I love this city.

The FIARA is basically like a giant farmer's market, as well as a place for farmers and people in the agricultural field to get together and share new technologies and techniques. It was amazing, and I think our apartment is now stocked up in staples (LOCAL staples) from now until I leave. I love food in Dakar, as you've probably noticed. But it has always bothered me that I can't be sure where the food I buy comes from. Even in the open-air markets where I know the local economy benefits in someway because the money is passing through local vendors , the produce often comes from the exterior. And its hard, especially as a foreigner, to pick through things to find the local.

This is the beauty of the FIARA. The focus is on local markets, small farmers, and women's cooperatives. I really wish this could be organized on more than an annual basis, because everyone benefits. These smaller groups get a lot of face-time and publicity, it showcases local produce and grains that are harder to find, and it offers all of it to the consumer for a much cheaper price.

One of the halls lined with stalls at the FIARA

So I thought I would use this blog to just walk everyone through what I bought. Some of it was familiar to me, some of it I had never heard of. 

Here we have Giulia, my roomate, picking through the many different varieties of local rice. As I mentioned in another blog, Senegal grows a lot of rice, however, most people still prefer the lower-quality, more expensive imported rice from Asia. We picked out a bag to share - 6 kilos of rice for 2000CFA (about $4) coming from the St. Louis region in the north. We've tried it, and its delicious.

The next picture is of a local organization from the Saloum Delta (just south of the Dakar peninsula) who makes, with the help of a Canadian NGO, my absolute favorite product of the fair. Peanut Butter Cream. Yes, that's right. Envision the inside of a Nutter Butter, except creamier, all natural, and whipped to perfection. My first time to the fair I bought one tub. It was gone in 3 days. I went back and bought 6 more tubs. Some are for friends in the States, theoretically.

Here's a picture of almost everything I bought.

The famed peanut butter cream.

Ok, this one needs a bit more explaining. Processed, pre-cooked grains were everywhere at this fair. This was really nice, because a lot of them take a long time to process/make by hand, and of course, I have no idea how to do it. So the lighter grains here are attieké, which are cassava (sometimes called manioc or yucca)  pounded down into cous-cous. It has a slightly acidic taste and is a lot lighter than a semolina cous-cous. The darker grain in the bag up front is ceere, the millet cous-cous I wrote about in another post. However, this is not your ordinary millet cous-cous; its made from sweet potato. We had a sample at the fair. Lighter and more glutinous than ceere, it is going to make a delicious treat once I break down and open it (trying to save it for home).

The bag on the left is fonio, another grain I talked about in a previous post. 2 kilos of it for 1000CFA ($2). And then on the right is a unusual mixture of flours. I can't remember the name of it in Wolof, so I'll post an update once I ask someone. But its a 20% black-eyed pea flour, which is pretty common here, 10% sugar, 12% peanut flour, 32% corn flour, 25% millet flour, with a bit of salt. The result is another delicious take on the inside of a Nutter Butter. You eat it like cereal, putting it in milk and then eating as is.

SNACKS! At 500CFA ($1), I couldn't resist. Plantain chips on the bottom left, sugared peanuts (so many peanut products in Senegal), a version of beef jerky, and bouye sticks, called zara. These I hadn't seen before, but they're the fruit of the Boabab tree pounded into a paste (the fruit is a bit chalky) and then sweetened with sugar and dried into sticks. The description's not super intriguing, but they were so good!

So now I'm really stocked up for the rest of my time here. With all this food, plus a 5 kilo jug of fresh-pressed peanut oil, I'm good to go! 

A short interruption from beignet

I couldn't help it. I was going to try to stick to my series on beignet, and then I went to Soumbidioune, the largest fish market in Dakar. Right on the water in the early evenings, fishermen bring their boats in and sell fish and seafood in the nearby stalls. The end result is this lovely scene pictured below of croix rouge fish (in French), sea urchins, and mussels all purchased for a total of about $6. I was too happy not to write about it. A couple of guys down by the water also grilled the mussels and urchins for me on the spot. Where else can you get something like this?? 

Installment 2: Beignet Banane

Think banana bread rolled into balls and deep fried. I know, totally awesome.

The best I've had are at my beignet lady's corner in Mermoz, though they're hard to come by unless you're there right at 5pm when she opens. Those are the ones that always go first. She makes them slightly bigger than the regular beignet (and accordingly charges 25CFA instead of 10CFA, making them about 10 cents each). Their larger size and the the moisture from the banana make them a much softer, denser alternative to the smaller and crispier originals. Its more like a cake dognut from the States, only way better.

My beignet banana come nowhere near to the high standard set by the beignet lady of Mermoz, however, this recipe I've been using from a Senegalese women's magazine (La Senegalaise) is quite tasty:

Beignet banane

3 very ripe bananas (large bananas, add one more if small)

.25 L milk

.5 kg flour

1 packet of baking powder (probably about 1 tsp in American measurements)

1 spoon of vanilla

grated nutmeg or cinnamon to taste (I always use nutmeg)

lemon zest to taste
2 eggs

Makes about 100 small beignet.

The recipe itself is super simple – it reminds me a lot of making pancake batter in the States.

Mash the bananas and then mix in the flour. Add milk and mix thoroughly; then add the eggs, baking powder, vanilla, nutmeg or cinnamon, and the zest. Here’s the resulting batter – it should be thin, but not quite as thin as normal pancake batter.

Using a large spoon, gently ladle a spoonful of batter into pre-heated oil (should fill a pan about 2-3 inches deep with oil). Repeat this quickly with equally-sized spoonfuls, until you’ve filled up the pan – the beignet should start floating to the top as they fry.

After a couple minutes, flip them each over, let them fry for a couple more minutes, and then transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel to absorb some of the oil. 

Final product! Sprinkle them with sugar while hot and enjoy. 

They're also REALLY good with fresh papaya jam.