Somaliland isn't known for its haute cuisine. Ask people here what their staple foods are and they will reply rice and spaghetti. The days of a meat and milk diet are drawing to end as pastoralists succumb to export bans, land rights and of course, climate change.
However, if there is a speciality dish, then it is camel. They say you can judge a restaurant by its kitchen. In which case the omens were not good for my lunch-stop this afternoon. The wooden work-surface was covered with innards, off-cuts and slop from the huge vat of camel, onion and tomato that simmered away on a charcoal-burner below. Flies swarmed over hunks of meat and piles of the sour tasting njera laid out on the side ready to be thrust through the hatch.
The recipe is simple: grill the meat over coals for ten minutes then add to the simmering cauldron of mucky water and vegetables. Eat with soggy njera.
But I was brought up to try eveything once and for a meat-lover the camel meat was more than palatable. A little like mutton perhaps, nice and tender. Not quite so easy to stomach was the 'soup' with its layer of fatty globules on the surface. I drew the line at a slab of fat from between the brain and skull.
My stomach survived the experience and it got me thinking there's probably a book-load of camel recipes out there. I've had a quick scan...here's the pick of the bunch.
1
medium camel
4 lambs
20 chickens (roasted)
150 eggs (boiled)
40 kilos tomatoes
Salt and seasonings
Stuff eggs into tomatoes, stuff tomatoes into chickens, stuff chickens into
lambs, stuff lambs into camel. Roast until tender
This though leaves the cook asking several questions:
- Just how big is a medium camel?
- How exactly do you stuff 2 kilos of tomatoes in a single chicken and five chickens in a lamb?
- Are we talking oven roast (how?!) or spit roast? And how many minutes per pound?
Any other recipes out there, send them my way...