Hello National Day cooking fans,  

Before finding it on the internet, I have to admit to having never heard of Chad but, having learned of its existence, I decided that this was the time to celebrate.  It is in North Africa and as such, I would expect it to be hot by comparison to the UK in the winter but apparently, it can get quite nippy at night.  I suppose that is why they are porridge eaters. 

I have made porridge many a time and hoping this would be an easy month when it comes to getting the day started with something hot inside.  There was just one problem.  My assumptions got me into trouble yet again.  Instead of reading the recipe through, I looked at the picture and assumed that reproducing a plate of boule, their national dish, would be easy.

When I settled on this as my November attempt at cooking something international, I did have a quick look for the ingredients online and so I knew that finding some Millet Flour might be a bit of a challenge.  But Google told me that I could get it in one of the high street shops.  So, I did not give ingredient shopping another thought until the day before my planned attempt to make my version of the dish.  That was when I went shopping only to find that the shop where I was so sure that I would get a bag of the flour, only sells it online. 

I did send off for it but having done that, I did a little more extensive research online, with time running out, and the best substitute I could find was the good old fashioned oat.  I also had to make my own groundnuts but that was not a problem in my high speed liquidiser.  The result looked the part but I know the truth.

My taste session was fine until I mentioned that my test team were tasting a celebrated national day which fell on November 28th.  One of them, not realising that I was trying to celebrate Chad’s Republic Day, had assumed that the results of my culinary hard work had come together in preparation for St. Andrew’s day, which is on November 30th.   They had all assumed that I had the wrong date. The result not only looked like porridge oats but tasted much like it too.  So I cannot tell a lie, though I followed all the instructions to the letter, and the picture looks authentic, I am sorry Chad; I cheated!

The millet flour is on its way to me though so I will try again and tell you about the difference next month.

December 16th is a reason to get something warming inside you and I have taken a leaf or two out of Kazakhstan’s cookbook.  To coincide with their independence day, I thought a plate of Beshbarmak   might be the way forward.  So next month I plan to tell you how my genuine bowl of Bouillie turned out in addition to the results of my culinary stop-off in Romania. 

  CB, Lewisham
 

CB shares some varied instructions for making Beshbarmak…

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