Tiebou Yap (Rice with lamb)

Tiebou Yap is very simply named for the 2 main ingredients: Tieb (rice in wolof) and Yap (Meat). It is a dish as fit for everyday dining as it is for special occasions. Many of my childhood food memories include this dish but one of the best incarnations I ever tasted was in boarding school. Shocking, I know! Boarding schools are not known for being centers of culinary excellence and mine wasn't 99% of the time. But once a year, we had a major pre-holiday celebration in early December that almost made up for the remaining days of below average fare. The school was and still is on the island of Goree (a UN World Heritage Site worth visiting) and on this occasion, the principal would bring in women from the island to cook this rice dish, the traditional way. They would set up huge iron pots outside the main kitchen and cook the rice for hours on a good old fire. The aroma would tease us for hours. The result always made us forget that the rest of the year, we lived on watery sauces and prison rice. It also convinced our parents that we were simply spoiled brats who complained about the everyday food for no reason!

Tiebou Yap
Serves 6

Ingredients- Rice Dish

• 1 kg of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into large chunks, preferably with bone
• 1 to 2 pieces of yeet. Note: Yeet is the meat of a mollusk, fished, fermented and dried on the beaches all along the coast of Senegal. It is quite tough and requires a long cooking time which is why it is used in long simmering stews such as this one. It also has a strong and distinct smell and taste, which I adore but can be more of an acquired taste for some. It is not critical to this dish and therefore is optional.
• 250 ml (1 cup) of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of ground chili
• 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 kg of long grain rice (I use jasmine rice)
• 1 can (~400g undrained) of mixed vegetables (you can use fresh vegetables and combine 200 g of finely diced carrots, corn and green beans)
  

Ingredients- Mustard Sauce

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, diced
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 250 ml (1 cup) of water
• 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and chili each
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
  

Preparation- Rice Dish

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Add lamb and yeet and cook while stirring frequently until brown (~15mns).
3. In mixer, reduce onion, garlic, salt, chili and black pepper to a fine mixture.
4. Add to the pot and cook for about 10 mns.
5. Add 2 liters of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This cooking time can be reduced if you use chicken or more tender meat and no yeet. Adjust accordingly. Note: Given the amount of time this dish takes, you can do all the steps up to now the day before and cool and refrigerate or freeze the stew to be completed the following day or later.
6. Rinse the rice TWICE to remove some of the starch.
7. Cover and steam in microwave for 4 mns on high power.
8. Add steamed rice and vegetables to the pot. Reduce heat and cook covered for 20 mns. Note: Before adding the rice, please taste the stew and adjust spices as desired (a bit of salt, a bit of pepper). Also very importantly, make sure there is not too much water for the amount of rice. This can be judged visually with experience but to be safe, I always remove and set aside about 2 cups of liquid (500 ml). After adding the rice and cooking for 5 mns, you can decide to add the liquid back little by little as needed. The goal is cooked rice, not porridge. If you have liquid left aside, you can reduce it by bringing it to a boil in a small pan and serving it as a side gravy with the rice.

Preparation- Mustard Sauce

1. Heat oil in a small pan
2. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft and brown
3. Mix water and mustard and add to the pan
4. Bring to a boil and cook covered for 5 mns
5. Remove cover and cook for 10 mns until liquid is reduced to a gravy-like texture
6. Add salt, pepper, chili and vinegar and mix
7. Cook for 2 mns and remove from heat

Harira (Moroccan Lamb Soup)

When it is cold, as it is in Johannesburg right now (2°C with exceptional snow on the ground this morning!), I find it difficult to eat cold salads and vegetables. In order to make sure I do get my veggies in, I turn to soups. Today, I flipped through my Essential Soup Cookbook and picked Harira.

Harira is a chickpea and lamb soup from Morocco usually served in the evening when it's time for the Muslims to break the daily fast during Ramadan. In Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is also Muslim, there are many culinary influences that have come from the Middle East and North Africa, following trade routes across the Sahara desert, riding on the back of various conquests and migrations. So for my version of harira, I combined a traditional Moroccan recipe with my friend Djenaba's to create a Senegalo-Moroccan blend.

The recipe calls for many ingredients and a lot of chopping so it is wise to make a batch and freeze some for later. I actually think it tastes better the day after or reheated after a few days in the freezer. There are few things sweeter than getting home late, thinking you have nothing to eat and not feeling like cooking, only to find some neatly frozen soup in the freezer. I equate the feeling to finding a long lost and definitely forgotten $20 bill in a coat pocket.


Harira
Serves 6

Ingredients

• 500 g of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 6 saffron threads (optional)
• 3 trimmed celery sticks (~220 g), chopped coarsely
• 1 can of chickpeas (425 g)
• 7 medium tomatoes (~1.2 kg), seeded and chopped coarsely or use 2 400g-cans of tomatoes
• 2 1/2 liters (10 cups) of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 100 g (1/2 cup) lentils
• 1/4 of fresh coriander leaves, chopped or whole

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Cook onions until soft.
3. Add spices and stir for ~2 mns until fragrant. Note: I found myself frantically adding spices fast enough and trying to stir to avoid them burning so I would recommend mixing all the spices beforehand in a bowl and pouring them all in at the same time.
4. Add lamb and celery and cook for 2 mns until lamb is all coated with the spices.
5. Add tomato and cook for 10 mns until tomato softens.
6. Add water, chickpeas and salt and bring to a boil. At this stage, Djenaba suggests adding 1 carrot and 1 turnip (both chopped into tiny cubes) if you wish to include even more vegetables.
7. Simmer covered for about 1 1/2 hours.
8. Add lentils and cook covered for another 30 mns.
9. Add coriander just before serving.