#kisra

The Country

A landlocked nation in northeastern Africa, South Sudan has been independent only since 2011, though its history is ancient.

For the US-oriented (and the non-globe-owning), the nation is slightly smaller than the state of Texas and is surrounded by Sudan, Ethiopia (Week 57), Kenya (Week 87), Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo [Congo (Kinshasa) (Week 40)] and the Central African Republic (Week 33).

The groups that now populate South Sudan -- which, geographically, is not even part of the Sudan region --  first came to the area before the year 900 CE, and 600 years later tribal migrations brought new people to the region. And when Islam was expanding through this part of the world, most notably through Sudan, geographic barriers stalled its spread to the south.

The area managed to maintain its independence, repelling various external powers, until it finally fell under Egyptian control in the 1870s. And for years later, it was governed jointly by Britain and Egypt as a state separate from Sudan. But actions taken in 1947 precipitated the forced union of Sudan and South Sudan, which led to the first of two prolonged civil wars between the north and south.

Sudan (including South Sudan) became an independent unified state in 1956, but trouble was already brewing between the Arab Muslim north and the majority Christian/Animist central African south. The union was supposed to grant the south a degree of autonomy it asserted it never got.

Ladling on the fact that the south has some prime farmland and the overwhelming majority of the country’s oil reserves and you have a recipe for intractable conflict. The first war raged from 1955-1972 and the second from 1983-20005. At the end of the second conflict, the two parties agreed to a separation which eventually led to the nation’s full independence in 2011.

With vast oil reserves, you’d think the nation would be in a position of power, but as the existing pipeline routes to the sea run through neighboring Sudan (from which the south only recently got divorced), brinksmanship over how much the north would have to pay to the south for oil has led to South Sudan ceasing all oil production.

And that pretty much opened a gashing wound in the nation’s economy, which has made an already weak state nearly moribund. And a collapsed economy leads to lots and lots of internal conflict. 

Sadly, tragedy continues to be the ever-present state of affairs in South Sudan as internal warfare, civil rights abuses, disease and poverty have made this resource-rich nation the leader on the heartbreaking ranking of Fragile States, edging out Somalia (Week 159) in 2014 to be the world’s most broken nation.

BONUS TRIVIA (the little that’s not grim):

On a geographical note, much of the center of South Sudan is taken up by an Indiana-sized wetland called the Sudd.

Protected lands in South Sudan are also home to the world’s second largest animal migration.

NBA players Manute Bol and Luoi Deng were both born in South Sudan.

And the grim ...

Things in South Sudan are tough for everyone, but no one bears the brunt of it more than South Sudanese women. South Sudan leads the entire world in maternal mortality (women dying during or soon after childbirth), it has the world’s lowest rate of literacy among women, and more than half of all marriages in the country involve child brides. 

South Sudan is also one of the last places on Earth where the soon-to-be-eradicated Guinea worm still leads to deaths from dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease). (The eradication of the Guinea worm is largely thanks to the work of former US President Jimmy Carter, BTW.)

In 2004, South Sudan -- a nation of roughly 8 million people -- had only three hospitals, three surgeons and one doctor for every 500,000 people.

Seriously, if any of this moves you, please take a moment and make a donation to Medecins Sans Frontiéres/Doctors Without Borders here.

The Food

The cuisine of South Sudan is very much like that of its neighbors, wth pancake-like flatbreads similar to those found in neighboring Ethiopia, stewed meats (often beef or goat) and a host of locally grown fruits and pulses being common, alongside grains like corn and sorghum.

Oh yes, and you’ll probably find peanuts (aka groundnuts) in everything. I mean EVERYTHING. (Yes, if you know anything about sub-Saharan African food, you’ll know that’s pretty much standard.)

One quirk appears to be that in lieu of more conventional cooking fats, foods in South Sudan are fried in cow brains, something I wasn’t really looking to reproduce.

In researching my menu, I kept circling back to this one PDF cookbook that seemed to be the touchstone for anyone online attempting to make a traditionally South Sudanese menu. And, after rejecting a dish or two that contained a green I would likely not be able to find (jute leaves, anyone?), I decided I’d cook over two nights and make what I hoped would be two authentic South Sudanese meals. 

For Night One, i’d make ...

South Sudanese Peanut Chicken using this recipe,[2020 edit: archived link] served with

South Sudanese Tomato Salad using this recipe.

And for Night Two, i’d prepare ...

Kisra (South Sudanese Sorghum Flatbread) using this recipe, a variant of the one found here [2020 edit: archived link], with

South Sudanese Peanut Stew with Beef and Spinach using this recipe,  just a slight variant on the one here. [2020 edit: archived link]

The Cook (Night One)

Shameless plug: I live-stream my cook/prep work on Meerkat, now available for iOS and Android and visible on the web. Follow @cliffieland on Twitter or Facebook for times. Also, if you go to meerkatstreams.com, you can now schedule to record live shows, DVR-style, in advance.

Watch a replay of this night here

The Tomato Salad

Thanks to one of the feeds I watch on Meerkat, I’ve finally come to the point where I’m comfortable coring and dicing my tomatoes. So, I quickly (OK, not really “quickly”) diced up my tomatoes and planted them in a large bowl.

I diced some green onions and threw them on.

I seeded a serrano pepper (since, sadly, green Thai chilis aren’t available anywhere nearby), diced it and toss that in.

And I chopped up some parsley and added that in, too.

In a small bowl, I scooped out some raw peanut butter.

And I added some water.

I mixed that up and added the juice of a lime. (I know, that’s the lemon juicer; these limes were hyuuuge,) 

I added some salt.

And, after mixing it up, I poured it over the tomato mixture.

I blended everything together.

And I covered it and set it to cool in the fridge until dinner.

The Peanut Chicken

I diced up a couple (rather large) chicken breasts, heated up some peanut oil (not cow brain, thanks), and added in the chicken.

The goal was to brown the chicken, but, as pointed out by a couple of my viewers, the pan was quite crowded and the chicken seemed to steam instead of sear. (Why, oh why, do recipes never tell you that one should do things in batches if it’s to be done correctly?)

Once I determined the chicken bits were cooked (and since I didn’t want to eat rubber chicken), I pulled the pieces out of the skillet and set them aside.

Then, into the oil, I dropped the diced onion.

The diced tomato.

I added a dash or two of garlic powder.

And, once the onions were softened, I mixed the chicken back in.

Next, I spooned in the peanut butter. (I told you there’s peanut butter in EVERYTHING this week. No peanut allergies in South Sudan, it would seem.)

I poured in the water.

And I seasoned with salt and pepper, since none of the recipes seemed to address this cooking basic. (Perhaps salt isn’t available in South Sudan? Nothing I read said one way or the other.)

I let the dish simmer for a few minutes and then it was dinnertime.

I scooped out the long-grain rice I had prepped in the rice cooker and scooped servings of the chicken on top. And I ladled out servings of the tomato salad alongside. In the end, that looked like this.

The Tasting

The Tomato Salad: Hoo doggies, that was phenomenal! I’ve never had a salad like that, with the fresh vegetables playing off the lime juice and the hearty, creamy flavor of the peanut butter. This is a definite must for the next (non-peanut allergic) dinner party or potluck! I’m just sorry I didn’t have leftovers.

The Peanut Chicken: Well, it was fine. The peanut butter did give the dish a certain creaminess that was pleasant. And I’m glad I seasoned the dish properly, since, otherwise, it would have been really awful. But between the dish’s humble nature and my not searing the chicken properly, I felt it was an overall disappointment. Generally speaking. The leftovers made for a nice lunch the next day, though.

The Cook (Night Two)

The Kisra

This would involve something you may know I hate: prepping stuff the night before.

In fact, I would have prepped two nights before. BUT ...

When I was researching this dish, I was a little surprised that most Sudanese recipes I found for kisra (in that case, spelled “kisser”) called exclusively for wheat flour. This one recipe called for sorghum flour,

But, hey, I thought, I have sorghum flour. It’s been sitting around since I last used it way, way back when I cooked Botswana (Week 23).

Well, I was wrong. On two fronts. First, it turns out I tossed the old flour during the Great Weevil Purge of 2015 earlier this year. And what I did have on hand was millet (another gluten-free grain I’ve used along the way). Oops.

So, after having the husband pick up some more sorghum flour at The Market That Shall Not Be Named, I took out my big bowl and dropped in the sorghum flour. Then, already not reading the recipe correctly, I mixed in some whole wheat flour. (That was supposed to be added the next day.) 

I poured in the water.

And I mixed that up until it was smooth.

I covered it and let it sit to ferment overnight. The next day, I retrieved the funky bowl.

And, after heating up the griddle with a little peanut oil (since I didn’t have/want to buy un-toasted sesame oil and, again cow brain was out), I made several failed attempts to recreate the village woman’s kisra prep method.

I spread the batter out and tried to use everything from the flat end of a pastry cutter to two different spatulas to turn this into a circle. It didn’t work.

In the end, I went with the circular/back of the ladle method I’ve used for other crepe-like breads.

The Peanut Stew with Beef and Spinach

After making sure that my stew beef was cubed small enough (it could have still been smaller), I heated up more peanut oil in a large stewpot and added in the chunks,

I let them get a good sear and then added in the diced onion.

The crushed garlic.

And, once the onions and garlic had softened, I poured on the beef stock.

And I let that simmer for a few minutes to let the liquid reduce. When it had, I mixed in the CRAZY AMOUNT of peanut butter.

The diced tomatoes.

And more spinach than I could have imagined.

After mixing thoroughly, I let that simmer for a few minutes so the spinach would wilt.

When it had, it was time for dinner. I laid down a serving of kisra on each plate and ladled scoops of the peanut-y stew on top. In the end, that looked like this.

The Tasting

The Kisra: It’s kind of hard to judge this on its own, since it was kind of part of the overall meal. As part of that, it worked just fine. The sorghum provided a nice, nutty, surprising flavor to the dish. On their own, they tasted nice fresh off the griddle, though later they left an odd aftertaste.

The Peanut Stew: Oh, Africa! You and your impossibly tasty peanut butter dishes! This was creamy and meaty and all kinds of good. My only quibble was that I probably should have made the meat chunks smaller. And, had I had the time, I would have liked to either a.) have purchased a more tender cut of meat, b.) simmered it for a great while longer or, c.) cheated and used meat tenderizer, either mechanical, chemical or ... explosive?

So, all in all, the sadness of the place aside, South Sudan proved mighty delicious. Thanks for all the peanut-y goodness! 

Shameless plug #2 for those that scrolled down: I live-stream my cook/prep work on Meerkat, now available for iOS and Android and visible on the web. Follow @cliffieland on Twitter or Facebook for times. Also, if you go to meerkatstreams.com, you can now schedule to record live shows, DVR-style, in advance.