The Story Behind My Recipe: Somalia

"Canjeero is our tradition. We eat it for breakfast every day, and every house in Somalia eats it in the morning. If you eat it, your day will be good. We eat Canjeero with suugo. Sometimes, when we feel lazy to prepare suugo, we eat Canjeero, adding sugar, honey, and tea. I learnt to cook canjeero from my mother, my mother learnt it from my grandmother. The recipe passes through generations. So, I'll pass it to my children.

Now, while I'm preparing canjeero, I have memories about it because I'm not I my country, and it's not easy to get the ingredients to cook canjeero. In my childhood, I used to cook canjeero every morning, while now I skip breakfast and I eat only lunch because I want canjeero and I don't have it.

I used to cook it in the morning for me and my brothers, because I am the oldest one and my mother used to go out early to work. After breakfast, I used to take my brothers to their school and then go to mine. I used to cook also the lunch, when I came back from school, while for dinner my mother used to take food for us. It wasn't special food, the special food is canjeero, in the morning."

Canjeero

Ingredients

500 grams of flour
3 eggs
Half liter of milk
Salt
Sugar
Water (as needed for dough softening)
Instant yeast (1 packet)
Sunflower oil

Procedure

Pour half a kilo of flour into a bowl.
Break three eggs.
Pour half a litter of milk.
Add a generous handful of salt and one of sugar.
Mix with your hands.
Add water to further soften the dough, as needed.
Work the dough by hand. First use pinched movements, then beat it strongly against the bowl to make it elastic.
Add a sachet of instant yeast dissolved in water.
Cover the bowl with a plastic bag and leave to rise in the oven for 30–40 minutes.
Grease a frying pan and weld it on the fire.
Mix the dough again with your hands.
Add water to make the dough smooth.
With the mouth of a cut bottle, create a measuring cup with which to pour the mixture into the pan and spend it in a spiral movement and cover with a lid.
Cook on one side only.

Suugo

Ingredients

2 potatoes
400 gr of chicken (with bones)
2 onions
2 bell peppers
Half a lemon
Garlic
Olive oil
1 brick of tomato sauce
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Coriander

Procedure

Peel the potatoes and wash them in a colander under running water.
Cut the potatoes into long thin strips.
Cut the chicken into small pieces, with bones, and wash it. The bones add flavour to the broth.
Cut the onions in big circular pieces and garlic in small pieces.
Heat a pot with plenty of olive oil, it must cover the entire bottom.
When the oil is hot, sauté the onion over high heat. Cover with a lid.
Add the chicken to the stir-fry.
After 20 minutes, add the tomato sauce and potatoes. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Leave heart for 30–40 minutes.
Add a spoonful of pepper, paprika, and coriander.
After add the garlic.
Stir occasionally.
Add cold cut onion and peppers.
Squeeze half a lemon.