Rice salad with alfalfa sprouts and fenugreek sprouts

Last post on food and sprouts for a while I promise - but a quick pic of my latest attempt at getting salad / vegetables / vitamins / balance into my Gambian diet. 

This was rice salad with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, orange segments, alfalfa and fenugreek sprouts, with a lime, orange, salt and pepper dressing, topped with boiled eggs. 

My venture into the world of sprouting has been very successful! 

Beansprouts

Yesterday I went to the market feeling very uninspired and undecided about what to eat for dinner. One vendor said to me "the market is dry today", and it certainly was. My kiliyaan (regular trader) had the usual fare of tomatoes, aubergine, onions and grapefruit and the ladies inside the market just had piles of smoked fish and bitter tomato. So, feeling unsatisfied I settled for the usual half kilo of tomatoes, half kilo of onions, an aubergine... and was gifted a grapefruit. I trudged home (hungry) and pondered whether to add spaghetti or rice to the usual tomato and aubergine concoction.

Imagine my delight when I got home to realise that the beansprouts that I had started off on Saturday evening were ready to eat - in fact more than ready!

Soaked Saturday afternoon and left overnight -
these were the beansprouts on Sunday morning

The beansprouts by Tuesday evening

I think they had sprouted a bit too much really - they had roots forming and big leaves - but they worked out better than I thought they would... 

...and if I nipped the ends off they looked pretty authentic!

I found that I didn't really mind the root and the leaf so I kept them on for extra nutrition. 

I realised that I had some tinned coconut milk, thai green curry paste, aubergine, onion, dried mushrooms and fresh beansprouts - so I made a Thai green curry with rice and was very happy not to eat spaghetti with aubergine and tomato sauce as usual! 

Looks a bit grey due to aubergine and mushroom,
but it was definitely delicious! 

Tobaski year 2

This tobaski was very different to last year. Instead of putting on Gambian style clothes and celebrating at my language teacher's compound, I went to a fellow volunteer's house and had an alternative tobaski featuring pork and alcohol! 

Tobaski fell on Tuesday, and we had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as public holidays. On Monday morning I was told I would only be working a half day, so I left work at 1pm and headed off to meet a friend who sells pork (putting in an order of 2kg) before going to the market to buy salad. On Tuesday I met Nicola and we picked up the pork and a couple of Julbrew, and then made our way to Kotu to Dr Joe's house. Once we saw the amount of food Joe had prepared (chicken and lamb marinaded in yoghurt and spices, dhal, salad, flat breads etc), and the salads and prawns that Jaap and Janneke had brought along we realised that we would have plenty of food to go around! We were all very excited to see such colour and variety! Never has beetroot felt like such a novelty! 

Before eating we relaxed and watched Joe's chickens, cat and the birds all enjoying the garden. After the food we all fell into a bit of a meat coma for a while - but soon perked up again when Helen arrived with some wine! Unfortunately the heat and walking around in the mid day sun got the better of me a little bit, and I ended up crashing early with a bad headache. But it was a lovely relaxed day with friends, and a great way to eat some meat and good food! 

Dr Joe's garden / small farm!

Joe - grill master

The chickens joined in the party

Harvest time! (in the world of sprouting)

The cress and the sprouts did really well, you could almost see them growing they sprung up so fast. 

I ended up splitting the alfalfa into two jars as it grew so well, and have kept the harvested shoots in the fridge. 

Yesterday I made a delicious egg and alfalfa salad with tomatoes, cucumber, capers, onion and lime juice. It was delicious and felt like a well needed nutrient boost!

And today I livened up my egg tapalapa with some mustard cress and alfalfa! 

Now I just need to get some compost and pots for the other veggies! 

Sprouting news

Things have moved fast!

Mustard;

Mustard last night

Mustard this morning

 Alfalfa;

Alfalfa last night

Alfalfa this morning

The lentils however, did not go so well. By the time I got in last night they smelt pretty funky so they went in the bin!

Sprouting seeds

This week I got an exciting parcel from my Mum and Dad... seeds! 

Lettuce, beans, mustard white, carrots, mungbean sprouts,
fenugreek sprouts and alfalfa

I need to get some compost and containers for the lettuce, carrots and beans, but in the meantime I started sprouting!

First up was the Mustard cress. 

Then I soaked some alfalfa seeds ready to start the sprouting process. While reading about different types of sprouts I came across sprouting lentils... and at the moment have some lentils in my kitchen that take about six years to cook - despite an overnight soak - so I thought I would try sprouting those as well!

Lentils on the left, alfalfa on the right. First (overnight) soak. 

I decided to start slowly with just a small quantity of seeds so that I can see what effect the heat and humidity have on the process, but if these work out then I can't wait to start eating them, and can't wait to make bean sprouts. Oh to have a delicious stir-fry with bean sprouts! Fingers crossed! 

Defa tanga torrop tey*

*It is very hot today. And every day! The rainy season is coming to an end, but we are in that horrible sticky in between part. The humidity and temperature is high but the rains and storms are getting further apart to break the heat. Yesterday it was 43 degrees. Even my forearms and the backs of my hands are sweaty, and having at least 5 showers a day is sometimes the only way to cope. 

I went to get some Deep Heat cream the other day and it poured out of the tube like water. On the back of the carton it says 'store below 25 degrees'. I guess it hasn't been below that temperature for a long time now. Then I looked at my strepsils and realised that they have turned into little pools of liquid inside the blister packs. Everything is melting. 

All I can think about is the heat.