Supper Village Style

Now that Megan and I are staying overnights in the village, we have started sharing meals with our neighbours every few weeks.  Once, supper plans began a whole week early.  

It was an elaborate plan with multiple stages; for this particular meal plan began while we were out visiting a family!

The lady of this household attends our women's savings and loans group, and the man of the household attends the men's training.  This is the first time that we visited their home and they were so proud to show us this land with their hut and a fenced in area for the animals.  We were bid to take many photos of their animals ... I came away with about 50 pictures - only those they pointed out and not all of the ones there!!

As we prepared to leave, we noticed the children running around chasing a chicken.  Not an unusual sight - however, always fun to watch!!

This chicken however was gifted to us!!!  

Like all chickens I receive in the village, it was placed under the spare tire in the back of my truck for safe transport.  At times, I have had anywhere from 2-5 chickens under there!  It has been a while since I was gifted a chicken though.  

Usually I bring them back into town and re-gift them to my house help or house guard - giving them meat to eat for that night or another chicken to add to their own flock.  This time though, our friend Safia, who had joined us that day, stated that this chicken would be our sauce for the next week!  And so the plans commenced ... the chicken would stay in the village for the week and the following Tuesday we planned an elaborate meal of chicken and couscous.

Megan and I arrived in the village early - eager to take part in all the meal preparation.  Meals always take a long time here ... we started around five in the afternoon and we ate around 9:30 pm!

The chicken seemed wary at first - running from me even as I took its picture. Its wariness justified, could it remember the week prior.  Though if not, even more justified for it was supper that night!  

Soon enough, indeed another chicken chase ensued!

We conquered the chicken in the end ... and the villagers did the honours of preparing our chicken. We were thankful not to have to take part in the actual killing of the chicken, but we were much involved in the process of getting the chicken ready.  (Though admittedly, our involvement with the chicken was boiling water and carrying the chicken to and fro!)

The meal was cooked in our "multi-location" kitchen.  The outside fire was first used to sear the chicken ...

.... which was then taken into the house and cooked in boiling water, fried onions and tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste and oxo packets ... and much salt - the Fulani are cooking and they LOVE their salt!!  Our friend Safia didn't know what to make of our table salt, though, as they normally cook with market salt which comes in gravel-sized salt rocks!  

"You do this," she said,  "I don't know how much!"  I am sure it was way less salt then they would prefer, but I was happy to be loosely supervised in the salt addition to our meal!

As I took charge of the cooking chicken on the gas burner stove inside the house, the outside kitchen continued in other meal preparation.  One large pot was used for the sauce preparations: onions, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes all went in with the water and tomato paste ... along with some spices that I cannot name!

The second pot made our starch base.  We have discovered a love for one Fulani meal - couscous Fulani style!  The couscous is cooked over the fire until it "ripens".  It is then mixed with flour and oil and an intense process of stirring and flipping the mixture.  By the time it is finished, it resembles mashed potatoes in texture and almost in taste!

Our friend Safia wandered back and forth between the two kitchen areas to survey and monitor all the food.  She calls the sauce "mine" - even though she has told me each thing to put in throughout the preparation!  Once the chicken is cooked, the broth is added to the sauce outside ... and then she begins to  fry the chicken piece by piece in a pot of oil!!

She would make any Southern Mama proud of her friend chicken!!  I'm impressed.  I don't think I've ever made or eaten fried chicken aside from Kentucky Fried Chicken or Chicken on the Way!

Safia is also now in love with the headlamps that Megan and I use in the evenings - she has readily adapted to using these to cooking her sauce outside ... and diligently wears them as she moves to the inside kitchen as well!!

After the lengthy 4.5 hour process of cooking supper - we all sat down to enjoy the delicious meal!

I get the sense that they have never had fried chicken like this either - as the women ask my opinion if the chicken should go on the platter with the sauce.  In the end, they declared that the chicken should be served apart from the sauce as its skin was now crispy fried.  The Fulani will leave the meat to eat at the end of their meal ... they so rarely eat meat, it is almost like their dessert to us - saving the best for last!!

The best part of the night??  As we finished the meal preparations, Safia asks me: "If you have a chicken at your home in Niamey - Do you now know how to cook chicken??"   Ummmm??!? ... "Yes," I reply, "yes I now know how to cook chicken.  Thank you!"