Somalia – Nafaqo

by Tanomba Thati (edited by Finmail)

In African continent, Somalia is located in the horn of Africa, eastern part of it. It is bordering Indian ocean to the east, Eden gulf to the north, Ethiopia to the north-west and Kenya to the south-west.

Nafaqo is a snack like dish, with the term “Nafaqo” to mean “nutrition”. It is widely known and prepared around Somalia due to it’s easy in cooking and ingredients accessibility.

Cooked ingredients to give an outstanding taste are eggs wrapped with the mashed potatoes. The process is easy, yet needs very attention especially while mashing the potatoes.

Sticky mashed potatoes won’t do better, therefore we need to mash them careful to get the required texture.

In Somali homes, Nafaqo is a breakfast, fast meal or as snacks. It is taken with a soup, coffee or juice. Good thing is that here in Somali we have very special soup for snacks like Mayo and Salads.

Basically the cuisine is from Somalia, however the ingredients can be found anywhere on Earth. This is to say anyone can prepare this cuisine. Have your time and welcome to the cuisine.

Ingredients

• 4 white potatoes
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp xawaash bouillon powder
• ½ tbsp black pepper
• ¼ tbsp turmeric powder
• vegetable oil

Cooking procedures

• Clean and wash the potatoes. It is recommended to leave unpeeled.
• Put into a boiling pot, add water and start to boil. Heat up and once it start to boil lower heat and boil in tender. Boil with a minimum of 15 minutes.
• Boil hard the eggs.
• Watch out so that they won’t boil more and get overcooked. Put them aside and peel.
• Mash the potatoes gently using potato masher. Don’t use food processor to mash them.
• Mix the mashed potatoes with xawaash (or any veggie masala), black pepper (ground black pepper), turmeric and ½ cup of flour. Divide the dough to four portions.
• Make the balls as follows;
  • put one tbsp on your palm.
  • place one portion of potato on top of your pal with flour.
  • flatten it using a slider or the other hand.
  • place the egg in the middle and fold the potato portion to cover the egg fully.
  • roll it in the flour all around.
  • put aside and repeat for the remaining eggs.
• Fry the balls over vegetable oil fully immersed for about 10 minutes until they change to golden brown.
• Drain the oil in a paper towel.
• Enjoy the meal.