Biang Biang

 Eric and I used to try new recipes all the time when we were first married.  Part of this was that neither one of us really cooked all that much, and part of it was a fun hobby/activity to try together.  And honestly it's really easy to run out to the grocery store, even at 10pm, and get whatever ingredients you could want or need!  In 2008, we tried a new bread recipe every month, and got some fun, and occasionally disastrous, results.  Then we moved to Kenya, and it was hard to cook anything.  When you're not an experienced cook, and you move to rural Africa and work a lot, and grocery stores are three hours away, turns out feeding yourself is hard.  We limped along and got a few fun new recipes along the way.  And then we landed in Burundi in 2013.  I think I finally hit my stride and figured out how to feed my family, as is evidenced by the large size of my now teenaged children! ◡̈ 

But after 12 years here, it often feels like there is "nothing new under the sun."  There are very rarely new ingredients available in country, and while we have a nice variety of produce, it's all pretty basic stuff.  Half the time, my recipes have at least 2-3 substituted ingredients.  Meat remains a luxury item.  And if I didn't think to import a special ingredient the last time we traveled out of the country, it's just not possible.  So it surprises me when, all of a sudden, I am able to try a new recipe!  We visited some good friends last summer who have decided to adopt a "plant based diet" (I guess vegan is no longer an in vogue term).  They recommended a fun dish that they've been enjoying, called Biang Biang noodles.  The intriguing part, in addition to making your own noodles, was that a serving size is only 1-2 noodles per person.  I immediately looked up a recipe on my phone and there it sat for the next five months.

Fast forward to November.  In his writing class, Toby was working on an interview with one of our teammates, Eunice, on how she manages to cook amazing Korean food in rural Burundi.  As a sort of impromptu practical learning experience, she showed Toby how to make tofu.  He was totally enamored with the process and memorized all the details, then came home to share and ask if we could try it ourselves.  Well, come to find out that making tofu is almost identical to making cheese...you just have to start with soy beans --> soy milk instead of regular milk.  And we have made a lot of cheese here over the years.  So, it turned into a fun Saturday project for the two of us.

But then once the tofu had been made, the question was what to do with it?  I've never really eaten or cooked a lot of tofu in my life, and basically just remembered that it is very bland and takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with.  Then, my moment of brillance.  The biang biang noodle recipe!  

I'll share the link here.  It was really just 2, maybe three, ingredients.  We made the dough and let it sit for a few hours.  Then basically you form a little donut shape out of the dough blob, and start letting gravity do its work.  Toby and I hand stretched out eight noodles, all circles at least 4 feet in diameter, and then threw them in boiling water for a few minutes to cook.  Toby fried the tofu, and then we made the amazing sauce featured in this recipe, mixed everything together, and voila.  It was seriously magic.  It was the most delicious thing that I've made in a long time.  The noodles are thick and chewy, almost more like gnocchi at some points (the thickness was pretty variable throughout the noodle).  The tofu was a perfect complement to add some protein to the mix and soak up the yummy sauce.  I did substitute sesame oil for peanut oil, since that's what we had, and I can't imagine it tasting any better.  

It was a fun reminder for me that cooking doesn't just have to be making sure there's food on the table every night.  This was definitely an event, and fun to share with Toby.  And, that there are a lot of potential recipes out there to try out from time to time.