Western Saharan Entree
LAMB STEW
(Mreifisa)
INGREDIENTS – BREAD
4 cups flour (1 additional tablespoon later)
1½ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
INGREDIENTS – STEW
1 pound lamb
2 garlic cloves
2 medium onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup beef broth
1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
SPECIAL UTENSILS
rolling pin
cookie sheet
Dutch oven
Makes 3 bowls. Takes 55 minutes.
PREPARATION – BREAD
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add 4 cups flour, water, and salt to large mixing bowl. Knead with hands for 5 minutes or until ingredients become a well mixed ball of dough . Dust flat surface with 1 tablespoon flour. Add dough to flat surface. Flatten dough with rolling pin until it is ½” thick. Place flattened dough on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until bread starts to brown. Set aside.
PREPARATION – STEW
While bread bakes, chop lamb into ½” cubes. Dice garlic cloves and onions. Add garlic, onion, lamb, and olive oil to Dutch oven. Sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens and lamb cubes brown. Add beef broth, water, and salt to Dutch oven. Bring to boil using high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until lamb is tender.
Crumble bread and divide equally among bowls. Pour equal amounts of stew into bowls.
TIDBITS
1) Mreifisa is an anagram for “I fire Sam.”
2) Sam is not a common name in Western Sahara.
3) In fact, Sam is a tour guide. He lead a group of foodies to Western Sahara to eat mreifisa, all perfectly normal.
4) But he headed east to rebel-held territory and got captured. Why did Sam take his charges east?
5) Because someone asked Sam, “Would he eat mreifisa on a beast. Would he eat in the east?”
6) “Yes,” said Sam while being held in a snake-filled pit. “I would eat on the sand. I would eat if it’s bland.”
7) “Would you,” said his captors, “eat it in the sky? Would you eat it while you die?”
8) “I would eat it in this life. I would eat it with my wife.”
9) “Would you eat it with a lord? Would you eat it on a sword?”
10) “I would eat it with a whisk. I would eat it with lutefisk.”
11) His blond, blue-eyed captives blanched at that. “You eat lutefisk?”
12) “Yes!” said Sam. “I’d eat lutefisk with a gnu. Do you want some lutefisk, too?”
13) “No, lutefisk does so stink. If we ate lutefisk, we’d need a shrink.”
14) Sam said, “Try it, try it I implore. If you don’t, I’ll bring more.”
15) “No,” said the leader Abu, “A thousand years hence, our tribe left Sweden. No more lutefisk we’d be eatin’.”
16) “Would you eat lutefisk in a tree? Would you eat it with a bee ?”
17) Abu said, “We would not eat it in a car. To not eat it, we’ve traveled far.”
18) Sam brightened when he said, “You’re not giving it a chance, that is plain. I’ll get you lutefisk flown from Spain.”
19) “Oh that lutefisk makes us ill We’ll release you, yes we will.”
20) Even though Sam and his tour group got released from the snake pit, some of the tourists seized on that event to demand their money back. So, I had to fire Sam.
21) Would you, could you fire Sam? Would you, could you eat this stew of lamb?
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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