Glazed Danwake

Hear me out my Northern Nigerian friends, we can do more to danwake like glazing it. This glazed danwake recipe came as a cry for complexity in flavours of an interesting meal. For those who do not know, danwake is a dumpling made of Beans and Kuka(Powdered Baobab leaves). This dish is typically eaten in the Northern part of Nigeria. It is served with Yaji, boiled egg, onion flavoured oil, cabbage and seasoning cubes. Yes! whole seasoning cubes are tossed on it for you to unwrap yourself and sprinkle.

The combination of Beans and Kuka I have always found intriguing because there are potentially a lot of elements for depth of flavour in how the dish is served. However, it is such a deconstructed dish that it makes me wonder if theres a more wholistic version?

How did I get to this glazed version of danwake you ask?

Well, I started to think about the seasoning cubes and the role it plays. It reminded me of soy sauce and then it took me back to my love of steamed dumplings (Potstickers) and seasoned oils or sometimes soy sauce. If you have ever dined in an asian restaurant, you know what I am talking about. I also started to wonder about how potstickers are made. After steaming, you toss in a pan till it browns a little bit and serve with your oil/sauce of choice.

Danwake itself is a dumpling of sort. I guess you could call this a vegan dumpling at the core root of the dish because of the beans and baobab components. I started to think about complimentary flavours because the dumpling on its own is bland. This provides the perfect canvas to build on. I imagine people resorting to tomato stew to serve this with, well hold your horses and hear me out. The sweetness from my recipe would give a different dimension to this dish you may not have been expecting especially if you are used to Danwake in it’s traditional sense. If you want to learn how to make the actual dumpling from scratch, I already have a recipe for that here. The recipe for the glazed danwake is available below.

GLAZED DANWAKE RECIPE

Ingredients

3 cloves of Garlic (Chopped)

A tablespoon of Ginger (Shredded)

1/2 bulb of Onion (Chopped)

2 Chilli Pepper (Sliced)

3 Tablespoons of Oil

1 Teaspoon Sesame Seeds

A tablespoon of Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon of Fish Sauce

1.5 Tablespoons of Vinegar

1 Tablespoon of Chilli Sauce

A tablespoon of Brown Sugar

A pinch of Salt

1 seasoning cube

A pinch of sesame seeds (Garnish)

Method

In a pan, toast your sesame seeds till light brown, add to your bowl with oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, chilli sauce and seasoning cube.

Heat up your pan and pour in your oil and allow to heat on medium heat.

Add in your garlic, ginger, onions and chilli and stir fry.

Pour in your mixed oils and sauces.

Allow the sauce to simmer for 2-3 minutes on low to medium heat.

Toss in your danwake and allow the sauce coat the dumplings sufficiently.

Sprinkle your salt and finally your sesame seeds.

Serve your glazed danwake hot.