Somali rice and beef.
Saute onion in oil.
Add a bouillon cube or packet.
Add spices: lemon pepper, and cumin and coriander blended together.
And cinnamon and water. Cover and cook for 20 min. in a 350 degree oven.
Cut beef into quarter inch slices.
She cooked her rice covered in the oven. Then she sprinkled some Goya sazon con achiote for the red color on top. If in Somalia, she would likely use red food coloring from India. Achiote is a Latin American spice that makes foods that delicious red color. It's used to color yellow cheddar in the U.S. She discovered it from a friend in Minnesota.
Here's the packet of Sazon con culantro y achiote so you can see what it looks like.
Here is the actual dish she served me while she was in the midst of teaching me how to cook some other dishes. It doesn't look nearly as good as it tastes.
I heard from some other Somalian women in the Somalian market that this rice and meat dish is often served with salad of fresh lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and oil and vinegar dressing. When I made the meal at home, the salad made the dish more photogenic.
I truly enjoyed this meal. My seven-year-old gobbled it up without even asking what country it was from. The nine-year-old put up a stink because she thought we were having meatball subs that night. She asked me, "Why do you like foreign food?" I said, "Ever since I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant in San Francisco, I always have. I just loved it and really wanted to know how to make it." She fixed herself something quick she could eat instead - celery and hummus, noting, "Hummus is spelled weird."
I replied, "That's because it's Turkish or something."
Neither of us realized at the time how funny this was. I'm laughing now.
