Valentine’s Day is another reason to celebrate our love for our donors! And our donors have the biggest hearts. Since we can’t be together to celebrate at this time, we wanted to share a cooking video with you so that we can still share a meal together across borders.
As a thank you for your consistent generosity and support, we encourage you to warm-up this winter with Ceebu Jen, a delicious traditional Senegalese dish and staff favorite! In the video below, CREATE!‘s Communications Assistant Fatou Sow uses a variety of vegetables and spices, some of which may not be available to you. Please feel free to use your own variety of vegetables in this dish if necessary. You will find a recipe card at the end of the video with all of the ingredients.
We want to give a special thank you to our Communications Team, Fatou Thiam and Fatou Sow for putting the cooking video together and sharing this recipe with us.
Ceebu Jen Recipe
By Fatou Sow
- First grind some spices for the (rof) fish stuffing; you will need the small dry chili peppers, black pepper, garlic, salt and parsley.
- After making the stuffing, cut a hole in each side of the fish and put the stuffing in it.
- Now, heat some oil in a large pot on the stove.
- Once the oil is hot, put the fish and fry both sides until brown.
- Meanwhile, boil the bissap leaves and grind them into a paste with hot pepper and salt. Serve this paste as a condiment to your ceebu jen.
- Once the fish are brown, take them out.
- Next, put the concentrated tomatoes in the hot oil, along with the cymbium/ fermented snail (if using) and stir it frequently.
- After few minutes, put in water and the vegetables and let them boil for few minutes.
- Meanwhile, wash the rice and begin steaming it.
- Next, make nokoss, the mixture that will be added to the cooking water. To make the nokoss, grind black pepper, small dry chili pepper, garlic, onion, sweet pepper and parsley into a paste.
- Once the rice is steamed and the vegetables are well cooked, put the nokoss and the fish in the pot as well as salt (as per taste).
- Let it boil few minutes before taking out the fish and vegetables.
- Add the rice to the stew, stir it well and cover the pot for few minutes.
- After a few minutes, serve the rice with the fish and vegetables on top.
Bon Appetit!
Thank you for being a part of the CREATE! family, your support has helped thousands of families in Senegal build a sustainable future as they overcome water, food, and fuel shortages resulting from the impacts of climate change. Check out your 2020 impact below:
Your 2020 Impact:
- Last summer, participating partner communities planted a total of 20,000 trees in rural Senegal to fight the effects of climate change for generations to come.
- Thanks to the renovation of village wells and the installation of solar-powered pumping systems, approximately 20-25,000 liters of clean water were pumped daily in each of our 18 partner communities.
- Access to year-round water has enabled community gardens in 18 villages to provide year-round vegetables for hundreds of participating families, improving their diets. In 2020, our partner communities harvested about 13 tons of vegetables for consumption and sale.
- Three new communities were trained in poultry raising, enabling participating families to raise chickens that adds protein to the diets of participants.
- Excess vegetables and chickens are sold at the market. Once women start earning income, they also learn to save and manage their money through the Voluntary Savings and Lending Association (VSLA). In 2020 each participant saved 12,450.74 CFA or $23 on average per month through their community’s VSLA.
- Three communities graduated to self-sufficiency from CREATE!‘s programs. Congratulations to Darou Diadji, Gagnick Mack, and Walo!