West Africa · Volume 22, The Three Glasses, the Mullet Run and the Grain Rolled by Hand · Cooked by cue
Tichtar and lekhlee
The Imraguen, Banc d'Arguin
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 25 sources in the brief
Tichtar is yellow mullet gutted, split along the back and dried in the cool wind from November, then eaten ground to fibres called lekhlee. It is the best sourced technique in this volume, from the 2004 monograph. The men break the fish's spine as fast as possible after landing so that blood does not spread through the flesh and the roe; the women and children carry it to the village and work it in the tikitt, the processing shelter. It keeps one to five months for the leaner fish. It is made by cue, and the cue is the weather. The same word, tichtar, names the Moors' dried camel meat, which is a different food on the bench.
As tradition built it
Makes a season's store. 2 to 5 days in the wind; keeps 1 to 5 months.
Ingredients
Tichtar is made by cue, and the cue is the weather: from November the split mullet dries in the cool wind in two to five days, as the 2004 monograph gives it, and keeps one to five months. No salt and no weights are in any source.
- yellow mullet, landed from November
- as available cool, dry wind
Method
- Break the yellow mullet's spine at once on landing so the blood does not spread.
- Gut the fish, split it lengthwise along the back and take out the central bone.
- Hang it to dry in the shelter, in the cool, dry wind, two to five days, until it is dry through.
- Store it. To eat, grind it to small fibres, lekhlee, and take it with the fish's own oil.
What a modern chef changes
The wind replaced by a cold room and a fan
Rung 3
Method
- The nearest British fish is the flathead mullet, the same species and rare in British waters; the common grey mullet is a different species. Split it along the back and hang it in a fridge at 3 degrees with a fan moving the air for four to five days, which is the Imraguen's November on a timer.
- Grind the dried flesh in the spice grinder to lekhlee and use it as a seasoning, the way a Japanese kitchen uses dried bonito.
- Render oil from the heads by simmering them in salted water and lifting the oil off; the Imraguen use the sea and a shell.
- In summer the cool wind is gone, and the Imraguen turn to guedj, a salted, fermented dried fish with no method in any source reached; the method follows the temperature.