Kilishi Noodles

Kilishi noodles is a modern Nigerian dish, instant noodles cooked with kilishi, the northern Nigerian beef jerky, along with peppers, carrots and green beans. Kilishi is the part with the history. It is northern Nigeria's dried spiced beef, most closely associated with Bauchi State but made and eaten across the country. Beef is sliced extremely thin, dried, then coated in a paste built on groundnut, spices and pepper, dried again and finally roasted over fire. The result keeps for a long time without refrigeration, which is the whole reason the technique exists, and it is why kilishi has traditionally been sold wrapped in brown paper or newspaper, which keeps moisture out and mould from forming. That dryness is also what governs this recipe. Kilishi is genuinely hard to chew straight from the pack, so the first step is softening it in water before anything else happens. Skipping it produces a dish nobody enjoys. The noodles themselves are the modern half. Instant noodles have become thoroughly embedded in Nigerian home cooking, and pairing them with kilishi is exactly the kind of adaptation that produces new everyday dishes: something imported and cheap, cooked with something local and prized. **Note:** this recipe sits under the dessert category on the site. It is not a dessert.