--- Watch The Cook Up with Adam Liaw weeknights on SBS Food (Ch.33) at 7.00pm. Stream all episodes anytime at. ---
Despite loving South Sudanese cuisine, Anyier Yuol rarely cooks it at home.
"It's because it's rarely a 10-minute or 20-minute preparation; many South Sudanese dishes take one or two hours to cook. It's more of a community gathering type of food," Yuol says.
It's often cooked for celebrations. "And all women come together and cook, which is a chance for them to connect and talk. But if you are by yourself at home, you might not have that time," she explains.
Yuol does have a busy schedule. She's the founder and CEO of , and . She's also , and a Doctor of Philosophy. And you might have seen her on the football field, in beauty pageants or on your TV screen.
She's South Sudanese, but was born in a Kenyan refugee camp, before moving to Australia when she was 10.
"Most of the food I had growing up in the camp was South Sudanese food, so things like meat, beans and okra," she recalls.
Okra is still one of her favourite foods, especially when cooked with dry fish and peanut butter. "I always request it when I go to visit family back home or here in Australia," she says. She loves eating it with , a fermented flatbread, made with sorghum, corn, and/or wheat flour. Yuol compares it to a lighter version of Ethiopian injera.
READ MORE
Ethiopian bread (injera)
'If I'm going to be with some family members, some aunties, I will request the whole menu of South Sudanese food, but in my normal daily life, my go-to's are simple," she says.
At home, she makes liver with onions and tomatoes, okra and lentil soup.
"In South Sudan, we cook a lot of [offal] like cow's liver. It takes me 10 minutes, and I cook it the Sudanese way with onion and fresh tomatoes. It's so quick!" she says.
The South Sudanese community also eat lots of lentils. In fact, she thinks lentil soup is her expertise. She cooks the red lentils first, then adds tomatoes, onion, garlic, dry parsley and chilli powder. Once ready, she garnishes the soup with fresh parsley and drizzles olive oil.
"It is my go-to when winter comes. I'm pretty sure my partner is sick of it… Well, I hope not because it's the only thing we eat in winter," she laughs.
It's the experience around eating that makes the taste.
When she'd rather outsource, she heads to The River Nile in Blacktown, a South Sudanese restaurant. Her usual order includes okra in peanut butter, kisra and grilled meat like lamb or chicken, which she says the chefs cook exceptionally well.
But Ayol admits that nothing compares to eating the dishes of her family when she visits eastern central Africa.
"The ingredients and the way the dishes are cooked are slightly different. But I think it's the experience around eating that makes the taste."
