What a fascinating week. I’ll take you down a trip of trying to take advantage of the news cycle, and how fast that changes. The source of this post comes from 21 January 2026. (I don’t know when you’re reading this, but follow along). A woman had a news conference and referred to “Bananas and Rice” more times than she should have (KnowYourMeme). As one does, I wondered if bananas and rice was actually a thing, and here we are.
As I made this and prepped it for Forensic Friday on 30 January.. this woman already got arrested for assault or something. I tried to ride the B&R wave, and it crashed before I could capitalize. Let’s do this Somali cuisine.
The Prep Table
Definitely not unlike many of this region’s food that I have made, we’re doing a cumin/turmeric rice. That’s step one. But rather than just say that and do it, let’s talk about something called Xawaash. This xawaash, derived from the Arabic word Hawa’ij, means “essentials” or “requirements.” If a country or people refer to their spice blend as “essential”, we’re going to make it. And we’re going to use a lot of it.
We’re going to dry marinade our lamb in this xawaash and season our rice with it as well. While not identical, it takes me back to making lebanese seven spice. I do smile when I see some people have their own spices, because so do I. It’s important to us.
Now, in my research, I saw bananas and rice was often eaten with their hands and I thought hell no. Sorry, not going to do it. I could either try to eat it with a spoon, eat it with a fork, or make a somali flatbread named sabaayad. Of course we’re do the latter. It’s a simple enough recipe, so why not add on to this after-work workday cook.
I couldn’t find any leg of lamb at the store, so I bought a couple shoulder chops and just trimmed away the fat. Cut ’em into lamb nuggets, splash of olive oil to coat and then in went the xawaash. Just enough to coat and let that go overnight.
The Process
You haven’t seen a ForensicBBQ post on here using the KitchenAid stand mixer for a reason. I know my limits – and the stand mixer and I aren’t best of friends. Let’s see if we can change that today. Some ramekins of olive oil, canola oil, honey and water. We whisked the flour and salt and then made us a dough. The process wasn’t all that bad, and the dough hook and I made acquaintances. Still not best friends, but we’re cordial.
While this things sets for a little bit, let’s get with that rice.
Tomatoes, onion, garlic, and cinnamon until we cook them onions down. We’re going to add some more of the xawaash, and some diced cilantro. I loved this part because it was really just an onion snake pit that was packed with flavor. Crazy aromas happening.
We’re going to add the rice and boiling water and let that simmer for awhile. We have the dough resting, we have the rice simmering. We have a couple more steps: Rice topper, Lamb, and Pita. We’ll do a before and after for the lamb under The Result. The topper is just some more sauté of onion and red pepper. Let’s see what this dough thing is all about.
Don’t judge. This is already the second thing in 2026 where I’m breaking out the rolling pin. First time with my own homemade dough. We’re going to get this flat and then ready for the frying pan. Hindsight.. will try for a smaller and thinner, but it was definitely delicious as is. MrsForensicBBQ enjoyed it!
The Result
I like the slider before/after thing that WordPress offers, so I’ll use it where I can. The lamb was delicious. It pains me to use the oven when I can use the RecTeq – but we’ve been staring at double digit negative temperatures.. and I mentioned previously, this was a weekday cook. I had a lot going on in the kitchen, so we’re staying in the kitchen.
MrsForensicBBQ wasn’t feeling great and I forced her to try it. I had a feeling she’d enjoy it if she’d just try it. After some poking and prodding, she tried it and gave it her seal of approval. That’s all I really wanted.
So I know you didn’t come here to see if my wife approved of my pita bread. You’re here because of bananas and rice. Let’s look to see what bananas and rice looks like.
Hundreds of words, a dozen pictures.. does Bananas and Rice work?
Kind of. It was worth the journey, worth the experience. But it’s completely unnecessary. The banana added a sweetness that the dish wasn’t asking for. I’ve had these leftovers for days now (both pre- and post- her arrest) and didn’t go back for a banana once. The rice is delicious. The lamb was great. Xawaash seasoning worked great on ’em both. Just doesn’t need the novelty of the banana. I have another regional dish coming up where the banana absolutely works.. just don’t need it here.
The star of the show: Sabaayad. The pita bread. Thank you Minnesota for the news story, the meme, the idea. I’m going to stick to The Ju(i)cy Lucy Burger for reflection of Minnesota cuisine.