So I can’t drive legally in Doha. Not yet anyway.

I have been taking driving lessons for the past month. Did I mention that I can drive? I tried telling that to the traffic department but that just fell on deaf ears. Unfortunately for me, the Nigerian licence I have isn’t valid here. If I had a British license they would have exchanged it for a Qatari licence, no problem. Why Lord didn’t I just get one in the UK?

My instructor checks his phone or play games during lessons just to show you how much I don’t need the lessons. That is what I thought until I failed the test, twice! The thing is the process is so tedious and long. There are four tests in total, I failed test number three, twice!

The issue is that the rules are not clear. I don’t even know what I did wrong the second time I failed. As soon as I came out of the car I just burst out crying. I was frustrated! Tired of the daily grind and really frustrated.

I cried all the way home and cried when I got home in my bed. Af must have called me about a million times to cheer me up but it wasn’t happening.

I napped for about an hour and cheered my self up with some melon seed balls.

Melon Seed (egusi) Balls with Dried Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients:

For the balls:

1 cup of egusi (ground melon seeds)

1 cup of whole spinach

½  cup of jumbo prawns, chopped

1 tbs of crushed chilli

1 Knorr cube

For the sauce:

1 large red bell pepper

1 medium onion

1 tsp of garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp of ginger, finely chopped

2 tbs of palm oil

1 Knorr cube

2 tbs of chilli powder

½ cup of dried shrimp, washed

 

Method:

Melon seed balls: Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F. In a bowl thoroughly combine all the ingredients together  and form balls. Place them in a single layer on a baking tray in the oven and bake for 15 mins or until firm to touch.

 

Dried Shrimp Sauce: In a medium pan, heat the palm oil for about 5 minutes. In the mean time  blend the pepper and onion, add it to the pan of heated oil with garlic and ginger. Allow to fry for 10 minutes then add the shrimp, chilli powder and Knorr cube. Fry until all the liquid has evaporated.

Serve the melon seed balls with the shrimp sauce.