Week #23: Nepal

So I did end up cooking 5 nights this week, I just don't have pictures.  The salad was good but I should have made it in smaller batches so we could've had leftovers. I'm making the pork tenderloin stuff tonight I think.

So Nepal...

The cultural and geographic diversity of Nepal provide ample space for a variety of cuisines based on ethnicity, soil and climate. Nevertheless dal-bhat-tarkari (Nepali: दाल भात तरकारी ) is eaten throughout the country. Dal is a soup made of lentils and spices. It is served over boiled grain, bhat -- usually rice but sometimes another grain -- with vegetable curry, tarkari. Typical condiments are a small amount of extremely spicy chutney (चटनी) or achaar (अचार). These can be made from fresh ingredients, or may be a kind of fermented pickle. The variety of these preparations is staggering, said to number in the thousands. ^[1]. Other accompaniments may be sliced lemon(kagati) or lime (nibua) and fresh chili peppers, khursani.

I'm doing all crockpot meals this week, to make life easier for myself since I'm generally getting home around 8 or so these days. 
Beer-braised beef
Provencal Beef Stew
Slow Cooker Meatloaf

Sorry this post is so sparse...I started it Sunday and suddenly it's Tuesday so I figured I'd better get it up before it's Friday and irrelevant. 

Catching Up

I swear I'm doing better with cooking than my blogging would indicate.  Monday night I made the turkey tamale casserole.  It was meh.  Could have used a lot more seasoning, IMHO, but maybe that's just me.  I think next time I'll use boxed corn bread makings instead of trying to make my own like the recipe suggests.  It was kinda dry as it was. 

Sure looks promising though right?

I think I'd also add more in terms of like cumin and traditional taco seasonings.  That would probably help a lot.

The batter was pretty solid and didn't spread well.

In the end it was edible though.  :-)

Tuesday I made pot roast.  I took pics in the morning but by the time I got home from the gym at 8:30, I was so starving I forgot to take pics of the finished dish.  It was good...I'm not a huge fan of pot roast in general though, so...there ya go.  I always hope it's going to be moist, but it's always too dry to me.  Nick never thinks so, so maybe I just have a desert mouth, who knows. 

Last night I opted for pizza.  Tonight is taco salad night. 

Week #whatever (22?): Northern Mexican

Yeah yeah yeah, I'm hopping back in on an easy week.  So sue me.  Even though this week I'll likely end up making more than one meal from NoMex, I'm recalibrating the goal of this blog to be something a little more attainable.  I'm going to aim for cooking 5 times a week, but only ONE of those meals needs to be ethnic.  Sure, I won't get a "true taste" of that region, but I'll be about 100 times more likely to actually achieve this goal. 

In any case, Mexico.

Specifically, northern Mexico. 

Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's Mexican food is based on pre-Columbian traditions, including the Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists.
The conquistadores eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native pre-Columbian food, including maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, papaya, pineapple, chili pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut and turkey.
Mexican food varies by region, because of local climate and geography and ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees. The north of Mexico is known for its beef, goat and ostrich production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known Arrachera cut.

Without further ado (so this post will go out at the beginning of the week), the lineup.

Recipes:
The Mexican one
The "We're branching out from the usual tamale casserole recipe" one
The one that I'll love but Nick probably won't like much
The fancy one
The "I'll compare this one to La Caretta tomorrow night" one