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. 

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

Ok I Give.

With the chaos of the last couple of months, this project keeps getting pushed further and further on the backburner.  I would love to keep doing it, but it turns out that after a 14-hour day, I really just don't have the energy to learn to cook in some fancy new way every.single.night.  So while I'm going to leave the list as it is and continue cooking 5 nights a week, I'm going to put the "cross countries" part of this blog on hold for a while.  Unless some company steps forward and offers me beaucoup $ to continue it full time.  Then I'll jump right on in.  :-)  For now though, CCK is going to go on vacation for a bit.  Sorry to disappoint all like 2 of my readers.  :-) 

Week #18: Mongolia

The nomads of Mongolia sustain their lives directly from the products of domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, camels, yaks, sheep, and goats, and sometimes game.^[1] Meat is either cooked, used as an ingredient for soups or dumplings (buuz/khuushuur/bansh), or dried for winter (borts).^[1] The Mongolian diet includes a large proportion of animal fat which is necessary for the Mongols to withstand the cold winters and their hard work. Winter temperatures as low as -40 °C and outdoor work require sufficient energy reserves. Milk and cream are used to make a variety of beverages, as well as cheese and similar products.^[2]
The nomads on the countryside are self-supporting by principle. Travellers will find yurts marked as "guanz" in regular intervals near the roadside, which operate as simple restaurants. In the yurt, which is a portable dwelling structure, Mongolians usually cook in a cast-iron or aluminium pot on a small stove, using wood or dried animal dung (argal) as fuel.
The most common rural dish is cooked mutton, often without any other ingredients. In the city, every other locale displays a sign saying "buuz". Those are dumplings filled with meat, which are cooked in steam. Other types of dumplings are boiled in water ("Bansh"), or deep fried in mutton fat ("Khuushuur"). Other dishes combine the meat with rice or fresh noodles into various stews (tsuivan, budaatai huurga) or noodle soups (guriltai shol).
The most surprising cooking method is only used on special occasions. In this case, the meat (often together with vegetables) gets cooked with the help of stones, which have been preheated in a fire. This either happens with chunks of mutton in a sealed milk can ("Khorkhog"), or within the abdominal cavity of a deboned goat or marmot ("Boodog").
Milk is boiled to separate the cream (öröm, clotted cream).^[2] The remaining skimmed milk is processed into cheese ("byaslag"), dried curds (aaruul), yoghurt, kefir, as well as a light milk liquor ("Shimiin Arkhi"). The most prominent national beverage is airag, fermented mare's milk.^[2] A popular cereal is barley, which is fried and malted. The resulting flour (arvain guril) is eaten as a porridge in milk fat and sugar or drunk mixed in milk tea. The everyday beverage is salted milk tea ("Süütei Tsai"), which may turn into a robust soup by adding rice, meat, or Bansh. As a consequence of the Russian influence during socialism, vodka also has gained some popularity^[2] with a surprising number of local brands (usually grain spirits).
Horse meat is eaten in Mongolia and can be found in grocery stores.

Ok, so the gist of that stuff up there is "they eat a lot of high-fat meat because it's really freaking cold there".  As much as I wish I could claim "it's really freaking cold here" as an excuse to eat more calories, I don't think it's as cold in NH as it needs to be to justify eating fatty meats daily.  Given that the majority of "authentic" Mongolian recipes I've found have been pretty consistently simply meat, maybe rolled in dough and boiled/steamed/fried, I think I'm going to get creative this week and might only do a couple "authentic" variations on "meat".

Here's the only source I've found that seems to be truly authentic Mongolian cooking.   I think I'll pick two recipes and try them and fill the rest of the week with familiar stuff.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Week #14: Thailand

The sad fact is, it's Sunday and I'm throwing this post together as a way to take a break from throttling Word (which, if you didn't know, is what I do for a living).  That's right, I've worked the whole weekend.  This week is going to be kind of nuts too...tomorrow I need to drive in to Cambridge for work.  Tuesday night I'll need to hit the gym (trust me) and it's my long workout night (not to mention a school night for Nick).  Wednesday is Nick's surgery.  Thursday is up in the air.  Friday, if I make it that far, should be a little less hectic, but it doesn't look promising.  Saturday is training for Spin stuff.  Wow, just writing all that out made me curl up in the fetal position in my chair.  Oops.

In any case, I'm going to do my best to keep cooking this week, since the last couple weeks have been kind of fails.

So Thailand.

Thailand (pronounced /ˈtaɪlænd/ TYE-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/;^[6] Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย Ratcha Anachak Thai, IPA: [râːtɕʰa ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k tʰɑj]( listen)) (formerly Siam Thai: สยาม) is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.

What about the food?

Thai cuisine blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter and salty. Some common ingredients used in Thai cuisine include garlic, chillies, lime juice, lemon grass, and fish sauce. The staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine variety rice (also known as Hom Mali rice) which is included in almost every meal. Thailand is the world's largest exporter of rice, and Thais domestically consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year.^[64] Over 5000 varieties of rice from Thailand are preserved in the rice gene bank of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines. The king of Thailand is the official patron of IRRI.^[65]

Lots of rice.  I can handle that. 

So, without much ceremony or introduction, here's the recipe list for the week:

Sunday: http://www.realthairecipes.com/recipes/thai-fried-rice-with-chicken/
Monday (Nick's night to cook): http://www.realthairecipes.com/recipes/american-fried-rice/
Thursday: http://www.realthairecipes.com/recipes/vegetarian-pad-thai/
Saturday: http://thaifood.about.com/od/quickeasythairecipes/r/chickenmushroom.htm

Tuesday is going to be a very long day (what else is new) so I'm going to stick with something familiar...maybe even red beans, who knows. 

Sorry for the lackluster post folks...gotta get back to exorcising the demons in Word.

Combined Efforts

I feel like I'm running into a meeting late, with papers and hair flying everywhere...sorry sorry sorry. It's been a heckuva week.  I'm going to combine the end of Moroccan week into one post, and remind everyone that it's Thai week and I'll do my best to have something exciting for you this evening...since I haven't even managed to eat yet today though, it doesn't look promising.

Saturday we had Moroccan grilled chicken...except that our grill is under 3 ft of snow, so we baked it. 

Nick applied the marinade while Kini watched with acute interest.

Baked at around 375ish for around an hour.  I also threw some carrots in and whipped up some brown rice.

And dinner was served.  Very yummy.

Last night we had Thursday's tagine.  I started it in the morning (see above) and snuck a peek in the evening (see below). 

Served over rice with toasted almonds and cilantro.  YUM! 

Moroccan Meatballs

This dish was pretty good.  I thought the meatballs were a little dry, but Nick liked them...we have different tastes in how dry is too dry for meat though (he loves a big ol' chicken breast, which is just the blanded, driest sounding thing in the world to me...he hates thigh meat though, which I think sounds delish). 

Simmering.

Tempting the puppy with meatbally deliciousness.  It had a little kick but not so much that I couldn't eat it (which probably meant it really tasted like cardboard, since my tastebuds are definitively anti-spicy), and worked really well over pasta. Wish I'd had some good crusty bread to go with it though! Oh, and that's provolone on the side.  I tried that with it, and it was meh.  I actually found myself craving a little sour cream with it...go figure.  We didn't have any though, so no verdict. 

Miso Soupy

Friday night was miso soup night.  I took a couple of very small liberties with this one...first, I used enoki (straw?) mushrooms instead of normal mushrooms as suggested, because that's what I had on hand.  I didn't grill anything, I just pan-fried it in olive oil.  I also added some soft tofu and probably a little more miso than strictly necessary.  I also accidentally forgot to leave the seaweed in, so it was a fairly dichromatic dish. The eggplant was really good though.

Nick whipped up some garlic bread for us, too!

I even got us some special spoons from the Asian market, just for soup.  Yum!

Garlic-Flavored Flubber

Bet you thought I didn't cook the past 3 nights, huh?  Oh ye of little faith. I just kept forgetting to upload pictures, so I didn't post yet.

Anyway, Thursday night was the konnyaku.  It was...interesting.

 Sort of like dark flubber.  It started wobbly and soft, then when I boiled it, became wobbly and less soft. Weird.

From one package, this was all we got.  The garlic and red pepper helped a lot, as did a healthy sprinkling of sea salt.  But we still ordered pizza.  That's right folks, 12 weeks in and we had our first "Domino's required" night.  Nick made a point of saying that it was for want of quantity, not of quality, but I'm pretty sure this was about all either of us really wanted to eat of this stuff.  Not terrible, just...weird.

Week #11: France

It's here!  The week that inspired Julia Child, who inspired Julie Powell, who inspired a movie producer, who inspired me!  Hooray!

First glance through some of the more well-known recipes elicited a response of "wait, go through 10 steps and then cook for another 3 HOURS??"  I mean, seriously, do French people (and Julie Powell) not work??  I can't wait until 9 PM or later to eat, I turn into the Hulk long before then!

So to that end, the dishes I've picked (below) are more of the "relatively quick but still fairly French" variety. One is long, and I might attempt that on Saturday, depending on how Friday night goes.  Don't get your hopes up - my bridesman is coming to new years.

French cuisine is renowned for being one of the finest in the world.^{[303][304][305][306][307][308][309]} French cuisine is extremely diverse and has exerted a major influence on other western cuisines.^[310] According to the regions, traditional recipes are differents, the North of the country prefers to use butter as the preferred fat for cooking, whereas olive oil is more commonly used in the South.^[311]
Moreover, each region of France has iconic traditional specialities : Cassoulet in the Southwest, Choucroute in Alsace, Quiche in the Lorraine region, Beef bourguignon in the Bourgogne, provençal Tapenade, etc. France's most renowned products are wines,^[312] including Champagne, Bordeaux, Bourgogne, and Beaujolais as well as a large variety of different cheeses, such as Camembert, Roquefort and Brie. There are more than 400 different varieties.^[313][314]
French cuisine is also regarded as a key element of the quality of life and the attractiveness of France.^[291] Michelin guide(a French publication) awarded 620 stars to French restaurants, more than any other country in the world (Italy came second with 255 stars).^[315]

That right there is literally all there is in the Cuisine section of the wikipedia article for France.  I feel like that's a little underwhelming, in all honesty. I expected way more than "French food is really really good. And they have cheese.  And wine."  Seriously, wikipedia...kind of a letdown. 

Anyway.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Paves-du-Mail-Pan-Fried-Steaks-with-Mustard-Cream-Sauce
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Trout-with-Brown-Butter-and-Almonds-Trout-Meuniere-Amandine
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Chicken-Divan
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/French-Style-Chopped-Beef
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Steak-au-Poivre

Bear in mind that all of these are meat dishes, so the rest of the meals will consist of veggies and some kind of starch to balance it out.  I'm trying, Mom, I really am.  Tonight, I think we're going for Steak au Poivre.  I've made it before, it's quick and simple, and I have Spin/Pilates back to back beatdown again tonight, so that's what I need.  

When You Say "Grill" You Really Mean "Broil", Right?

...because it is just too d@mn cold out to be firing up the grill, I'm sorry.  Add to that the fact that firing up the broiler makes the house warmer inside, well...sorry grill, but it's a losing battle. 

Instead of grilling the eggplant and scallops like last night's recipe requested, I broiled them.  Less smokey taste, more feeling in my fingers and toes.  It wasn't bad.  It's funny, everything this week has been combinations of thing that aren't foreign (excepting maybe the fish sauce), they're just combined in new ways.  For example, I never would have thought to marinade scallops in soy sauce and garlic.  Yum! 

Broiled veggies.  The eggplant was better than expected, but still...eggplanty.

Sauteed green onions.

Fried up some leftover rice from the night before, added a little soy sauce and fish sauce for flavor.

Broiled scallops and onions.  Yum.

The presentation.  Overall, it was good.  Not a favorite, but we didn't need to order pizza either.  :-)  I'm sure Nick will be glad when this week is over...one more fish recipe for tonight, then it's his turn to provide food!  :-)

Something Fishy

When I was 3, I'm told we went on a camping trip someplace with some dear friends and fishing was involved.  At some point, my parents (who'd thus far not caught anything) thought it would be a cute photo op to have my dad cast a line, then have me hold his fishing pole and smile.  Then I caught a fish.  Quite by accident, I caught the first, and I think the only, fish of the day.  It fed the kids (all 4 of us) that night.  Go me.

I bring this up because the fish I caught was a trout.  The fish I cooked last night was trout too.  See the connection?  Aren't I clever?  :-) 

Mmmm scaly.

All sliced up.

And now...our first video!  Nearly 5 minutes of watching sugar water boil!  Oh yeah, baby!  In the background, you'll hear some conversation, a little video game playing, and the ticking of the clock telling me when the carrots would be done.  I think.  I didn't actually watch the thing again...it really isn't that exciting.  I mostly wanted to record HOW sugar would brown using this method...was it suddenly?  Slowly?  How long would it take?  It took about 4.5 minutes, and it all happened in the last 30 or so seconds.  But hey, I made the video so I'm going to embed it.  Maybe later I'll add some really epic music to it so it's more interesting. 

The rest of the recipe was pretty easy...throw everything in the pot and let it cook.  The fish was plenty cooked (I didn't remove the skin, FYI), but I think I'd leave it in just a little longer next time...it had some of the flavor of the sauce but not as much as it probably could have been.  I didn't want to overcook the fish (can you do that?) so I erred on the side of "it's falling apart, that's tender enough, let's eat".  It was still pretty good though.

Kini shamelessly helped me clean up the carrot peels that "fell" on the ground.  Later, she went trash surfing and licked up some raw fish.  Yum.  Dogs are gross.

In Which We Attempt to Take Better Pictures

I'm sure in previous posts it's been painfully obvious that I've been using my phone's camera for pictures.  It's not bad for a phone, but it's not great either.  As a joint Christmas gift, Nick and I got us a new camera...the Canon s95, to be exact.  It's powerful beyond my comprehension, but it's still (thank God) a point and shoot.  Still, it's better than my phone's camera...but now I have no excuse for the sheer lack of photographic talent I have running through my veins, given my stock.  Oh well.  On with the food. 

Last night, I made Pork Brochettes with Shredded Coconut (Saik Chrouk Ch'ranouitk).  YUM. 

Mixing the lemongrass paste.

Chopped the pork.

Unearthed my zest scraper/finger skin remover.  Yikes.  I used lime zest instead of lime leaves.  I thought it tasted great.

The paste.  Let me pause here a second and talk about tasting food along the way.  I know you're supposed to do that...I know it makes sense in some recipes.  This one, the raw ingredients at this stage just hurt.  All I got was a stinging tongue and an apprehension that the recipe was going to be spicy, in spite of the lack of anything even remotely spicy in the mix.  Garlic is a beast.

Mixed with sugar, coconut, and salt.  I actually meant to avoid the sugar because I used sweetened coconut (couldn't find unsweetened in any obvious places, and I was hungry).  It turned out fine, in my opinion.

Waiting for the broiler to warm up.

Oh, friendly reminder kids...just because there's no visible fire present...doesn't mean wood won't burn.  Yes, the sticks caught on fire.  No, I didn't get a picture...I was busy making sure the house didn't burn down (and the pork didn't burn).  Soak the sticks ahead of time, for everyone's sake. 

These cooked surprisingly quickly, once prepared.  I didn't marinade them at all, and they were still VERY flavorful.

Carrots!  I tossed them with olive oil and thyme, then baked them at 400* for 30 minutes covered, then 10 uncovered.  Gives them a little crunch and seals the sweetness in.  OMG good.  Thanks, Mom!

Dinner!  I made the rice with olive oil and a little lemon juice.

Classy dinner at our house. 

Kini wanted part of the action, but people food is strictly verboten. 

The way I timed this one worked out well.  I started the carrots first, letting them bake while I prepared the pork.  When I uncovered the carrots, I started the rice.  When the carrots were done, I removed them and upped the temp to broil, and moved the rack up to the top.  I broiled the pork on one side, put out a couple small fires, flipped the pork, broiled on the other side, and by the time the second side was done, the rice was done and dinner was ready!  The carrots were a teensy bit cold by then though, so I could have thrown them back in the oven for a couple minutes while I was setting up plates maybe, I don't know.  In any case, that was the best-timed meal I've managed to make yet, so...there you go!

Fondue Part Deux

Remember in my last post when I said I'd just "reheat the fondue" and have it as leftovers?  It turns out you can't just "reheat" fondue.  Let me explain.

First, I expected my fondue to be a Tupperware-shaped brick that, more or less, slide out of its chilly plastic home, with a thwop not unlike canberry sauce.  First mistake.  It didn't slide, and it took some fork-stabbing, counter-beating, pet-scaring effort to get that stuff out of what seemed like a "stick proof" container.  By the end of the ordeal, Kini was around the corner, poking her nose up hopefully for what might be in the container, once mom stopped killing it.  The kitties were nowhere to be found.

Once I eventually got it out, I put it in my preheated sauce pan, thinking it would simply liquidize and become gooey yumminess like it was on Tuesday.  Clearly, I'd already forgotten this meal, in which the cheese was FRIED, not melted. 

So the cheese fried instead of melting.  There was a lot of yellow liquid that separated from it (wine? fat? who knows.) and never really rejoined.  I had to strain it to eat it.

Yeah...not nearly as appetizing as the first go round.

Not at all dippable either.  In the end, I put it on a plate and cut up a few chunks before giving up entirely and going in search of a can of frosting.  Don't judge, it was cold and rainy and I didn't want to leave the house again. 

How fondue you do?

Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means a connoisseuse of fondue.  I've had it maybe a handful of times (none that I can specifically remember actually) and have never actually made it. Now, I'm not really sure why I've never tried.  In fact, why is this not a more popular crockpot potluck party dish? I mean, you whip it up on the stove ahead of time, throw it in a crockpot and set the thing on warm, then stick a bowl of toasted bread next it with a sign that says "No double dipping - forks included" and voila!  Instant class at your potluck.  Not terribly original or time-consuming, but it works!  I guess it is a little expensive...I didn't know Gruyure was so pricey!  Oh well, so worth it.

 Stirring in the flour.  It was still a little lumpy at this point, and even a little afterward too.  Somehow, the magic temperature/consistency coincided with my addition of nutmeg.  Go figure.

 Classy, no?  With no one else to share the bounty, I didn't bother using our brand-new fondue set.  Just one of the forks.  The cheese cooled eventually, but that was the hint I needed to stop maowing down on it anyway.

Yum.  


I used a cheap, box Pinot Grigio for the white wine, and store brand Swiss cheese.  


Also, if you missed it yesterday, I'm doing a CSN stores giveaway this week!  Hop on over to that post, comment, follow, all that jazz! 

Fondue