Week 14 Estonia and Iran

Again, not a couple of countries you would expect together, but we loved both dishes from them.

Estonia seems an interesting country and one of the less densely populated. It is also one of the few countries that can boast that pretty much everyone that should be reading, can. That isn't bad. However, the population is declining, more people die each year than are born. On the other hand Iran has only one river which can be navigated by a boat - and that is only for short distances - considering it is listed in the top 20 of largest countries, that is pretty amazing. It still uses the underground water system to disperse water around the country that was started in ancient times.

The Iranian food was delicious and I was even brave to make the rice - although I hadn't realised that the crusty bit was the favoured bit; none of mine were to happy to try it. The chicken was a surprising hit with all of us, and I was asked if there was any more.

The carrot pie from Estonia, was lovely. Really tasty, and quite a surprise. But I cannot remember where I found the recipe. So, I have tried to remember what I did, as I know my boys will want it again. here goes....

Porgandipirukas (Carrot Pie)

Pastry
8 oz flour

4 oz marg/butter
1 egg yolk
water

Rub the fat into the marg, then add the yolk and slowly add the water to bring the dough together. Leave in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Filling
Carrots (lots of them!) I used about 6, diced
Onion, diced
black pepper
1 egg, plus white
a little milk
smoked soft cheese

I cooked the onions and carrots for a little, to soften them. (I did read some recipes had meat, as I had some ham I chopped it and added it. Bacon would work well too).

Roll out the pasty and put half the carrot mixture in. Dot some of the cheese around. Put the remaining mixture on the top and finally finish with the cheese. Mix the milk egg, and remaining egg white together really well. Then pour over the top of the filling. Pop a pasty lid on and put in a pre-heated oven for 20 - 30 mins.

Lovely.... (Not my best photo!)

Khoresht Fesenjaan (Chicken with pomegranate and walnuts)

Ingredients

• 8 oz pomegranate juice*
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp + 1/8 tsp sea salt, divided
• 3/4 cup 
unsalted raw walnut pieces (3 oz)
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1¼ lb 
boneless, skinless 
chicken breast, cut into 2-inch cubes
• 2 tbsp white whole-wheat flour
• Pinch ground black pepper
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp 
each ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup 
chopped fresh 
flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

1. Prepare pomegranate molasses: In a small saucepan, bring pomegranate juice, honey, lemon juice and pinch salt to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 40 minutes. Set aside. (Or pomegranate juice)
2. Meanwhile, in a small skillet on medium, toast walnuts until starting to brown. Grind in a food processor to small crumbs. Set aside. (you don't need to grind it down)
3. In a Dutch oven (frying pan) on medium, heat oil. Toss chicken with flour and pinch each salt and pepper. Cook chicken in batches until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes each side. Transfer to a plate.
4. To same pan, add onions and sauté until soft and light golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. (NOTE: Add a splash of oil or water to pan if it becomes dry.) Add garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and remaining ½ tsp salt and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
5. Add broth, pomegranate molasses and walnuts. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, adding chicken and any juices back into stew, for 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and flavors are blended.
6. Sprinkle portions with parsley and pomegranate seeds. You could also sprinkle coarsely chopped walnuts on the top

Chelo Rice

1 3/4 cups fragrant long-grain white rice such as basmati

Water
Salt
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
Rinse rice in three changes of lukewarm water. Soak rice in cold water to cover with 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 1 hour.

Put 2 quarts water in pot, add 1 tablespoon salt and bring to boil. Drain soaked rice and add to boiling water. Boil until rice is nearly done but not soft, 5 to 10 minutes, stirring twice to keep grains from sticking together. Drain rice in colander and rinse with lukewarm water.
Put 1/3 of melted butter and 2 tablespoons water in bottom of pot. Using large spoon, sprinkle rice grains into pot, distributing evenly. Allow rice to form cone shape. Pour remaining melted butter over rice. With handle of wooden spoon, punch 2 to 3 holes from top of rice mound to bottom of pot.
Put dish towel or paper towels over pot, then cover with pot lid. Set pot on medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, then reduce heat to low 35 to 40 minutes. Can be kept in warm oven 1 hour.

Source for both: Amahid's Gourmet Cookbook

Week 13 - Denmark and Indonesia

This is getting really hard, but then I found out you could have meat on Sunday's during Lent - so we had our favourite way of cooking pork chops, the Danish way. Each chop is lightly seasoned and dipped in beaten egg, then covered in seasoned breadcrumbs. Shallow fried in butter and then popped in the over for 25 mins. Lovely... I served it with new potatoes and a salad, as the weather was unusually warm for the time of year.

We found out that Indonesian contains about 17,000 islands and, apparently, takes up the same space as America! It also has quite a few volcanos, of which 127 are active, and only 23 are silent. The big dragons live out there too and they are the worlds producers of Nutmeg, which is lovely with meat dishes. Lots of stir-fry food, as you might expect, so it was possible to conjure up something without using meat. I did make a very simple Indonesian stir-fried rice (Nasi goring), some recipes I found had lots of ingredients and steps and I am sure tasted wonderful, but mine was simple and just as nice. I found Cap Chay, which in Hokkian language means 'everything mixed together'. It seems that is what this dish is all about, you can throw anything in there you just need to add corn flour at the end of cooking to make the thick glistening gravy, which is integral to the dish.

Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) Recipe

For 2 adults

Ingredients

• 4 c Long-grain rice
• 8 Shallots or 1 small onion
• 4 Red chillis or 2 tsp chilli -powder and 2 tsp paprika
• 4 tb Vegetable oil
• Salt
• 2 ts Sweet soya sauce
• 2 ts Tomato puree

Directions

The name Nasi Goreng means simply ‘fried rice’, and it is really a collective description of an indefinite number of slightly differing dishes. You can vary the trimmings and garnishes to suit your taste; but even the most elaborate Nasi Goreng is quick to make. It is a particularly good luncheon dish.
Boil the rice a good long time before you intend to fry it; you can fry freshly boiled rice, but the Nasi Goreng will be better if the boiled rice is allowed to cool. Two hours is a satisfactory interval. Leaving the rice to cool overnight, however, gives less good results-the rice has time to go dry and stale. An important point to note here is that rice for Nasi Goreng must be cooked with the least possible quantity of water; this prevents it from becoming too soft. For 1 cup of rice, use 1 cup of water. Assuming you have now got your cool, boiled rice, proceed like this: slice the shallots or onion, seed and slice the chilli (or pound the shallots and chilli together in a mortar). Heat the oil in a wok; it makes no difference, by the way, whether you use oil, fat, or butter. Saute the shallots and chilli for a minute or so, and season with salt, soya sauce, and tomato puree. Put in all the rice, and stir it continuously until it is well heated: this will take 5 to 8 minutes. Serve in a good large dish, generously garnished with sliced cucumber, tomatoes, fried onions, and Krupuk.
Source: http://www.asian-recipe.com/indonesia/indonesian-vegetarian-dishes.html#nasi (accessed 26APR2017)

Week 12 - Czech and Indian

Not a combination I would want to be honest! I struggled this week as we are still in Lent, so trying to avoid meat. The Indian was straightforward as there are numerous dishes to select. In fact I made my own, based on a number of ideas with cauliflower, and a base sauce of cooked toms and pepper - it was delicious. I also did a carrot fritter, although I don't deep fry food as I cannot eat it and I have included that recipe.

As we have eaten Czech before, I did the simple pancakes from that occasion, as they are meat free and (more importantly) we loved them!

My Carrot Bhaji's

Use amounts based on the number of people eating! I serve this as a side, for 2 adults and a very hungry 9 year old!
Ingredients:
Carrots 2
spices of your choice, I use: cumin, ginger and nutmeg
1 egg
Olive oil

I grate the carrot and mix it with the spices and beaten egg. Then I made patties and lightly fry them; then pop them in the oven while I cook the rest of the dinner. They can get crisp, so you need to keep an eye on them.

My Cauli-Curry
Ingredients
Sauce:
Onion, 1diced
Toms, 5, chopped
Celery, 3 sticks, finely chopped
Red pepper, 1, finely chopped
garlic and ginger puree, as much as you want to use! I use a dessert spoon.

Lightly fry the ingredients, add some water and a little tomato puree and simmer until softened. Blend it all together.

Curry
Carrots 3, chopped
Cauliflower, 1, chopped into mouth size florets
butter
Spices: nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper

Cook the carrots for a little in simmering water, and steam the cauliflower. Melt the butter, in a big pan and add the spices to make the room smell wonderful. Add the sauce, then add the carrots and Califlower, so they can finish off cooking. If you want, and you have some add some single cream - of a splash of milk mixed with cornflour. Simmer until veg are tender.

Serve with rice, or naan bread to mop up the sauce.

Week 11 - Cyprus and East Timor

Right, this week was complicated; not in the true sense of the word, just in the sense of the overused term 'complicated'. As a family we are observing lent, and have given up on meat; however we can have meat twice a week, as long as it is a meal from one of the countries of that week. Still with me.... Well, this week we had husbands family over, as it was a Wedding Anniversary, so I needed to cook a roast (they would NOT eat a non-meat dish). So, that meal replaced the country meal, which meant I had to find a dessert, or veg option for these two countries. Congratulations if you are still with me! This to (oh no, I hear you groan, there is more!) worked out well, as my brother-in-law honeymoon was in Cyprus, so the pub was from there! And very nice it was too..... East Timor proved to be quite simple to do, as I discovered a chicken broth, so I used the chicken carcass from the roast to make that with and it was lovely..... Again, no recipe as I cobbled several together and made my own twist. It hasn't been a great time recently, hope to be back to normal soon.


Pasta Flora (jam cookies)

(note, I made half quantities)

ingredients

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg yolks
1 cup butter unsalted
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cognac (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
500 ml (about 1 1/2 cups) apricot jam

recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat the sugar with butter until fluffy. Then add the egg yolks one at a time, beating the mix well after each egg yolk. Add the cognac and the vanilla. Then, by hand, add the flour, baking powder until a nice soft dough is formed.

 2. Make the pasta flora quite thin and into cookies. Divide the dough in half. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the pan (14 inches by 10 inches).  Spread the jam on top. Take the remaining dough and roll a long thin roll and place it on top of the jam so it follows the edge of the rectangle pan. The pattern you make it a diamond pattern with criss-crossing pasta pastry.

3. Make more rolls and place them diagonally over the jam to create a diamond pattern. If you wish, then place small roasted almond pieces in each diamond pattern. Place in the oven and cook for about 35 to 40 minutes., until the dough is golden brown in colour. Once they are cooked, let the cookies cool and then cut into as many cookies as you wish.
Source: http://www.cypriotandproud.com/2013/02/23/pasta-flora-cyprus-jam-cookies/ (accessed 03APR2017)

Week 9 - Bulgaria and China

My son's friend is Bulgarian, but for some reason I never got around to asking his mum for recipes. My son did tell him what we had, and it seemed to have been met with approval!

Apparently Name Days are celebrated in Bulgaria as well as Birthdays "Called, imen den (read ee-men den) the Bulgarian name day is nothing more than a celebration of the source of the name, i.e. where the name comes from -  a historical event, a Saint's birthday or simply a centuries long tradition." Apparently it is all tied in with many traditions as well as folk law.
We really liked the Moussaka, I served it with mixed veg on the side and scored highly on this one!  You might be wondering where the Chinese recipes are, well I sort of did my own thing, based on a number of different recipes that I found - I have quite a few books to refer to as well. So, this is what I did:

Chicken Stir Fry
I cooked for 2 adults, and 1 child - so use quantities as you require...
Chicken, bak choi, bean sprouts, grated carrot, red pepper, very thinly sliced.
sesame oil, marmite (yes you read it correctly), soy sauce
eggs, spring onions, cooked rice

The sesame seed oil went in the pan, with the chicken; followed by the veg so it all cooked together and was ready to serve with the rice.

I cooked some rice; once drained I mixed in the marmite and soy sauce. I then made an omelette, mixed with spring onions and pepper. Once this was cooked I roughly chopped it and mixed it with the rice. Served it all together with chopsticks - which we all use, quite successfully. It was very yummy!


Moussaka

500gr. chopped meat (pork, beef or mixed)

1 kg potatoes

1 large onion

1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup of milk

1 tbs all purpose flour

2 large eggs

Salt, pepper, parsley, savory

Cut the potatoes in squares

Chop the onion

Mix the onions, potatoes and meat into a baking pot

Add the spices and the vegetable oil

Cover the ingredients with water

Bake in 200 degrees until the potatoes are ready

Mix the milk, eggs and flour into a bowl

Take the ready moussaka out of the oven and pour over it the milk, eggs and flour mixture

Put back in oven and bake until it gets nice red/brown