Week 13: Vietnam

The area known as Vietnam was once ruled by the Chinese but in the tenth century gained independence. It was a flourishing dynasty with rich economic and political power in Southeast Asia, then the French showed up and colonized the whole thing for quick cash in the mid-19th century. Deep hatred of the French invaders divided the country and lead to cluster f*ck after cluster f*ck for a hundred years until all-out war gripped the region, dragging in the US for more than 20 years.

And once the war ended and the communists had won, the sore losers in the west made sure that Vietnam was politically and economically isolated, leading to a stagnant country that is only now starting to modernize. How did the people get through these tough times of war and French colonization?

Fortitude, strength, will of spirit and goddammit a damn delicious sammich.

Banh Mi Thit Heo Nuong (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Sandwich)

First, make the picked carrots:

1 cup shredded carrot
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine ingredients; cover and let stand 15 minutes to 1 hour, or for the entire time you are searching Pike Street Market for Vietnamese baguettes.

Second, cook the pork:

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 lb of pork shoulder or butt, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large shallot, minced
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
salt & pepper

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic to pan and cook for a couple of minutes. Add pork and reminding ingredients. Cook until the pork is done, several minutes.

Finally, your sandwiches are ready to assemble!

Pork (see above)
Carrots (see above)
soy sauce
mayo
Duck pâté
cilantro, chopped
cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

Slice off 6 inches of the baguette per sandwich, or however much you like. Slice off top 1/3 lengthwise and set aside. Remove enough of bottom interiors so that filling can fit easily. Eat the scooped out bread with some cheese. Spread some mayo on the top of the sandwich. Crumble/spread some pâté on the bottom section. Top with pork, cucumber, cilantro, and pickled carrots. Sprinkle each sandwich with soy sauce and add back the top slice of baguette.

Hallelujah for colonization. Those Frenchies really know how to assert their power. With food! Pâté? Mayo? Baguette? Merci, bitches! This sammich is ridiculously delicious. This is our favorite new recipe. Or maybe we are just glad we were forced to visit a French bakery, and while we were there how could we possible refuse a pain au chocolat? Merci again, bitches!

Week 12: The Philippines

Guess which country is an archipelago? Who knew there were so many archipelagos in the world? Not us! Archipelago might be my favorite vocabulary word from this experiment.

The Republic of the Philippines has a tropical marine climate and is usually hot, humid, and tropical. Psh. Show offs. I'd like to get in on that action.

The country is a former colony of Spain and the United States. Spain gave it its name and its religion. The name comes from Spain's King Philip II (16th Century). And the religion? About 90% of Filipinos identify themselves as Christians, with 81% belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. (Wait, isn't that Italian and not Spanish influence?)

At any rate, what, you ask, did The Philippines get from the US? The language. You're welcome, bitches! Filipino and English are the official languages.

The current president of The Philippines is Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a professor of economics and daughter of late former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal. She is the second female president of the country. Not only is she a woman, but she's also Filipino! Double bonus!

Speaking of female Filipinos, our sister-in-law Jill is originally from The Philippines. For our delicious meal we cooked her recipe of Chicken Adobo. Jill says everyone has different styles and techniques in cooking chicken adobo. This is hers:


Ingredients:

1 Kilo chicken or pork, cut into serving pieces
4 t soy sauce
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t freshly ground pepper
1 c vinegar
salt to taste
1/2 c H2O

Procedure:

Wash/clean the chicken thoroughly. Take the skin off and the fat. In the pan (a large skillet or stove top casserole), place the chicken and the H2O. Let it boil. Add the vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, pepper and salt and let it simmer 'til the chicken is tender. DO NOT STIR. Serve over rice.

Week 11: Mexico

Hello Mexico and all our Mexican buddies south of the border! Mexico is the most populous Spanish speaking country in the world. Our neighbors introduced the world to chocolate (¡Hola Mexico! where have you been all my life?) and giant bumble bee costumes. Mexico City, the capitol, was once a mountain lake and the home of the Aztecs who later founded a popular family style Mexican restaurant chain. The city is sinking 6-8 inches per year and many inhabitants overcompensate with high heel boots and super tall sombreros.

This week we wanted to make Huevos con Dios but had trouble finding the ingredients. So instead we made fish tacos with homemade tortillas (one of which was in the shape of a storm trooper, no joke).

Homemade Tortillas

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 Tb. margarine or shortening
• 1 1/4 cup warm water

We cut the cold margarine into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender. Then stirred in the water until a sticky dough was formed and then briefly kneaded. This was divided it in half and we further divided one half into 5 balls and the other have into 10 balls, making 10 small and 5 large tortillas. These were allowed to rest while the skillet was heated to medium high. We then rolled them into to very thin circles and cooked them on the skillet. They cook very quickly and need to be flipped. You should get a little browning on the raised spots.



Taco Filling

• tilapia fillets, broiled
• thinly sliced green cabbage
• pico de gallo (gracias, Whole Foods)
• homemade guacamole (gracias, Emilie)
• fresh chopped cilantro
• lime juice

Of course, we complemented all this with some delicious margaritas! Olé!

• 1 shot (a jigger) tequila
• 1/2 oz triple sec
• juice of half a lime

Shake all this up in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Then strain into a chilled with a salted rim (coarse kosher salt works well for this) and filled with ice.

Muy Bueno! Did we mention ¡Miguel! (Michael) is learning Spanish?

¡Que mi perro tiene dinero! Por favor, no me secuestran. Tengo diarrea.

Special Edition: Irish Inspired St. Paddy's Day Meal

Jean's (Irish?) Lamb Stew

2 Tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup flour
1 lb fancy schmancy lamb stew meat, in 1 inch pieces, from pretentious grocery store
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1 small carton fancy schmancy French onion soup
1 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 russett potatoes, peeled and cubed
water
two shots of Jameson's Irish Whiskey

Drink Whiskey while preparing the stew. Heat oil in large soup pot over medium high heat. Dredge lamb pieces in flour and brown them in the oil, about 5 minutes or so. Remove from pan. Deglaze pan with some of the onion soup. Add onions and cook for about 3 minutes. Add thyme, salt, pepper. Add cabbage and cook for a few minutes. Add stew meat back to pot, add potatoes, and remaining onion soup. Add enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are done. If you can wait longer, do. Keep it simmering for 30 minutes to about an hour and you will have a thicker, more gravy-like stew. Delicious flavor! So warming and satisfying! Maybe that was the Jamesons!

Meanwhile, Michael was making soda bread! He used this recipe for White Soda Bread.

Week 10: Japan

We heart Japan. We heart Japanese food. And it didn't take Geography of the Delicious for us to discover this about ourselves.

We considered doing sushi this week, but we abandoned our sushi-making aspirations years ago when we moved to Seattle where the sushi is widely available and better than our sorry, sloppy, homemade attempts. In fact, in the first few months we lived in Seattle again, we had to designate a weekly sushi night so that we wouldn't eat it every single night. We tried many restaurants and discovered lots of great sushi. Our two favorites turned out to also be some of the most affordable food, Japanese or otherwise, at Musashi's (ironically, the first place we ever tried sushi) and Ha Na. For details, see future posts at Yumski.

When we visited Japan in 2007, we ate a lot of kitsune udon and tempura. Emilie introduced us to the wonders of omu raisu (omelette rice) and okonomiyaki (savory pancake deliciousness). We did manage to have sushi only once at a sushi bar. We ate a lot of sushi rolls and inari purchased at konbini (convenience stores), along with finger sandwiches and onigiri (little hockey puck triangles of rice, usually filled with delicious salmon or something.)

Holy yeast! The bread! I almost forgot the bread. Japan has amazing delicious bread stores. Did you know that? You can walk in, grab a cafeteria tray and a pair of tongs, and help yourself to savory cheese buns (haha, buns), sausage rolls, donuts, cream puffs, and I know not what.

Back to our decision about what to make. We consulted with AJ who, on New Year's Day had us over for a Japanese American feast involving unagi (one of Jean's all time favorite things), crazy delicious edamame hummus, hot pink fish cake, AJ's legendary inari noodle ginger pocket thingies, gyoza, and many other delicious items I'm sure I'm forgetting. Mochi! There was mochi. And my Japan-inspired shortbread. Anyway, AJ suggested yakisoba, and Michael ran with it.

The beef yakisoba seemed to us to represent the essence of Japanese cuisine: simplicity. It wasn't fussy. It didn't use a jumble of flavors, just straightforward fresh ingredients. Delicious!

Beef Yakisoba

1 package soba noodles
1/2 lb. round steak,sliced very thin
1 medium onion, cut in thin wedges
1 medium carrot, sliced very thin
1 red bell pepper sliced, very thin
1/3 head cabbage, sliced in strips
1 cups fresh bean sprouts, drained.
oil ( to fry )

1. Precook the noodles according to the package. We used buckwheat soba noddles that made 4 servings.
2. Heat the beef in a skillet until just brown with a little oil and then set aside.
   
3. Sauté the onions in the same pan until they are cooked how you like them. The skillet should be fairly hot, you want to cook pretty quickly.
   
4. Add the meat back to the pan.
   
5. Add the veggies in order listed above and cook each until just warmed. You don't want to cook them through; they are supposed to be warm but still crisp.
6. Finally, add the noodles and mix it all together.
   

We tried another Japan-inspired dessert this week, Green Tea Crème Brûlée. It has the consistency and grayish green color of disgusting phlegm, but it tastes quite lovely. Due to the color, I think next time I would choose to use green food coloring to help make it more...appetizing.
Green Tea Crème Brûlée

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup skim milk
  
• 1 tsp matcha (green tea powder)
  
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• more sugar for sprinkling
  

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring cream and milk to a boil, stirring often. Remove from heat. Add matcha and mix in. Let stand 10 minutes. In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar to blend. Add vanilla. Add cream mixture to egg yolks and stir. Pour cream custard mixture equally into 6 ovenproof crème brûlée ramekins. Set dishes in a 2-inch-deep 13x9 inch baking pan. Set pan on rack of a 300° oven. Carefully pour boiling water into pan up to level of custard. Bake until custards jiggle only slightly when shaken gently, 15 to 18 minutes. With a wide spatula, carefully lift dishes from water onto a rack. Let desserts cool, then cover and chill until cold to touch, about 1 hour or up to 1 day. Just before serving, sprinkle the surface of each custard evenly with 1 scant tablespoon sugar. Caramelize sugar with a kitchen blowtorch, moving flame quickly back and forth across custard. Let cool 2 to 3 minutes before serving.

But Japan isn't just all about the food, as Jean might have you believe. Think ninjas and robots. Japan is actually a major economic power, and a major world leader in technology and machinery. They have extremely high standards of living and the the longest life expectancy in the world. They must be doing something right. Maybe it's the spinach.

Spinach Gomae

16 oz. bag frozen spinach
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon sugar

Steam spinach according to directions on package. Drain. Squeeze excess water from the spinach. Grind sesame seeds into a fine mash. Mix sugar and soy-sauce with ground sesame, add mirin. Mix together with spinach. Roll spinach into bunches about the size of sushi, and serve.

Week 9: Russia

Russia, land of vodka and bears and vodka drinking bears. Russia is the largest country in the world and frequently brags about it at parties. Despite a tumultuous political history Russians still find time for many leisure activities including human trafficking, suppressing local rebellions and teaching bears to drink vodka.

Beef Stroganoff, or Beef Stroganov, is a Russian dish originating in the 19th Century. I'm sure the recipe we are using is not particularly authentic, but I don't care. It's delicious. And it does seem to convey the essence of Beef Stroganoff, from what I've been able to gather.

This dish has all the elements of the perfect winter comfort food: creamy, carby, stick-to-your-ribs goodness. And yet, this version, with its bright parsley garnish, and relatively light ingredient list, was surprisingly fresh tasting and not too heavy. I think I would like to make this on a bleak winter's day, in a slow cooker. I guess I need a slow cooker. And a bleak winter's day.

Week 8: Nigeria

DEAR READERS,

CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AT GEOGRAPHY OF THE DELICIOUS, AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE INTERNET ABOUT NIGERIAN PRINCES, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO INFORM YOU THAT AS OFFICIAL BLOGGERS, WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO OPERATE A FOREIGN ACCOUNT; THAT IS WHY WE REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SHARED AS FOLLOWS: 70% FOR US, 25% FOR YOU AND 5% FOR LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE TRANSFER.

THE TRANSFER IS RISK FREE ON BOTH SIDES. IF YOU FIND THIS PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE, WE SHALL REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:

(A) YOUR BANKER'S NAME, TELEPHONE, ACCOUNT AND FAX NUMBERS.

(B) YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS -- FOR CONFIDENTIALITY AND EASY COMMUNICATION.

(C) YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER STAMPED AND SIGNED.

PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY.

BEST REGARDS,
PRINCE JEAN

Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is located in west Africa with its coast lying on the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The capitol city is Abuja. The country is slightly more than twice the size of California. Nigeria is 50% Muslim and 40% Christian. English is the official language.

Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, but it wasn't until 1999 that a peaceful transition from military rule to civilian government occurred, and it wasn't until very recently that Nigera saw its first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power.

It was very recently that we, at Geography of the Delicious, saw a successful and peaceful plate-to-face transfer of delicious Nigerian food. This week we put together one our best dinners yet: Jollof Rice and Suya. A broad class of rice dishes, Jollof Rice is characterized by tomatos, onion and spices including red pepper and ginger. It is a major staple in West African countries and eaten on a daily basis by many. Suya is skewered meat prepared in a variety of ways. Typically consumed in the evening it is available from street vendors and in many gathering places. As a first class animal protein, it is expensive and considered a food of the middle class and rich.

Both dishes can be made in many ways so we created our own preparations based on our reading.

Suya

1.25 lbs chicken breast tenders 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts 1/2 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp smoked paprika 1/4 tsp red pepper (cayenne)

We put the peanuts and all spices into a food processor and chopped until the peanuts were roughly ground, but not paste. Then dipped the chicken in an egg wash and rolled them in the peanut mixture. Next we skewered and broiled them about 5-6 minutes on a side.

Jollof Rice

2 cups brown long grain rice, cooked 1 red bell pepper 1 tomato 1 onion, diced 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated 2 cloves garlic 1 tsp. smoked paprika 1/4 tsp red pepper (cayenne) 1 cup vegetable broth 2 tbls tomato paste salt to taste

First, we browned the onions, garlic and ginger. Then, added everything else and cooked off the liquid, about a half hour.

Special Edition: King Cake for Mardi Gras

"If music be the food of love, play on."
-Duke Orsinio, Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1

What about food that is the food of love? Eat on?

Last week for Mardi Gras (Tuesday says, "You calling me fat?") we baked a king cake. It is like a wreath, only edible, traditionally enjoyed between Twelfth Night and Lent. The tradition was brought to the southern US by French and Spanish colonists in the days of yore. It takes its name from the Biblical three kings, who journeyed to Bethlehem over twelve days, arriving with gifts for baby Jesus on Epiphany.

The recipe says to bake "until golden." At this stage our king cake was still slightly undercooked in the middle. Jean also made the frosting too thick, and it sort of weighed down the delicate cake. Next time we would thin the frosting to a very light glaze so that it more easily drizzles.

At any rate, it was very pretty with its traditional green, gold and purple sprinkles, and it tasted quite yummy.

We forgot to hide a mini baby Jesus inside, so that whoever finds him would win all sorts of privileges and obligations. It has become customary in the New Orleans culture, for example, that whoever finds the trinket hidden inside must provide the next king cake.