Week 20: Thailand

I don't know why it didn't occur to me that Thailand is some sort of monarchy (a constitutional monarchy to be specific) . Duh, "Anna and the King of Siam"? Thailand used to be called Siam up until about 1939? Hello!


Some additional fun facts we learned about Thailand:

• Thailand has never been taken over by a European power.
• The country is 95% Buddhist.
• Number of coups d'etat since 1932: eighteen.
• Thailand is the number one rice exporter in the world.

And speaking of carbo-liciousness, Thai noodley dishes are some of my favorite comfort foods. I can't decide whether I like the old standby of Pad Thai with all its fishy, limey, peanutty flavors, or Pad See Ew with its wide noodles swimming in thick, sweet soy sauce gravy. Please also give me some fresh rolls with fresh mint, crunchy veggies, and maybe some shrimps. I adore chicken satay with peanut sauce. In fact, I don't think I have met a Thai dish I didn't love.

I can't go too spicey, but my trusty glass of Thai iced tea, generously laced with cream, will help cool off any flavas that get too excited. [Insert David Carradine joke.]

Hands down my favorite curry in the entire world is a Thai coconut curry of any color liberally sprinkled with some fresh cilantro or Thai basil. This is what inspired this week's recipe, which I sort of half-assed made up and used prepackaged stuff.

I sautéd some onion and shiitake mushrooms, and some red and orange bell peppers. I simmered some coconut milk with some Thai red curry paste (from a jar). I added some shrimps, the sauted veggies, and voila! We topped it with basil and cilantro from the garden and ate it over white rice. Fantastic!

Week 19: Iran

The BBC has a great profile of Iran: "Persia, as Iran was known before 1935, was one of the greatest empires of the ancient world, and the country has long maintained a distinct cultural identity within the Islamic world by retaining its own language and adhering to the Shia interpretation of Islam."

Iran's primary exports are petroleum (who knew?), carpets (do you think they're Persian carpets?) and agricultural products.

Check out some hilarity and excellent banter on The Daily Show regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It will be interesting to see if the results of the recent election in Iran will keep him in power. Sounds like there is a lot of unrest surrounding the results of the election, with quite some violence in Tehran.

Speaking of violence and crazy world leaders, this reminds us that thanks to former President Bush #43, Iran has the distinction of being our first Geography of the Delicious nation to also be a founding member of the prestigious Axis of Evil! Congratulations Iran! We thought you just belonged to the Axis of Deliciousness.

Chelo kebab

The internet seems to agree that this is the most popular and most famous Iranian dish.

1/2 lb ground lamb
1 egg
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp marjoram

Place ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Use your hands--it's funner than making mud pies because you actually get to eat the results of this. Once ingredients are thoroughly mixed, divide mixture into four portions and shape each portion into a long hotdoggity shape. Grill on your bbq until cooked through. Serve with buttery rice and grilled tomatoes.

We loved the flavor of the cinnamon with the marjoram in the lamb. Grilling the meat made it much less greasy than lamb tends to be, which I think was a plus. This is pretty much individually-sized Iranian meatloaf.

Week 18: Democratic Republic of The Congo

Hey, don't confuse the Democratic Republic of The Congo with the Republic of the Congo. Uhoh, my attention span is already at its limit.

But wait. We are francophiles (that means we like all things French, duh, that's my name) and the République démocratique du Congo (that's French) was formerly the Belgian colony from 1908 - 1960, the Belgian Congo (not to be confused with the unreleased 3rd installment of the Dirty Dancing trilogy, Dirty Dancing: Belgian Congo, staring Zach Efron).

Did someone say Belgian? Holy croissants, batman! Does this mean there might be some French influence in the cuisine? As much as this whole "geography of the delicious" thing is broadening my horizons, give me a goddamn baguette and some fricken fracken camembert, les bitches!

Dr. Congo, as I like to call this country, has both dense tropical rainforest and areas where drought is common. AIDS is a major issue here, as is human trafficking. Violence, famine, and disease are all very real threats for the Congolese people. It's heavy, heavy stuff.

Holy pain au chocolat, batman! The official language is French! But alas, the cuisine seems not to have retained any sort of Belgian or French influence. Even so, their national dish, Chicken Moambe*, looked like a winner to us. And indeed it was. It was very rich from all the peanutbuttery goodness, and the chicken was so tender it just fell apart.

Chicken Moambe

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

pinch of red pepper
1 T butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 tsp nutmeg
10 oz tomato sauce
1/3 cup peanut butter, chunky style

Put chicken in a large pot. Add salt and pepper. Cover with water, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until tender 1 hour. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and nutmeg and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes. Remove a cup of the tomato sauce and reserve. Add the chicken and simmer over low heat, covered, for about 5 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine the reserved tomato sauce with the peanut butter until smooth and slightly liquified. Add the peanut butter mixture to the pan to thicken the sauce and simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes.

*Not to be confused with Chicken Moambe, national dish of the Republic of the Congo.

Week 17: Turkey

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks

No, the country, not the bird. (Which is a shame, because we do love a roast turkey). But it turns out we also like Turkey the country, if only for the deliciousness. Once the home of the great Ottoman empire which spanned 3 continents, Turkish culture is a mix of eastern and western. It is a country with old traditions and seeking to modernize. Its people are 99.8% Muslim with Mormon missionaries making up the last 0.2% (just a guess).

Turkey is home to Mount Ararat which is the highest peak in Turkey and the birthplace of the world famous Nuh'un lezzetli egzotik et deposu (Noah's Tasty Exotic Meat Emporium, est. 2344 BC, try the Unicorn steaks, limit 2 per customer).

But let's not forget Oiled Wrestling. Invented in the 1300s because Dry Wrestling isn't greasy enough. (Go ahead and try holding on to a nubile Turkish boy slathered in oil. Or not.) Enough cannot be said about Oiled Wrestling.

I have said too much... Moving on!

Turkish Bread or "Ekmek"

Ekmek is a staple of the Turkish diet and is made fresh up to 3 times a day. Typically, it is made from a starter similar to sourdough bread. We made the starter 5 days ahead of time by mixing 1/2 cup of water and a 1/4 cup flour and leaving loosely covered on the counter. Every day we added a few more tablespoons flour and water. On the 4th day it really got lively and fluffed way up (that's what she said)--a sure sign that wild yeasts had made a home there.

• 1 1/4 cup starter (see above)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• teaspoon salt

Proof the dry yeast and sugar in the warm water. When fluffy and happy add the proof to the starter and mix well. Gradually, stir in 2 cups flour. Add salt. Add flour until the dough is a sticky ball but manageable. Use the remaining flour to knead the flour until it is a tacky ball. Cover and let rise in a warm spot until double. Punch down and let it rest. Then knead a few minute and finish in the shape of a rough oval loaf. Let rise until doubled. Bake at 425 for around 40 minutes or until it sounds hollow when the bottom is thumped. Eat it.

Cacik

This reminded us of Greek tzatziki. Mix together:
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1 finely chopped cuke
1 clove garlic, minced

Antalya Bean Salad

This dish is like chunky style hummus. We found it to be a tad too oniony. Still, quite a Turkish delight.

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can northern beans
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped

In a bowl mix tahini, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and onion. Add beans and mix well. Add in parsley last. Enjoy!

Turkish Lamb Chops ( taken from Recipezaar )

• 1/3 Onion grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 2 lamb chops, approx. 1" thick
• lemon for garnish
  
• salt and pepper
  

Sprinkle the onion with salt, squeeze out any juice. Add the thyme and oil and mix. Rub the chops with the mixture and let sit for 1 hour. Grill or broil, season with lemon, salt and pepper.

And enjoy this photo of all of the above:

Week 16: Germany

Germany, land of lederhosen and phalic castles. Actually, that's just a small part of Germany. Germany is in fact quite diverse: there are people who are infatuated with sausage and polka, and then there people who like sausage but prefer The Hasselhoff. Crazy, right?! When not looking angular and beautiful they are secretly wondering why they didn't invade your stupid country and fix everything you screwed up (the Swiss are the exception here, even Germans think they are uptight).

Thanks in no small part to former President Bush's super-appropriate backrub for German Chancellor Angela Merkel there has been peace between Germany and the USA for over 60 years.

Personally, we love Germany's cars (Jetta, baby), its beers, its Daniels, and its foods.

Some of you may know that we visited Germany briefly last year which makes us experts on German history and culture. The following picture illustrates our ability to blend in seamlessly with the locals in Munich.

Munich was great but we also took in some small town culture in Rothenburg ob der Tauber which loosely translated means "Horny Pig Thief River" in German. Our Geography of the Delicious experiment attempts to recreate a delicious meal we enjoyed here.


We made Bratwurst with veggies, several deserts and sampled some homebrewed Helles made by Michael last year.












Bratwurst with braised apples, cabbage and carrots
Makes 2 Servings.

2 bratwursts
1 onion, diced
1 green apple, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 cups sauerkraut
1 cup Riesling wine (or dark beer)
Salt and Pepper

Cook the brats in a pan until brown. Add the onions and cook until brown. Add the apples and carrots and cook briefly. Add carrot, sauerkraut, caraway and wine. Cook until wine reduces. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Spätzle - German Eggs Noodles

1 cup flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water

Start water heating in a pot like you would for dry noodles, add a little salt. This will be for cooking the noodles. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, salt and water until combined. Slowly , sift in the flour and mix until a sticky dough forms. We had to add more flour until the dough came together into a sticky ball. Don't kneed too much, this could make it tough. That's what she said.

Divide the dough into manageable pieces and working one piece at a time roll out to about 1/4 inch. The dough will be sticky so use lots of flour to help. Cut the dough into thin, 1/4 inch strips a few inches long.

Drop these into the boiling water, try not to let the noodles stick to one another as you add them. They will cook in just a few minutes, floating to the top when they are done. Try them to check if they are done to your liking. Serve with butter, salt and parsley.


Windbeutel - cream puffs
5 oz water
2 oz butter,unsalted
pinch of salt
3 oz plain flour
2 eggs
whipped cream
berries (optional)

Boil the water and add the butter. When butter is melted remove from the heat. Add a pinch of salt and the flour. Stir until mixed. it should eventually form into a sticky ball. Add one egg and mix until combined. Repeat with another egg.

Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking tray with parchment paper. The dough will more than double in size and you can make the puffs as small or large as you want. We made 8 puffs by spooning the dough onto the baking sheet. Traditionally, you would use a pastry bag which I think would result in a more consistent puff. We put a little pan of water in the oven to keep the oven humid. You can also flick some water onto the baking sheet. This should help with the crust of the puffs and help them reached their puffy potential. Crust puff! Puffy crust!

Put in the oven and don't open it as the puffs can fall. No one likes a fallen puff. Watch them carefully--depending on size they cook fast or slow. Ours took about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest momentarily then carefully cut in half.

When cooled, fill each puff with whipped cream and berries. These can also be filled with savory foods. Delicious!

We also made this beautiful Black Forest Cake suggested by Daniel. The cake was truly delicious but we had to substitute our own concoction for Kirchwasser since we didn't have any. We used some mariciano cherry syrup and vodka which turned out pretty tasty. We also added some to the cake. What what!


And finally, check out this hot German dish! Taste the handsomeness!

Week 15: Egypt

Egypt was home to one of humanity's great civilizations which lasted more than 3 millennia. During this time they invented many things that are critical to our modern existence including paper, colored inks, deodorant and guyliner. Although they didn't invent beer, the ancient Egyptians were the first drunks to write down how it was made.

Nowadays, Egypt is a growing country on the crossroads between West Asia and Africa. The country is 90% Muslim with Coptic and Christian minorities. Despite a growing economy, the state subsides basic necessities for many people.



Ful Medames is the national dish of Egypt. It is essentially fava beans cooked for a long time with olive oil, onion, parsley, lemon, and tomato. Many recipes include spices, like cumin. We tried cooking dried fava beans, but didn't cook them all day like you are supposed to for this recipe. It wasn't great. Granted, it was our very first attempt ever to cook fava beans, so maybe we did something wrong. The best part was the fried eggs on top (Ful Medames is a breakfast food, typically) and the fluffy and wonderful flat bread Michael made.

Aesh Baladi (Egyptian flatbread)

2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Proof the yeast in the warm water. In a separate bowl sift the flour and salt together well then when the yeast is nice and frothy add it to the dry ingredients. Mix and then knead for a few minutes. Raise for 3 hours and then punch down. Divide into 6 equal portions and form into balls. Let these rest for 15 minutes and then press into flat 5 inch circles. Place these on baking sheets and preheat the oven to 400F. Cook for 8 minutes. You can eat them or finish them by putting under a high broiler for 1 minute which browns them nicely.


In addition to the bread, another success was a little Egyptian snack we made:

Gebna Makleyah (oven fried cheese)

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (or traditional Egyptian cheese such as labna or gebna, which we could not find)
2 tablespoons flour
1 egg
black pepper, to taste
lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine cheese, flour, egg, and pepper in a bowl. Spoon small scoops onto a greased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm with lemon wedges.

Week 14: Ethopia

Ethiopia is famous for its Olympic distance athletes, rock-hewn churches and as the origin of the Coffee bean. This sounds like a series of facts that we hilariously juxtaposed, but we got it straight out of The Wikipedia. It's inherently hilarious, I guess.

Ethiopia is considered an area of one of the oldest human settlements, if not the oldest, according to some scientific findings. Lucy, discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar region, is considered the world’s oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil. Crap! Lucy was just on exhibit last month at the Pacific Science Center, but Jean was too distracted by the Muse laser show last time we were there to focus on anything remotely sciencey. They even warned us that Time Was Running Out. Too bad we missed the educational opportunity, but a girl needs to prioritize.

This ancient country, old even before the time of Christ, is called the land of thirteen months of sunshine, (the Ethiopian calendar having twelve months of thirty days and an extra month of five days called Pagume). The climate is balmy and pleasant with rain falling rarely except in the summer months. Sounds delightful! When it is isn't, you know, plagued by famine and celebrity supergroups.

We decided to try our hand at making Ethiopia's national dish, Doro Wot (wot wot!). This is a spicy chicken dish made with a blended spice called berberé. We were fortunate to find the spice blend at Market Spice near Pike Street market. We served the chicken with the Ethiopian flat bread, Injera (like a crepe), and small fresh salad on the side. Traditionally, the meal would be served and eaten on Injera using it as a utensil (attempted with limited success).

Doro Wot
1 lemon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large yellow onions; roughly chopped
1 tablespoon garlic; chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root peeled; finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons berberé spice mix
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
salt
1 1/4 cup water
4 whole hard boiled eggs

Ahead of time cut the lemon in half and juice into a zip lock bag with the chicken and marinate for a few hours. Melt the butter in skillet and added the chopped onions. Take your time make sure the onions are well caramelized, in our case 25 minutes at medium high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook very briefly. Add the berberé and water followed by the chicken. Stir it all up. Cover and reduce to low heat, simmer around 40 minutes. Finally, uncover and raise to medium-high heat. Gently stir it intermittently until the sauce thickens into a gravy.

Note: The original recipe called for twice as much butter and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of berberé. Feel free to add more spice if you want it hotter. You can also add the spice as a condiment.

Injera
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix the warm water and the yeast, set aside. Sift together the remaining ingredients. When the yeast is nice and foamy add the water/yeast mixture in small stages to the dry ingredients and stir together. This should be somewhat soupy. Set aside for 1-6 hours in a warm place, we only set aside for 2 hours and it turned out fine. Put it in a blender just before you are going to cook it and thin it with 1/4 to 1/2 cup water. You want a fairly thin batter that will spread evenly on the pan.

Now get a pan nice and hot over medium high heat. Pour just enough batter into the pan to coat it. These will cook very quickly and might not need to be flipped. It will turn out like a rough crepe.

Note: The traditional recipe uses a flour called teff (similar to millet) and the batter is fermented for several days instead of using ready made yeast but we prefer to do everything at the last minute.