Paneer from cottage cheese first attempt...for saag paneer

I read on another blog you can use cottage cheese to make a faux paneer. Since I couldn't find paneer at the store and really wanted saag paneer I decided to try making some. Original post: http://elekhni.com/2008/06/the-easy-way-make-paneer-from-cottage-cheese/

Looks like cottage cheese again!
Perhaps my mistake was in the heating step.
Should I try again another time?

 Oh well, mix with the seasonings and spinach mixture anyway.

Yum! Looks odd, tastes great.

Making Spanish Paella

For European night last week I found an easy and delicious version of Paella on allrecipes. Researching it, I learned there are different versions of paella. Some are heavier on seafood than others. Just depends what part of Spain. The seasonings are pretty important though.
If you are a fan of Cajun or Creole Jambalaya, you might find the different flavors but somewhat similar construction of Paella an interesting change. It makes for an easy, family, one-pot meal.

Cuban: Ropa Vieja in the Crockpot

Yesterday was a busy day for us, and I had the perfect meal planned. In the morning I volunteered at the homeschool group, after lunch was a doctor appointment, and in the evening was swimming. The crock pot called.

So I made an easy family-friendly Cuban meal: Ropa Vieja. It's simple, and flavorful. I've made it for a while and can't remember where I found the recipe in the first place. The whole family tends to love it. Although last night my 3.5 year old decided there was something funny about the large slices of onion. Next time I'll slice them smaller.

Curried Peas, and my little sweet pea

I don't often make peas because well, my husband finds most recipes with peas boring. Last night was Asian night in our house and I tried a curried peas and tomatoes recipe to go along with our main Indian dish. Oh, yum! My husband even had more than one serving. He said "this is actually an interesting dish" so I'll definitely be making them again. 

Oh, in case you're wondering about my Asian night comment. Now that I'm well in my second trimester (yes, I'm expecting my own little sweet pea this winter!) and not relying on giant crockpots full of doubled and tripled recipes to freeze in order to feed the family each night I'm back to cooking most days each week, which means back to making international food more often. How much more? Well, I'm experimenting with a new way to menu plan. Each day of the week minus one is assigned a continent. If I need to plan a meal for that day of the week I can think of recipes from that continent (or the oceans if you wanted to add a just fish night). 

Monday: North America
Tuesday: South America
Wednesday: Europe
Thursday: Asia
Friday: Oceania
One day on the Weekend: Africa

We'll see how this strategy goes. So far so good. It has certainly streamlined menu planning.

BlogThis!

Nigerian Adventure: A Delicious Dinner

We moved. Again. But things are slowly getting unpacked including most of my kitchen. I'll have to work off memory to tell you about our Nigerian culinary adventure. Oh, the memories are wonderful. In fact, sitting here typing this I'm wondering to myself, "why haven't you made it again yet?!" Yes, it was that good. We enjoyed a meat dish and a salad. The salad was made of layers. Much as an American seven layer salad is made. The ingredients were a little different though. Slivers of cabbage, cucumber, and carrot are mixed together. A can of peas (apparently fresh isn't an option here) is poured over, followed by a layer of canned (not fresh or frozen again) corn. This is topped with slices of hard cooked egg. So far not too odd. Here's where the salad really shows its foreign side. The last two steps are to sprinkle the salad with a can each of baked beans and tuna! How odd! The layers are repeated. After chilling it's served with salad cream. I'm not a huge meat eater. This particular meat was delectable. Stick meat. Beef is coated with spices like bouillon, garlic, curry, and adobo powder and allowed to sit and "sweat" a while. Water is added And the meat boiled for half an hour. You remove the meat, heat oil until it smokes and make the sauce. Then you bake the meat. So this meat gets boiled and baked. The meat is tossed with the sauce and eaten with toothpicks. So yummy!

Market Day: Nigeria

So, here are all the ingredients used to make a meat
and a side dish for our Nigerian adventure.
Dish 1 used: Adobo seasoning, oil, tomato, onion, garlic, peppers, curry powder, bouillon
Dish 2 used: Carrot, cucumber, peas, corn, eggs, tuna, baked beans, cabbage, and salad cream

So what did we enjoy? (And yes, we really enjoyed it!)

Avocadoes Stuffed with Fish & Eggs

This would make such a great summer lunch! 

It's a plate full of avocados stuffed with fish and egg. Sounds different, tastes yummy. If you like tuna salad stuffed in a tomato, you'll probably enjoy this.

When your eggs are cooked and cooled, remove the yolks and mash them up. Mix the yolks with sugar, lime, oils, milk. You want it to be smooth as a pudding.

Chop up the egg white and add i It's a pleasant and healthy meal. You can find the recipe here. 

Planning Day: Nigerian Culinary Adventure

If you're waiting on my final entry for Ghana, it's coming. I am looking forward to sharing our main dish with you. It's simple, easy to prepare, and perfect for warm weather. Very appropriate as the weather continues to warm! Right now I'm in overload concerning what I want to make for our Nigerian adventure. I'm very tempted to try a breakfast recipe. Crepes or a bean pancake with a custard on the side. Problem is finding custard powder, which is according to my brief web search slightly different from our instant pudding mix. Now that I live in a largish city I hope I can track some down...breakfast like that would be fun! Then there's the stews! Very meaty and several carry the warning "very spicy". It seems like everything is served with "white yam" or plantains too. Oh, and they have the most interesting salads. There's also a dish that reminds me of scotch eggs, one that reminds me of doughnuts...just so much from which to choose. As I said what's particularly tempting is embarking on more than one adventure here. We'll see. There are several African restaurants in town, if I want to try something cooked by someone who knows how after I'm done with this particular adventure!

Culinary adventure to Ghana! part 1: Plantains

For dessert I mixed pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, plantains, olive oil, and salt and made fried plantains! Now, this recipe certainly wasn't nearly as tasty as I'd had at a certain restaurant, but still they weren't bad. Next time though I think I'd try a different recipe.

This is what I dipped the plantains in. Nothing sweet at all about the dessert.

Market Day: Ghana

The ingredients for dessert. Plantains, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper, olive oil, and salt. Yes, it did have a bit of a kick!

Eggs, for the main dish.

Other ingredients needed for the main dish included: Olive oil, milk, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, bell pepper, pimentos, lime juice, and avocados.

Planning Day: Ghana

Searching out foods on the west coast of the Africsn continent is a little trickier than I imagined. More often than not I come across generic an "west African " recipes. It seems there is a lot of overlap. One of the more interesting resources I've found so far is A Washington Post article on west African cuisine. The foods are savory and starchy. One ingredient in particular caught my eye: plantains. Yum! African Cooking Guide has a great chart listing the most commonly used ingredients. Oh, and often it uses one pot cooking. Love that!

Week 11: An Algerian Pudding

Oh, was this pudding ever good! After he ate it my husband announced "I can't wait for you to make this again." it was so quick (minutes) to whip up too. You bet I'll make Sahlab again, and soon. Creamy and silky it simply slips down your throat. Yum!

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Market Day: Algeria

Once again my pantry is my market. How I love it when this happens. The ingredients for our Algerian dessert adventure were few and common. It should be considerably cheaper than the other dessert I was leaning towards making. This particular dish requires corn starch to thicken it up and is served with some optional chopped toppings.

Can you guess what we're having?

Water, milk, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon,  raisins,  coconut

Planning Day: Algeria

It feels great to be back to planning our culinary adventures. Yet my next culinary adventure- Algerian cuisine- is providing a bit of a challenge. I just can't decide what in the world we should make next. At the moment I'm seriously considering a dessert adventure! Algerian desserts sound pretty tasty.

Couscous- once again!- is an essential part of Algerian cooking. There are even dessert dishes made of couscous. I suppose that's really no different than bread or rice pudding in a way. Many lower! A variety of nuts are also used. What varied textures these desserts must have.

Market Meets Pantry- Guess What I'm Making (Tunisia)

Don't you love it when you can make your entire meal from things you already have on hand? For our planned Tunisian meal, that's exactly what happened.  Our pantry was the market!

Can you guess the meal?

Bell pepper, onion, garlic, eggs, salt, pepper, tomatoes,  chili paste, and cumin.

Planning Day: Tunisia!

I am so excited at the prospect of cooking a Tunisian dish. Food seems to be quick and easy to make, using ingredients pretty much always found in cupboards and pantries. Also nice and cheap.

Couscous is again often a featured dish. It seems to be fairly universal in that norther region of Africa. Since couscous is so enjoyed by my family I have no problem serving it again if necessary. Rather like we eat dishes with rice or pasta, the couscous becomes a bottom layer upon which to serve vegetable and protein (bean and meat like lamb) based stew-like dishes.

Seafood seems to be fairly common in the northern region. There's one dish called Brik that's rather like a meat pie except it's stuffed with tuna fish and egg. I've been thinking we need to include more fish and seafood in our diet.

Tunisia also has a quiche like dish called a tajin. I suppose another comparison for the tajin would be the Spanish tortilla. Yet another home-style dish called shakshouka is made by simmering various vegetables on the stove top and adding eggs to the top. Thinking the "tajin" sounds the least daring.

The ingredients are mostly very normal. The results, well, different. Will we enjoy it? Sure hope so. What would you make if you were crafting a Tunisian supper for your family?

Super Bowl finger food dessert: Moroccan Honeyed Dates

If you're going shopping for food for a Super Bowl party tomorrow, or even if you've already finished shopping, you might want to consider picking up some dates for a fabulous and easy to make Super Bowl friendly dessert.

Dates. Sweet and filled with fiber. A healthier treat to have around when you want something sugary, for sure. Almonds. Who will argue the health benefits of eating a few almonds? Now picture coating the almonds in honey, carmelized, and stuffing the honeyed almonds in some plump, juicy dates. Sounds pretty good! It sure is.

My whole family devoured this easy to make Moroccan dessert the other night when we had our Moroccan dinner adventure. My husband when he saw the stuffed dates commented "These look like footballs!" I laughed "Perfect for a superbowl party!" He agreed.

They do look rather like footballs...

But the taste. Wow. What an explosion of sweet chewiness! These are addictive!

Here's how my son and I made them.

Split the dates lengthwise and remove the pits.

Now comes the fun part. Feel free to let your child(ren) help stuff the honeyed almonds in the dates.

Yum! A tasty healthier dessert perfect for a superbowl or any party!

Find the recipe here at Maroque.

Market Day- Guess What I'm Making! (Morocco)

Hurrah! Turns out I had most of what's needed for this week's culinary adventure already in my pantry, freezer, and fridge. That's sure nice. Trader Joe's supplied the dates as I couldn't find any at Kroger. To help make this meal easy and doable for a household with a toddler I decided to cut a few corners making this meal.

Couscous will come from the boxed mix "Near East". I've loved this brand for years. It also seems to go on sale fairly frequently.

        Canned chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), raisins, pre-chopped frozen bell peppers,
                   Trader Joe's flatbread, chopped frozen spinach

Our fresh ingredients! 

Orange, apple,

Zucchini, eggplant, sweet potato, cucumber, dates

Carrots, almonds

Spices and seasonings:

Onion and garlic powder (I have it on hand, cutting a corner here),

Sesame oil (substitute for Argan oil), turmeric, salt,

Orange juice, pepper, honey

(Not pictured: curry powder)

There you have it! From these three groups of ingredients I am planning on making our main dish, our salad, and a simple, sweet, dessert. Definitely looking forward to supper.

What sort of Moroccan dish(es) would you make with these ingredients?

More Planning: Morocco!

Have you ever seen "Road to Morocco", the 1942 film with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope? It's hilarious. Probably my favorite in the quirky yet hilarious "Road To" series.

Hilarious old films aside I'm really looking forward to cooking Moroccan food at home. Probably the most famous dish is the tagine. Think of it like a healthy casserole or a hearty exotic stew. Tagines are traditionally baked in clay pots that have a cone-shaped lid.

I read that traditionally there's a hot or cold salad (or both), followed by a tagine with couscous for most meals. Bread is of course included. There are other options that involve more cooking for more formal meals. But my goal isn't formality here! I want a warm, cozy meal that's fairly easy to make a family friendly. And one with flavors that knock my socks off!

The spices used in Moroccan cooking certainly fill the kitchen with an even more complex, delicious aroma than our traditional, American, cream-of-soup casseroles. Imagine cooking dinner with cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, anise seed, coriander, mint, and saffron. Fruits like dates, oranges,  figs, olives, or preserved lemons are a common addition to an otherwise savory meal. I can just smell it now. Who needs scented candles when the kitchen is filled with exotic spices?!

Planning Day: Cooking Around...

Africa!

I've decided. It's a done deal. Last week I got back to cooking a few soups and stews as we started settling in to our new home in our new (much larger) city. I can't wait to start our culinary adventures up again. Hopefully this week!

My favorite restaurant of all time is an Ethiopian place in St Louis, MO. Every time I have visited St Louis I've stopped there for dinner. In case you're curious, the restaurant is called Meskerem. I just love eating Ethiopian food and theirs is particularly delicious!

Yes, the continent of Africa sounds like an exciting place to explore in the coming weeks. I plan to start with cuisines in North Africa and gradually work my way south. Looking forward to exploring the cuisines of places like Morocco, Algeria, and other countries very soon! Now off to find some recipes while my toddler naps!

Do you have a favorite African cuisine, restaurant, or a favorite recipe? 

Wordless Wednesday: Back to cooking soon...here's why

Wordless Wednesday provides the answer to the silence on my blog...