Dominica

Pollo Guisado

The actual national dish of Dominica (Mountain Chicken) involves an endangered tree frog; I decided to stick to chicken.

Ingredients:
-2 lbs. chicken, cut into small pieces
-2 lemons, cut into halves
-2 green bell peppers
-1/2 c. celery, chopped
-1 small red onion, chopped into fine strips
-4 plum tomatoes, cut into quarters
-2 T. oil
-1/4 c. seedless olives, halved
-2 T. tomato paste
-1/2 tsp. mashed garlic
-1 tsp. sugar
-pinch of oregano
-salt
-cilantro
-white rice, cooked according to package directions

Directions:
1) Rub the lemon halves on the chicken
2) In a bowl, mix the chicken, oregano, onion, celery, tomatoes, a pinch of salt and garlic.  Marinate for 30 minutes.
3) In a pot, heat up the oil, add the sugar and let the sugar heat up until it becomes dark brown.  Add chicken (reserve vegetables) and sauté until meat is light brown.
4) Add 2 T. water.  Cover and simmer over medium high for 12 minutes, adjusting water when necessary.
5) Add all remaining ingredients except tomato paste.  Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, adjusting water if necessary.
6) Add tomato paste and 1/2 c. water.  Simmer over low heat to produce a light sauce. Adjust salt to taste.
7) Serve over white rice.

Djibouti

Skoudehkaris

Spicy, aromatic, and cooked 9 months ago, so that's all the detail I can give.  Blog written 6/5/12, but meal cooked 8/31/11.


Ingredients:
-1 lb. lamb, cut into chunks
-2 c. rice
-3 T. oil
-1 lb. fresh tomatoes, blanched, peeled and chopped
-2 large onions, chopped
-salt and pepper
-1/2 tsp. ground cumin
-1/2 tsp. ground cloves
-1 tsp. minced garlic
-1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
-1 tsp. chopped red chili

Directions:
1) Fry onion in oil until softened.  Add lamb and brown.  Add tomatoes and allow to cook for a few minutes.  Add all the spices, cover with water and simmer gently for 45 minutes.
2) Add rice and 2c. water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
3) Uncover and cook for a few minutes to dry the mixture.

Denmark

Frikadeller, Kartofler and Danish Braised Cabbage

While I am publishing this on June 5, 2012, I actually made it sometime around August 24, 2011...

I made it to the D's (last August...)!

I have been remarkably remiss in my blogging.  Granted, I have not cooked an international cooking project meal since early September, but I also have not written the blogs for the last three meals I did cook.  But, I am back!  And tomorrow is the last day of school, so I plan to cook the summer away when I am not frolicking with my nephew.

Anyway...

I recall being extremely excited for the foods of Denmark.  Frikadeller are pork and veal meatballs.  These were quite delicious.  Kartofler are potatoes cooked in quite a bit of butter (1/2c.) and onion. They were lovely, albeit rich.  Danish braised cabbage is red cabbage braised in butter and red currant jelly.

I cannot remember much more than that.  I'm sorry.

Here are the recipes.

Frikadeller

Ingredients:
-1/2 lb. ground pork
-1 large onion, finely chopped
-2 T. flour
-1/2 lb. ground veal
-2 c. milk
-1 c. breadcrumbs
-black pepper
-1 egg
-salt

Directions:
1) Combine pork and veal.  Add flour, breadcrumbs, milk, egg, onion, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
2) Drop on frying pan from a large tablespoon.  Fry over low heat.

3) Serve with browned butter, potatoes and stewed cabbage.

Kartofler

Ingredients:
-6 large potatoes
-1/2 c. butter
-1 large onion, sliced
-1 T. sugar
-1 T. vinegar
-1 tsp. salt
-dash white pepper

Directions:
1) Boil potatoes.  Cool, peel and slice 1/4" thick.
2) Melt butter in a frying pan.  Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add potatoes.  Sauté for 5 minutes, turning to brown both sides.
3) Add remaining ingredients and cook for 5 more minutes.



Danish Braised Cabbage

Ingredients:
-2 lb. red cabbage, shredded
-4 T. butter, cut into small pieces
-1 T. sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-1/3 c. water
-1/4 c. red currant jelly
-2 T. grated apple

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) In a heavy 4-5 qt. casserole, combine butter, sugar, salt, water and vinegar.
3) Bring to a boil on the stove; add cabbage and toss to coat well.
4) Bring to a boil, cover and place in oven.  Bake 2 hours, checking occasionally and adding water if needed.
5) Ten minutes before cooking is finished, stir in jelly and apple.  Replace cover.

Czech Republic

Svickova and Dumplings


I had high expectations for this one, but was quite disappointed in the results.  As I told Andy as he walked into the kitchen to eat, the meat was overcooked, the dumplings turned to mush and the sauce ended up lumpy.  The meal looked like milk steak from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  In terms of taste, well, I would describe it as not bad.  


Here are the mistakes I know and/or am thinking I made in the completion of this dish:
-The recipe called for a 3 lb. sirloin roast.  I couldn't find one that big, so I bought two 1.5 lb. ones.  I neglected to adjust the cooking time, so it was overdone and dry.
-I think the sour cream sauce may have had better results had I not used light sour cream and if I had allowed it to come to a simmer.
-I used 2 1/2 minute Cream of Wheat.  I'm wondering, had I used the longer cooking stuff, if the dumplings would have stayed in pieces.


It seemed wasteful to discard the vegetables, especially because they seemed to carry more of the flavor than the meat.  At any rate, here's the recipe.


Svickova

INGREDIENTS
-3 lbs. sirloin roast
-2 c. water
-1 c. vinegar
-2 carrots, chopped
-2 ribs celery, chopped
-2 parsnips, chopped
-5 pieces allspice
-6 peppercorns
-2 bay leaves
-4 T. flour
-16 oz. sour cream
-1 c. beef broth
-1/2 tsp. thyme


DIRECTIONS
1) Combine water, vinegar, vegetables, allspice, peppercorns and bay leaves in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2) Cool to room temperature.  Pour over roast in a baking dish and cover.  Marinate 24-48 hours, flipping roast every 12 hours.
3) Season meat with salt, pepper and thyme.  Keeping roast in marinade and vegetables, roast for 1 hour, 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
4) Remove roast from oven and place on cutting board.  Reserve juices, discard vegetables.

5) Combine flour and sour cream in a sauté pan over low heat.  Slowly add marinade and beef broth to heated sour cream mixture.  Stir over low heat for 7 minutes.
6) Serve sauce over thinly sliced beef.
7) Serve over dumplings.


Dumplings


INGREDIENTS
-6 potatoes, peeled
-1 egg
-1 1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 c. farina (Cream of Wheat)
-1/4 c. flour


DIRECTIONS:
1) Boil potatoes until fork tender.  Let cool.
2) Rice potatoes.
3) Work beaten egg, farina, flour and salt into potatoes, forming a dough.

4) Roll dough into a tube and cut into slices.

5) Place dumplings into a pot of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

How the dumplings turned out...

Cyprus

Souvla

Let me just begin this entry by telling you the lengths I went to in order to authentically make this recipe. Souvla is the national dish of Cyprus, and it is highly seasoned lamb or pork kebabs.  Every recipe I looked at required a rotisserie, and not having one, I purchased a Ronco (yes, the one from the infomercial) countertop rotisserie off of amazon.com.  Although I received the rotisserie weeks ago, I didn't open it until the day that I cooked this meal, and upon opening, I realized that the kebab sticks are an add-on that did not come with the rotisserie.  I was so mad!  I bought the freaking thing to make kebabs, and then didn't have the pieces to make kebabs!  So, I ended up having to use the basket, which ended up actually working fairly well.  I also watched the half hour instructional DVD that came with the Ronco, which was really just an infomercial that warned me repeatedly that the machine would get hot.  Duh!

The Ronco in action

Andy, my new roommate Kay and I all enjoyed this dish.  I decided to make a mixture of pork and lamb pieces because the lamb was so expensive.  I served the meat with long-grain rice and broccoli to round out the meal.


Given that I did not have the proper kebab tools, I had to adapt the recipe a bit.  Here's the original:

Souvla

INGREDIENTS:
-3 lbs. lamb or pork shoulder or neck meat, cut into chunks
-5 onions, grated (I used my food processor, which saved a ton of time)
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-juice of 1/2 a lemon
-1/2 c. canola oil
-1 T. ground cumin
-1 tsp. turmeric
-1 tsp. ground coriander
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. MSG (I left this out; I forgot to grab it when I moved)
-1 tsp. paprika


DIRECTIONS:
1) Mic onions, garlic, oil and lemon juice.  Marinate meat for no more than 3 hours.
2) Skewer meat on large metal skewers.  In rotisserie, cook over high heat for 5-8 minutes on high speed until sizzling and light golden brown.
3) Wrap meat in aluminum foil.  Cook over medium heat for one hour on low speed, or until meat starts to foam.  Remove foil and sprinkle all spices except paprika over meat.
4) Cook over high heat for 3 minutes.
5) Remove from skewers and sprinkle with paprika.

Cuba

Platillo Moros y Cristianos


I made this dish on Thursday, July 28, 2011 for Andy and me.  Platillo Moros y Cristianos translated to Moors and Christians Dish.  It is a black bean and rice dish; the black beans represent Moors and the white rice represents Christians.  This dish had the potential to be good, but even though I followed the recipe to a tee, I severely undercooked the beans, which caused a chalky texture.  It ended up going down the garbage disposal.  If I were to make this again, I would be sure the beans were done more before adding them to the rice or I would used canned black beans.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb. dried black beans
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 T. cumin
- 1/2 c. green pepper, chopped
- olive oil
- 3 T. tomato paste
- 2 c. chicken broth
- 1 c. long-grain white rice
- salt and pepper 

Directions:
1) Cover beans with water.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and let stand one hour.  Drain.
2) Sauté onion, garlic and green pepper in olive oil until tender.
3) Add tomato paste, beans, cumin and chicken broth.
4) Add rice; cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until rice is fully cooked, about 30 minutes.
5) Add salt and pepper to taste.

Croatia

Turkey with Mlinci and Blitva

I made this national dish of Croatia on Wednesday, July 20.  Andy and I both really liked this one, even though it was super salty.  This must be the result of Vegeta, a flavoring from Croatia that I ordered off of amazon.com:

Vegeta

Proof it's from Croatia!

It smells and looks like the flavor packet in chicken flavored ramen noodles, but is made mostly of dehydrated vegetables.  This is the dry rub used on the turkey and the flavoring used in the blitva.

The turkey was really moist.  I bought a 9.43 pound turkey, and it took about 3 hours, 15 minutes to roast to 165 degrees in a 325 degree oven.  I basted it every half hour.  My oven tends to run hot, so I bought an oven thermometer and realized that my oven runs about 100 degrees hot!  Isn't that ridiculous?  I'm glad I bought the thermometer, and I'm also glad to be moving out of here to greener pastures and better ovens.

The mlinci were easier to make than I thought.  They start out as cracker-like, but become chewy once they are baked with the turkey drippings.  These, too, were very salty, which is not suprising considering the amount of Vegeta that was part of the drippings.

The blitva was very easy to make, and very tasty.  It reminded me of Trinxat, a similar side dish that I made for my Andorran meal.  This is something I could see myself making as a side dish outside of my international cooking.

TURKEY WITH MLINCI

INGREDIENTS

MLINCI

-3 c. flour

-1/2-2/3 c. lukewarm water

-1 tsp. salt

-2 T. oil

TURKEY

-1 turkey (10-18 pounds)

-Salt

-1 c. water

-Vegeta

-olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

1) Rub salt and Vegeta to taste into turkey.  Let rest overnight.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a dough from flour, oil and lukewarm, salted water.  Knead well.

3) Divide dough into 4-5 lumps.  Roll each into a round shape, about 1/8" thick.  Bake each piece on a sheet pan, 25 minutes.

Before baking

Mlinci baked

4) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Before roasting, brush turkey with olive oil.  Place in a roasting pan with water.  Roast 20 minutes per pound, basting it in its own juice, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads at least 165 degrees.

All ready to go in the oven!

Done cooking

5) Remove from oven and roasting pan and let stand in a tinfoil tent 15-20 minutes.

6) Meanwhile, remove fat from roasting pan.  Break mlinci into small pieces and mix into roasting juice.  Bake briefly.

Mixed in and ready to go in the oven

Post-baking

BLITVA

INGREDIENTS:

-2 bunches Swiss chard, stemmed and ripped into pieces

-2 potatoes, cubed into 1/2" chunks

-garlic

-1 T. Vegeta

-3 T. olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add garlic and Vegeta.

2) Add potatoes and Swiss chard.  Cook until done, about 10 minutes.

3) Drain well, top with oil and serve.

Côte d'Ivoire

Kejenou


I made this meal on Wednesday, July 13 for my younger sister Sarah and me.  It is the national dish of Côte d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, in Africa.  On the website from which I got the recipe, it is described as "traditional Ivorian (from Côte d'Ivoire) recipe for a one-pot dish of chicken and prawns with rice in a chilli, tomato and white wine sauce."  We loved it.


I made a few changes to the recipe: I cut the chicken into chunks, which I'm thinking may be the reason that the chicken was so unbelievably, scrumptiously tender.  I also used three jalapeños instead of two habaneros because Cub was out of habaneros when I went shopping.  I used large shrimp instead of prawns because Coastal Seafoods didn't have any prawns, and, finally, when the recipe said to cook for 35 minutes, I opted to cover the pan to help the rice steam.  These changes rendered a sumptuous meal, which had spices that reminded me of Indian food and the dishes I made for Afghanistan and Bangladesh.  There must be some Asian influences in Côte d'Ivoire.


Kejenou

INGREDIENTS:
-4 chicken breast halves, cut into chunks
-6 large prawns, peeled
-2 tsp. salt
-7 cloves garlic, minced
-2 tsp. paprika
-2 T. olive oil
-2 onions, diced
-4 large tomatoes, pureed
-1 T. tomato paste
-1/2 c. water
-2 habanero peppers (I used three jalapeños), diced
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1 tsp. nutmeg
-1 tsp. turmeric
-1 1/2 c. long grain rice
-3 c. chicken stock
-1 c. white wine
-chopped parsley (which I forgot to use)


DIRECTIONS:
1) Marinate chicken and prawns in salt, 1 clove garlic and paprika for two hours.
2) Fry onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pan until softened.
3) Add chicken, tomatoes, tomato paste, peppers and spices.  Cook for 5 minutes.
4) Add rice, chicken stock and wine.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 35 minutes.
5) Add prawns and cook until they turn pink.  
6) (Garnish with parsley) and serve immediately.

Bringing to a boil

All cooked in the pan