I eat!
These are three more “make up” cuisines I explored recently, which I had skipped when I originally cooked “C” and “F” cuisines, several years ago by now.
For Chiapas, I made a delightful Pollo en Frutas
For Coahuila, I made much less successful but literal enchiladas
and for Florence, I made a pasta & beans dish and a braised beef dish.
Check them out!
My international food project is going. Slowly, even painfully so, but going. I’m a bit behind on updating the website, but here are three cuisines that I finished some months ago but never got around to adding. Two of these were “make up” cuisines, those that I skipped when I first reached them – either because I couldn’t find recipes or didn’t recognize them as cuisines. Rather than making multiple dishes for each one of them, which would keep me from advancing through the alphabet, I decided to cook just one or two dishes. This is what I made:
For Assam, I made fried fish with rice, a very simple dish and yet one I couldn’t stop eating.
For Campeche, I made fish in a green sauce. Alas, I didn’t use the right fish and it disintegrated. But the sauce was great.
And I’m very happy to announce that I’ve started the “H” cuisines. I am totally committed to even finish H before the end of the summer! Hey, I could get lucky and do it before the beginning of the summer, but let’s be realistic!
And my first H cuisine is… Haiti! Now that was fun! You get five full recipes here, one particularly good.
Seventeen years into my International Food Project, it’s become pretty clear that I’ll be lucky if I get to the middle of the alphabet before I die. The real problem is that I get enthusiastic for a while, do a lot of cooking, and then just get tired of it and go back to eating frozen food for months on end. Now that my children are vegetarians-that-don’t-eat-vegetables, finding recipes that even a couple of us will like is very hard. And if I can’t cook for my kids-that-won’t-eat-anything, it seems selfish to cook for just Mike and I.
Still, after a few months of frozen food I’m hungry for some good homecook food so I’m going back to this project. And this means getting to date with my writing. I cooked all these cuisines in late 2016 and early 2017. I thought I was done with “G” cuisines, but I discovered a few new ones: Gascon, Greenlandish, Gibraltarian and Guernsey. I also found other cuisines that come earlier in the alphabet. That, of course, is one reason why I’ll never finish this.
Meanwhile, here are the cuisines I did finish!:
Bissau-Guinean – My journey into this Portuguese inspired West African cuisine could have gone better.
Equatorial Guinea – Try as I might, I could not avoid making yet another dish of chicken with peanut sauce.
Guinean – I made just one dish from this neighboring country, fortunately it was good!
Ghizhou – Another tough country to tackle, but I found one good recipe
Grenadan – I tried, I failed, I moved on
Guadeloupean – Don’t miss the chicken colombo!
Gujarati – I found the most delicious beef kebab dish in this mostly vegetarian cuisine
Guyanese – I loved exploring this cuisine that owes so much to India
For memory’s sake alone, I want to record here – over a year late – my menu for Christmas Eve 2015. My bathroom sink broke in December 2014, so that year we went out to dinner, but in 2015 my parents and siblings came to visit us. It was bittersweet as my sister Gabriela had passed away the previous spring. I made a very simple meal, with all repeated favorites.
This is what I served:
First Course: Bread & chips vinegars, oils & dips
Second Course: Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette and Iceberg Lettuce with Thousand Islands
The mixed green salad is one of my favorites and my youngest daughter asked me to serve it against in 2016. The lettuce with Thousand Island salad was for my oldest daughter who is very picky.
Third Course: Mushroom Soup
Another old favorite, from the Les Halles cookbook.
Fourth Course: Flamishe
This leek tart has become an obligatory course at all my Holiday dinners.
Fifth Course: Lime Sorbet in shell
I can’t recall if I made or bought the sorbet, but I halvened the limes in two and scooped out the flesh, then I froze them, filled them with lime sorbet, and put them back in the freezer. It was a beautiful presentation.
Sixth Course: Prime Rib with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans Almondine plus Brown Rice with Coconut Curry
To make the green beans, just steam them, salt them, toss them with butter and roasted sliced almonds. I made the coconut curry for my vegetarian daughters. I no longer recall what recipe I used, but I don’t recall her being crazy about it.
Seventh Course: Cheese Plate
I’m sure it was great, but I don’t recall what I served.
Eight Course: Chocolate Peppermint Cake with Maple Nut Ice Cream
The chocolate cake is one that my grandmother used to make and I wanted to surprise my father with it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember it. My grandmother also used to make maple ice cream and serve it with chopped nuts. She had tiny bottles of maple essence she had brought from her trip to the US before I was born (I imagine, I have no idea how else she could have gotten them) and would make this special ice cream once in a big while. This recipe uses maple syrup, however.
This year, my father and my friends Lola and Iggy came over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a simpler affair than in other years, with only eight courses. I decided early on that I wanted to make a cheesecake for dessert – a favorite of my friend Lola. Alas, that means displacing the cheese course to the start of the meal. No matter, the meal flowed perfectly and everything was great.
I was able to make most of the dishes in advance, which made for a much less stressful Christmas Eve. This is what we had:
First course: Cheeses
I served a manchego, le Pommier Camembert and Délice de Bourgogne with sliced baguette, crackers, green apple slices, grapes, caramelized walnuts and orange marmalade. The cheeses were from La Fromagerie in San Francisco. Most of us preferred the délice, though my dad liked the camembert the most. Still, these weren’t the best cheeses we’ve had.
Second course: Amuse Bouche of Polenta with Mushroom Ragout
I spent a lot of time looking for recipes of amuse bouches that I could serve in a spoon, but wasn’t satisfied with any. Finally, I decided to wing it and placed a tiny bit of store-bought polenta on each spoon and topped it with a quick, recipe-less mushroom ragout. Wow, was it delicious. Everyone wanted more!
Third course: Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette
This is an old favorite and was requested by my youngest daughter – who had forgotten it had blue cheese in it and didn’t like it. This time I used Point Reyes blue instead of a milder Gorgonzola, so perhaps that was the problem. Most of us were happy with it.
Fourth course: Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
My oldest daughter requested I make this soup. I wanted to try a new recipe, as none of the ones I tried before were that great, and I was intrigued by using one with coconut milk. This one proved to be a huge hit. It was absolutely delicious. I had meant to add some pumpkin seeds for color/texture (instead of the red onions and kale the original recipe called for) but I forgot. Nobody missed them. Do serve this with sour cream. It needs the added acidity to be truly great. And great it is. I made this in advance and then added some water to reheat it.
Fifth Course: Flamishe
This leek tart is another old favorite requested by my oldest daughter. It’s one of the simplest things you could ever made but also the most delicious. Once again, I made individual tarts to make it more elegant and served the cream in a creamer, so everyone could pour themselves some. I made the filling in advance but prepared the leek tarts the day I served them.
Six Course: Lemon Sorbet
Store bought Haagen-Dazs, I’m afraid.
Seventh Course: Five Spice Short Ribs, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus
We finally get to the main dish! My vegetarian daughters forewent the ribs, but the rest of us were very happy with them. I made them in advance, of course. The buttermilk mashed potatoes are my usually recipe, which I multiplied a few times. The asparagus were simply roasted with olive oil and salt.
Eighth Course: Dulce de Leche Cheesecake
Being an Argentinian, dulce de leche cheesecake might seem like an obvious idea. And yet it did not occur to me to make it until I finally decided that my choice of peanut butter cheesecake did not fit with the menu above. It’s a good thing I listened to those voices, as this was probably the most delicious dessert I’ve made in a long time. I used San Ignacio Dulce de Leche, which is a great brand, but I’m sure any other would do. Don’t miss the glace, as the cheesecake is not nearly as good without it.
I served an expensive California sparkling wine with the first part of the meal and Clos Pegase Atlas Peak 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, which we’d bought at the winery, with the main dish. They were both delicious.
Mixed Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
Directions:
Slice about half the tube of polenta. Bake or saute it until heated through. Place in serving plates.
Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat in a medium saute pan. Once the butter is melted add the shallot and cook until soft, stirring as necessary. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until they are soft and all the liquid evaporates. Add the whipping cream and madeira and cook, stirring, until it reduces to a thick glace. Sprinkle with salt and paper to taste.
Place the mushroom ragout on top of the polenta and serve.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with aluminum oil. Cut the butternut quash in half (or quarters, if easier). Place cut side up on the baking sheet and cover with aluminum foil. Cook until the flesh is soft, 30 to 50 minutes. Cool until you can handle it, then peel or scoop out the flesh onto a plate or bowl and set aside.
Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until golden, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the squash, apple, broth, ginger, curry powder and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, then reduce temperature to low, cover and simmer until the apples are soft, about 10 minutes.
Remove pot from the heat and, using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Alternatively, transfer solids to a food processor or blender in batches and process until pureed, then transfer back to the soup pot and mix well.
Add the coconut milk, stir and cook on low for about ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with sour cream.
Based on a recipe from the New York Times.
Flamishe (Leek Tart)
Ingredients:
Directions:
Sprinkle salt and pepper on short ribs. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Dust in flour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. Working in batches, add short ribs and brown on all sides, removing to a plate as they brown. Pour out all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the Dutch oven and set on medium heat. Add tomato paste and give-spice powder and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add wine and deglace pan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, and cook until the liquid is almost completely reduced, about 10 minutes.
Add the short ribs, carrot, parsnip, garlic, cilantro stems and bay leaves. Cover with the broth. Bring the braise to a boil over high heat. Then cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours. Remove from oven, let cool, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 350F. Remove pot from the refrigerator and remove and discard the congealed fat. Return pot to the oven and cook, uncovered, for 40 to 60 minutes, until the meat is falling off the bone. Gently remove the short ribs from the cooking liquid and keep warm. Strain cooking liquid into a large bowl and discard the solids. Return strained liquid to the cooking pot, set on the stove over medium-high heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Return the short ribs to the liquid, and cook until the ribs are warmed through.
Based on a recipe at Epicurious.com
Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
Dulce de Leche Cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the Crust
For the Cheesecake
For the Glace
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a springform mold. Line inside with parchment paper and butter again.
Using a food processor, crumble the vanilla wafers into a coarse powder. Stir in the melted butter, sugar and vanilla cream. Press against the bottom of the pan and about 1/3 up the sides. Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, using an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and the sugar. Mix in the eggs, one at the time. Mix in the dulce de leche, the vanila extract and the pinch of salt. Pour onto prepared crust.
Bake in the oven until it sets, about 50 minutes. Remove, let cool and unmold.
Prepare the glace by heating together the dulce de leche and whipping cream and whisking to combine. Once the cheesecake is cool, spread dulce de leche sauce on the top and sides. Note: if it cracks, you can fill the cracks with dulce de leche as well.
After months of inaction, I’ve uploaded the last three cuisines I’ve finished cooking:
My Eritrean menu included an Italian-inspired bread salad, a beef stew and a spongy bread.
My Ghanaian food adventure gave me a yummy meatball stew, a chicken and plantain stew and cake
The Guatemalan dishes I cooked, also a beef and a chicken stew, were better than the food I ate during my honeymoon!
Next on the agenda, Guadeloupean, Bissau-Guinean and Granadian food!
It’s sort of weird. I go through periods when I cook every day and make an effort to continue my international food project. Then there are periods where I go months and months without cooking at all, having take out or frozen food. And sometimes I just make simpler things – though usually that happens when I’m not caught up.
Lately, though, I’ve been cooking and I’ve been cooking quite a bit. So much so that my husband has started to complain that we are always eating something new. So I’ve made a deal that I would cook an oldie every week. But the rest will be new cuisines.
In the last few weeks I’ve finished a number of cuisines. Please check them out:
In the next few weeks I’m planning on making Chamorro, Guatemalan, Guizhou and Grenadan dishes among others.
Slowly but surely I’m continuing in my international food project. For the last fifteen years I’ve been coking foods from different world cuisines, alphabetically. I’m still at the “G’s”. It may not seem like much, but in these fifteen years I have explored 134 cuisines and cooked 441 recipes – and more are coming!
I just uploaded a few cuisines I’ve been working on in the last couple of months (or more). They are:
Among the best recipes from these cuisines there is a Bavarian onion pie to die for, a simple and delicious Bordelaise chicken and a great stewed beef.
Check them out!
No, I have not forgotten my international food project, though I always progress much slower than I want to. I’ve cooked dishes from a 133 cuisines so far, and I’m still only a little into the “G”. Still, I have now finished two more “G” cuisines.
My Gabonese menu features recipe for fish in peanut sauce, chicken in palmnut sauce and a great recipe for baked bananas.
My Greek entry has recipes for pastitsio, chicken, beef stew and a custard pie.
One of the reasons for my slow advance in the Gs is that even as I go ahead with this project, I discover cuisines I have ignored from earlier in the alphabet. A few months ago, I bought a great cookbook, Copeland Mark’s Sephardic Cooking
Another year, another complex Xmas Eve menu. This year, my 11-yo daughter Mika said she wanted a 13-course dinner. She didn’t know why, that number just came to her head, but she wanted it. I could have argued against it, but I figured with a little bit of creativity I could get there. And Mika didn’t particularly care what the courses were, as long as she had 13. And she did – even though I overcooked one of the courses so it ended up almost inedible.
The key to cooking and serving a 13-course menu all by yourself is advanced planning AND advanced cooking, as well as flexibility. To make it easier I decided to revisit some of my favorite recipes, which come from all over the world. I did decide on a new one as my main dish, Orecchiette al Ragu di Braciole, basically beef rolls stuffed with cheese and cooked in a tomato ragout, but it didn’t work out. I made it the day before the meal, and discovered that the sauce was pretty bland and one-dimensional and the meat rolls were not what I would call attractive. So decided we would just have that for dinner that night, and sent my husband to get a roast.
Roasts are great main dishes because not only because they are simple to put together, but because they look impressive on the table. Sure, they are expensive, but it’s Xmas. On the minus side, a roast requires the use of the oven, which means displacing other dishes. My second and third courses needed to be broiled, but my oven can’t bake at 300 and broil at the same time. I baked them at 300, which wasn’t ideal for either – but I overbaked the shrimp, making them barely edible.
In any case, this is what I came up with. At the end of the night I asked each guest what their favorite part was. There wasn’t a consensus (the soup, the bastilla and the roast were all mentioned), but at least not one said “the cheese”.
I served dinner with a Chateau Souverain Estate Bottled 2003 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
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