Tunisia: Couscous

I could probably knock three or four countries off the to do list with my preparation of the national dish from Tunisia. Seriously, three African countries - Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia - claim couscous as their national specialty.

Either way, I wasn't going to, like, go roll my own semolina flour (maybe next time : ) So I thought I would prepare a traditional vegetable and chick pea stew to serve over some boxed couscous.

I made some variations to a a recipe I picked up one year at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival for a traditional veggies and couscous. This is a really simple one pot meal with loads of veggies in it!

Ingredients:

1 box (4 cups) chicken stock (I use an all natural kind by Kitchen Basics because it has no preservatives and SIGNIFICANTLY less sodium)

2 tbsps. olive oil

salt

pepper

1 pinch of saffron

1 yellow onion, diced

About 2 cups cabbage, chopped

3 turnips, peeled and diced

4 carrots, peeled and diced

3 tomatoes diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 cans of chick peas

1 more cup chicken broth

couscous

What to do:

Put the first four cups of chicken broth in a pot with four cups of water, some salt, pepper and the saffron. Bring to a boil then add the onions. Let boil for a few minutes. Add the rest of the veggies and chick peas. Let boil until the veggies are tender and the liquid has evaporated. This could take an hour. If the veggies are too firm when the liquid starts evaporating, add more water.

Prepare the couscous following the directions on the box. I use the chicken broth instead of water to give it more flavor. When the couscous and veggies are done, serve the veggies over the couscous.

Well, that's it. Another cooking weekend done. I have survived to cook another day : )

Back at it

After my brief weekend of laziness (if one would call preparing four dishes for a dinner party lazy) I've dipped back into the wine bag of fun and pulled out the next two countries.

The two I pulled were the Dominican Republic and Tunisia, so hopefully this weekend I will get to both of those. Stay tuned ...

Mali: Timbuktu lamb stew with couscous

I love eating lamb, but until I started making this stew I forgot what a pain in the ass it can be to cook with. Most of the better cuts I've come across in the grocery stores involve large hunks of bone that make it difficult to salvage all of the meat from.

Either way, the effort is well worth it. I've done several other slow-cook stews that involve lamb, and I think it could just be the perfect way to cook it. The stewing process makes the sweet meat deliciously soft and tender.

This recipe is marked by just about every spice in the spice aisle. (That's a slight exaggeration, but you seriously use eight, not including the salt or garlic). It creates an amazing flavor combination that dances across your palate leaving hints of sweet, tangy and finally the hot from the cayenne pepper.

Anyway, for the most part I followed this recipe from recipehound.com, with some alterations with ingredients and techniques.

One of the most noticeable differences is that I used carrots in mine (in my never ending effort to use all of the food in my refrigerator). I also thought it could use some color. I was also fairly arbitrary about the spice adding.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

About 2 pounds of lamb, cut into 2 inch chunks

salt

pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced

5 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks about the size of the meat

1 tbsp. cumin

1 tsp. fennel seeds

1/2 tbsp. ground cardamon

2 tbsps. ground ginger

more pepper

1 tbsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 can whole tomatoes

water

2 yellow onions

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 cup dates pureed

chopped parsley

couscous

What to do:

Season the lamb with salt and pepper (I usually do this before I cut it into the cube pieces). Heat the oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and the meat and cook until browned. Add the carrots and cook a few more minutes. Next add the following spices: cumin, fennel seeds, cardamon, ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Mix well and cook a few minutes.

Then add the can of tomatoes and their juices. Add water to cover all of the meat and bring pot to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and let cook for an hour.

When the hour is up, add the onions, date puree and cinnamon. Again, bring this to a boil then reduce to a simmer for another 30 to 40 minutes. You want to cook it until the juice thickens.

You can eat this dish over couscous, or just as is (which is actually what I did with a side of potatoes au gratin). Sprinkle with the parsley before serving.

Surprise detour ... through Comoros!

Well I decided to live really wild this week and spontaneously pull a country for a quiet Friday evening at home doing some cooking. The lucky draw was Comoros, a country in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa.

I could not immediately locate a national dish for this country, so I started doing some Internet research to come up with a recipe.

Comoros must be a pretty nice island locale because over the years it was invaded by various groups from Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Persian Gulf region. France and Portugal also paid their own friendly visits.

Of course all of these people were kind enough to bring ingredients from their native countries and introduced them to the Comorosians. This inspired an eclectic cuisine that revolves heavily around rice and meat cooked with various spices, like cloves and saffron, vanilla and cardamon.

I found a decent recipe for a Comorosian chicken curry. I'd post the link, but the web site kept freezing my computer every time I visited it. Besides, I altered the recipe anyway to use up some of the building arsenal of ingredients in my refrigerator.

Without further ado, my version of a Comorosian chicken curry.

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (More if you are cooking for more people, obviously. I still have a ton of food frozen from last week so I need to start scaling back my portion sizes.)

Canola oil

1 yellow onion, sliced thin

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 serrano peppers, chopped

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated

5 tomatoes peeled, diced (You can use fresh, or canned tomatoes - whole or already diced. I used whole, canned plum tomatoes and diced them.)

6 whole cloves

About 2 tbsps. ground cardamon

About 1 cup of vanilla greek yogurt (let sit to room temperature)

1 tbsp. flour

About 1 tbsp. ground cumin

A pinch of saffron

Arborio rice

What I did:

Start by heating about 2 tbsps. of canola oil in a frying pan. Clean the chicken and when the pan is hot throw it in, searing the two pieces. Let the chicken sit for a few minutes on each side so you get a nice brown barrier that will lock in the juices. When done searing, pop the chicken in the over (pre-heated to 350 degrees) to let it finish cooking for (about 25 minutes).

Add the onions, garlic, peppers and ginger to the pan and let it all cook until the onions are soft. Then add the cloves and cardamon and let cook for a few minutes.

When the chicken is done, add it back to the curry and add the tomatoes. Reduce to low heat.

Meanwhile, mix the yogurt with the cumin, saffron and flour. Take a few tbsps. of the curry sauce and add it to the yogurt slowly, mixing briskly. This is supposed to gradually heat the yogurt so it does not curdle. Remove the chicken from the pan, and stir in thre yogurt/curry mix and stir quickly to prevent curdling. Cover and let simmer for one hour.

Meanwhile, cook the rice so it will be ready to serve the chicken over.

I really enjoyed this dish. The seared chicken was tender and juicy and the curry sauce is a nice balance of the full flavors of the spices and the kick of the serrano peppers. The ginger also helps cool the palate from the peppers.

Next up ... Mali

So the next draw from the wine bag of fun and adventure ... Mali. I'm just planning on one country this week - for now - since the weekend is already shaping up to be pretty busy. But I have big plans to pick up my slack next weekend and do my first multi-country feast. Maybe I should have called the blog Cooking Around the World in 80 Weeks?

Mali does not appear to have a national dish that I could easily find, but it does have the legendary city of Timbuktu. I learned this when I found a decent-looking recipe called Couscous De Timbuktu, a stew made with lamb, dates and spices served over couscous. Sounded pretty good to me so I'll be making it this weekend.

In other news in my world of food, the Travel Channel's Man Versus Food filmed an episode in Sarasota that will air tomorrow (Wednesday). The word on the street is that host Adam Richman visited the Salty Dog Cafe, Munchies 420 and Yoder's Amish Restaurant, where one can find a variety of different yummy pie products.

The show will be on at 10 p.m.