A day without a recipe

If you're one of those people constantly glued to the Weather Channel, you probably know that it's been really freaking hot in Florida. Hot and humid. The kind of heat that makes you sweat as soon as you step out of your apartment. The kind of humidity that just weighs down your body and soul, making you feel worn out and tired.

The kind of weather that you can put up with for a few months, but that you're ready to see break around the time everyone else in the country is out looking for pumpkins.

Well, thank God for FINALLY sending some relief to Florida.

This weekend we're experiencing what we Floridians call a "cold front." I don't think the temperature dropped below 70 all day, but that's cold after months enduring temperatures upward of 90. (Although not cold enough that I couldn't go for a little swim ... quite lovely because I was the only one there. Apparently the children who usually inhabit the pool on the weekend aren't so hardy).

Either way, I was having such a lovely time drinking my morning coffee on the patio, looking out over my little retention pond without breaking a sweat I thought "Wouldn't it be great to just spend the whole day like this?"

So I did. Well minus some time for the workout and the swim.

Maybe it was also the universe's way of getting me to slow down a little. As I sat on the patio, I thought back on the past few months and realized not a weekend day has passed that I didn't spend much of my time in the kitchen, quite often much of the day pursuing ambitious recipes under a tight deadline of expecting company.

So today I relished in the art of just laying low, catching up on some magazines and chilling on the patio. Besides, it was also a good opportunity to finish off one of the backlog of dishes in my freezer - the Comoros chicken from a few weeks ago.

La ropa real

So if anyone is looking to try a recipe from my blog, I'm going to make an official recommendation to try the rope vieja I posted last week courtesy of Emeril.

The recipe yielded quite a bit of the shredded meat, and I spent most of the week pushing it on friends and eating it for lunch at the office. For starters, I was surprised some people had never heard of the traditional Cuban dish (or in my case Dominican). But those who observed me eating it at work thought it looked and smelled delicious. Some even asked for the recipe.

Perhaps the greatest compliment of all was from my friend Cat, who has Cuban friends in Miami. She tried it last night. Apparently it was only the second one she had. The first was from a Cuban grandma. She ranked mine right up there.

I can't take any credit, though. It all goes to Emeril. The recipe is really fairly easy to make, just fairly involved. And just remember that it does take a while.

My second recommendation would be another one from Emeril - the Greek Moussaka. That one, however, is really for the fairly ambitious home cook. Slicing and frying all that potato and eggplant is pretty tedious.

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 : )

Dominican Republic: Ropa vieja with kidney beans and rice

I'll start by acknowledging that I am fully aware ropa vieja is most widely considered a Cuban dish. The wikipedia list of national dishes, however, describes the national dish of the Dominican Republic as white rice topped with stewed kidney beans and braised beef, served with a side of salad. The dish is known as bandera nacional, or national flag. I have no idea how they came up with that.

Either way, when I started looking for recipes for a braised beef dish unique to the Dominican Republic I kept running across recipes for Dominican ropa vieja. All of those recipes looked quite similar to the so called Cuban ones. I also learned that ropa vieja is quite popular in countries throughout the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Panama and Puerto Rico. Besides, no one claims it as their national dish so I thought I'd give it a go. (Cuba claims a pork and vegetable stew called ajiaco.)

There are apparently varying stories about where the name ropa vieja - which means old clothes in Spanish - came from, but one of the most popular is about a poor old man who could not afford to buy food for his family. So he went to his closet, got some old clothes and cooked them. His love for his family turned them into a beef stew. Impressive.

I once again turned to the man himself, Emeril Lagasse for a ropa vieja recipe. I probably cheated a little because the meat isn't so much braised as it is boiled and simmered for hours. There was no searing or oven involved. And yes it definitely took hours to cook. Three hours for the initial simmering, and then another 30 to 40 minutes after you shredded the beef (which this recipe called for brisket). The result though is a nice pot of tender, shredded beef in a thick sauce flavored with peppers, onions and tomatoes. I'll be curious to try the leftovers and see how it tastes once the flavors melded. I served the ropa vieja with the white beans and kidney beans.

Now, on to Tunisia...

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 ...

Syria: Tabbouleh

I figured a good tabbouleh would be another nice accompaniment for the kababs. This simple salad is basically a combination of chopped, fresh herbs with some tomatoes, bulgur wheat and scallions. Bulgur wheat is made from durum wheat and has a light nutty flavor. I think it has a consistency like oatmeal.

For this one I once again turned to the Barefoot Contessa for guidance. I thought her tabbouleh recipe is kind of heavy on the bulgur wheat, but you could easily fix that by not using so much.

I also used the veggie chopper again for this recipe to chop the herbs. It smelled amazing grating the mint!

Lebanon: Kibbeh

Lebanon's national dish, kibbeh, is pretty similar to the kabab's from Iran. The difference is the kibbeh has bulgur wheat mixed in with the meat.

And what do you know, one of my favorite celebrity chef's Emeril Lagasse actually has a kibbeh recipe. Who would have thought? The recipe is actually for kibbeh with caramelized onions and some sort of pomegranate molasses, but I just stuck with the kibbeh. Remember. Keepin' it simple.

I'm still trying to decide which one I like better - the kabab or the kibbeh. The tumeric in the kabab gave it a really nice and different flavor. The Emeril kibbeh had a variety of other spices, including all spice and cinnamon. The bulgur wheat gives it a firmer texture. Hm...

Well I'm pretty hungry after all this cooking and blogging. Now I just need to decide what to feed myself. I think I've got my meals for the week covered.

And yes, I know the kibbeh also look funny. Can't we all just see past appearances?