No. 50 - Cyprus - Warm Tomato and Halloumi Salad a.k.a Cheesy Symphony of Salad Sound

Q: What did the cheese say when it looked in the mirror
A: Halloumi

The halloumi (cold) (from having to take photo's) (your fault) squeaked. Not literally, in the same sense that mice squeak, more like in the sense that it was squeaky.  As in it squeaked its squeaky self between my teeth. We squeaked a sort of cheesy music together, a sort of salty salad symphony. 

Maybe it's because I'm home alone, jet-lagged/sleep deprived (dare I say it too warm), but I digged our cheesy symphony of salad sound. Although, I'm pretty sure that it's not mentioned in the recipe (and is not a guaranteed outcome.)

Warm Tomato and Halloumi Salad a.k.a Cheesy Symphony of Salad Sound 

                       

This is the part where I elaborate on how the halloumi (cheesy, lightly charred, meltingly firm) when paired with plum tomatoes ('oven blushed' with crushed garlic and herbs, left to intensify into delicious ticking 'tom-bombs') creates the most spectacular salad symphony of salty sweetness.

If you don't know, now you know.

Serves 1

100g halloumi cheese
250g of tomatoes
1 clove of garlic, crushed
baby lettuce leaves (or any kind of lettuce leaves actually)
100g green beans, trimmed
2 spring onions chopped
extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 red chili, sliced
herbs to garnish (I used tried and tested, parsley)
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven  to 180 degrees. Cut the larger tomatoes in half, then pop them all into a baking tray and toss with the minced clove of garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and whatever herbs you have lying around. Roast for about 10 - 12 minutes.

Simmer the green beans in boiling water until tender. Drain and set aside.

Cut the halloumi into fingers. On a dry frying or griddle pan, char the cheese on both sides.

To the tomatoes add the green beans, chopped spring onion and the lemon juice.

Serve the tomatoes and beans on a bed of baby salad leaves with the charred halloumi arranged on top. Add a squirt of lemon juice and and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Bish bash brilliant

No. 43 - Congo (again) - Killing Two Congo's with Two Quail (Twice)

You can tell that Sesame Street were responsible for my alphabet skills.  I still need to learn which letter comes after which without, at the age of twenty four, having to sing my ABC's. Next time won't you sing with me, for real. 

                               

This must be why (and I know I'm only on C) I've gone and (spatch)cocked it up and cooked Congo twice! I suppose that means I've subsequently cheated twice by combining the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo to make less work for myself.  Now I'm unsure if I've half cooked four countries (the two Congo's twice) or just cooked two countries adequately (the two Congo's once). 

I am willing to conveniently accept the latter - in this case two wrongs do make a right. Either way, I need to get a move on... 

Congo Spatchcocked Quail with Fried Potato, Chickpeas and Spinach                         8/10                                                     

(The Quail represents the Democratic Republic of and the potato dish the Republic of Congo)

I'm glad I didn't google what quails look like, not like chickens, like little birdies...

Before four ended up dead, plucked, with their insides still inside them and consequently their blood on my hands (and everywhere else) ...

Despite the gore, I had never tasted quail before so I was really looking forward to it. They're really good, like giant chicken wings but much better (you absolutely have to pick them up). The potato dish was also really good, better than I thought and much better than just a 'side' dish. I'll definitely cook it again. It was like a Spanish tapas dish.

For the Quail

4 quail
3 cloves of garlic
2 chillies
knob of ginger
1 tablespoon of oil
1/2 a red onion

Spatchcock your quail by putting it breast side down on your chopping board and cutting out its backbone with a scissors. I shouldn't be too difficult at all. If there are any internal organs pull (like me) or cut them out too. Rinse under a cold tap and carefully dab dry.

In a pestle and mortar, combine the garlic, chili, ginger, onion and oil. Toss the quail in the marinade the leave for an hour or as long as possible.

Grill or barbecue on a medium hot heat until cooked through. I put mine on for nearly half an hour but my grill is temperamental and likes to set off the fire alarm. Let them rest for a few minutes before serving.

For the potato dish

4 large potatoes, cooked and cooled.
1 red and green pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 tin of chickpeas, drained

a couple of big handfuls of spinach

oil for frying

Peel and cube your potatoes, fry in hot oil until crispy and golden. Soften the onion and pepper in a pan, add the chickpeas and spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted. Stir in the crispy fried potatoes and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Serve with your hot birds.

No. 34 - Do a twirl and Cameroon to yourself!

Q: “What do you do before you come 'round to yourself?"

A: "You do a twirl.”

         One of the Johns, Volvo Ocean Races, 2012.

Ndole (aren’t we all)

Ndole is a Cameroonian stew that consists of nuts, ndoleh (a bitterleaf native to Cameroon) and either fish, prawns or ground beef.

(O)n(the)dole shligo shtyle, is more like a schcutt of peanut butter (not the shaweet schtuff), shhpinach and prawns plus shtock, all shhlaaaped together. Savage.

For a real Shligo rant visit http://www.oddsocksrevival.com/

Serves 2                                                                                                                                    6/10

1 bag of baby spinach (240g), chopped

raw prawns, deveined and shelled, as many as you can afford on the ndole.

some stock made from simmering the prawn shells in water (optional)

3 tbsp of posh natural peanut butter (no added sugar or salt)

1 small red onion chopped

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 clove of garlic, crushed

3 regular tomatoes, chopped

bit of oil, salt and pepper.

To serve: rice and plantain

Saute the onion, garlic and ginger until soft. Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for a few johns. 

Add the peanut butter and a few splashes of prawn stock or water to loosen it up a bit. Bring to a simmer again. Throw in the spinach (you might need to add it a bit at a time). 

In a seperate pan, fry the prawns until just cooked.  You can mix the cooked prawns into the ndole or serve them on top with some rice and fried plantain.

Dat troot, yo.

No.8 – Antigua and Barbuda put a foot in it!

Fungi and pepper pot conjures up delicious images of a steamy clay pot full of mushrooms and peppers - at least that’s what I was looking forward to. In reality fungi and pepperpot is a ‘simple’ stew similar to any other stew, reiterating that every country in the world adds meat and veg to water and comes up with pretty much the same thing.

Fungi (pronounced foon-ji) are dumplings made from a cornmeal paste that is thickened with okra. In Antigua and Barbuda it is eaten with pepperpot, a pork and vegetable stew that contains everything except the kitchen sink. All the pepperpot recipes I found added all sorts of piggy parts including skin, bones, snout, feet and ears. I settled with adding a couple of pigs’ totters but I did remove them after about an hour. There was no way they were going to be eaten (pigs trotters are skin, fat and bone and smell pretty piggy) however they did give the stew a meatier flavor. I’m sure that you could leave them out (I like the novelty of weird animal parts) but I would recommend adding a decent meat stock instead of water if you are.

The verdict - fungi and pepperpot is a tasty stew, similar in fact to an Irish stew, although notably it does have much more flavor (due to a hell of a lot more ingredients, and a chili). But what is a stew without a spud? I craved a potato and not the funny fungi, although the butternut squash did the job well enough.

I liked this dish because this is the kind of food that all nations have in common - a pot where you throw in a few scraps of meat, whatever vegetables are lying around and season with any spices you can get your hands on – and bobs your uncle – pretty much the national dish of any country in the world. Have I cracked any major secrets of gastronomic world? Not likely, but I think I’ve definitely made a fairly basic (and obvious) discovery.  I feel I’ll be eating a lot of stews in the upcoming months!

Fungi

Fungi, fungi, fungi. The best part of fungi is how fun-gi it is to say! It tastes of cornmeal and its texture is like slippery paste, this is of course exactly what it is, but if you are going to embark on making the stew, embark on making the fungi (if only for the name). The okra struck me as bizarre but it is actually an essential ingredient because when you cook it releases a kind of green slime, which is what holds the fungi together. Do not leave it out as I nearly did.

Serves 3

1 and ½ mugs of water

1 mug of cornmeal

3 okra, sliced into rounds

salt to taste (I added quite a bit as you can imagine it tastes of nothing otherwise)

butter, to grease a bowl

Cook the sliced okra is the boiling water until tender. The water will go slightly green and become slimy. Remove a mug full of water and reserve. Add the mug of cornmeal to the remaining water and okra and mix up as best you can. Then keep adding the reserved mug of water, bit at a time. The idea is that the cornmeal gets cooked so keep that in mind – keep kind of mushing it together so everything gets a chance to cook from the heat of the pan. It should take between 5 and 8 minutes altogether to cook the cornmeal.

When all the water has been incorporated, grease a bowl with a little butter and dollop a spoonful of the paste into the bowl. Try and cover the spoonful with a little butter and then pick it up and shape into little dumplings. The butter will stop your hands from getting covering in goo (on second thought you could maybe just grease your hands!) Serve with the pepperpot

Pepperpot

What can I say - pepperpot is a good old-fashioned stew – perfect, hearty comfort food. It’s as simple as bung it all in and let it do its thing. This recipe is very adaptable so don’t feel you need to add absolutely everything (although the okra thickens the stew), similarly feel free to add absolutely anything you have lying around (the more meat the better). Like I say, pigs feet are optional but then so are snout, ears, cheek and God knows what else.

Serves 3

Vegetable oil

100g bacon, roughly chopped

100g minced beef, made into little meatballs

2 pigs feet, optional

Vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 cloves

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

a few sprigs of thyme

1 birds-eye chili, seeds left in, chopped

1 aubergine, cut into cubes (neither peeled nor salted)

a handful of okra, halved

½ butternut squash, peeled and cubes

a handful of frozen peas

half a bag of baby spinach

lots of salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot and fry off the little meatballs and bacon pieces until brown. If you don’t have room in this pan which you inevitably won’t, brown of the pigs feet in another pan. To the bacon and meatballs add your chopped onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Next add absolutely everything (this includes the pigs feet), excluding the peas, squash and spinach. Cover the vegetables with water. Simmer for about an hour.

After an hour remove your feet and skim of any excess fat. Continue to simmer for an hour. Check the seasoning – you do not want a bland stew!

After another hour add the butternut squash and peas. (This is when I got on with the fungi)

After fifteen minutes, when the squash is cooked stir in the spinach and serve with the fungi.

No. 2 - Albania drove me insania!

(I am so sorry, they’re just gonna get worse and worse. I can’t help myself.)

Albanian Byrek (spinach and feta “filo” tart)

For Albania I needed make filo pastry – from scratch. If you have enough space, don’t mind the mess and are not put off by having to use a mop handle as your rolling pin (thoroughly washed, I promise), by all means give it a go. In future however I will be buying it prerolled and frozen.  Unless your Albenian grandmamma has taught you, you may never get it as thin as proper filo, I certainly didn’t. I know its not that helpful giving a recipe for a pastry that failed but this is, I guess, what not to do? The filling is yum - spinach and feta, whats not to like. So good in fact, you could screw the pastry altogether. And kudos to Gretta for giving me a hand, whilst holding a nice big glass of red in the other!

Serves 4 for dinner

Plain flour, 400g

Cornflour, for dusting

salt, pinch

400ml of tepid water or there abouts

Spinach, 200g bag

Feta cheese, block, crumbled.

Small onion, chopped.

Pepper, freshly ground.

I started by attempting to make the pastry (don’t do it). Mix together the flour and salt and make a well in the middle. Gradually add water and stir in with a fork until it forms a dough. Its the same method for bread so do it whatever way you’re used to. Knead for a few minutes then divide into 8 balls. Four balls become the base of the pie and four balls become the top.

Dust your surface with a little cornflour, put a ball on the cornflour and then sprinkle a little more cornflour on top of the ball. Roll it out to about the size of your hand, brush it with a little oil and then place another rolled out ball on top. Repeat until you’ve your four balls rolled and stacked but do not brush the top of the final ball with oil. Had enough of balls yet? Next you have to roll out the stack you’ve made to be as thin as you can possibly make it - translucent thin if you can. Make sure you dust with cornflour. Repeat all of the above with the other four balls, so you have two really thin, large sheets of filo pastry. Make sure they’re slightly bigger then your tin.

Then get on with filling which is thankfully simpler than the pastry! Heat up some oil in a pan and throw in a diced onion and fry until translucent. Pile on your spinach and wilt, then throw in your block of feta, smash it up and mix it in. Season with loads of black pepper. Done.

Back to the pastry. Brush your tin with a little oil and roll the pastry around your rolling pin/mop handle and transfer it to the base of the tin. Press it into the corners. Spread the spinach and feta mixture on top of this and then top with the other sheet of pastry. Cut off any excess pastry and kind of roll and squeeeze the two sheets together to form a seal. Finally brush the entire surface with a little oil and bang into a hot oven until the top is golden and puffed.

Serve with left over salata from Afghanistan!

If anyone can successfuly make this pastry will they please let me know. I can’t believe I have been defeated already, and its only country number 2!