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. 46 - Costa Rica - Let's tico taco bout it!

I’m sorry, but Jamie Oliver I just whooped. your. ass. at tacos. 

That is all.

Seriously though, I’m sure there is something else I can think to say about these tacos. 

No,  I can’t think of anything.  Except I want some. That and it's ridiculously fun to say tico taco (with a Mexican accent).

Ticos Tacos

For the Shredded beef:

1 kg beef chuck

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp chili powder

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

salt and pepper

1 stock cube (for good measure)

Tacos:

White cabbage, shredded

Tomato, chopped

Tortilla wraps

Coriander

Grated cheddar

Tabasco

Taco Sauce (Big 4 sauce last time I checked):

4 tbsp tomato ketchup

4 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp mustard

juice of ½ lemon

dash of Worchester sauce

In a large ovenproof pot with a tight fitting lid, sear the beef on all sides in oil until brown. Throw in the rest of the ‘shredded beef’ ingredients along with enough water to almost cover the beef. Bring to a simmer and pop in the oven (130) for 2 – 3 hours, until meltingly tender and falling apart. Remove the beef and reduce the remaining juice until it’s nice and thick. You should probably skim the fat of at this point but I won’t tell anybody if you don’t. Shred the beef, return to the juices and give it a good toss.

Lay out your tortilla wraps and spoon on some of the shredded beef, ensuring that there is not too much excess liquid (you don’t want your tortillas going soggy before you taco them). Fold the tortilla over so you have a crescent shape. Heat a dry pan on a medium heat and lay your tortilla in carefully. When it has browned nicely and crisped up turn it over and do exactly the same with the other side.

Top with shredded cabbage (not to be underestimated), tomato, tico taco sauce (just mix all the tico taco sauce ingredients together), coriander and tabasco if you are that way inclined.

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. 28 - Cool Beans in Brazil!

This entry is going to be very short. I will not ramble. I am in the process of moving flat and so have many more important things to be doing than divulging the culinary attributes of Brazil. However I did make this nearly two weeks ago and I thought that if I don’t post this now, I’ll have forgotten what it tastes like, not to mention what I put in it.

This is a very loose interpretation of a Feijoada, or Brazilian Black Bean Stew.

Feijoada

In short, a sausage chili con carne made with black beans and without the chili. A fair description I think.

Note: I was yet again in Sligo for this one, making my parents fund the extensive shopping list once more and so I couldn’t get my hands on any dried black beans, or even tinned black beans for that matter, so I opted for (forgive me Brazil) black bean sauce - of the Chinese variety. Somebody should take away my right to have a food blog right now! I am terribly ashamed but it’s the closest I could get. To make up for my shortcomings, I also threw in some tinned mixed beans, I think there were kidney beans, pinto beans, probably some other beans and who knows? There may have even been some black beans in there too.

Warning: Vegetarians look away now.

Serves 8 - 10

1 large smoked sausage, say 500g, sliced

chorizo, 300g, sliced

300g Irish sausages, cooked and sliced

a few gammon steaks, sliced

any other meat you fancy, the more the merrier

1 large onion, sliced

a few cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tin of tomatoes

3 tins of mixed beans

1 large jar of black bean sauce

salt and pepper, to taste

Sauté the onion and garlic in some olive oil and then add all of the meat, beans, black bean sauce, and anything else I may have forgotten that is mentioned above. Stew for a couple of hours and serve with rice. And there you a have it, my woeful attempt at Feijoada and any carnivores wet dream.

          

No. 27 - Botswana lick the plate!

Botswana, another country that’s fun to say in a Sligo accent.

Another day, another stew. This time potjiekos, which is a Botswanian stew, cooked on a three-legged cast iron pot over an outdoor fire. Literally translated ‘pojiekos’ means ‘pot food’ and is pronounced poy-key-cos. Luckily enough, there happened to be one of these pots lying around the house that my Granny P. picked up somewhere. It’s rarely used and so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get back to our African roots, light a fire and cook some good old-fashioned ‘pot food’.

I can imagine the women in Botswana, hunched and sweating over their potjiekos, the sun blazing down on their backs. Being in Ireland, it was of course raining. Being Irish, we didn’t let a little rain stop us and got a little turf fire lit (not very African) and the potjiekos on the go. The African Gods were obviously impressed by our potjiekos making perseverance because the rain stopped, and low and behold - the perfect African sunset.

Groundnut Potjiekos

I’m getting the feeling they have a thing for peanuts in Africa, which is fine by me because I love peanut butter. This stew quite obviously tastes of peanuts if you know they’re in there. If not, you might not be able to put your finger on it or wouldn’t know unless someone told you - and then after you’d be kicking yourself for not figuring it out.

The first mutterings over the dinner table were proclamations that it was “unusual”, which we all know is generally a bad sign. However everyone agreed that it improved with every mouthful and in the end it was so incredibly moreish, it was difficult to stop and we nearly licked the plates.

Serves 4 – 6

6 chicken legs

a little oil for frying

1 red pepper, diced

3 cups of water

2/3 jar of peanut butter

a piece of ginger, grated

2 tbsp brown sugar

120g tomato puree

1 tsp cayenne pepper

(Get a fire started outside. Anything will do, coal, wood, turf, whatever)

Prepare the sauce first. Whisk together the peanut butter, tomato puree, ginger, brown sugar, cayenne pepper and the water. Set aside.

 

Put your pot above the fire, heat your oil and fry the peppers and onion for a few minutes. Then add the chicken and brown on all sides. Cover with the peanut sauce and let simmer for roughly an hour. Serve with rice balls and some hot sauce (this time hot sauce is legitimate because the particular one we used was from South Africa (not that we ever need an excuse). Rice balls are just mashed rice rolled into balls. Careful not to burn your hands, although I can’t really see any way around it.

No. 23 - Bermuda Whyangle – Why So Much Yucca?

Thanks for the title Gretta. It’s inspired. But any yucca, is too much yucca.

If you hadn’t already gathered, the main ingredient for this Bermudian dinner was the unfortunately named and not so aesthetically pleasing yucca. Yucca and I didn’t hit it off so well to begin with. First of all, it was expensive, annoyingly heavy to carry home and then nearly impossible, with my physical attributes at least, to get a knife through it – a chainsaw would have been more effective. Once inside the almost impervious bark, there’s nothing you can do to a yucca that you can’t do to a potato. The difference of course being that yucca is fibrous and lumpy, and potatoes are fluffy and simply delicious. Yucca pretends to, wants to be a potato. It’s a potato impersonator. An imposter. A phony. A fake. But we’re Irish, come on now. We can’t be fooled. We’re a bit more spud savvy. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Yucca Pie

This recipe is really a form of baked spud bol or in this case yuc bol (apt or what?), but that’s an argument that’s already been had. Yuc bol is just one of the many sacrifices, we make so that you guys can laugh about how hilarious it is that we have to eat weird stuff for dinner. On the plus side, the filling is bolognese with the added bonus of sausages. There is nothing can’t be improved by adding pig in some form or another.

If I was doing this recipe again I would half the quantity of yucca/potato and double the quantity of meat, but that’s just me. And for the record, yucca is not that bad so don’t be put off. But it has squat on potato, so just use potato instead and you’ll be laughing. Best of yuc!

By the way, still no camera charger.

Serves 4 – 6

1 kg of yucca

a large knob of butter

a handful of grated cheddar

a generous splash of milk

2 eggs

more grated cheese for sprinkling

For the filling:

3 sausages, sliced into rounds

250g minced beef

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until soft. Add the mince, sausage and brown for a few minutes. Add the tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper and simmer for around 30 minutes.

Peel and dice the yucca/potato, cook in salted water until tender (between 10 and 20 minutes) and drain. Return to the pan, add the milk, butter, cheese, eggs and mash.

In a baking dish, layer half the mash mixture, top with the bolognese, and then the last of the mash. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in a preheated oven at around 180 degrees, for half an hour or until the top is golden and crispy. Dig in but be careful not to burn yourself, as underneath the yucca lid lies molten bolognese.

No. 13 - Austria - Don’t be a Weiner!

The perfect solitary supper and an indulgent treat for one - perfect if you fancy spoiling yourself, kicking back and enjoying the luxury of a veal chop home alone. This was the dream, but when I asked for a veal chop in the butchers, I couldn’t believe my ears when he weighed it and said it came to €6.15! For a skinny wee veal chop! Needless to say, I looked from the butcher, to the veal chop and back to my designated €5 note and hesitated for probably an embarrassing length of time. The butcher sensing my skepticism agreed that it was a bit expensive so I didn’t feel to bad sending it back to be replaced with a lousy pork chop. Another time, he said, when you want to treat yourself. Problem is, when I want to treat myself I buy a steak.

I wanted to translate the name of the recipe from wiener schnitzel (veal coated in breadcrumbs and fried) to the equivalent pork coated in breadcrumbs and fried. I discovered that schnitzel refers to veal coated in breadcrumbs and fried and Wieners are those sausages, so the jury is still out on what this dish is actually called but I would make a guess and calling it a pork schnitzel seems about right, even if Weiner makes me laugh.

Pork Schnitzel

Obviously a weiner schnitzel is the preferred schnitzel, but the pork one’s not half bad either. It’s really just a glorified breaded pork chop and I had mine with slow roast garlic tomatoes, which recipe doesn’t feature here because it doesn’t technically belong in Austria. I had loads of tomatoes left over from the barbecue and fancied getting rid of them all at once. Its just some crushed garlic, basil and olive oil spooned onto some halved tomatoes and roasted in a low oven for a couple of hours – in case you were wondering. Instead, make yourself a green salad, spritz over some lemon juice and you’re more likely to find yourself in authentic Austria territory. Oh and using a veal escalope might help!

Serves 1

1 pork or veal chop

a plateful of fresh breadcrumbs

a plateful of plain flour

an egg, beaten

vegetable oil for frying

Salt and Pepper

Lay out three plates in front of you with flour in the first one, beaten egg in the second, and breadcrumbs in the third. Lay the chop on a chopping board, cover in cling film and bash to flatten with a rolling pin (or the cling film roll in my case). Try and get the chop as flat and skinny as possible. Season the chop with salt and pepper on both sides.

Then dip into the flour, shake off the excess. Then into the egg, shake off the excess. Then into the breadcrumbs, shake off the excess. Heat the oil in the pan and ensure that it will come half way up the chop when it’s in the pan. Fry the chop in the hot oil for a few minutes aside until just cooked. Serve with a green salad and a spritz of lemon juice if you want an Authentic Austrian Supper.

No. 11 - Arubaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I’m going to keep this short and sweet today. I’m still recovering from Skippy’s Aussie Barbecue last night (I did this recipe last week by the way), so thinking about food, talking about food, writing about food, just about anything but actually eating food is the last thing on my mind. Skippy didn’t quite make it in time but you’ll hear all about it in due course. By the way I am particularly proud of the title of this blog entry!

Upon researching the cuisine of Aruba I was faced with the prospect of yet another stew (its all these Caribbean islands), so you can imagine my excitement. What I fancied was a proper curry, and with India still a long way away, I managed to find one on the website, visitarbuba.com (you can check if you don't believe me). A proper curry, maybe not, but at least it gave me the excuse to make one. The recipe called for goat, water, curry powder, an onion and little else. For fear of ending up with a chip shop curry with some goat floating in it (although not a stew, it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind), I added a couple extra spices and a tin of tomatoes to boot. The result was a tasty curry that hit the spot but I couldn’t claim that it’s an authentic Aruban dish and to be honest, I don’t really care. Sometimes you just need a curry.

Now back to my hangover.

Goat Curry

10 goat chops

1 clove of garlic, minced 


2 tomatoes, quartered 


2 onions, chopped 


1 tin of chopped tomatoes

3 scallions, chopped 


1 chili, chopped


3 tbsp curry powder.

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp turmeric

Throw everything except the tinned tomatoes in a bowl and marinade for a half hour. Take out the meat and fry it in a couple tablespoons of oil until browned. Then add the rest of the marinade ingredients, the tin of tomatoes. Fill up the empty tin with water and bung that in too. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours. Serve with yogurt, rice and naan bread. Perfectly Aruban.

No.10 - Armenia - the good, kebab and the ugly!

We're in double digits! Hurray! Also if you are regularly checking out Culinisation, will you please become an official follower of the blog – I’m unashamed to say it’s just to boost my ego!

Armenia was the first barbeque of the Culinisation gastro tour. I had assumed (as we all regretfully do) that it would be raining/windy/cold or all of the above and hadn’t even considered doing this one outside but it turned out that the menu and the fabulous weather called for it. I forgot to mention that this was at my home house, a.k.a my parents house, and it was a great luxury to have their kitchen to work in not to mention an actual outside for the barbeque in the first place. Fortunately for me, and just on queue my dad took the ‘dad role’ and responsibility of the barbeque so I could sit back and enjoy a glass of wine. The view’s not half bad either.

So this is in fact a family and Grange special edition of Culinisation complete with dodgy family photos! Expect plenty more to come as I am heading back to the home house a.s.a.p to help my sleep deprived Mum babysit her new puppy - who is turning out to be as much trouble as a new born.

Also is it a crime to repeat these for Skippy’s Aussie BBQ next week? Get back to me.

Lulu Kebabs

These are just the ticket if you’re doing a barbeque for some friends – they’re cheap, easy to make, obviously tasty and they make a great alternative to a burnt sausage. Also who doesn’t love a kebab (and I mean a real kebab) with a nice warm wrap, crunchy salad and some garlicky yogurt? I used minced beef because, if you don’t know by now - I’m not exactly loaded, but if you want to you can do half beef and half lamb or just all lamb – whatever tickles your fancy. This work is made light if you’ve a blender, just bang all the ingredients in and whizz it up. My parents’ blender is Stone Age and weighs a tone so I just chopped everything my hand. As usual I got a little carried away with the wine, the mixture was therefore too wet, the kebabs refused stay on the sticks and became, well sausages.

Yum and great before a few drinks and not just after them!

Serves 4

500g minced beef or lamb

1 onion, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

a splash of wine (careful)

a tablespoon of tomato puree

a handful of parsley, chopped

a handful of basil, chopped

a clove of garlic, chopped

a teaspoon of cumin

salt and pepper

Mix everything together in a bowl once chopped or throw everything in a blender and whiz up. Divide the mixture into 12 in the bowl with a knife and press a twelfth onto the wooden skewers (I soaked mine before hand to prevent them burning to no avail. You could even say to hell with the skewers and make them into burgers, sausages - whatever shape you fancy.) Let them firm up in the fridge for half an hour and barbeque on a hot charcoal fire. For times you’d need to ask my dad.

Armenian Salad

This is another simple salad (although I know all salads are simple). The feta and olives make it worthwhile and its great in a wrap with the kebabs. It’s my kind of salad – it doesn’t feel the need to add lettuce.

Serves 4

2 tomatoes, wedged

1 red onion, sliced thinly

a couple of spring onions, sliced.

a bell pepper of your choice (not green), sliced

a good handful of black olives (or Kalamata olives if you can find them), halved

feta cheese, crumbled to taste (I’d say roughly 100g)

a few basil leaved, chopped

some parsley, chopped

Dressing:

juice of half a lemon

same quantities of extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

tbsp of sugar

Salt and pepper

I don’t think I really need to tell you what to do, do I?

Garlic and Yogurt Dip

I also made a garlic and yogurt dip. I have no idea if its Armenian or not, I don’t really care because it’s a must to go with the kebab.

 ½ clove of garlic, crushed

a cucumber, diced

½ pot of greek yogurt (250g or there abouts)

salt and pepper

Same as above

No.9 - Don't burst on me Argentina!

Feet up in front of the telly, a colossal pile of my new favorite thing - empanadas with a spicy tomato dip, juice dripping down my face and arms, uncontrollable mmmmms and lets be honest, my idea of heaven. Spicy beef, olives and a hard-boiled egg all wrapped up in a puff pastry paradise – what more could you want? A glass of wine maybe? Done.

What more can I say? Beware though, they are extremely addictive!

Empanadas

These are the most worthwhile thing I've made so far. I love anything wrapped in pastry but there really are something else, not difficult just a little time consuming but fun at the same time (for me anyway) because they're so damned cute. My inexperience with pastry (in Argentina they use a kind of ‘over and pinch’ motion that I neither had the patience nor the knack for) and the fact that I crammed them with filling meant that they inevitably burst open in the oven. This doesn’t phase me in the slightest as I haven’t yet heard of anyone complain of too much filling in their pie. True to my word (see Armenia), I bought the pastry this time and will definitely be doing so in future. God bless Mr. Jus-rol!

Makes about 12

400g minced beef

1 onion, diced

I clove of garlic, minced

2 tbsp of cumin, maybe more

2 tbsp of smoked paprika, maybe more

1 tsp cayenne pepper

a dash of hot sauce, to taste

about 10 olives, sliced

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

salt and pepper

1 packet of puff pastry

1 egg, for glazing

water for sealing edges

Soften the onions and garlic in a pan. Throw in the mince and allow to brown, then in goes the cayenne, cumin, paprika and a dash of hot sauce – do all of this to taste. Note: I added way more than in the photo (below) afterwards - spices in Argentina are seemingly more potent than spices from Tesco so I just lashed more in.

Roll out your puff pastry to as large as you can manage (I used the trusty mop rolling pin again) and cut out circles of pastry using any suitable implement. You can do the empanadas as large or a little as you like.

Pile a ‘small’ amount of the meat mixture in the centre of the pastry circles, then top with a slice of egg and a few slices of olive. With your fingers or a brush wet the edges of the pastry and proceed to fold the pastry over to create a half moon, making sure to poke and prod the filling to persuade it to stay in. Seal the parcels as best you can by folding the pastry over itself and pinching. Place on a baking tray and wash with beaten egg. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Eat with an empanada in one hand and a spoon for loading it with tomato in the other.

Spicy Tomato Dip

This is really just chopped up tomatoes with some lemon juice, pepper, salt and a chili but it is absolutely necessary to go with the empanadas. I found a recipe online that served them with a cooked tomato sauce but I thought cooking ripe tomatoes was too much of a shame (and truth be told, too much effort) so I made this bad boy.

Enough for the 12 empanadas

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped

I chili, deseeded and finely chopped

juice of ½ lemon

Salt and Pepper

Lash everything in a bowl and mix.