Libya

Again, not a huge choice of Libyan recipes on the internet to choose. But I was quite decisive in using 3 receipes to make a starter/mezze type dish. My pride was flattened when Kevin revealed he was also doing the same type of dish. As he had chosen Lamb, I decided to do Beef. However, due to him over buying on the minced lamb I ended up using this instead. I helped him with his pastry preparation on the night of serving and realised that his dish was very similar, and because it was nice, I knew I had a challenge on my hands. The dish that I chose was

Libyan Boureek and Lebrak with a side of Mb'atten

It had four compontents

Stuffing
I used the recipe from the Mb'batten recipe for the stuffing for all 3 of these dishes.You can vary the stuffing mixture ingredients to suit. The remaining mix of meat and herbs can be flattened into small burgers, dipped into white flour and then fried to make Kofta.


Lebrak
Lebrak is a dish made of stuffed vine leaves (locally called esselk leaves). I used green cabbage leaves as I could not source vine leaves in time, and its on Kevins hate list of food that I want to encourage him to eat. Really nice cold too.

Boureek
The Libyan basic boureek, also written as bourik, burik or bourek, is a very simple and deliciously crispy pastry parcel, stuffed with meat mixture. In other North African countries, like Algeria, the shape of the boureek is like a "spring roll" or a sausage roll. Kevins Uzbekistan recipe used Spring roll shapes with a similar mix, and i actually used his left over pastry as the recipe I used didnt specify how to make the pastry.

Mb'atten
Mb'atten is really a Libyan specialty dish, prepared on special occasions, celebrations and festivities, often with Kofta and couscous. It is a unique dish never to be found anywhere else in the world (according to the webiste that I used). They can be cooked for a further few minutes in a saucepan with a bit of tomato sauce, as follows: place all the remaining potato pieces that were left over from the slicing in the saucepan, place all the stuffed potatoes on top, pour in a bit of tomato sauce, cover the saucepan, and heat over a very low heat for about ten minutes. This turns the fried potatoes into soft and sauce-covered delicious chunks, just like adding a bit of ketchup to chips. Serve warm with couscous or salad. If there is a lot of mixture left over, then roll into small balls, flatten onto a plate containing white flour, then fry in olive oil as koftas. The stuffed potatoes are also great cold, after being kept in the fridge overnight.

Vanuatu

I drew Vanuatu a few weeks ago and was supposed to cook it on the Thursday, but due to not feeling too great I delayed it until Saturday . I finally presented the most interesting looking on the dishes to date, but have no photo evidence. Kevin deleted the memory card in error, before I had time to upload. Anyway, I wont hold a grudge, and the dish that I cant show off the photos for, beautifully served in half coconut shells was

Chicken in a nutshell

There is an easier alternative where you buy the cocunut cream and pour it over the ingredients in an oven dish and oven bake. There was a taste difference from steaming in the coconuts. We can only describe it as tasting hairier? It gave the ingredients a dry, hairy taste whilst still tasting moist. Please blog if you can describe it any better.

Uzbekistan

For the second week runing we're in Central Asia. This week Uzbekistan, which borders last weeks culinary destination Kyrgyzstan.

First, lets get the interesting fact out of the way. Uzbekistan is one of only two countries that are double landlocked, which is a country that is surrounded by countries that are landlocked (as in do not border an ocean). The only other double landlocked country is Liechtenstein in Europe. That's got to be worth remembering for a pub quiz or maybe as a potential opportunity to impress Alexander Armstrong on Pointless (UK quiz show, circa 2012/13).

The national dish of Uzbekistan is some form of Plov which is a rice dish served with a broiled meat (typically lamb). Seeing as last week we had Beshbarmak (Noodles with broiled lamb) I thought that the Plov would be a bit too similar. So I looked beyond the national dish and came across an excellent recipe blog dedicated to Uzbeki cuisine - The Art of Uzbek Cuisine. It's worth looking at for the various bread recipes alone.

After browsing through numerous pages of recipes I eventually settled on doing a selection of appetizers/snacks. It needs a snappy name, but for now it's known as: Qiyma "Zarafshon", Yupqa and Qovurma varaqi somsa with "Roziya" salati and Qatiqli salat.

 

Scores:

 

H: 8.0

 

K: 9.0 - The best dinner so far. Whilst all three of the main elements tasted very similar (which they would do considering they all had the same filling), the salad and dip really tied the flavours together. I would happily serve any one of them individually for guests as a starter.

 

Total: 17.0

Kyrgyzstan

Located on Central Asia this was/is a country I know very little about. So I had a quick look on the internet (looking at the photos it looks to have some stunning landscapes).

"Kyrgyz" is believed to have derived from the Turkish word for "forty" and is probably a reference to the forty clans of Manas, and the flag has forty rays coming from the sun are a reference to the same forty tribes. Literally translated it means "We are forty". (thanks Wikipedia)

It's also a high scorer in scrabble!

The dish I chose for tonight was the national dish Beshbarmak, which translates as "5 fingers", hopefully becuase of the way it's eaten rather than the ingredients.

 

Scores (out of 10):

H: 5.0.

K: 5.5. A lot nicer than I was expecting as I am not a few of boiled meats or stews. The sweetness of the onion worked really well with the noodle and lamb. If I made this again I think I would add a spicy tomato to it.  

K

 

Jamica

It only took about thirty seconds of 'searching' before I settled on this recipe. I'd (obviously) heard of it, but I'd never tried it. Now having made it, I'll definitely be having it again.

Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas and Festival

 

Scores (out of 10):

H: 7.0.

K: 7.5. Will definitely consider having all of the components of this meal again, but not together. Jerk chicken could become a regular but I think we'll have it with salad. 

K

Yemen

This week I had Yemen selected for me. More interesting than Ireland was my first reaction. I was interested to read that its food is influenced by Indian and Arab cuisine.

 

I opted for the national dish of Saltah, but in the last day or so I changed from a vegetarian version using Okra to a beef based one. Kevin claimed he was not aware, but declared last night how much he had hated Okra when he used it in his Barbados dish, so today I went to the market to get the beef. The Eggplant is sat in the fridge. Any suggestions?

 

The final dish I prepared is

Fasha Saltah with Hulba and Khobz bread (without Tanour or Peel)

I combined 4 recipes into one here, but have kept the ingredients seperate incase you want to mix and match. I served it as a rustic Tear and Share. We are going to use the rest of the dough for homemade pizza on Saturday.


Scores (out of 10):

H: 7.0.

K: 6.0. Nicer that I thought it would be. The bread was very good - overall would make a good sharer starter.

H

Mapping our progress

We have added a map showing the countries we have eaten from so far.

Track our progress here

Week 2: Menu

We have decided to just do two recipes next week - it's too much to prepare and cook them and then do the blog - as well as fit in work and everything else.

So the countries for next week are:

Monday 4th March: Jamaica
We had originally selected a different country, however, it's going to take some take to get the ingredients we need for that - we'll do it when the ingredients come in. Instead we are back to the Carribean after doing Barbados last week.

Wednesday 6th March: Yemen
Helen drew Yemen from the Western Asia region. I think she'll be making some flatbread to go with her dish.

Ireland

 Gammon with Irish whiskey Caramel Sauce

 

I chose this recipe at the last minute after perusing several recipes for prawn, salmon and oysters. I didnt want to do a traditional stew or pie. I had recently been discussing the fact that I had never tried Gammon! Gammon, pineapple and chips in a pub has certainly never had any appeal to me, but I was still intrigued about trying Gammon. I bought a cold mixed grill from Hull College student shop before Christmas, where they sell what the students cook, and thought this would be a good introduction! It was ok, and certainly didnt repulse, so my Gammon interest was maintained into the the New Year. When I saw this recipe it was a good time to try it out, so I settled on this 2 minutes before the deadline to reveal our recipe choices and go shopping. I didnt reveal that it had mash with it, as Kevin doesnt like mash.

Scores (out of 10):

H: 7.0.

K: 6.5. Liked the sauce and the mash wasn't that bad (for mash)

H

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Out second recipe was took us from the Caribean to central Africa: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Due to feeling a bit ropey I was a night late doing the recipe.

I did us a chicken dish based on a DRC recipe: Spicy Tomato and Peanut Chicken main and a Caakari dessert.

 

Scores (out of 10):

H: 6.0.

K: 5.5. The sauce on the chicken wasn't strong enough, but the Caakari could be used as a base for other deserts.

K



Barbados

Our first recipe and we're off to the Caribean. Specifically Barbados.

Tonight was originally meant to be a recipe from the Bahamas, but I made a bit of a mistake and accidentally chose recipes for Barbados instead, so we switched the country.

Tonight we had very tasty Bajan Style Cod with Cou Cou and Ginger Beer.

Scores (out of 10):

H: 6.5.

K: 6.5. Would definitely make the Bajan sauce again (zesty) and the wide selection of fresh herbs sprinkled over added lots of flavour. Didn't like the Cou Cou - now know I am not a fan of okra!

K

Menu change

We've not even done one meal yet and I've already cocked up!

This morning I checked the recipes for tonight to make sure that I had everything that is needed. I then noticed something strange: All three recipes are from Barbados - not Bahamas (which is what I was supposed to be doing!).  Doh!

Fortuntely Barbados is one of the 196 countries so, as I've already got the ingredients, I'm going to switch them.

Tonight is Barbados night!

K

Week 1: Menu

So yesterday we selected our first weeks eating. We'll only be doing three nights this week as Helen has a life and will be going out on the other nights.

Monday 25th : Bahammas
I'll be cooking a traditional Bahamian fish dish accompanied by homemade Ginger beer.

Monday 25th: Barbados
I'll be cooking a traditional Barbados fish dish accmpanied by homemade Ginger beer.

Tuesday 26th: Democratic Republic of Congo
Me cooking again, this time chicken stew followed by a cous-cous based desert.

Thursday 28th: Ireland
Helens turn to cook and she has chosen a Whisky glazed gammon recipe that she likes the look of.

Actual recipes and photos of each will be posted throughout the week.

How it works

Each weekend we will randomly select the countries which we will be cooking from in the forthcoming week and then spend time selecting the recipes that we would like to try.

Making use of my IT background I put together a simple spreadsheet that, on the click of a button, randomly assigns countries to days of the week.

Each country can be selected only once, and we can't have countries from the same continent grouping two nights running.

We have grouped the countries into the following continent groups:

Africa
Asia
Oceania
Latin America and the Caribbean
Europe and North America

Each Sunday we will post the countries we will be eating from over the following week and a brief preview of the recipes we are going to be cooking.

Kevin

Welcome to our food based travel blog!

 

We love to travel and we love to eat (as can be seen from my bulging gut and extra chin), however, our current financial situation means that we cannot indulge in the first of these. 

 

We had the idea that if we can't literally travel the world at the moment, then we can at least try and experience some of it through food.

 

So, what if we ate our way around the world instead, from the comfort of our own kitchen.

 

We'd talked about expanding our culinary reportoire for a while - if only to stop me eating so many chips!

 

So yesterday we decided that, using a list taken from the UN website, we are going to prepare and eat recipes throughout the year from 196 countries around the world (the list only contains countries that had a population of 100,000 or more in 2010).

 

As we make our way around the world we will post recipes and photos of the results.

 

We'd love to hear suggestions from natives/residents of the countries that we are eating from.

 

Enjoy,

Kevin