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.

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