Dominica Delight

Hi,

Another island nation and a rather surprising dish, for Dominica we cooked Calypso Chicken, chicken that was marinated in vinegar, garlic and thyme cooked in sugar and butter. It was then cooked further in wine and water along with mushrooms, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

It was a delightful dish although I did find the ginger flavour a touch strong, we decided to serve it with mashed potatoes, carrots and peas.

This country was quite exciting as well, it marks a quarter of the way around the globe!!!

Bye!

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Djibouti Dish

Bonjour,

This former French colony in Africa is influenced by the French cooking. The dish we decided to cook was Skoudehkaris, an aromas meal using spices typical of Africa, cumin, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and cayenne.

The dish tasted very similar to other Afican dishes and wasn’t anything special in itself. Nice enough all the same.

Au revoir

Sam’s rating: 7/10  

Dreary Denmark

Hej

Denmark, a country renowned for its Danish pastries and beautiful dishes however we elected to take the easy way out settling for Danish meatballs.

These meatballs were cooked with wine and served with a pickled salad. I found it a touch dry for my liking and I certainly missed the pastries, it is a pity the challenge is to cook main meals!

Farvel

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Czech Republic

ahoj 

Two roasts in one weekend, it seems that we are living well or trying to catch up on our recipes. This roast was a pork roast cooked in beer. While not quite as good as the lamb roast from Cyprus the pork roast taught me a few new things about making gravy and cooking with beer.

The roast didn’t take as long to cook and was served with cabbage, carrot and dumplings.

Dumplings, I can’t follow the recipe for them and my first attempt at putting the dough into boiling water caused it to go everywhere. In the end I settled for baking the dough which actually turned out quite nice.

This meal is certainly one that is best served hot and best if there are no leftovers.

sbohem

Sam’s rating: 9/10

Cyprus Capers

γεια σας

For this island in the Mediterranean we cooked a lamb roast, it was typical of most roast so nothing too different. While I couldn’t duplicate their cooking methods which typically uses a wood fire oven, the lamb was cooked in the conventional oven for over 5 hours.

After so long in the oven and slow cooking, the lamb was melt-in-the-mouth beautiful, the dish was served with roast vegies.

The Cypriots know their stuff about cooking lamb, that’s for sure!

αντίο

Sam’s rating: 9/10

The land of Cuba

Hola,

The largest island in the Caribbean is Cuba, a land which seems stuck in the past. It seems a fascinating place and one that I would like to visit.

For Cuba we cooked spicy pork with beans and rice. Spicy was the right word! There was a bit too much tomato for my liking.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Game of Cooking, Croatia

Zdravo

For this European country, currently popular due to the Game of Thrones, we cooked calamari. The dish was cooked in the oven with potato, white wine, onion and other seasoning. Unfortunately, I think the calamari that we used, which was more typical of calamari rings and dried out too much in the oven.

Considering the bad cooking methods, it was pretty bad, a little bit dry and maybe a touch too much wine.

zbogom

Sam’s rating: 5/10

Slow at Côte d'Ivoire

Bonjour

This chicken dish from Côte d'Ivoire called Kedjenou was nice and served with cous cous. The dish is typically cooked in a well-sealed pot, we opted to use a casserole dish covered in foil.

There is a lot to be said for slow cooking, a number of slow cooked meals are rich in flavour and tenderness.

Au revoir

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Beans and rice with Costa Rica

Hola,

For this central American country we cooked Gallo Pinto. A rather odd combination, beans and rice but a nice meal all the same. The sausage in the meal was spicy adding a twist to the beans and rice.

Hasta la vista

Sam’s rating 7/10

The tale of two countries, Cheating with the Congos

 

  Bonjour 

So tonight I decided to cheat a little, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo are extremely similar countries, neighbours and with the same national dish. The Congos do have different histories with the Democratic Republic of Congo being a former French colony and the Republic of Congo being a former Belgium colony. It is interesting that two countries that are so close together with similar cultures and often mentioned in the same breath have enough differences to be divided.

Their national dish Chicken Moambe is a combination of chicken served with rice. It contained peanuts (not my favourite) but was quite tasty.

au revoir

Sam’s rating 7/10

Coromos, yet another island

Islands, islands, islands, they are what seems to take the most time in cooking despite being so small. There are thousands of them around the world. Coromos, a former French colony has a deep history. It gained independence from France in 1978 yet one of the four islands claimed by Coromos elected to remain under French administration.

Coconuts were exported from Coromos in the 1800’s and form an important part of their cuisine. We cooked akoho sy voanio or chicken in coconut milk.

Interestingly, there is a strong Arabic influence in this country with legend saying that Islam made its way to the country in the 600’s.

Sam’s rating 7/10

Colombia, a new type of meat

Colombia set in the upper part of South America. In this dish I had my first taste of crab. I cooked Arroz Atollado de Cangrejo which is essentially crab and rice. It is amazing how versatile rice is in the world cuisine, South America, Africa and Asia it is truly a global ingredient these days.

Back to the crab, it was crab from a tin. I guess anything from a tin isn’t quite as good as the real thing but it wasn’t bad. I could eat it again despite the seafood smell of the dish!

Sam’s rating 7/10

China, everyone knows this one

 

As the most heavily populated country in the world with around 1.3 billion people, China has a wide range of dishes. A trip to the local Asian supermarket showed the extent of their cuisine, from cow tongues to pig trotters, there was a wide variety of recipes to choose from.

I am becoming more adventurous with food but I decided that cow tongues were still too far out of my comfort zone, perhaps a bit too much for me to stomach.

We cooked GingerGarlic Chicken for the Chinese meal, it was delicious. I think this one surpasses all my other meals, the test? I had leftovers and two people in the staff room commented that it smells good. That had never happened before so either it is a good recipe or I am becoming a better cook. I want to believe the latter.

Sam’s rating: 9/10

Chile, with a coastline like that, you must have fish

The long narrow strip of land called Chile is quite a remarkable sight on a map, for its size it is interesting how close everything seems (on a map) to the coast.

Chile was one that we had to cheat for, but then again it means I have to visit since we couldn’t produce the truly authentic recipe. The recipe was for Sauteed Chilean Sea Bass but Sea Bass isn’t available in Australia.

A quick Google search provided Barramundi as a potential substitute so the recipe really ended up Sauteed Chilean Barramundi. Another recipe murdered by me.

This recipe was beautiful and tasty, served with roast potatoes and carrots.

Sam’s rating: 9/10 

Chad, another African country

Chad appears to be the dry neighbour of the Central African Republic, the cuisine of Chad varies with the desert in the north and what seems to be less harsh conditions in the south.

Rather unsurprisingly, I found the dish I cooked for Chad, Jarret de boeuf,  to be similar to that of the Central African Republic. The cloves brought about a whole different flavour though.

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Central African Republic, how original!

Talk about cultural shock, with a name of Central African Republic one has to wonder if the name could be more original, or perhaps not? The Central African Republic despite their rich reserves such as uranium, oil, gold, diamonds and the like is among the ten poorest countries in the world.

I cooked Beef in Cumin Sauce for this country, one quite large surprise about this recipe was the tangy flavour caused by the lemon juice. I didn’t really expect that in the meal.

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Cape Verde or Cabo Verde?

When I commenced my journey this country was called Cape Verde, the list I use has recently caught up to calling it by its official name, Cabo Verde. No problem at all but it did throw my list out for a moment there.

Cabo Verde is a collection of islands off the coast of Africa, to be honest, I think I have had my fill of islands but there are so many more to go! This country was strongly influenced by their Portuguese colonists and this was reflected in the Bacalhauà Gomes De Sá.

The meal was average to say the least.

Sam’s rating: 6/10