Morocco, couscous delight

مرحبا

Morocco is a northern African country where the most common meals include couscous. We decided to cook a chicken tagine and serve it with couscous.

The tagine was made using a number of different spices including garlic, ginger, cinnamon and harissa. Honey, raisins, almonds and apricots were also added to the dish making it a bit unusual. I loved the tint of honey. Chickpeas and a butternut pumpkin (squash) was added.

A nice dish with some interesting ideas, I like to cook with honey.

وداعا

Sam’s rating:7/10

Montenegro, not a fav

Zdravo,

This small European country situated near Kosvo speaks Montenegrin, a language that I have never heard of. We decided to cook Balsica Tava.

The meat was a bit chewy for me and seemed like it needed to be slow cooked, the end result was a bit watery with a slightly, almost cheesy taste in parts from the sour cream.

Dovidjenja

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Mongolia, beautiful aroma and tasty

Сайн уу

Mongolia, a land that I imagine to be spacious, filled with wide open plains and wild horses. For this receipe my parents joined me to eat and we decided to cook Mongolian Tung-Po Mutton.

The mutton, potato and carrot was deep fried briefly before cooking in the oven for over three hours, the dish was served with rice.

My parents quite liked the dish and it was tasty enough but not something that I would rave over.

Баяртай

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Monaco, cheesy delight

Bonjour,

Monaco is known for its pastry and seems to be an extension of French cuisine. We decided to cook the national dish of Barbagiuan.

This recipe consists of Swiss Chard, eggs, rice, cheese, leek and onion that is mixed put in the middle of a dough. After making the kitchen look like a war zone, the combination is fried in oil.

The Barbagiuan is fairly tasty with a cheesy taste of the outer dough and a nice filling. I really like the concept and would be keen to do it with a different filling.

Au revoir

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Moldova, cabbage delight

Alo,

This former Soviet country is one which I was unaware even existed. The country is located between Romania and the Ukraine. For this country we cooked Sarmale (Stuffed Cabbage or Vine Leaves).

The stuffing was wrapped in cabbage leaves and then returned to the pot to cook the rice within the cabbage leaf.

I am usually not a big fan of cabbage but this dish is surprisingly beautiful.

La revedere 

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Micronesia, Simply Superb

Hi,

This country is a collection of small islands to the north of PNG. The recipe was called the boring name Chicken Micronesia. It was chicken cooked with pineapple, soy sauce, ginger and coconut. It was so simple yet so tasty.

I am probably somewhat biased as I am partial to pineapple and soysauce, there isn’t too much with those ingredients that I don’t enjoy.

Bye.

Sam’s rating: 9/10

Mexico Mush

Hola,

Mexico, probably one of the cuisines I enjoy the most in the world, tacos, tortillas and burritos all make me drool at the very name of them. However, for this recipe we decided to find an authentic (or atleast as authentic as possible) chicken enchiladas.

We followed the recipe and blended the ingredients which turned to much. After a lot of searching we found corn tortillas as mentioned in the recipe. The recipe reminded me of the enchiladas I tasted at some Mexican restaurants in the United States a bit softer then I usually have them and typically I have wheat tortillas wraps rather than corn.

 Surprisingly, I didn’t particularly like the US Mexican restaurants that I went to and it makes me wonder if I just like the Australian version of Mexican cuisine (and I use the word Mexican very loosely).

Adios

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Marvellous Mauritius

Bonjour

I have a theory about recipes having cooked my way (with my housemate) half way around the globe. The theory is the hungrier I am, the more delicious the dish. I am sure that all my ratings would be different if I was less hungry or more hungry whatever the case may be.

This dish was a chicken one, called Chicken Daube. The chicken and potatoes were stewed in a beautiful marinade of chicken stock, tomato, thyme, garlic, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, chilli and white wine.

To me, in my hungry state the meal was beautiful.

Au revoir

Sam’s rating: 10/10

Plain Mauritania

مرحبا

This is an Islamic country in the north western part of Africa, we decided to cooklamb with couscous which reminded me somewhat of the Mali recipe.

However, unlike the Mali recipe, this recipe contained little to no spices except for garlic. As a result, the meal was fairly plain.

وداعا

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Marshall Islands, a chance to use banana leaves

Hi,

I have been looking for an excuse to use up some of the banana leaves for a while and the Marshall Islands are just the perfect excuse. We decided to cookchargrilled coconut fish parcels. The paste, rempah had a strong coconut flavour to it and the shredded coconut made taste a bit grainy.

In cooking the fish it was difficult to tell if it was cooked but it was a pleasant surprise that the fish was cooked through. I think I prefer my fish cooked the traditional way and lemon is still my preferred flavouring.

We served this dish with sticky sweet potato which was ok but could have done with a bit more cooking, my bad.

Bye.

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Malta, finger food

Hi,

In this island country we decided to cook their traditional dish of pastizzi, this one was pork and pea flavour.

Having never cooked with pastry before it was interesting to learn how it is made (although we cheated using store brought pastry) and the pork was cooked for several hours. It amazes me how soft and tender any meat can get if it is cooked slow.

These pastizzi bursted with flavour of mint and soy sauce, I like the flavour but it was a touch too strong for me. I will attempt it again someday or a variation of this. I love the pastry surrounding the pulled pork.

 Bye.

Sam’s rating: 8/10

A date with Mali

Bonjour

For this African country we truly went to Timbuktu, a city of Mali and chose the recipe Couscous de Timbuktu.

 The stewing beef was tasty and slow cooked. The flavour of the dates came out in the meal adding a fruity touch. It was a tasty dish.

Au revoir

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Maldives, fried

Assalaamu alaikum

The Maldives, a beautiful part of the world and one place I hope to visit one day.

For this island nation we decided to cook vegetable fried rice. It was nice but somewhat disappointing, didn’t have as many spices as the Chinese version, or atleast in larger amounts.

 In order to add some meat to the meal we decided to serve the meal with tuna and prawns.

vakivelan

Sam’s rating: 7/10