Estonia, smells fishy

tere,

For this Northern European country we decided to cook Fish Soup with Vegies. This soup sure smelt fishy, the smell was strong and the soup was a bit too watery for my liking.

hüvasti

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Eritrea, new ingredients, hot dishes

Hello,

Eritrea is an African country to the north of Ethiopia, the country has a history that is shared with Ethiopia and some of the cuisine is similar.

Part of the recipe called for spiced butter, this is essentially butter with spices used in both Eritrea and Ethiopia, I made the butter using the relevant spices of cardamom, ginger, garlic, cloves, onion, turmeric powder, allspice, oregano and fenugreek seeds.

For Eritrea I made Tsebhi Sga which uses chili, spiced butter, tomatoes, onion and beef. Typically, injera is served with it. Unfortunately, injera wasn’t an option as it takes two days to make. Ethiopia is getting pretty close though so maybe then.

The meat dish was spice, full of flavour and a touch hot for my liking.

Goodbye!

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Equatorial Guniea, fine simplicity

Hola,

Equatorial Guniea is another former colony of Spain but situated in central Africa. Equatorial Guniea is known for Succotash, typically a dish eaten as a side in America, Succotash would be frequently eaten as a main course in areas of poverty.

This dish is quick and easy to make consisting of corn, tomatoes and lima beans. Surprisingly, the dish is really nice, I decided to eat the dish by itself to get the full flavour of it. It was very buttery and would have been better with some sort of meat as well but overall it was nice.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 7/10

El Salvador, souped up

Hola,

Another country from Central America, given we are heading into winter here in Melbourne we are starting to look for warm recipes. For El Salvador we decided to cook a Salvadoran Chicken Soup.

Vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables went into the soup along with chicken, garlic and chicken stock. The end result was a beautiful soup. Unlike the Ecuador soup, the El Salvador soup left overs were very much appreciated.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 9/10

Egypt, fit for a king, well maybe a pharaoh

مرحبا

Egypt has a number of wonders of the ancient world, tonight it had a wonder of the culinary world. Maybe I was just hungry, maybe it was the waiting but Egyptian kebabs are the first meal that I just had to give a 10/10.

These kebabs, with a yoghurt based marinade, turmeric powder, mustard, curry powder, lemon juice, cardamom and vinegar were beautiful.

وداعا

Sam’s rating: 10/10

Not so good Ecuador

Hola,

For this South American country we decided to cook Quinoa Soup.

The soup was rather bland and almost porridge like in texture, maybe it is one of those meals where it must be eaten straight away and left overs are not good at all. I think I could only ever eat about half of what I had dished up due to the taste.

Adios, thank goodness.

Sam’s rating: 4/10

Dominican Republic, another nation with a similar name!

Hola,

Last night I cooked a dish from Dominica, tonight it is the Dominican Republic, an island to the north west of Dominica. Unlike Dominica though, the Dominican Republic is a former Spanish colony.

We decided to cook Pollo Guisado, otherwise known as braised chicken. This chicken is rubbed with lime and marinated with salt, onion, garlic, oregono and celery. It is then cooked with tomatoes, green capsicum and coriander. Served with rice, it is an extremely tasty dish.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 9/10