Pakistan, breakfast for dinner

Hi,

Tonight we decided to cook a Pakistani dish, well actually I should have said this afternoon we decided to do it because the meal took 6 hours to cook. Rather than use a special nihari beef cut which is essentially similar to lamb shanks, I decided to substitute lamb shanks for it. Sometimes chicken is also substituted for this recipe. The dish was served with naan bread.

Typically, this dish is eaten in Pakistan as a breakfast meal however we decided to consume it for dinner. Slow cooked lamb always creates a melt in your mouth moment and it was tasty with naan bread. All in all, it tasted fairly similar to Oman due to similarities in spices.

Bye

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Oman, kibsa dish

مرحبا

Oman is a Middle Eastern country where we decided to cook kibsa which is sort of a biryani. The chicken and rice were cooked with clarified butter (butter that has the fat solids removed) and a number of different spices, raisins, almonds, prunes, potatoes and egg.

The dish is ok but definitely not my favourite due to the mix of spices.

وداعا

Sam’s rating 6/10

Norway after a break

Hallo,

So I have reached Norway after not cooking for two weeks over Christmas, Christmas at home proves to be a nice, spoilt break from the kitchen. The Norwegian traditional dish that we chose is Fårikål.

Fårikål is a slow cooked lamb and cabbage dish, extremely simple and the lamb is delicious. The lamb and cabbage was cooked in water with peppercorns. I don’t really like cabbage but it was surprisingly tasty after two hours of cooking.

Farvel.

Sam’s rating: 7/10 

North Korea, is this what they really eat?

안녕하세요

North Korea, one of the most notorious countries on the planet, I wondered about their national dish and if it is what the general population really ate? Most likely not. In any case, we decided to cook Chap Jae, a noodle dish from the region.

The dish was quite nice, minced meat and noodles, a lot of noodles. The dish was filling and quite tasty, I really doubt it is something eaten by most North Koreans.

안녕

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Nigeria, where is my mouth?

Hi,

Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and is a former British colony. We decided to cook Suya, essentially kebabs, for this country.

The roasted peanuts were ground with cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, ground ginger, garlic powder and onion powder added to make a spice mix. The beef pieces were then marinated and the kebabs were grilled.

The meat was nice and the roasted peanuts added an interesting flavour to the meat but it was extremely hot. My mouth went numb after eating it although I am a bit sensitive to hot food.

Bye

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Niger, beef balls

Bonjour,

This country is consistently ranked one of the lowest in the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI), I am quite sure that what I ate tonight is probably not typical of the general Nigerien people but hopefully it is somewhat representative of the middle class.

We made O JoJo Balls and served it with mashed yam. The balls were tasty despite not having anything in the way of spices added to it. Simple to make and gluten free they would be a potential substitute for rissoles.

Au Revoir

Sam’s rating: 7/10  

Nicaragua, a dish of nations

Hola,

Nicaragua is a Central American country and their national dish Gallo Pinto, is also the national dish of Costa Rica and a fierce rivalry exists between the two nations over its origin.

The dish involves kidney beans and rice with chilli and spices, essentially exactly the same as we cooked for Costa Rica although with the Costa Rican Gallo Pinto we had meat with it. This dish needed some meat, according to one source it is typically eaten with scrambled egg.

The Costa Rican Gallo Pinto I rated a 7/10, for this one though it is probably closer to a 5/10 due to lack of meat and the like, perhaps it is a bad way to judge but never mind.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 5/10