Madagascar: Ny alina mitondra fisainana (The night brings wisdom).

After last week and our trip to Monaco, we packed away our Prada shades and folded our designer jeans and off we went to a much more rugged destination.  We arrived eager and ready in Madagascar, commonly referred to as the “Red Island”.  Much like the red soil and constant erosion which provide for the nickname, so too where our stereotypes for this country washed away.  For this small island nation (4th smallest in the world) stricken by poverty, they sure were rich with culture.  

When thinking of Madagascar, most may think of the animated film.  Helen thinks of her dear friend Adventure Andy.  Andy runs and adventure travel company, largely wildlife based, to remote regions all over the world.  His connections reach from Costa Rica to Sri Lanka, Botswana to Siberia.  Not only is he a rugged travel enthusiast, he is an amazing chef, as his friends and lovely family can attest. So, we turned off our Google engine and turned to Andy for a three-course excursion to Madagascar.

We began with a traditional coastal crab dish.  Now would be an excellent time to point out that most of our lives have been spent in bathing suits at Wrightsville Beach.  Our family lives, breathes, and wrote the Book on Seafood (only found on the shelves of the Heyward mind).  It’s genetic.  So, we were overly excited when we got Andy’s first recipe for Malagasy Crab Legs.  We’ve had crab boiled, baked, stuffed, caked, and even deviled, but never prepared in a wok.  

We heated the wok with olive oil, onion, garlic and fresh shredded ginger.  These ingredients were all recurring items within this country’s cuisine.  We sweated everything down for a few minutes before we laid the legs to rest in the pan.  As you know, we are not blessed to live by the seashore anymore and couldn’t find the traditional Dungene crab clusters, so we hit up our new favorite store, Compare Foods, for 2 lbs of legs.  Most crab you’ll find in the supermarket has already been flash steamed to kill bacteria so you won’t need to cook these very long.  Right before you take the crab off the heat, squeeze some lime or throw a little bit of white wine over top.  No need to reach for the salt...this dish is literally finger-lickin’ good as is.  We give this dish two claws up.

Before we moved onto our main course, we had to prepare the traditional hot chili relish.  More commonly referred to as ‘Sakay’, this spicy relish comes in such varieties as lemon and onion.  We decided to combine to the two and cheated, as we normally do, and used a box shredder cuz we have no fancy knives. We got out a little bowl and stirred up some shredded ginger, some onion, pressed 2 or 3 garlic cloves, the flesh of a lemon or two, and one chopped Serrano pepper and stirred it up. Yes, we know we’re wimps. You can do Habanero or Sakay peppers if you want a challenge.  This relish is served as a side to almost all main dishes of Madagascar, has a great flavor and packs as much heat as you want it to.  

Andy also blessed us with our main dish this week, ‘Ramazava’.  For lack of better way to describe, it’s a meat stew.  It’s hearty, healthy, and delicious.  Serve over rice, add sakay, a little garnish if you’re feeling fancy, and enjoy.  This is our version of this traditional dish - it makes enough to feed a family of about 7.  Start with about 6 cups of water, throw in some beef bouillion cubes, about 6 oz of tomato paste and 6 chopped roma tomatoes. Stir it up and let it cook down a bit.  Again, we turned to Compare for the best meat in town and got 1 ½ pounds of each of the following: Stew Beef Chunks, Stew Pork Chunks, and Chicken Breasts (chopped in 1-2 inch pieces), all boneless.  We all know meat is better on the bone, so do it if your heart desires.  Throw in some lamb if you’re feeling frisky.  You then add the meats consecutively and remember, DO NOT RUSH!   After all, we live in a world in which all meats are not created equal.  Start with the beef, followed later by the pork, finishing last with the chicken.  Don’t throw in the pork until that beef gets tender, as with the chicken to the pork.  Add swiss chard or spinach about 30 minutes before serving. This is a dish that could easily be cooked all day.  If you own a crock-pot, it might be well put to use here.

 Add some rhythmic African music, perhaps that of Radio Vazogasy which streams live out of Antananarivo and you’ll see the kitchen transform.  Look out the back window.  Lemurs!  One climb up the Baobab tree, a sip of Rice Water, a gulp of rum, and this trip will be complete.

Monaco: Nun sëmu pa gaire, ma defendëmu tüti a nostra tradiçiun. (We are not very numerous, but we all strive to defend our identity)

After our voyage to the small island nation of Saint V&G, it was off to the second smallest country in the world.  Is it French?   Is it Italian?  Is it Fretalian?  Oui, Si, and Yes.  This is the land of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.  Their love was inspiration for all of Hollywood to pack up their Louis Vuitton luggage and head East to this posh vacation destination.  If you're not at the Grand Prix, you can spend your time losing several thousand Euro in one of Monaco's exclusive Casinos - only available to tourists.   However, we come for the food. We'd like to begin by pointing out that this country of no more .78 square miles was incredibly difficult to research.  It houses almost 33,000 people, none of which prefer to share Monegasquen cuisine on the internet.


We timed everything to perfection for this course; it all finished at the same time.  Bear in mind, that this is opposite of tradition European cooking with everything is served in courses. We started with a "Baked Cheese Wedge".  We've be watching Jersey Shore Season 3, and felt this to be a welcome version of this Monegasquen dish.  This by far surpassed any other cheese bread we've ever had. It can best be described as a hybrid of bread and quiche.  Take note that this requires some simple preparation, so start it first.


After beginning our baked cheese alchemy, we moved on to 'Oignons a la Monegasque'.  What comes to mind when you think of Onions?   Of course, like a true Monegasquen, you're saying 'raisins'.   Peanut butter and jelly.  Waffles and syrup.  Onions and raisins. These are some of life's great pairings.  You might be shaking your head right now, but seriously, don't knock it until you try it.  You start by soaking the onion to cut it's pungency.  You combine red wine vinegar and sugar until your reached the ideal sweet/sour ratio.   Next, your make fancy herb wraps to float atop the delicious ocean of simmering onions.  Turn the heat and leave it a while; seriously, don't "sweat the onions".

On to the main course, "Pan Bagnat".  This was the original 'Grace Kelly' recipe.  We scoured Al Gore's internet for Monegasquen cuisine to very little avail.  However, the ONLY consistently mentioned dish was Gracy Kelly's own Mediterranean style stuffed sandwich.  We made it with green pepper, onion, black olives, tomato, boiled egg, drizzled olive oil, and fish.  We were adventurous in using the traditional anchovy, but tuna, sardine or chicken would be easily substituted.  The sandwich is sans formage, but we think feta or goat cheese would be a welcome addition.



The whole meal was excellent, but the highlight was the cheese bread.   We were so exhausted from cooking and dodging the paparazzi that we had to hop on our G-6 to head somewhere south of the Equator.  "We're now cruising at 36,000 feet", said the captain, "you're now free to move about the cabin".  It's time for a quick nap, because next stop is Madagascar.  Until next week we say, "A votre sante", "Salute", "A votre salute".


Music this week brought to you by: "Radio Monaco".

St. Vincent & The Grenadines: Mwen grangou! (I'm hungry!)

Guatemala was a fabulous experience. We had a quick tutorial in Salsa dancing and a brief lesson in Spanish. Apart from that, we learned how to make Banana Bread (To be honest, I wouldn’t know how to spell Banana if it weren’t for Gwen Stefani). Central America had such flavour. Yes we spelled flavor with an extra ‘U’. After all, we haven’t yet been to Britain and we’re practicing.

Next on the list of the list of travels was “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”. If you’re anything like us, you’ve just opened a tab in Google right now wondering, “Where in the world is that? Sounds hot.” Google and Wiki have schooled us again: It’s an island in the ‘Lesser Antilles chain between Grenada and St. Lucia’. “Oh.”, you might be saying to yourself, “I knew that”. Or, you can be like, “Antilles, wut?”

We learned some quick “Vincentian Creole”, picked up a case of Red Stripe, (hey, Jamaica is close!) and off we went to find the true national drink. We found the authentic cocktail of St.V&G, The Golden Apple Drink. Now, when we read golden apple, we think golden DELICIOUS apple. So that’s what we made it with...along with a full pint of the Captain Black Label instead of 2 tablespoons. I mean, really? Then, as it soaked with the shredded apple, we turned to google again to define the Golden Apple. Turns out, apart from the mythological tie to the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite and Helen of Troy (holla!), the Golden Apple is not an apple as we know it here in the States, but a Caribbean fruit with a taste similar to pineapple. It also is called June Plum, Dew Plum, and Pommecythere. Our confusion aside, our golden delicious turned out, well, delicious. The apple mixed with rum, clove, cinnamon, lemon juice and a little bourbon felt like a cool breeze on a tropical night. Heated up it was like a warm blanket on a Slovakian night. Next time, we plan on saving the shredded apple for a rum-induced pie.

For our main dish we had Guinness Bottle Chicken Stew. Don’t worry, you don’t eat the bottle. You can, however, ‘taste’ the ingredients frequently. After all, we wouldn’t want to over saturate the chicken would we? I prefer to fry my chicken in true Vincentian manly fashion. Shirtless. This dish requires chili powder, so be cautious as not to over season. On second thought, you do have Guiness on hand, so powder away.

For a side, we had stuffed sweet potatoes. Now I’ve had my sweet potatoes boiled, baked, candied, and even grilled, but never stuffed. But to quote my favorite Creole chef Emeril, you throw some bacon, onions, diced meat, and kettle corn together, and ‘BAM’, Vincentian stuffed sweet potatoes. We left out the diced meat and kettle corn, but it was outstandingly tasty nonetheless. No need for a dessert with this meat and potato combination, the sweet potato was enough to satiate any sweet tooth.

It’s hard to leave the gorgeous white sand and blue water if the Caribbean, but next week we head to an international vacation spot: Monaco. Until next week we say, “Mwen swaf anpil - I'm very thirsty “

* Music this week was provided by Reggae!

Guatemala: Las aguas más profundas hacer el menor ruido.

After the indigestion from Thailand had subsided, we moved on to Guatemala.  This Central American country is a paradise full of mountains and beaches.  It’s incredibly colorful with food, dance, and culture as old as the Mayans.  Streaming live Guatemalan radio made the kitchen come alive with rhythm.  The bananas and tomatillos played the marimba while the radish and cilantro salsa’d across the counter-tops.  Es possible que puedas aprender espanol despues de una noche cocinando y escuchando musica de ese pais muy bello.  

We started with a simple salad Picado de Rábano (Guatemalan Radish Salad). A lot of people aren’t particularly crazy about radishes, but the combination of mint, orange juice, lime juice, & salt really complemented this rather boring root veggie.  However, we were divided in our opinion of the end result- Bax thought lettuce might have been a welcome addition, but I thought it was wonderful as is.  We both agreed that the leftover juice was delicious mixed with vodka. Salud!

We’ve come to find in our travels that much of what makes the foreign cuisine so wonderful is it’s simplicity.  It’s incredibly American to add ingredient after ingredient until you lose sight of the flavor of each individual ingredient.  We over-season, over-cook, over-add, and over-sweeten nearly every food we eat.  If you’re refrigerator at home is anything like ours, the condiments outnumber the food by almost 2:1.

Our next dish what can only be described as a Central American ‘Chicken Pesto’.  Jocón (Guatemalan chicken in tomatillo-cilantro sauce) was a fantastic change over the same chicken recipes we’ve been fed since birth.  If the Mayans are as accurate with their calendar as they were with the perfection of this dish, then we'll definitely be in for a surprise in 2012.  Since Tuesday, I have already made this dish again and followed the recipe directly - even with the sesame/pumpkin seed paste.  A coffee grinder truly is the best way to get these seeds transformed into a fine powder, but a food processor and some elbow grease with a pestle & mortar will work too.  The tahini we used on Tuesday was a great substitution...and a lot easier than the whole seed ordeal.  

 We served the dish over rice, but it could have easily easily been served with a pasta or put in tortillas or tacos.  Jocón calls for tomatillos, the likes of which, neither of us had ever encountered.  After a quick ‘google search’ for “How to prepare tomatillos” we were instant experts.  Tomatillos are much like the smaller, over protected, more colorful cousin of the tomato.  Peel off the paper like covering, cut of the top, and dice.  It was that simple.  

 

 For dessert we had Pan de platano (Banana Bread).  This turned out perfectly and the best part is that it’s incredibly easy.  We didn't have either sugar or cinnamon on hand.  But luckily Bax has a sweet neighbor that provided both. We made the bread in a 9x11 casserole dish and it cooked in about 15 minutes.  We're guessing that the loaf or muffin pan may take a little longer. 

Next week we head west to “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines” for a taste of the Caribbean.  Until next time we say “Salud”.

        

Thailand: หนีเสีอปะจระเข้ (Out of the Frying pan and into the Fire)

Egypt was fantastic, but way too laborious.  So we dumped the sand out of our shoes and headed east to Thailand (ราชอาณาจักรไทย) for a respite. Thailand, hands down, wins the award for best city names.  You could visit the capital, Bangkok, and when you tire of the city, say Phuket and well, move on.  Here in Charlotte, Thai food is all the rave.  We venture to say it is the top ethnic cuisine sold here after Mexican.  Thai House, Monsoon and Thai Taste are all amazing restaurants that we frequent.  So, when fate handed us Thailand, we were excited and fearful all the same.  How could we ever get to the savory level that is found in those delicious dining establishments?  

After weeding through many websites, we decided to go with only two dishes for two reasons: The huge undertaking in Egypt had left us exhausted.  Secondly, to make authentic Thai cuisine, you must use spices and pastes that are not normally found in a Southern kitchen.  We basically had to start from scratch.  Two dishes were plenty.  And yet, we still cheated. 

We started off the evening with Tom Yum Goong (Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup).  Kaffir lime leaves are a huge part in Thai cooking, and this soup is no different.  Unfortunately, these little leaves are quite elusive, even in Asian markets.  It seems even the grocer has to have some sort of hook-up with the wholesaler to get these little leaves.  Our neighborhood Asian grocer had no such hook-up.  Neither did we.  So, to make this soup, we used a Tom Yum bouillon they had instead.  Here is the revised recipe:

2 squares Tom Yum bouillon in 4 cups hot water

Big handful of shitake mushroom (make sure to chop off the stems)

Big handful of dried lemon grass (couldn't find the fresh!)

Sprinkle of dried cilantro (forgot to get the fresh!)

2 limes - juice and zest

Sriracha Hot Cock (Thai red chili sauce

Handful of bean thread (clear noodle-like strands)

1 lb shrimp last, stir till pink.  

Of course, if you can find the fresh herbs, use those instead.  If you do dried lemon grass, don't be idiots like us - strain it out before you put everything else in.  Also, we discovered that shitake mushroom stems are not soft even when cooked down. Don't use them.  If not, you'll end up with a surprise in every bite.  Aside from the aforesaid silly mistakes, this soup is absolutely fantastic and very quick to make.  It has a ton of flavor and a good kick too.  You can leave out the Hot Cock altogether if you're not a fan of the spicy.  

  From there we moved on to  Gang Naw Mai Neuw Sub (Beef and Bamboo Shoot Curry).

We made a substitution replacing the beef with shrimp.  We also added zucchini and carrot.  If you’ve never had bamboo shoots, you’re in for an experience.  They are eerily reminiscent of alien tentacles but amazingly tasty.  Instead of making our own red curry paste, we got a packet of it made by Aroy-D from the Asian Market.  We should have known it was going to be spicy when we saw 19% of the paste was pure red chili pepper.  Naw, that's not that much, right?  Whew. Wrong. If you have the intestinal fortitude to handle the curry assault, then we salute you.  Otherwise, grab the air-freshener, take a magazine and don’t forget to light a match. 

If you’re a fan of Asian cuisine then you’ll absolutely love the next part.  It’s cheap.  Outside of the shrimp, this meal cost us $15. And we still have enough stuff to make it all again.

        Stay tuned for the next adventure, because we’re done with the Eastern hemisphere and we ship off to a country where the beaches are hot and the music is hotter.  Until next time we say, Choc-tee!

Egypt: أَكْل العِنَب حَبَّة حَبَّة . One Step at a Time

            After a brief stay in Slovakia we headed south to Egypt. Week 1 had been successful. No cuts, contusions, lacerations, burns or any other minor kitchen disasters. We learned that it wasn’t the dishes themselves that were difficult to make, but the rare ingredients and spices that were hard to find. Where does one find Tahini Paste? Furthermore, what is Tahini paste? Tahini Paste, or Sesame Paste, is a paste made of ground sesame seeds. Would we ever use it again? The more involved we became in the research for each country, the more we saw common trends of ingredients between region.

How did we arrive in Egypt? As ridiculous as our Conquest is - we do have a method. We choose our next country at random as our current trip comes to a close. Using the CIA World FactBook app on our Robot phone, we swipe and stop on a country in the list, eyes shut. We cannot visit the same continent twice in a row.

Egypt was particularly exciting, invoking thoughts of hot sand, ancient pyramids and black eyeliner. The start of civilization, the invention of the calendar year, the 24-hour day, pen, paper, glass, cement, wine cellars, brewing practices, organized religion, irrigation... It was deep. We got a little ahead of ourselves in trying to honor an epic country with an epic night.

So...let’s try an extensive five course, fully involved, Egyptian buffet. After some tapas of grapes, honey, hummus, cheese, and pita we started our first course of Fasolia Khadra Lil Salata (Fresh Green Bean Salad). This salad is a fantastic summer salad. It’s light, crisp, and refreshing compared to most of our heavy American salads.

The next dish, Kushari, was a traditional Egyptian meal great for those of us who are desperately looking for an escape from the ‘pasta in jar’ so commonly available at the super market. Here might be a good place to add that 3 common spices in Egyptian cooking are cumin, cinnamon and baharat spice. It was an excellent variation on Americanized dishes.

The highlight of the evening was definitely the Mashi-Phil-Phil (Stuffed Peppers). Apart from an awesome name, these peppers were stuffed with much more than meat and rice. They contained an ingredient that made wine disappear. You see, the worst part about these peppers is that they take FOREVER to cook. As the scent of stuffed pepper deliciousness filled the kitchen, we bonded over wine and good stories.

 To finish off the evening we had‘Molasses with Tahini’ served with pita. For those of you that have had Nutella, it was very similar.

The Arabic Jams were provided by:Egyptian Radio

Until next week, we say Fee sihetak!

Slovakia: "Okuliare na nos!"*

Let's get one thing straight. We are not Foodies. We're novice cooks that like good food and drink and are trapped in the United States by our own financial folly. (Or the economy...whatever). So, when the idea came about one cold night in South Charlotte, we chose our first country that felt in line with our B-rated worldly education. Slovakia. It wasn't as predictable as Italy yet not as obscure as Eritrea. It had a tumultuous past with a bright future. It had shaken the Mongols, the Nazis and the Commies. The country now has one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is called the Tatra Tiger due to its economic explosion. Andy Warhol is of direct Slovak descent. Basically, Slovakia is awesome.

Equally awesome is their second national dish: Fučka. Not only because of the name, but because it's also simple and delicious. We didn't do the first national dish: Bryndzové halušky, because we couldn't get the Bryndza, Slovak sheep's cheese, to NC in time. So we did the Fučka instead. As I mentioned before, we are novice cooks. Therefore, we had to improvise when the recipe didn't go quite as planned.

6 white potatoes

2+ cups of milk

1 vidalia onion

4 pieces of bacon, crumbled

1 tbsp. butter

salt & pepper to taste

Peel and cube potatoes and boil. As they're cooking, chop onion and bacon. Instead of straining the potatoes when they got soft, we just neglected them and danced to Slovak Rap Music. Fantastic. As they cooked down, we remembered to stir them. And added milk to make it more porridge-like. Fry bacon in pan on low heat. After half-way done, stir in onions. Cook on low until caramelized. Don't forget to stir the potatoes. Add more milk and some butter if they get too thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve in low bowls with the carmelized onion and bacon on top. Slurp and say in your best Oliver Twist voice, "Please sir, can I have some more". Yum.
We chose Huby so Salinou as one of our side dishes. It also uses one of our favorite items in all the world: Bacon. Due to a miscommunication, (hey, we're new at this!) we used large portobello caps instead of baby portobellos. Because of the size difference, we saved the inner scrapings of the caps and stir-fried them with chopped onion instead of just using the bacon as the filler. We then restuffed the mushrooms with all three ingredients. After stuffing, we baked on 350 until they looked like the picture in the recipe.

As our healthy veggie, we made Uhorkový Šalát, or Cucumber Salad. This is extremely easy and refreshing. It reminds us of the sliced cucumber and onions that our mothers make during the spring and summer.

For this trip and for all future ones, we say Cheers to you and your's. From Slovakia...Na Zdravie!

The great folks at SlovakCooking.com provided all recipes that we used for our Tuesday Trip.

Music was provided by the following sites: You Tube, and Slovak Radio. (Note: When searching from streaming radio stations, be aware that your current browser may not support the script. We all hate IE, but it works well for most sites.)

References:

http://www.eupedia.com/slovakia/trivia.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakia

* Okuliare na nos!

Spectacles on the nose! (pay attention).

Traveling Tuesdays

Food. It’s a necessity. When we were children the menu generally consisted of two items: Take it or leave it. We quietly rebelled against monotonous dishes. Instead of eating our green beans, we'd slyly spit them in our glass of milk and hope our parents wouldn't see the dark green beasts bumping against the side. Our mothers are not bad cooks. In fact, they embody perfection in the Southern kitchen. And they're also sisters, making our culinary upbringing similarly polished and similarly cynical. We’re the biggest critic of what we eat. Too Bland. Too Hard. Too soft. Too Salty. Too Spicy. Maybe, we were just too picky.

We finally reached the dire state of being "Grown-Up". We can tell you how much rotors cost to replace and what APR really stands for. Even more abhorrent, we are too poor to travel. Our months abroad as students unleashed a crazed conquistador within us, hungry for the next adventure, longing for another land. The smells, the music, the language, the sound of our feet walking on stone streets or dirt paths. Travel shows became painful to watch as our envious explorer boiled, trapped inside us. Foreign films helped, Pandora quenched our thirsty ears, but still we restlessly waited for the next adventure.

We diagnosed ourselves with Culinary Complacency. Causes: Drab Dishes and Tasteless Takeout. Why not spice it up? So was born ‘Traveling Tuesdays’. Each week a different country. We’ll go from France, to Thailand, to Russia and back without ever leaving the kitchen. All we need is a recipe, music, creativity – and of course- a high speed internet connection. Each week we escape. The cabinets become store fronts peddling exotic herbs and garnishes. The counter tops become fruit stands. Everything comes alive. The smell of curry, red wine and lentils transform an ordinary kitchenette into something magical.

However, let us point out that we aren't professional chefs. We can't flambe, only one of us owns an apron, and each time we cook there's a significant chance of a kitchen fire. We must also reiterate that wine, beer, and spirits are integral parts of each week's travels. After all, we wouldn't want to compromise the authenticity of each country. Australia needs Shiraz, Japan needs Saki, and Russia needs Vodka. Creativity needs a catalyst. Let our catalyst be the earthy undertones of a nice Chilean Carmenere.

Grab your passport. Maybe pack an extra pair of utensils? (Don’t worry, there isn’t TSA where we’re going). Kick start the imagination. As we travel to over 200 countries trying different cuisine and sampling the local fare – all from our own kitchen. This is “Traveling Tuesdays” written by the Culinary Conquistadors.