Global cuisine - Turkish

Hmm, it's been a while. We have been following our pledge. I've just been rather lousy at posting about it. After our week in Morocco, we continued across the Mediterranean to Turkey. While I have always wanted to visit Istanbul and Hagia Sopiha, I have had very little idea about what Turkish food consisted of.

[Sorry, no food pic this time - pilaf isn't really that photogenic. Instead, a lovely picture from Lonely Planet of Istanbul, a city I long to visit]

I should admit now, it is a lot more work than I anticipated cooking a country a week. You have to choose a country, thinking about what's in season and available at that time of year. You have to find recipes (my two favorite places have been the internet and the public library) and choose those which coincide with seasonally available produce (at least in my mind you should). Then you have to track down any specialty ingredients you might need (Japan - Saki, France - Duck fat, Turkey - Grape leaves). And each night, after work or school, you have to be up for learning new techniques and trying new things. Don't get me wrong, it's a blast. But it has resulted in me looking for the simplest meals at times - which I suppose is something someone from any country would do after a long day of work. Leading me to admitting that while cooking Turkish food, we ate a lot of pilafs.

Pilafs are awesome. Essentially, rice, barley or couscous cooked in a flavoured broth with tasty bits added in. They take rice to a whole new level for me and the recipe I have below was my absolute favorite of the lot. While it only has 6 ingredients, the flavours are rich and delicious and the ingredients are super easy to find.

Chickpea Pilaf

1 can drained chickpeas (390g net)

175 g long-grained rice*

1 onion, chopped

2 Tablespoons butter

600ml stock (I like chicken)

1 large bunch of spinach, washed and chopped

Pepper to taste (salt is in your stock)

1) Melt butter in large pot, or wok, and add onions. Cook until soft. Stir in chickpeas and rice. Pour in stock, season with pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring often, until almost all liquid has been absorbed. Stir in spinach until it wilts in.

2) Remove pan from heat, cover with a clean, dry teatowel and press the lid down tightly. Leave to steam 15-20 minutes.

3) Fluff gently with a fork and serve.

*I am learning so much about the different types of rice, how they vary taste-wise and cooking-wise. It's great.

Another one?!

So far, we seem to average about one a year. Which, depending on how long we stay here, could amount to a fair number of cats.

While he was doing security rounds at school on Monday night for the end of year awards ceremony, Stephen had to haul this wee cat out of the performance centre which she was trying to infiltrate in order to pilfer the prizes. He called me up at home and requested I come get her as he was pretty sure she hadn't eaten in a while. So, I gobbled up the rest of my dinner, jumped in the car and drove on down to the school. Sure enough, the cat almost jumped into the crate in order to get the fresh fish and bowl of food I'd brought along. Once home, I tucked her into the bathroom with a hot water bottle and some more food and water. I think I've seen her up on her feet about 5 times since then (2 days later) and one of those was to go to the vet. She is one tired kitty. Hopefully, she'll be back on her feet in a few days and we can get to know her a bit better.

Meanwhile, we'll wait to see if someone is missing her. Otherwise, well, time will tell . . .

Rugby World Cup 2011

Yeah. We were excited.

Hey, it was a long, hard game and it was such a relief in the end after those tense 80 minutes of nail-biting intensity.

I mean, there was this guy in front of me who turned away from the screen every time France had the ball. He didn't watch very much in the second half.

But, we made it.

And then, we had a parade.

Two days after the final game, after the parade in Auckland, the boys in black came to Christchurch to present us with the Webb Ellis cup. It was awesome. The park was packed. The people were happy. And the rugby players signed lots of balls.

Thanks guys.

ReStart

On Saturday, October 28th Christchurch's downtown rebooted. After 8 months of not having a central business district the public was welcomed back into a small section of our forever changed downtown to kick start Cup & Show week, the coming summer and the long road to rebuilding our city's heart.

The walk into town one cannot but witness the still ongoing demolition that is taking place. Buildings are being taken down one by one, with only a very select few having been deemed structurally sound enough to stay up. But even walking past this is good. We have been kept out of our city for so long and some things have changed so drastically that it is good to be able to watch from a closer proximity and be able to take in the change as it happens.

Stephen and I arrived at about 3pm in the hot spring sun and Cashel Street Mall was packed with people. There were live music groups busking in corners, cafes sending out the aroma of coffee and baked goods, and bright, festive wares in all the shop windows. Not to mention to bright, colourful shipping containers that lined the streets, piled on top of each other. If the walk into town had been somewhat sobering, it seemed that everyone inside the new shopping district was drunk on the headiness of being in a place they had missed for so long.

The first thing that struck me on walking into the Mall was the amazing thought that had gone into planning it. I can only hope that there is more like this to come for the rest of the city as we rebuild it. Green spaces and benches for relaxing, buildings that are built to human scale (ie., not towering over us and blocking out the sun), small alleyways to pull pedestrians down to discover what interesting and amazing shops are down there, central areas dedicated to cafes where people can sit, relax and watch the people going by.

At the far end of the Mall the planners have built a timber fence which has, planned or not, become a destination in and of itself. People clamber up on the planter boxes in order see over and down towards the parts of town not yet cleared up. This small area is great, but it is surrounded by the reminders of what we are still missing. While we were sitting enjoying our lunch (after standing in line a good half hour), Stephen and I talked about whether Cashel Street Mall would last. Despite the festive atmosphere of the day, we wondered for how long people would make the long trek downtown to shop at very expensive shops. There are no offices nearby, there are only two small cafes and it does not serve passing traffic as there is only one road open through town and it doesn't come all that close to here. We hope that the businesses there will do well and that Christchurch people will work to help each other, goodness knows the next time I need a gorgeous dress I will be heading downtown to pick one out. Isn't someone out there having a wedding soon I can come to?

Global cuisine - Morocco

[Olive and lemon display in Meknez souq]

This specific choice was one I had been looking forward to. A few years ago, while still doing my undergraduate degree, I took a month to travel to Fez, Morocco and attend an arabic language school. It was a phenomenal experience and I think of it with great fondness, hoping someday to go back and see more of that magical country. One of the things I loved about the trip was the food.

The first three weeks of my trip happened to coincide with Ramadan, the month of fasting. From sun up until sun down, no food was allowed to pass the lips of any muslim. This is practiced in order to learn patience, spirituality, humility and humbleness before God. My last week there was Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting when the new moon is first spotted. This is essentially a big party with lots of food and celebration. Everyone was decked out in their finery and smiling. It was good fun.

For our week of Moroccan food here I was constantly telling Stephen stories about this meal or that one. He was even thoughtful enough to make up a batch of paratha dough early in the week, which allowed me to slice, fold and fry them up for breakfast each morning and store the remaining dough back in the fridge. Although parathas are not originally North African, one of the other language students at the school whom I lived with treated me to them each morning - slathered in butter and honey.

Moroccan food is about couscous, cinnamon, saffron, dates and olives. The tajine is probably the most recognized food from that area and a tasty one at that. One of the rules I remember learning from my host family was that the meat was always hidden under the mound of couscous which was in turn covered in vegetables. This ensured that children would have to eat through the important bits to get at the meaty treasure beneath. Another important lesson in a land where hands were the tools used for eating was that only the right hand was ever used to take food from the communal plate. And if possible, it was the only hand used at all. This presumably comes from the sanitary requirements for survival in a water scarce environment.

One of the highlights for me of the week was finally trying chermoula. This is traditionally used as a marinade for fish but we used it with delicious results as a sauce for carrots as well.

[Meat and carrot tajine with leftover chermoula on the carrots]

Chermoula

Taken from der Haroutunian, A. (2009) North African Cookery. Grub Street, London.

4 tablespoons oil

75g butter

1 onion, sliced into rounds

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

50g chopped fresh parsley

50g chopped fresh coriander

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon saffron diluted in 4 tablespoons water (I didn't have any, it still tasted wonderful)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 bay leaves

1. Heat oil and butter in a saucepan and add all remaining ingredients. Cook over moderate heat for 12-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and serve hot or cold.

I cooled mine to room temperature and then poured over my white fish fillets. Leftover was stored in the refrigerator and used later in the week tossed in with cooked carrots.

Spring garden

[Recently finished quilt for a friends birthday]

Despite my increased work load recently I have enjoyed taking the time to enjoy our new garden. It's a small adventure every time I go out to see what new treasure has poked out of the ground. We are busily putting in our herb garden and strawberry fence (more on that later), and Stephen is putting together a wee chicken coop for our new additions (more of them later too). Life is teeming in the garden and the beautiful oasis it is turning into is a realm of peace and calm in the rush of our current lives. Unfortunately, I have yet to learn the names of our lovely blossoms.

[A lovely flowering tree that spreads white petals everywhere]

[One of many rhododendrons]

[Hellebore - grows in the shade of the first flowering tree shown]

[Wee blue fairy flowers]

[Our flowering cherry tree - seems to blossom in levels]

Global cuisine - Thai

[One of two fish curries served with brown rice and lime]

It has certainly been a wee while since I've posted anything up here. Lots to do lately, with deadlines and projects coming to a head. And spring too, seems to be bursting forth with no holding back. Despite our busy schedule, we have been keeping to our national food adventures. After our foray into French cuisine we wandered back East to try some Thai. Stephen had been wanting to try making Phad Thai, so we bought some rice noodles, some limes and some bean sprouts and got stuck in.

We began with something we were rather comfortable with - curry. Before taking on this experiment I never fully realized the huge differences in curries. I knew that several different nations made curries, but I was never fully appreciative of their unique qualities. Indian curries (well, the Westernized versions anyhow), for example, have quite deep, warming flavours, with cumin, fenugreek, and coriander (along with many others). While Thai curries tend to be more fresh and clean tasting. These are usually based around fresh ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, chilies and ginger. Our first couple of meals were fish curries, and despite using the same fish, we were able to make vastly different curries formed around these basic ingredients (along with fish sauce, sugar and coconut cream).

I must admit the Phad Thai we eventually made was a bit of a let down as it lacked enough sauce to make it really flavourful. But this was most likely the fault of the cooks rather than the recipe. We moved onto what was probably my favorite dish - spicy longbeans with(out) salty eggs. The latter subtraction was due to the 3 weeks needed to actually make the salty eggs. But it was pretty tasty even without. And finished the week with prawns with chili and basil.

[Prawns with chili and basil - tasty, tasty]

A rather tasty week, full of fresh flavours. It was lovely and light after the warm heaviness of french cuisine. One of the lessons we took away from the Thai week, was the mathematics of taste in a Thai curry. Too salty - add sugar, too sweet - add fish sauce, and too sweet and salty - add lime juice. Worked every time!

Spicy longbeans with(out) salty eggs

I have adapted this from the original and not included the salty egg bit, but you can find the full recipe in Bhumichitr, V. (2005) Vatch's Thai Kitchen. Ryland, Peters & Small, London.

Peanut or sunflower oil

180g ready-fried beancurd, finely sliced

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

1 tablespoon Red Curry paste (see below)

250g Chinese longbeans (or green beans), chopped into 2.5cm lengths

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

4 tablespoons vegetable stock

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon ground roasted peanuts

4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok on high heat. Add beancurd and fry until golden brown. Remove from wok and drain on paper towel covered plate.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in wok, add garlic and fry until golden brown. Stir in the curry paste. Add beans, soy sauce, stock, sugar, peanuts, lime leaves and fried beancurd. Stir-fry until the beans are done to your taste.

3. Serve and enjoy.

Red Curry Paste

Grind the following ingredients into a paste in a large mortar and pestle.

8 long red dried chilies, deseeded and chopped

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin seed

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

2 tablespoons fresh chopped garlic

2 stalks lemongrass, chopped

3 coriander roots, chopped (I didn't have any - it still tasted good)

1 teaspoon chopped kaffir lime skin, or finely chopped lime leaves

3 cm fresh galangal or ginger, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon salt