CHAD: THE FOOD

They say Candy Crush is the bane of every great chef. Well, ok, no one actually said that, and since I’m not a great chef, it’s doesn’t matter, because I finally passed level 29.  I’ve been on that level for over a week. It is also the day of the 97^th running of the Indianapolis 500 race. And since I live in Indianapolis, it’s a pretty big deal. The whole city has been decorated in black and white checks for weeks. When I was a kid, the entire month of May was one huge festival. In fact, I used to think that the three-day weekend was for Race Day instead of Memorial Day.

 

This will be my breakfast tomorrow morning. Well, not this bowl. I ate it after taking the picture.  

Today’s meal from Chad was one that I was looking forward to since I gathered my recipes together.  I started out making the Saffron Sweet Potato Pudding, or Pudding de Patates douces au Safran. I used two large sweet potatoes, peeled them, cut them into small pieces, and boiled them for 25 minutes.  I then drained the potatoes and put in some milk, heavy whipping cream, sugar, saffron and cardamom. After that, I put it back on the stove and let it simmer for a little over an hour until it got to a thick puree, like the consistency of baby food. Then I garnished it with a pinch of ground cardamom. I loved this dish. I think it would make a great filler in a tart.

 

Explaining the scientific concept of melting. 

Then I got started on our bread.  For this, I chose a Chadian version of beignets soufflés.  I had eaten beignets at the International Fest a few years ago at a New Orleans booth, but I’ve never made them before. I started out boiling some water and putting in the salt, sugar and butter. I had my daughter doing the stirring on this one. Then I dumped in all of the flour in the mix, and it almost immediately soaked up all of the liquid. At this point we had to let it cool – I just shoved it in the refrigerator for a while. When it was finally cool, it called to add two eggs. I think I may have been able to get away with just one, because it seemed really liquidy now. But I went ahead and fried them up and topped them with powdered sugar, and they were really good. They went over well with the family.  It also helps that I have tried to hone my frying skills. I have found that not burning everything that I fry has a direct impact on my family’s well-being.

 

The recipe didn't yield very much. In fact, they're gone. 

And finally, I made entrée. I chose tilapia au four (baked tilapia). We love tilapia and probably have it 1-2 times a month. I like it because it doesn’t have a strong fish smell or taste. For this recipe, I rubbed chopped onions, garlic, fresh chopped parsley and olive oil onto the tilapia filets that were placed in a baking dish. Then I poured a can of diced tomatoes on top and seasoned with a little salt and pepper. I baked it for a half hour in the oven. This is definitely a dish I will repeat because it was so easy and tasted wonderful. The fresh parsley made a HUGE difference in the flavors.

 

There's tilapia hiding under all of those tomatoes. 

And just because I love my kids, they requested asparagus to go with it. I think they were thinking of a similar dish I made for this blog – and I forget which country it was from.  I have no idea if asparagus grows in Chad or if they even eat it at all. But here was the conversation that ensued:

                  Marisa: “Can we have asparagus with cheese on it?”

                  Me: “Well, we’re making food from Chad. I’m not sure if they even eat asparagus in 

                       Chad.”

                  Marisa: “Of course they do. I read it on the Internet. And the Internet doesn’t lie.”

                  Me: “Umm… hmmm… ok. Asparagus it is. Wait. When were you reading about  

                       Chadian cuisine online?”

                  Marisa: “Don’t ask questions.”

But instead of using farmers cheese like I did last time, I used crumbled feta cheese.  At least they’re eating vegetables, so in a way, I won.

 

The final product, with non-Chadian asparagus. 

I loved this meal. Everything about it. And it went over well with the family, too.  I always appreciate meals that the whole family enjoys. And now it’s time to relax, maybe catch the recast of the race, even though I already know that Tony Kanaan won. I promise I’ll look surprised, though.

Up next: Chile

BHUTAN: THE FOOD

This was the first country I got to in this blog where I had trouble finding a recipe for the bread. I did all kinds of research, but to no avail. I could find mentions that people in Bhutan did eat bread, and that it was fairly popular as a staple to a meal. I found that Food For Life and LiveStrong both mentioned a Bhutanese red rice bread and that it was available to buy online, but no one was giving up their recipe for it. And I stumbled across documents listing certain types of bread found in Bhutan; one that is called khule interested me (a type of buckwheat pancake). But there were no recipes to make it as the Bhutanese make it. However, I did compromise and find a recipe on a gluten-free website for buckwheat pancakes. So, now I’m set with a recipe for buckwheat pancakes. Ready to go. But then again, I was assuming buckwheat flour was easy to find. I found myself standing in the middle of the store with two whiny kids, doing a Google search on my iPhone for substitutions for buckwheat flour, and came up with quinoa flour – which I CAN find. So, even though quinoa is grown on the other side of the world (in the Andes, as opposed to the Himalayas), it still made for some tasty pancakes that seemed more like a crepe hybrid. Although, I do have to state that this is my first experience with quinoa flour, and to me, I couldn’t shake that it smelled like unfired ceramics or greenware. (Just for the record, there are no leftovers.)

My buckwheat pancakes made of quinoa flour and thin as crepes. It didn't matter when covered with maple syrup.  

The main dish I made was called kewa phagsha, or spicy pork with potatoes. After boiling cubes of pork in salted water, I added chillies (I used Hungarian yellow peppers instead), potatoes, and onion. I used a lot of chili powder, some minced garlic and a little bit of ginger and black pepper.  This was a really good dish. I tried to keep the heat down by using the yellow peppers, but you can add as much spice as you prefer by using different types of chillies and peppers.

Just the right amount of spice. Too bad my kids and husband are wimps, I would've made it spicier. 

One of the most iconic foods from Bhutan is red rice. I found some at my local international grocery store, even though I had to buy a 5-lb bag of it. I sautéed green onions in butter, then added carrots and shitake mushrooms and rice to the onions. After that I added some vegetable stock, thyme and bay leaves and transferred it all to a baking dish to bake in the oven for 20 minutes. I did have to add a little more stock and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. This dish actually surprised me. It was really full of flavor and was very hearty. Although, if I make this again, I may use chicken broth instead of vegetable stock. It seems that it would make a very nice pilaf of sorts.

Red rice with all sorts of things in it. You can't go wrong with red foods. 

Finally, I had to make some kind of vegetable dish. I felt kind of bad that the past couple of countries that I’ve cooked for didn’t include much of a vegetable dish. So, this time I went with asparagus with farmer’s cheese. I love asparagus, much to my husband’s chagrin. However, my daughter was on my side on this one. Thanks to everything that’s sacred that she didn’t quite develop his taste bud defect. (To be fair, he did try it. He gagged and almost choked up trying to swallow it, but he tried it.) I sautéed the asparagus with some onions and added a little water. Then I crumbled some farmer’s cheese on top of the asparagus and let it simmer for a few minutes. This was actually my first time with farmer’s cheese, and I really liked it. The taste was similar to that of Swiss cheese, yet it was creamier like mozzarella.

Crumbling cheese for the asparagus. Sampling cheese, more like it. 

This meal brought along its own problems as well as surprises. The country as a whole came as a surprise to me, actually. There were so many things I didn’t know about this country before I started, except where it was. There’s a certain mystique about it that makes it attractive. The city-dweller in me who is constantly connected to Facebook, Twitter, my iPhone is general, my computer, and my car can’t fathom living in such an isolated rural area (even though my hometown has roughly 950 people). However, there is a part of me that wouldn’t mind so much to get away from it all. (But maybe for only a weekend or a week. Or two. Or a month.) But what I really, REALLY wish, is that if someone wants to do a service to the global community, please post some recipes for Bhutanese bread. Don’t keep this a secret. You’ve opened up your country, and we’re interested.

The final product. A masterpiece. 

Up next: Bolivia