Dinner in North Africa...

That's where we ate tonight...sitting in our living room. We had...

A beef stew of the Algerian Jews: beef slow-cooked 'til meltingly tender with a pile of grated onions, diced tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, and harissa(a North African chili paste).

A salad of romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, onions, daikon, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese, tossed with a dressing of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and fresh mint.

Kesra, the country bread of Morocco, a round, yeasted flatbread with a coarse crumb and thick crust, made with wheat and a little corn.

It was very tasty. We are pleasantly full. There are ample leftovers. (Yay leftovers!)

We ran pretty late this afternoon, trying to get errands done. Thankfully, its a pretty easy dinner to make. But there was one thing I decided to simplify: the harissa. I am a big fan of taking the time to soak dried chilies in hot water. Its what I do when I make my chili. There wasn't time this afternoon. So I made an Easy Harissa...

Easy Harissa

2 ounces ground New Mexico chile powder
1 ounce ground hot New Mexico chile powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth paste results. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. Should keep for at least a month. Makes over a cup.

You may cover the top of the paste with additional EVOO, to help it store longer. If you want a hotter harissa, you may use a hotter chile powder or add a little cayenne pepper. This version is not terribly hot, but that is the way my wife prefers it.

Sundaland Supper...

the cool evening air tells a tale
of chicken over a charcoal fire
garlic galangal and lemongrass
star anise and kecap manis
of smoky goodness pulled apart
with greedy hands swiftly consumed
shadows toss restlessly about
characters in a wayang drama
gamelan echoes faintly in the dark

I'm Fat and Happy...

Gina cooked prime rib and Yorkshire pudding tonight. I made the gravy (I'm the official gravy cook at home...lol). And dinner was wonderful. I'm so full. This has usually been our Xmas dinner, but we haven't done it for the last two or three years. I've missed it. I'm going to sit here and digest for a bit, then get some rest...

Fun Stuff...

We were at the Salvation Army today, where Gina picked out a darling dress for our granddaughter (a $50 dress for $1.99!), while I grabbed an older ('84 reprint of a '72) spiral-bound cookbook, Tony Chachere's Cajun Country Cookbook, that has some "fun" recipes, like "Brice Palmer's Fried Alligator", "Coot in Soy Sauce", "Smothered Snipe", "Baked Juicy Swamp Rabbit", Louisiana Cajun's Squirrel Stew", "Baked Coon and Sweet Potatoes", "Cleve's Smothered Armadillo", and the ever-popular "Tony's Nutria Sauce Piquante". Lol. There are a lot of other, more "mainstream" recipes. I'm looking forward to looking through it in more depth later...

The Last Couple of Days...

Yesterday I made version 1.0 of my sweet entry for the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The second cookie sheet ended up as v.1.1, as Gina and I felt that the entry needed to be shaped differently. I am not, generally, a baker of sweets. That is Gina's realm. So...I am learning at the same time that I am working on this contest. We didn't really know how long it would take things to bake, since we are making the recipe as we go. The second cookie sheet, things went better in that department, too. We were very pleased with the flavor of the finished product. Appearance still needs some work (and practice). Preliminary reviews from coworkers have been favorable.

I made a big pot full of our homemade (never) refried beans.

And I came across a write-up in the Portland paper of a kitchen that I love!

And a Little Dark Culinary Humor...

The New EASY Button...

A Night for Something Comforting...

We're both feeling tired and just a bit under the weather, so we wanted some simple comfort food. Its a dish we got from my mother, that she called "Beef Stroganoff", though it has only the vaguest resemblance to the real Russian dish. We've added a couple or three things to the recipe over the years. Regardless of provenance, we find it very tasty and comforting...and ridiculously easy. Here it is...

"Not quite" Beef Stroganoff

1 pound round steak or London broil, thinly sliced into bite-size pieces, or more if desired
Unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 10.5-ounce cans beef consomme
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound wide egg noodles
2 cups sour cream

Toss the sliced beef in the flour, to coat. Shake off any excess flour. Place the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the steak and cook until it begins to brown, stirring often. Add the onion and garlic powder, black pepper, consomme (do not add water), ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Stir well and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens, about thirty minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the egg noodles and cook until al dente, according to package instructions (usually about 7-10 minutes). Drain.

Remove the sauce from the heat. Add the sour cream and stir until thoroughly combined. Add the egg noodles and toss until the noodles are coated with the sauce. Serve.

Serve with a big green salad. Makes about 8 servings.

Options: If you want a more authentic feel to the dish, you could add some sliced mushrooms to the sauce. For a really authentic feel...use filet mignon instead of round steak. We've occasionally added a handful or two of petite green peas to the dish. My mother always added some poppy seeds when tossing the sauce and noodles.

They Just Came Out of the Oven...

...and all I can say is...OMG!

I'll just need to make 'em again a time or two before submission, but they are otherwise good-to-go. I am still going to submit my other entry idea, I think. I don't think I'll do more than the two.

Now its (way past) time for bed...

A Busy Day in the Kitchen...

I am tired, but it has been a productive day. In the morning, I put the chicken (for the Taste of Home contest) on to marinate. After that, I made an early lunch with the zucchini we had in the fridge that needed to be used. Gina loved it and let me know it was a definite make-again. That'll be my entry in the Better Homes & Gardens contest. After lunch, I made a little over a gallon of Gina's kecap manis, the Indonesian sweet soy sauce. That should keep her supplied for at least a little while...*laughing* I discovered I still had materials left over to do something, so I made a decent-sized batch of kroeung, the herbal paste of Cambodia...a delightful mix of shallots, garlic, fresh galangal and turmeric, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves. I'll bring some of that to work tomorrow for Silver Dragon. After that...yes, still working in the kitchen...I cooked the chicken, which turned out pretty good. And I am about to put a trial batch of our first Pillsbury Bake-Off entry in the oven (yeah, I'm running a little behind, but there's been a lot to do). This one is a savory entry, and I have high hopes for it, since its a modification of something I've made before. We were going to make a batch of a sweet entry we're working on, but we ran out of time. Same with Gina's Spiced Amish Lemonade. She's going to make that tomorrow. I'm glad I'm only working tomorrow and Tuesday before more time off...

A Pleasant Surprise!...

We were out running errands in Vancouver this evening, heading back from Jo Ann's Fabrics to the freeway when I spotted a storefront that said "Premier Euro Market". Intrigued, I hung a quick right turn into their parking lot and went in to check it out. A Russian and Eastern European market! I wandered around for awhile, checking out their stock. There was a section of Russian-language books and DVD's, a variety of lacquerware, beautiful dishes and other kitchenware, Russian herbal medicines, and tons of food! They had a lot of stuff that I wasn't familiar with and some I was (I'm actually more comfortable with Asian and Middle Eastern markets...lol!). I picked up some dried dill and some khmeli-suneli, a Georgian spice mix, tiny little corkscrewed Hungarian egg noodles, and a small box of banana cream-filled chocolate candies from Austria. They had a fascinating deli counter, and I decided I to grab a couple of things to try for a simple dinner tonight. I picked out a pound of Bobak's Krakow sausage (http://www.bobak.com/), thinly sliced, and some sliced white cheese. They told me it was "Russian cheese". Tasty stuff. I picked up a loaf of dark rye bread (sans seeds...Gina does not like caraway seeds in her bread) and some bottled sauerkraut with cranberries. When we got home, it made for a yummy grilled sandwich with some sweet-hot Russian mustard. I am eager to go back with a better shopping list. I know I want some sea buckthorn syrup, a jar of marinated mushrooms, and wild rose syrup. There were all sorts of fascinating things. I wasn't expecting to go shopping tonight.

While they don't yet have a website, they appear to have two locations:

(1) 11216 NE 4th Plain Road, Vancouver, WA (360) 885-9384

(2) 813 W Main Street, Battle Ground, WA (360) 666-6919

If you live in the area, check 'em out! Get yourself a big bag of frozen pirozhki and a jar of lecso.

Going Into the Weekend...

...there are a number of food chores for me the next couple of days.

Gina and I sat down today and brainstormed on an idea for a Pillsbury Bake-Off entry. I am not a frequent baker of sweets, and can use her input. She's a better baker than I. By this afternoon, we had a plan of attack in place and the outline of a recipe. Picked up some items we needed from Albertson's this evening. We are going to do the first trial run of it sometime Sunday, I think. I had already outlined an idea, last night, that is an adaptation of something I already know how to make, but I don't think I'm going to make it this weekend. We have until April. We're working on a third idea, but its not much more than that just yet. I don't know that I want to send in too many different recipes. It might be better to concentrate on just three or four, and make sure they are as good as possible.

I need to make the kecap manis tomorrow. When I first started cooking SE Asian food, I was unable to find any Indonesian sweet soy sauce, even living in the Inland Empire of Southern California. I suppose if I'd looked harder in the greater Los Angeles area, I would have found some, but it seemed like a lot of work. And I had found a couple of recipes for it. I've been making it for years now. The recipe has evolved, as I season mine - the commercial varieties I've seen lately are all unseasoned, take shortcuts, and lack the depth and body of flavor of the homemade stuff. Gina loves it! So its a must do.

And then there's the healthy poultry entry to make for the first of the Taste of Home contests. That is going to be dinner one of the next two nights. Picked up the stuff I need for that tonight at Winco.

Oh...and I grabbed a bunch of lemons. I am going to try and sweet talk Gina into making some of her delightful Amish Spiced Lemonade...its heavenly and so refreshing.

My Georgian coworker will be on shift Monday when I go back, so I want to make a second batch of khachapuri this weekend and bring her one to try. Coworkers will be guinea pigs for a lot of contests this year...lol.

About time for bed. G'night, everyone.