Chicken Mansaf

Chicken and rice - how can one not enjoy those simple pleasures?  Simply, cook them in yogurt and let the olfactory repugnance turn your otherwise hungry stomach into a displeased organ.  Yes, I did so want to like Jordan's national dish, but it was one that might ultimately rank as a least favorite...in our home's history.  Ever.

Maybe I was just turned off by the fact that the entire plate of food was white.  Maybe I have never really been able to stomach plain yogurt for the fact that its consistency is just a wiggly disgrace to my proud teeth.  Or quite possibly I just wasn't hungry and I made mansaf on the worst of all days.  I don't know.  All I do know is that this was an endeavor that made our family say...."well, you don't know unless you try."  That's the spirit - those are just the words every cook wants to hear.  Hopefully our next attempt at world cuisine will make up for this one's shortcomings.  As with countries in the Olympics, not everyone can be a winner.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
• 1 1/2 quarts plain yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup almonds, freshly toasted
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, freshly toasted
• parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 cups long grain rice, like basmati
• pita bread

Instructions:

1. Place chicken in a large pot with enough salted water to barely cover it.  Cook over medium heat until almost done, about 45 minutes.
2. In a separate pan, cook enough rice for six servings.
3. In a large saucepan, stir yogurt until it is quite smooth.  Add beaten egg and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Add enough of the liquid from the cooked chicken to make a thin sauce, about the consistency of very heavy cream.  Heat until almost comes to a boil and thickens slightly.
4. Add cooked chicken pieces to the yogurt sauce and finish cooking the chicken in the sauce, at a low temperature.
5. Cover a large platter with pita bread.  Mound the rice in the center to form a pyramid.  Arrange chicken pieces on the rice and pour most of the yogurt sauce over it, reserving the remaining sauce to be added, as desired, by the diners.
6. Garnish with almonds, pine nuts and parsley around the edges of the mound of rice and chicken.  Serve warm and eat with your hands. 

(The original recipe came from this website: http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-mansaf-158813)

Carne Asada Tacos with a side of Gallo Pinto

So, I should have been more daring.  I should have attempted to make Baho, a Nicaraguan dish of beef, plantains and yuca steamed in banana leaves.  But I chickened out.  I didn't have a pot big enough nor the gumption needed to tackle a recipe with such "exotic" produce.  A coward some weeks, I have moments in which I prefer to stick to the comfortable and familiar - this was one of those weeks.  But, mea culpas aside, I figured that carne asada, an equally Nicaraguan (albeit more generally Latin) dish was acceptable.  With flank steak in hand and spices ready to be used, I went forward with carne asada tacos in mind.

Living in Texas, I have probably had thousands of tacos in my life.  They are a dietary staple - an easy go-to food for nights in which cooking something new seems out of the question.  Warm tortillas, sliced and diced veggies and a hot grill are all that is needed to compliment the meat.  And with these items, we found ourselves rewarded nicely with a good, home-cooked warm Nicaraguan meal.

Carne Asada - Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. of Flank or Skirt Steak
• 2-3 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 Cup Onion, sliced thin
• The juice of 1-2 Oranges
• 2-3 pinches of salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. In a large stainless steel or glass bowl, mix the meat with the oil, onions, orange juice and salt and pepper. Cover and let marinate 1 hour or overnight.
2. Start a good fire in your grill, preferably with mesquite charcoal. Remove the meat from its marinade and grill over hot flame until the first side is well browned, from 5–7 minutes.
3. Turn the meat over and grill on the other side till cooked to desired doneness. Remove from grill.
4. Slice meat into thin strips across the grain and serve as a topping for tostadas or as a filling for tacos or burritos.

Of course, in my attempt at efficiency and making the evening full of all things Nicaragua, I opted to add a side dish.  Accompanying the carne asada was the national dish of Nicaragua, Gallo Pinto.  A concoction of red beans and rice, it is said to be the staple food for most people in the country.  Doubtful the same will be true in our house, it was not much more than the lackluster side-kick to the main course.  That was probably my fault.  Probably not enough seasoning.  Probably not enough attention to it while cooking.  Whatever the case may be, though it was interesting to see what others rely on for comfort food, I think we will stick to our tacos solamente next time.

Gallo Pinto - Ingredients:

• Oil -- 2-3 tablespoons
• Onion, finely chopped -- 1
• Bell pepper, finely chopped -- 1
• Garlic, minced -- 2-3 cloves
• Cooked red (kidney) beans, drained, liquid reserved -- 2 cups
• Salt and pepper -- to taste
• Hot cooked rice -- 2 cups

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high flame. Add the onions, bell pepper and garlic and sauté for about 2-3 minutes, or until cooked through.
2. Stir in the drained beans, some of their reserved liquid, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer until heated through.
3. Add the rice and stir into the beans and heat through. Adjust seasoning and add a little more bean liquid if necessary. Serve hot.

(The original recipe for carne asada came from this site: http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Carne_Asada)
(The original recipe for gallo pinto came from this site: http://www.whats4eats.com/grains/gallo-pinto-recipe)

Kansiye (Guinean Stew Served Over Rice)

Terrible but true, when I think of African food the images that generally come to mind are ants on a twig or some sort of carrion eaten as a starving person's last resort for life.  And, even though most people in Guinea are only able to afford one meal a day (a statistical average), my ridiculous assumption of their culinary skills is indeed far from fact.  A nation that thrives on okra and peanuts, they have found a way to make do with the items at hand in a tasty and filling way.  This meal of Kansiya, a Guinean stew served over rice, was no less adequate in that way.

Since lamb is a little more rare to find in our markets, I opted to use beef.  Any rough or cheap cut will do - the hour of cooking time will create nice and tender pieces of meat in the end.  My husband initially scoffed at this recipe when I told him that tomato sauce was to be mixed with peanut butter.  However, since the end result formed such a rich sauce, similar to that of a curry, he was happy.  He even came back for seconds.  And, so did I.

Ingredients:

1 lb beef or lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 Tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 cups water
3 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups of cooked rice, to serve

Instructions:

1. Brown meat in oil in 10-inch frying pan.
2. Add onion, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, parsley and clove.
3. Combine tomato sauce and 1 cup water, add to meat mixture and stir well. Dilute peanut butter in remaining cup of water and add to mixture.
4. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour, or until meat is tender. Serve hot over the cooked rice.

(The original recipe came from this site: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Kansiyeacute-Traditional-Recipe-from-Guinea-West-Africa-310432)