Food from around The World

[ElBandito]

Does anyone have any recipies from their locality that they could share with us? That way we can go away and cook it, try it out and then report back.

I'd offer up 'Roast Lamb and Mint Sauce' as a kiwi offering, but that's been covered in the 'Eating Sheep' thread.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Try the condensed-milk Lemon Meringue Pie recipe from The Latest Recipe Thread. It isn't uniquely area-specific -- little of that thread is, it's more generalist and rather reflects some of my travels about the globe -- but it is the sort of thing Americans would assemble. It has two secrets: make your own graham-cracker crumb crust up out of grahams, sugar, and butter; do not buy them premade, they aren't the same. The other secret is include the juice of one lime and a teaspoonful or two of its zest -- piquant.

More specifically regional-American would be the Key Lime Pie variant of this dish. It takes less lime juice to flavor the filling, so don't just switch 'em volume for volume. I also recommend crumb crust for this pie. Gingersnap crumb crusts are also a good variation. These don't need sugar, I don't think.

This locality's specialty is marinated triangle-tip of beef, but I'd have to research it. The general picture is once marinated -- citrus marinade, I think -- it then gets full-on barbeque treatment with plenty of sauce, slow cooked until it's about fork tender. It's invariably called tri-tip.

More widely distributed is the Burrito. There are a LOT of good burrito joints in California and a couple of national restaurant chains make a specialty of them -- Chipotle, and Taco Bell, with Pollo Loco a distant third. All are tasty in their various ways. Pollo Loco specializes in grilled marinated chicken, Baja California style, and offers it in a burrito. Taco Bell's burritos are, well, fast-food and rather engineered-tasting, and I usually get my burritos elsewhere. Chipotle is determined to keep their burrito offerings lively and high quality, and their ambiance is something between Baja and Aztec-ish.

The funny thing is that the burrito is hardly seen in Mexico; they regard it as something novel and exotic from up North. Not that they dislike it when they run into it.

So: what is it that makes a decent burrito? The outer wrapping is a large flour tortilla, sometimes quite large indeed -- in the east San Francisco Bay Area, burritos come the size of sucking pigs. Bring an appetite. Bring two. There's a filling of rice and beans, generally either black beans or pinto beans, a/k/a habichuelas. There's a choice of meats, usually chicken, beef, and shredded pork, each of which are usually seasoned. Hot salsa of varied strengths is in the mix. Around here you can get your chile salsa either in red, often hot, or green, usually milder. An optional squirt of sour cream and a generous sprinkle of shredded cheese, either cheddar and Monterey Jack or some white Mexican cheese along with cheddar builds the basic burrito.

The customer often adds some more salsa, like the fresh salsa cruda of onions, tomatoes and peppers all chopped together; cilantro either with the salsa cruda or separately; or perhaps green tomatillo salsa, which is most often milder than the red salsa offerings, which can be all the way up to haban~ero -- firey.

[Cloud]

Two recipes from the Tex-Mex border. Never fail all-time favorites! The first one relies on frozen green chilis; don't know if you can get canned where you are, but you might have to find a subsitute.

WHITE CHILI

A lighter, whiter, chili . . .

1 cut up chicken (3 ½ to 4 lbs.)
1 quart chicken broth (or more)
1 T salad or olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c white wine
3 cans cannellini or great northern beans, rinsed and drained
¼ c lime juice
½ c frozen mild green chilies
¼ c minced fresh cilantro (or parsley)
1 t dried oregano
½ t ground cumin
¼ t ground cinnamon
Salt, pepper.
1 c shredded jack cheese
Condiments as desired: diced tomatoes, cheese, olives, fresh cilantro

1. Discard chicken skin and fat, rinse well. Put in large pot, add broth and enough cold water to cover, bring to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer, skim off any scum that ap-pears on surface of pot. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Saute onion and garlic in oil in separate pan until golden and sweet, about 15 minutes. (Add garlic toward end of cooking, so it doesn’t burn).
3. Remove chicken from pot to cool. Bring broth to boil until it reduces to 4 cups.
4. Add rest of ingredients except cheese. When chicken is cool enough, tear into chunks and add to broth mixture. Cook for ½ hour, taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.
5. Stir in cheese, and serve with condiments.

Note: I like this as more of a soup since I think the broth is the best part, so I add more chicken broth than shown here. You can reduce the amount of broth shown here if you want a more traditional, dense chili. If you like more heat, you can add 1 small minced jalapeño. Adapted from Sunset.

This one's kind of a lot of work, but worth it. You can shorten it a lot by using store-bought roasted chicken and just mixing it with salsa and water or broth.

CHICKEN SOPA
"MEXICAN LASAGNE"

Ingredients

24 corn tortillas
Chicken; 1 large package boneless, skinless
chicken breasts (about 8 breast halves)
1 bay leaf
4 cloves garlic (1 clove + 3 cloves)
2 chopped onions
3 T olive oil
2 cups mild salsa
2 ½ + ½ cups chicken broth
2 t cumin
1 ½ t oregano
2 t salt
½ pound grated cheddar cheese*
½ pound grated monterrey jack cheese*
*Use low-fat cheese if desired
16 oz. sour cream (use low fat sour cream)



Cooking Equipment

Large shallow baking pan (14" x 8")
Large saucepan
Skillet
Tongs
Cheese grater

1. To prepare chicken: Rinse chicken parts and place in pan, cover with cold water with 1 bay leaf and 1 chopped clove of garlic. Turn heat to High and bring water to boil. Once water comes to a boil, turn heat down to low. Cover pot and simmer 25 min-utes. Remove chicken to a plate and cool. When chicken is cool enough, shred with hands. You should have about 8 cups of chicken meat. (Note: You can also use this method of cooking chicken to make chicken for sandwiches, chicken salad, etc.)

2. Chop onion and 3 cloves garlic. Place large saucepan over medium high heat. Put in olive oil and let heat for 1 minute. Put in onion, garlic, cumin, and oregano, and stir. Turn heat to medium low and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, checking and stirring 2-3 times. If vegetables start to stick, add a little more oil. If they start to burn, turn down heat.

3. Add 2 ½ cups chicken broth, 2 cups salsa, and salt to pot; stir. Turn heat to high; bring mixture to boil. Turn down heat to medium, cook uncovered 15 minutes. Sauce should be bubbling nicely but not too frantically.

4. While sauce is cooking, grate cheeses. Coat large (14" x 8") baking pan with Pam cooking spray, or take a paper towel and lightly coat pan with olive oil. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

5. When sauce is done, remove a scant 2 cups (this means almost 2 cups, but not quite) from pot and set aside. Add chicken pieces to pot and stir until thoroughly coated.

6. In a skillet, heat ½ cup of chicken broth to boiling; turn heat to low. To prepare tortillas: Using tongs, quickly dip each tortilla in hot broth before layering. If broth starts to run out, add a little hot water.

7. Layer casserole:

1. Place 8 softened tortillas overlapping in bottom of baking pan.
2. Spread half the chicken.
3. 8 more softened tortillas.
4. Half the chicken.
5. Half the cheese.
6. 8 more tortillas.
7. The 2 cups reserved sauce.
8. The remaining cheese.
9. Carefully spread the sour cream on top.

8. Bake 45 minutes in oven until edges are brown and sour cream is set. Yum!

[ZenGum]

I don't know the recipe but a mate of mine swears his mother's special casserole rocks. Chicken and vegetables in a sauce based on ... coca cola and vegemite.
Yes really. I think it should be called Mel Gibson Chicken, but I'd never call Mel Gibson chicken.

[Shawnee123]

Buckeyes Candy!

Looks like the nut from the Ohio Buckeye tree.

I've never made them, but I've eaten a few!

[glatt]

My mother in law makes those. They are awesome. Like a Reeses peanut butter cup, but better.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Chicken and vegetables in a sauce based on ... coca cola and vegemite.

Oh my god I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

On the other hand, I once made a pretty good pulled-pork marinade in which root beer featured prominently, so I suppose anything is possible. If you can get the recipe, I will officially volunteer to be a guinea pig and let you all know how it turns out.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Vegemite has to be handled properly: you can't smear it on as thick as you would jam. Its intense flavor has to be kept dilute. I like to butter the toast first, then the very thin spreading of Vegemite.

Vegemite does make a pretty fair buillon substitute, as salty as it is. Definitely put onions and carrots with it to round out the broth.

[ZenGum]

I've remembered that the key to the recipe is to get people to try it before you tell them what's in it.

Buggered that up

[Aliantha]

lemon merangue pie is pretty popular over here. My mother used to make her own pie crust and then fill in the pie with the lemon filling made from condensed milk and then merangue on top.

Luckily for me, she shared the recipe. It's remarkably simple and the making of it is all about how it tastes and getting the condensed milk to turn. None of that other hosh posh UG was talking about.

[DanaC]

Well...I gotta post this cuz I am one :P


Manchester Tart
600ml (1 pint) Milk
110g (4oz) Shortcrust Pastry
3 tbsp Raspberry Jam
3 tbsp Custard Powder
2-3 tbsp Desiccated Coconut
2 tbsp Sugar

Pre-heat oven to 200°C; 400°F: Gas 6.
Roll out the dough and line a baking dish.
Blind bake (prick with fork and place a piece of greaseproof paper with some baking beans on pastry).
Bake for 15 minutes.
Allow to cool.
Spread the jam over the pastry base, sprinkle with coconut.
Boil the milk and whisk into the sugar and custard powder (follow manufacturers instructions).
Pour into the pastry case.
Sprinkle with coconut or a little sugar, to prevent a skin forming.
Allow to cool before serving.

[Aliantha]

Ooooh yummmy. I'm going to make that Dana. Maybe even tonight if I don't drink too much today. (the girls are coming over in the arvo for a shoe party. There'll be wine)

[DanaC]

I love manc tart. Used to be one of the regular puddings in school meals (before they went all choice based and you just got given what you were given)

[Aliantha]

We don't have school meals here. Definitely no caffeteria's in schools. We do have tuckshops, but the majority of kids in Australian schools will always take their lunch.

[Clodfobble]

So Australia doesn't have a free lunch program of any kind for poor kids? That surprises me, you guys are generally more socialist than we are. They're pretty standard over here. Free breakfast too, assuming your family qualifies.