Monthly Archives: June 2013

Greek Lemon Potatoes

Posted on June 9, 2013 by pauldelancey

Greek Entree

LEMON POTATOES

INGREDIENTS

6 potatoes
3 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 parsley
1/4 pepper
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 thyme
1/2 cup chicken broth

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Peel potatoes. Cut potatoes into 1″ cubes. Mince garlic cloves. Put all ingredients except potato cubes in mixing bowl. Mix with fork or whisk. Put spice/herb/mixture in casserole dish. Add potato cubes. Turn potato cubes around until coated with spice/herb mixture.

Put casserole dish in oven. Bake at 425 degree for 1 hour to 90 minutes or until potato is tender and starting to turn golden brown.

TIDBITS

1) Rosemary has long been held to improve memory.

2) Rosemary was sometimes worn at the wedding ceremony to remind the happy couple to always remember their wedding vows and to bring good luck. At funerals, it meant the living would always recall the dearly departed.

3) The Chinese used rosemary to get rid of headaches and cure baldness.

4) Rosemary has long been held to improve memory.

5) The Greeks thought rosemary could aid the liver and improve digestion.

6) In the wonderful British television series, “All Creatures Great and Small,” the main characters wax ecstatic over the prospect of having rosemary added to lamb. This is the only time out of more than a hundred episodes that they ever mention a spice or a herb.

7) Rosermary branches were used in Medieval Europe to combat the plague.

8) Rosemary is a safe herb for “brown thumbs” to grow.

9) Rosemary is connected with the Virgin Mary. Their flowers obtain their color from the shawl Mary placed over the shrub.

10) Rosemary is a happening herb.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: All Creatures Great and Small, baldness, British, brown thumb, Chinese, cookbook, De Lancey, Europe, funerals, garlic, Greek, Greeks, headaches, herb, lemon, medieval, memory, meon zest, olive oil, parley, potatoes, Virgin Mary, weddings | Leave a comment

Potato-Beef Flatcakes From Tanzania

Posted on June 8, 2013 by pauldelancey

Tanzanian Entree

POTATO BEEF FLATCAKES

INGREDIENTS

3 large brown potatoes
3 large carrots
1 green bell pepper
1/2 ground beef
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

2 or more tablespoons vegetable oil.

makes 12 flatcakes

SPECIALTY UTENSILS

food processor
electric skillet

PREPARATION

Peel and mince potatoes. (A food processor helps immensely. Remember this when your loved one gives you that appliance for your anniversary.) Peel and mince carrots. Remove seeds and mince bell pepper.

Combine all ingredients except vegetable oil in large mixing bowl. The best way to mix this is with your hands. Sorry. (But there is an upside to having messy hands. When your sweetheart asks you to answer the door or the telephone you can say, “Sorry, messy hands.”)

Make patties that are 1/2 cup big. Put 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in the electric skillet. Set the skillet to 350 degrees. Put as many patties as will fit into the skillet. Flatten them slightly with spatula. Cook with lid on for 5 minutes or until the patty browns. Remove lid. (Oil splatters, may I suggest wearing an apron?) Flip patties over and fry for another 5 minutes. Remove batch and start another. Add oil as needed.

And “tasty” in Swahili is “kitamu.”

TIDBITS

1) The carrot is one happening biennal plant of the umbel family.

2) Eating too many carrots will make your skin turn yellowish orange, especially on the palms or soles of the feet. This is called carotenemia. This goes away completely once you stop eating them.

3) Ancient Greeks and Romans ate carrots. No nation or tribe could stand up to Rome’s scary orange soldiers. That’s the Roman Empire grew so big and lasted so long.

4) Ancient Greeks believed eating carrots made men and women more amorous. “Hey, would like to have dinner at the Carrot Auctioneer?”

5) Seems silly, no? But rabbits love carrots and we all know how fast bunnies reproduce.

6) Hippocrates thought women could prevent pregnancy by eating carrot seeds.

7) Current scientific studies suggest this might be true after all.. Eating carrot seeds after intercourse might prevent the egg from implanting.

8) Whoa.

9) The orange carrot was invented by cross breeding yellow and red carrots. I wonder if you can turn yellow by eating too many yellow carrots. Don’t rob a bank after doing this. The police find with yellow palms easy to find.

10) Yay, carrots!

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: ancient, beef, bell pepper, bunnies, carrot, carrot seeds, carrots, cinnamon, cookbook, coriander, cumin, De Lancey, entree, flatcakes, Greeks, Hippocrates, kitamu, milk, police, potatoes, pregnancy, rabbits, Roman empire, Romans, soldiers, Swahili, Tanzania, Tanzanian | Leave a comment

Chicken Zambezia From Mozambique

Posted on June 7, 2013 by pauldelancey

Mozambiquean Entree

CHICKEN ZAMBEZIA

INGREDIENTS

3 cloves garlic
4 hot red peppers
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tablespoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt

5 chicken breasts

PREPARATION

If you are pressed for time, omit the 2 hours of marinating.

The first 6 ingredients make up the fixings for chicken piripiri sauce (Piripiri sauce is the national sauce of Mozambique and is modified slightly for each meat or main ingredient.) Mince garlic and hot red peppers. Combine garlic, red pepper, brown sugar, coconut milk, parsley, and salt in large mixing bowl.

Put chicken breasts in mixing bowl. Turn chicken around until they are coated with piripiri sauce. Put bowl in refrigerator and marinate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees using broil setting. Put coated chicken breasts on grill in oven Put pan underneath coated chicken breasts to catch dripping piripiri sauce. Broil for 20 minutes, basting chicken with piripiri sauce 4 times, once every 5 minutes. Turn chicken breasts over. Again, broil for 20 minutes, basting chicken with piripiri sauce 4 times, once every 5 minutes.

5 minutes before chicken is ready, warm remaining piripiri sauce in saucepan on low-to-medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove chicken breasts from oven. Ladle warmed piripiri sauce over chicken breasts. Play Bob Dylan’s Mozambique and enjoy.

TIDBITS

1) The song “Mozambique” began as a game with Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy trying to make as many rhymes for “ique.”

2) They wrote this song in 1975. Time to update it to pay homage to the culinary greatness of my hometown.

3) I like to spend some time in my Poway.
The local food is on display
All the diners love amore
It’s very nice to eat good pêche flambé
And maybe sip some Chardonnay.

Our long stop lights in Poway
Give plenty time to eat all day.
And everybody wants to dine they say
And treat our sweethearts to Chik-Fil-A.
The Muzak the speakers blast and play? Georges Bizet!

It’s very nice to sup consommé
When made from the seeds of caraway.,
Eating well-done steak with plum puree.
Flown all the way from Mandalay.

And though it’s time for leaving Poway.
You stop once more in that café.
Your body needs coffee from Paraguay
and maybe some dessert. What’s great you say
Chef Paul recommends his own Crème brulee!
From the hot ovens of his old Poway

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: Bob Dylan, Chef Paul, chicken, chicken Zambezia, Chik-Fil-A, coffee, cookbook, De Lancey, Eat Me, entree, fun recipes, garlic, Georges Bizet, Jacques Levy, Kindle, Mandalay, Mozambique, Mozambiquean, Muzak, Paraguay, piri piri, Poway, puree, recipes, Zambezia | Leave a comment

Ground Beef Curry From South Africa

Posted on June 7, 2013 by pauldelancey

South African Entree

GROUND BEEF CURRY

INGREDIENTS

2 potatoes
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
2 cups fresh spinach
4 small tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
2 chile peppers
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 1/2 pounds ground beef

PREPARATION

Peel potatoes. Cut potatoes into cubes smaller than 1/2″. Peel and dice yellow onion. Peel and dice red onion. Dice spinach and tomatoes. Mince garlic and chile peppers. Add onion and vegetable oil to large pot. Sauté onions on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onions soften. Stir frequently. Add spinach, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, ginger, curry powder, turmeric, garam masala, and ground beef.

Cook for 5-to-10 minutes on medium heat or until beef browns. Add potato cubes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Stir occasionally.

Goes well with rice or Indian bread such as roti. The Guyanese version of roti is in this cookbook.

TIDBITS

1) Recipes for meat in a spicy sauce date back 3,700 years to Babylonia. Recipes were kept on clay tablets. Carrying around a hundred recipes would have required a wheelbarrow.

2) Did ancient Babylonia possess wheelbarrows? If not, that would explain why the Babylonian empire fell to invaders. The population was too busy carrying clay recipe tablets in their arms to defend themselves.

3) Two-third of all food eaten at restaurants in Britain is Indian. Wow. There are more Indian restaurants in London than in Bombay and New Delhi.

4) People will begin to crave for curry because the spices arouse and stimulate the taste buds. Sorry, people that’s all curry arouses.

5) In America, many more women appreciate a box of chocolates from their date than a bowl of curry particularly if the bowl has no lid and she’s holding it on her lap and your take the corner really fast or you accelerate really fast and the curry gets all over her dress and she kicks you out of the car and you have to walk home even though it’s your car and you never see her or your car again.

6) No, guys, it’s a much better idea to give your date a bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates and take her out to an Indian restaurant, for goodness sake.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: Babylonia, beef, Bombay, Britain, chile peppers, chocolate, cookbook, curry, De Lancey, entree, flowers, garam, garlic, ginnger, ground beef, Guyanese, Indian, London, masala, New Delhi, onion, potatoes, recipes, roti, South Africa, spinach, tomatoes, turmeric, wheelbarrow, women | Leave a comment

Kelewele (Hot Plantain Chips) From Ghana

Posted on June 6, 2013 by pauldelancey

Ghanian Entree

KELEWELE
(Hot plantain chips)

INGREDIENTS

4 ripe plantains
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup oil

SPECIAL UTENSIL

electric skillet

PREPARATION

Peel plantains. Slice plantains into round slices no wider than 1/4″. Dice garlic. Put round plantain slices, garlic, honey, cayenne, ginger, salt, and oil into mixing bowl. Mix ingredients with hands until spices coat plantain slices.

Put oil in skillet. There should be enough to cover plantain slices. Heat skillet to 350 degrees. Put a tiny bit of plantain in skillet. Oil is hot enough when the plantain bit starts to dance around. Carefully put plantains slices in hot oil. (Getting splattered by hot oil hurts quite a bit. May I suggest using the skillet lid as a shield between yourself and the oil.) To ensure even cooking of the plantains, make sure that none of the plantain slices touch each other. You will most likely need to cook the plantain slices in batches.

Fry each batch at 350 degrees for 3 minutes. Turn the slices over and fry for 3 minutes more. Remove slices with spoon with holes in it. Put slices in bowl. Remove remaining oil with paper towel. Repeat for each batch.

Serve hot to hungry quests.

TIDBITS

1) A search of fun facts about Ghana reveals that its currency is the Cedi. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve enlivened a party by relating that gem. Well yes, I can.

2) The plantains is not a happening fruit, not like its exciting cousin, the banana. For example, did you know the plantains is part of the genus Musa in the Musacaea family of flowering plants? Now hold on to something sturdy before reading further. Alhough plantains grow as tall as trees, they’re only gigantic herbs because they have succulent stems instead of trunks. I’d go on but my heart is already racing like a jackrabbit.

4) Even though the plantain looks a lot like a banana, people never think of the sexual implications of eating or dreaming a plantain.

5) But it could have been different if the great psychiatrist Sigmund Freud had ever traveled to Ghana. Then he would have said, “Sometimes a plantain is just a plantain.”

6) But as any historian will say, you can only rewrite history so far. The superior slipping properties of the banana over the plantain ensued the complete dominance of the banana in silent films and in early talking motion pictures. We saw bananas. We ate bananas.

7) It’s the same thing with tuna and lutefisk. People eat tuna over lutefisk because we only see tuna being eaten on television and in movies, never lutefisk.

8) Okay, we also never eat lutefisk because it looks bad, tastes bad and smells. Indeed, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to learn that many secret governmental agencies around the world employ lutefisk as an enhanced interrogation technique.

9) Have a plantain instead.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: banana, Cedi, cookbook, De Lancey, Eat Me, entree, Freud, fun recipes, garlic, Ghana, Ghanian, ginger, honey, jackrabbit, kelewele, Kindle, lutefisk, motion pictures, Musacaea, plantain, recipes, secret governmental agencies, sexual, Sigmund Freud, silent films, succulent | Leave a comment

Bajan Meatloaf From Barbados

Posted on June 5, 2013 by pauldelancey

Barbadian Entree

BAJAN MEATLOAF

INGREDIENTS

4 Roma tomatoes
1 orange bell pepper
2/3 cups spinach
1/2 white onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3 large eggs
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon banana ketchup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
4 tablespoons Bajan seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon parsley

SPECIAL UTENSIL

8″ casserole dish

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mince tomatoes, bell pepper, spinach, and onion. Add onion to butter and sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onions are soft.

Combine spinach, onion, tomato, bell pepper, ground beef, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs, banana ketchup, mustard, Bajan seasoning, cayenne, celery salt, cumin, and parsley. You really need to use your hands to do a good job here.

(Better yet, get your ten-year old to mix this up. Oh heck, he’s at a friend’s house.)

Transfer the meat mix to this dish. Smooth the meat and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool for 5 – 10 minutes. Oh, don’t forget to wash your hands.

TIDBITS

1) It is so difficult to find fun facts about meatloaf. The rock-music star Meatloaf so enamors all the fun-fact website producers that there are no fun-fact sides for the meatloaf showcased in this recipe.

2) But I own one of Meatloaf’s albums. In homage to him let me give him a tidbit. He once worked as a valet at a concert hall or arena. One of the cast members for the musical, Hair, quit. Meatloaf was pressed into action and the rest is non-culinary history.

3) Now back to Barbados. That sounds like a Caribbean John Wayne movie doesn’t it?

4) Mongooses were brought to Barbados from India to kill the rats in the sugar cane fields. Unfortunately, the nocturnal mongooses never came into contact with the rats who scurried about during the day. The mongooses did however, decimate the island’s herds of snakes that actually ate rats.

5) I know snakes don’t travel in herds, but I do love the image. “Head ‘em up, move ‘em out.”

6) In 1976 Captain and Tennille had a huge hit with the song “Muskrat Love.” It could just as easily been called “Mongoose Love.”

7) They didn’t, of course, due in part to the bad rep the mongooses got from their activities in Barbados.

8) This is a cautionary tales for all mammals.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: bajan, banana, Barbadian, Barbados, bell pepper, Captain and Tennille, Caribbean, cayenne, cheddar, cheese, Chef Paul, cookbook, De Lancey, entree, Following Good Food, ground beef, India, John Wayne, ketchup, meatloaf, mongooeses, mongoose, Muskrat love, mustard, onion, parsley, rats, recipes, Roma, spinach, tomatoes | Leave a comment

Bajan Macaroni Pie From Barbados

Posted on June 4, 2013 by pauldelancey

Barbadian Entree

BAJAN MACARONI PIE

INGREDIENTS

1 pound macaroni
2 onions
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon banana ketchup
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (1/4 cup more later)
2 tablespoons Bajan seasoning
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 tablespoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

SPECIAL UTENSIL

colander
8″ casserole dish

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil water in large pot on high heat. Put macaroni in pot. Boil macaroni for about 12 minutes or until tender Drain macaroni in colander.

While macaroni is boiling, dice onions. Put butter and onions in now empty pot. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onions are tender. Add banana ketchup, mayonnaise, milk, yellow mustard, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, Bajan seasoning, paprika, parsley, pepper, and egg. Mix with hands. (Pretend you are throttling the people who make hated software upgrades.)

Put mixture in casserole dish. Sprinkle 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until top starts to turn brown.

TIDBITS

1) You should serve Burgundy alongside the macaroni you serve to your guests. Serving any other wine would be gauche.

2) When the ancient Egyptians entombed their dead they sometimes gave their departed ones cheese for their journey in the afterworld.

3) The first written recipe for mac and cheese comes from thirteenth-century Italy. It used fermented cheese. Hurray!

4) The box recipe for macaroni and cheese appeared in 1802. One year later, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France. He would plunge Europe into war after war for most of the next twelve years. Coincidence? Perhaps.

5) The phrase “Big Cheese” originally referred to people wealthy enough to purchase a whole wheel of cheese.

6) Kraft debuted its boxed mac and cheese in 1937. The Great Depression ends two years later.

7) In 1993, Crayola came out with the color, “macaroni and cheese.” We’ve had no global wars since then.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, humor, international | Tags: afterwold, ancient, bajan, Bajan seasoning, banana ketchup, Barbadian, Barbados, big cheese, Burgundy, butter, cheddar, cheese, Chef Paul, cookbook, Crayola, Egyptians, Europe, France, global wars, Great Depression, Italy, Kraft, mac and cheese, macaroni, macaroni and cheese, Napoleon, paprika, pie, wine | 4 Comments

Lemonade Recipe

Posted on June 3, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

LEMONADE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups water (6 more cups later)
2 cups lemon juice (might need 8 to 12 lemons if freshly squeezed)
6 cups water

PREPARATION

Use juicer to extract lemon juice or open up bottle of lemon juice. Put sugar and 2 cups water in saucepan. Cook at medium heat until sugar dissolves. (This keeps sugar from settling to bottom.) Stir constantly.

Add sugar water, lemon juice, and 6 cups water to pitcher. Stir with long spoon. Cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.

TIDBITS

1) “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

2) “When life gives you loquats, make loquatade.

3) Lemon zest is chockfull of bioflavonoids called rutins. Sounds healthy, doesn’t it.

4) My spell checker didn’t recognize “chockfull” but was perfectly fine with bioflavonoids. Odd.

5) When I grew up we had not only a lemon tree and a loquat tree in the back, but a guava bush as well. I had a rich childhood.

6) Peter, Paul, and Mary had a hit song called, “Lemon Tree.” The guava bush, in my opinion, has many similarities to the lemon tree. They could have called their song, “Guava Bush.”

“Guava bush, very pretty, and the guava flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor guava is impossible to eat.”

7) Would Peter, Paul, and Mary still have had a hit song if they had warbled about the humble guava instead? It’s hard to say without shifting into the correct parallel universe. And that seems risky.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, humor | Tags: 169 Fun Recipes From All Over the World, America, American, and Mary, bioflavonoids, childhood, dessert, guava, Kindle, lemon, Lemon Tree, lemon zest, lemonade, lemons, loquat, lordsoffun, Nook, parallel universe, Paul, Peter, recipe, rutins, universe | 2 Comments

Join Paul De Lancey’s Lords of Fun

Posted on June 2, 2013 by pauldelancey

Free poster (see below) giving membership in the prestigious Lords Of Fun society to anyone who buys any of my books from my website, http://www.lordsoffun.com, (I’ll be pleased to sign the books.) Free cyber posters to anyone buying from Amazon, or Nook.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: 169 Fun Recipes From All Over the World, Amazon, amazon.com, cyber, De Lancey, Eat Me, Lords of Fun, lordsoffun, Mark A. Clements, Nook, Paul De Lancey, poster, The Fur West, We're French and You're Not, www.lordsoffun.com | Leave a comment

Recipe From My Cookbook As It Appears on Kindle Fire

Posted on June 1, 2013 by pauldelancey

My cookbook, Eat Me: 169 Fun Recipes From All Over the World is available in paperpack or Kindle on amazon.com

As an e-book on Nook

A big thank you to Natasha Fondren of eBook Artisans who is as professional and competent as she is nice.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, humor | Tags: Alaska, Alaska Air, barbecue, basil, Belizean, chicken, Coca Cola, cookbook, coriander, dwarf, Earth, Eat Me169 Fun Recipes From All Over the World, eBook Artisans, El Duende, entree, fire, forest, Jamaica, Jamaican, jerk, Kindle, Kindle Fire, lime, lordsoffun.Amazon, Mayan, Natasha Fondren, Nook, paperback, recado, rice, signed copy, stew, thyme | Leave a comment

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Greek Lemon Potatoes

LEMON POTATOES

Potato-Beef Flatcakes From Tanzania

POTATO BEEF FLATCAKES

Chicken Zambezia From Mozambique

CHICKEN ZAMBEZIA

Ground Beef Curry From South Africa

GROUND BEEF CURRY

Kelewele (Hot Plantain Chips) From Ghana

Bajan Meatloaf From Barbados

BAJAN MEATLOAF

Bajan Macaroni Pie From Barbados

BAJAN MACARONI PIE

Lemonade Recipe

LEMONADE

Join Paul De Lancey’s Lords of Fun

Recipe From My Cookbook As It Appears on Kindle Fire

Follow Blog via Email

Paul’s archives

Monthly Archives: June 2013

LEMON POTATOES

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POTATO BEEF FLATCAKES

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CHICKEN ZAMBEZIA

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GROUND BEEF CURRY

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BAJAN MEATLOAF

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BAJAN MACARONI PIE

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LEMONADE

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