international

Why the French Are Way Cool

Posted on December 1, 2014 by pauldelancey

“1643-53. The Fronde, revolt against the regency named after the catapult children used to hurl clods at passing coaches.”temp
– The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition, p. 326

Wow! Wow! Children in France had catapults. The parents in seventeenth-century France let their children have catapults, maybe even gave them to their kids for Christmas! Wow!

And, and the kids got to use their catapults to hurl clods! At passing coaches! And it was okay! Way cool! Way cool!

Mom and Dad never gave me a catapult, not even the children’s size. Oh sure, I got a fake Civil War musket that fired a cork about ten feet. But that’s nothing compared to a catapult. Those cork balls rapidly became lost, but you can always find dirt clods.

I don’t want to grow up. I’m a catapult kid.

Fling.

– Paul R. De Lancey – historian

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: history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Morog Polao (Bangladeshi chicken pilaf)

Posted on November 30, 2014 by pauldelancey

Bangladeshi Entree

MOROG POLAO
(Chicken pilaf)

INGREDIENTSMorogPolao-

4 chicken breasts
1 medium onion
1 ounce cashew nuts
4 large garlic cloves
1½ ounces ginger root
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon cardamom
¾ teaspoon chili
½ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon mace
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup milk
¼ cup plain yogurt

2 cups basmati rice
3½ cups water
2 bay leaves
1¾ cups water
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup ghee or butter
1 gram saffron (.035 ounce. Tiny but mighty, you bet.) or ½ teaspoon safflower

SPECIAL UTENSILS

spice grinder
sonic obliterator (essential for all sensitive chefs)

Takes about 3 hours. Serves 4.

PREPARATION

Cut each chicken breast in half. Dice onion. Put the following ingredients one at a time in spice grinder and grind until you get four different pastes: cashew nuts, garlic cloves, ginger root, and poppy seeds.

Add chicken, onion, ginger paste, cashew paste, garlic paste, poppy-seed paste, cardamom, chili, coriander, mace, nutmeg, salt, turmeric, lemon juice, milk, and yogurt to large mixing bowl. Mix by hand until chicken pieces are well coated with spices. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

While chicken marinates, add rice and 3½ cups water to large bowl. Let rice set in water for 30 minutes, then drain water. Add bay leaves, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup water to pot. Bring to boil using high heat. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove bay leaves and cinnamon stick with tongs. This is the spicy water.

Add marinated chicken and vegetable oil to pan. Sauté chicken on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until chicken starts to brown. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat. Add ghee, saffron, and drained rice to second pan. Sauté rice for about 5 minutes or until rice starts to splutter. Stir constantly.

Add chicken, sautéed rice, and spicy water to large pot. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir occasionally. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Serve to adoring quests. Sonically obliterate the unappreciative; it just means more for those who like this entree. And besides, you don’t need negativity.

TIDBITS

1) The similarities between Bangladesh and Tennessee are astounding and many.

2) Morog Polao, this Bangladeshi entree, has four vowels, o, in it.

3) Tennessee has four vowels in it as well, e in this case.

4) Morog Polao is served at Bangladeshi weddings.

5) Food is also served at Tennessean festivals, including deep-fried ice cream and deep-fried Caesar’s salad.

6) Julius Caesar never made it to either Bangladesh or Tennessee.

7) Bangladesh is an anagram for bagel hands. Tennesseans eat bagels with their hands.

8) Tennessee is an anagram for seen teens.

9) Teenagers have been seen in Bangladesh and in Tennessee.

4) Uh oh!. We’ve already seen 4). I hope this is just a typo, not an indication that we are going back in time. In which case, my twelve-minute eggs will never get ready. I mean they’ve been cooking for eight minutes now and pretty soon they’ll be three-minute eggs because we’re going back in time. My gosh!

10) Ah! 10). We are not going back in time. It was just a typo.

11) Typos occur in both Bangladesh and Tennessee. If all these similarities can occur in two widely separated spots in the world, who’s to say involuntary time travel can’t happen? Watch your eggs.

– 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Serbian Bean Soup (pasulj)

Posted on November 21, 2014 by pauldelancey

Serbian Soup

BEAN SOUP
(pasulj)

INGREDIENTSSerbianBeanSoup-

3 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 carrot
1 pound smoked sausage or other smoked meat 2½ tablespoons vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
1½ tablespoons flour
½ tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon parsley
½ teaspoon pepper
4 peppercorns
15-ounce can cannellini or white kidney beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4½ cups water
½ teaspoon salt

Makes 8 bowls. Takes about 1½ hours to make.

PREPARATION

Dice garlic cloves and onion. Cut carrot and smoked sausage into ½” thick slices. Add vegetable oil, garlic, onion, and sausage to large pot. Sauté for 5 minutes on medium-high heat or until onion softens and sausage starts to brown. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to low. Add bay leaves, flour, paprika, parsley, pepper, and peppercorns. Mix to form a paste.

Add water to pot. Bring to boil using high heat. Add beans, carrot, and tomato paste. Stir until paste blends in completely. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour. Add salt. Mash the beans near the side of the pot to thicken the soup. Now you know beans.

TIDBITS

1) On June 28th, a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. This event triggered the horrific First World War. The Archduke had taking a carriage ride.

2) It would have all turned out much differently if the Archduke had been eating Serbian bean soup instead. No one gets assassinated in a restaurant that serves good bean soup. Suppose, you could normally kill someone, just hypothetically mind you. Once you entered the restaurant, the wonderful aromas wafting their way from the soup pots would make you so hungry you’d postpone your murderous deed until you’d have just one bowl, thank you, of wonderful bean soup. And then you’d be so full of good will to all humanity, you couldn’t kill any one. Nor under tip, even. Which is why world leaders always frequent restaurants with good bean soup.

– 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, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Horrible Cost of Communism

Posted on November 20, 2014 by pauldelancey

Much has been made of the communist nations horrific repression of their own peoples. Ne’er do wells such as Stalin and Mao come to mind. However, there is another evil side to communism that the mainstream media is afraid to report, the lack of golfing opportunities. Why just in our own hemisphere,  we have Cuba with its two golf courses. Two. That sun-swept land would have had hundreds of golf courses if  the country had only been a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a telemarketer junta. Anything.

I blame communism completely for this lamentable lack of golf courses. Year after year, Cuba embarrasses itself with its non-existent production of world class golfers.

The United States, a democracy, is fertile ground for golfers. So are the countries of western Europe. Not many top golfers come from eastern Europe. However, eastern Europe is still coming out from the effects of Soviet communism. Producing golfers will take time.

I watched a South Korean golfer on T.V.–what’s his name?–win a major tournament. South Korea is a democracy. Sure, it was a dictatorship for decades before that. The point remains, though, South Korea was never communist and so is a credible global golfing power.

Sure, Thailand gets hit with tsunamis and suffers periodic military coups and frequent prolonged bouts with  widespread civil unrest. However, this country too was never communist. Indeed, at least for a while, it mandated that all officers in its military become proficient in golfing.

So, if you value your golfing freedom, and I hope you do, in which country would you prefer to live and golf, South Korea or Cuba?

Fortunately, a new day dawns. A few years ago, Cuba announced it would let foreign investors take 99-year leases on Cuban lands. Right away, at least one foreign company  announced plans to build up to 10, or was it 100 golf courses; I forget which. But either way, Cuba will be free to golf. The world has gotten brighter. Bluebirds sing.

But the horror of communism continues elsewhere, witness the hair style of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Be afraid, very afraid.

– Paul R. De Lancey – political commentator

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: history, humor, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ugandan Chapati

Posted on November 16, 2014 by pauldelancey

Ugandan Appetizer

CHAPATI

INGREDIENTSChapati-

1 garlic clove
¼ red onion
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
⅔ cup water (about)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (additional 12 tablespoons later)
12 tablespoons vegetable oil (1 tablespoon per side of chapati)

PREPARATION

Mince garlic and red onion. Add flour and salt to large mixing bowl. Mix with whisk. Make dough by slowly adding water. Knead or smoosh with hands after each addition of water. The dough has enough water when it sticks together and is just a bit moist. Add 1 tablespoon oil to dough. Knead with hands. Add minced garlic and red onion and knead dough once more. Cover dough and let sit for 20 minutes.

Separate dough into 6 balls. Roll dough out into circles ¼” to ½” thick. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan for each side of chapati. Heat oil using medium-high heat. Fry dough circles, chapati, one at a time. Fry each side for 1-to-1½ minutes or until golden brown. Monitor the frying of the chapati. You will need to reduce the cooking time or temperature as the temperature of the oil increases.

Chapati goes great with rolex, Ugandan rolled eggs.

TIDBITS

1) It is not advisable to keep nitroglycerine around the house when making chapati.

2) What if you dropped the mixing bowl on the floor? Well, the loud noise it would make might cause the nitroglycerine to explode.

3) Then where would you be?

4) All over the place. All over the neighborhood in fact.

5) Even if you managed to pull yourself together after all this fuss, your chapati would be a goner. And how would you start over with your kitchen destroyed? Don’t even think of asking your neighbors to use their kitchen. You now have a reputation as a messy cook. People will shun you until you give them chocolate doughnuts and chocolate doughnuts are mighty hard to share.

– 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, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nigerien Peanut Chicken Stew

Posted on November 13, 2014 by pauldelancey

Nigerien Entree

PEANUT CHICKEN STEW

INGREDIENTSPeanutChickenStew-

3 chicken breasts
1 small eggplant*
1 leek
1 medium onion
3 potatoes
4 tomatoes
4½ tablespoons peanut butter
2½ tablespoons peanut oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 pili pili pepper (or Thai chile, Fresno chile, bird’s eye pepper, or ½ teaspoon cayenne)
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt

* = Not everyone loves eggplant. Don’t worry though if you hate eggplant. You don’t have to put it in the recipe and you needn’t worry about being unauthentic for excluding it. Most of the time cooks use whatever vegetables are at hand. If a guest queries you about the missing eggplant–and how many people do you know have knowledge of Nigerien cuisine?–simply say, “Sorry, this recipe comes from a region of Niger where they simply don’t have eggplant.” If the guest still complains, zap him with your sonic obliterator. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life.

PREPARATION

Cut chicken breasts into 1″ cubes. Cut eggplant into ½”-thick slices. Dice leek. and onion. Cut potatoes into 1″ cubes. Remove seeds from chile pepper. Dice chile pepper.

Peel skins from tomatoes. A good way to do this is by boiling the tomatoes. Add water to pot. Bring water to boil using high heat. While water is coming to boil, make a cut all the way around each of the tomatoes. Put tomatoes in boiling water for 20 seconds. Remove tomatoes and place them in a bowl of ice water. The skins should come off easily. Now dice tomatoes.

Add chicken cubes, leek, onion, and peanut oil in large pot. Sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until chicken cubes and leek and onion soften. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to low Add chicken broth, eggplant, peanut butter, potato, tomato, chile pepper, pepper, and salt. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until potato cubes are soft. Peanut chicken stew goes well with white rice.

TIDBITS

1) Niger’s women give birth to 7.37 children. That’s an average, of course. Still, it makes you think. Nigerien women eat eggplant. They have lots of kids. Presumably, one could practice birth control by not eating any eggplant.

– 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Veldt Bread From Namibia

Posted on November 9, 2014 by pauldelancey

Namibian Appetizer

VELDT BREAD

INGREDIENTSVeldtBread-

3½ cups wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3½ tablespoons brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter (additional 2 tablespoons later)
⅔ cup low-fat milk
1 egg
½ teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter

SPECIAL UTENSIL

loaf pan

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Add flour, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves, and salt to large mixing bowl. Stir with whisk or fork. Add butter, milk, egg, and vegetable oil. Knead bread for at least 5 minutes or until dough becomes smooth.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Coat loaf pan with melted butter. Add dough to loaf pan. Smooth surface of dough. Bake at 360 degrees for 35-to-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean or the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Butter goes fantastic with this bread, particularly so if the bread is still warm.

TIDBITS

1) There is a lot of sand in Namibia.

2) The sand there is usually on the ground and not in the air.

3) Sand lies on the ground in other countries as well. This is because sand is heavier than air.

4) Mostly. There’s little sand in Greenland. We can only conclude that Greenlandic sand weighs less than Namibian sand. That or Greenlandic sand has achieved consciousness and has learned how to fly.

5) NASA is quite interested in Greenland’s flying sand. They might go to Mars using it.

– 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: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Peanut Squash Stew from Chad

Posted on November 5, 2014 by pauldelancey

Chadian Entree

PEANUT SQUASH STEW

INGREDIENTSPeanutSquash-

2½ pounds summer squash (zucchini, patty pan, or crookneck)
2½ tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups roasted peanuts
1 teaspoon brown sugar

SPECIAL UTENSIL

Dutch oven

Makes 12 bowls.

PREPARATION

Peel and cut squash into 1″ cubes. Add squash and peanut oil to Dutch oven. Sauté on medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until squash is tender. Stir frequently. Add salt, roasted peanuts, and sugar. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

TIDBITS

1). Chad is a person.

2) Chad is a country.

3) Wouldn’t it be neat to have a country named about yourself? Consider naming your next child Belgium.

4) Chad is bad when it hangs from a ballot. Some people think that hanging chads changed the 2000 American presidential election. If candidate Al Gore had won that election instead of George Bush, American history, and indeed world history would have been different.

5) How different? Different enough so that tidbit 4) wouldn’t have been written differently.

8) There’s a famous Isaac Asimov story where a man goes back in time to shoot a dinosaur. He strays off the marked path and steps on a butterfly. He returns to his own time to find that the presidential election was changed, just like in tidbit 4).

9) A lot of people spoke out against hanging chads, including many, many Chads.

10) It’s good to see people getting involved in the political process. Now is the time for all good Sarahs to come to the aid of their country.

– 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, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting Rich with Magic

Posted on November 3, 2014 by pauldelancey

I recently took the clothes out of the dryer and found $1.36. I didn’t put that financial windfall in there. My wife says she didn’t. The two boys don’t go near clothes dryers.coins

It must be magic or perhaps I went into the future and put the money in there. But I’m entertaining doubt about this theory. You see, I have no time machine. It must be magic. I’ll be doing a lot more laundry from now on. And I’ll find more and more money, enough to build a financial empire. You’ll be invited to visit me at my corporate offices in Paris and Tahiti.  Ho, ho, mais oui.

Now if you’ll excuse I need to make more money.
Heads to the clothes dryer.

“Abra cadabra
Iggy piggy poo,
“Give me money
“A hundred thousand dollars will do.”

– Paul R. De Lancey, Master Magician

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: finance, humor, international, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ma’mounia, Iraqi Wheat Pudding

Posted on November 2, 2014 by pauldelancey

Iraqi Dessert

MA’MOUNIA
(wheat pudding)

INGREDIENTSMa'mounia-

3 cups water
1¼ cups sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
⅓ cup unsalted butter or regular butter
¾ cups semolina or whole wheat flour
½ tablespoon orange blossom water
1 teaspoon rose water
½ teaspoon cinnamon (addition 1 teaspoon later)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
whipped cream (optional or is it?)

PREPARATION

Add water and sugar to pot. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to boil on medium-high heat. Add lemon juice. Stir constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Melt butter. Add butter and semolina to second pot. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes or until mixture turns golden brown. Stir constantly. Gradually add sugary mixture from first pot and to semolina mixture in second pot. Bring to boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Add orange blossom water, rose water, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Simmer for 10 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir constantly.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon cinnamon and slivered almonds evenly over bowls. Add whipped cream if desired.

TIDBITS

1) Writing first happened in Iraq over 5,000 years ago. It was used on the world’s first written story, The Epic of Gilgamesh. You can still buy it. And use it in literature classes. The Epic of Gilgamesh, tormenting millions of downtrodden students for millennia. Always spell millennia correctly. Doing so makes everything better.

2) Iraq is also responsible for the first accurate calendar. America provided the next advancement time keeping when in 1930 or so it produced the world’s first pin-up calendars. American men wished for more such calendars. Then they found they had no excuse for not filing their income taxes on time. Be careful what you wish for.

3) The Philippines, however, is responsible for the first attempted ban of fruit-flavored condoms believing flavor should only be added to things that get eaten. Ahem.

– 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, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.