Posts Tagged With: eggs

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.

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Danish Egg Cake (æggekage)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by pauldelancey

Danish Entree

EGG CAKE
(æggekage)

INGREDIENTSEggCake-

12 ounces bacon
1/2 small onion
¼ cup fresh basil
8 eggs
¼ cup flour
1½ cups milk
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
no-stick spray

SPECIAL UTENSILS

electric beater
large oven-proof pan

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 430 degrees. Cut bacon into ½” squares. Mince onion. Dice basil. Fry bacon in an on medium-high heat until golden and crispy. Stir frequently. (Be careful. Use one hand to hold the lid between you and the bacon or tilt the pan away from you when you stir.) Remove bacon and set on paper towel to drain. Clean pan.

Add eggs, flour, milk, pepper, and salt to mixing bowl. Mix with electric beater send on lowest setting until well blended and eggs begin to fluff. Spray oven-proof pan with no-stick spray. Add egg/flour mixture to pan. Reduce heat to medium. Cook for 4 minutes.

Place pan in oven Bake at 430 degrees for 15 minutes or until pancake becomes golden brown. Remove pancake from oven. Sprinkle bacon squares, onion, and basil on middle of egg pancake.

TIDBITS

1) Denmark in Danish is Danmark. Danmark was named after a man called Dan. Cool. When I become supreme ruler of the world, this planet will be known as Paul.

2) Rabbit jumping shows are popular in Denmark. These events have an even greater following in its birthplace, Sweden, where it is known as “Kaninhoppning”.

3) Rabbithopping-USA and the U.S. Rabbit Agility Association sponsor America’s rabbit jumping contests. It’s still much more popular in Sweden and Denmark. Sweden has been at peace since 1814; Denmark since 1945. America has fought multiple wars since then. Coincidence? Perhaps.

– 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.

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Easter Bread

Posted on April 27, 2014 by pauldelancey

Portuguese Entree

EASTER BREAD

INGREDIENTSEasterBread-

3 eggs (11 more eggs later!)
1 1/4 cups milk
½ cup butter (1 teaspoon more later)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 ½ tablespoons yeast
½ teaspoon aniseed
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract or lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
5 cups flour
no stick spray
1 tablespoon butter
10 eggs (1 more egg later)
1 egg

SPECIAL UTENSILS

2 mixing bowls
2 cookie sheets or pie plates

PREPARATION

Beat 3 eggs with whisk. Heat milk on medium-high heat until milk is about to boil. Stir constantly. Add hot milk to first large bowl. Add butter and sugar. Stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Add yeast. Wait for 10 minutes or until yeast starts to bubble. Add 3 beaten eggs. Mix with whisk until well blended. Add aniseed, lemon extract nutmeg, and salt. Mix with whisk.

Fold in flour one cup at a time. The dough should be soft. Knead dough by hand for 15-to-20 minutes or until dough is smooth. Coat second large bowl with 1 tablespoon butter. Place dough in second large bowl. Make sure dough is coated on both sides with butter. (This keeps dough from drying out. Cover bowl and leave out for 2 hours or until dough doubles in size.

Press dough down and divide into 11 round pieces about 1″ high . Spray both cookies sheets with no-stick spray. Put 5 pieces onto each cookie sheet. (The 11th piece will be used soon.) Use spoon to make a depression in the middle of each piece. Gently place an egg on its side in each depression for a total of 10 eggs. Let dough rise again until it doubles in size. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Divide 11th piece of dough into 20 strings, each one as long as an egg. Please two strings of dough over each egg so that they make a cross. (This helps keep the egg in place.) Beat last egg in small bowl with whisk. Use brush to coat all the dough pieces. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until bread is golden brown. Watch to prevent burning. Remove from oven.

While bread bakes, melt 1 tablespoon butter. When ready, brush the 10 baked breads with melted butter. Note: the eggs can be eaten liked hard-eggs. The eggs in this dish symbolize rebirth and the bread cross represents the cross of Jesus.

TIDBITS

1) Every June 10th, Portugal celebrates the death of its great author, Luís Vaz de Camões. Luís wrote an epic poem celebrating Portugal.

2) Epic means long. Long poem means lots of hours of reading for students assigned his book.

3) Perhaps that’s why Portuguese students and everyone else celebrates his death and not his birth.

4) I did read his magnum opus and I am still alive. However, I’ve forgotten its title.

5) A coping mechanism? Perhaps.

6) You have to admire loquacious Luís dedication to his craft. Legend has him saving his manuscript from a shipwreck and swimming to shore one-handed while holding his work above water with the other.

7) An olympics sport to go along with synchronized swimming?

8) Synchronized one-armed novel swimming I like it.

9) I just remembered the name of his renowned book. It’s Os Lusíadas or The Lusiads in English.

10) Rubber bands were never mentioned in The Lusiads. Probably because they had yet to be invented.

11) But now, rubber bands are critical to Portugal’s economy. Indeed, rubber bands account for a whopping 3.7% of all Portuguese exports to Slovenia.

12) Pause and reflect.

13) Half the world’s cork comes from Portugal.

14) If Luís Vaz de Camões were writing today, his epic story of Portugal would certainly include many references to rubber bands and cork.

15) Or do you think he would write reality shows for Portuguese T.V.?

– 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.

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Powegian Salad

Posted on January 18, 2014 by pauldelancey

American Entree

POWEGIAN SALAD
(Poway, my fair city)

INGREDIENTSPowegian Salad-

6 eggs
3 medium carrots
3 celery stalks
2 garlic cloves
1 white onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces fresh spinach
3 avocados
1 large tomato

PREPARATION

Boil eggs eight-to-twelve minutes, depending on your taste for hard-boiled eggs. Remove eggs. Let eggs cool. While eggs are boiling and then cooling, mince carrots, celery, garlic, and onion. Add carrot, celery, garlic, onion, and olive oil to pan and sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens.

Put carrot, celery, garlic, and onion in large bowl. Peel and cut each hard-boiled egg into 4 slices. Peel and remove pits from avocados. Chop avocados into pieces about 1/2″ wide. Dice tomatoes. Add egg, avocado, and tomato to bowl. Gently mix or toss salad with two large spoons. (Do not interpret tossing salad as an command to fling it against the wall. It will not impress your guests, unless they are wildly, really wildly into modern art.) Goes well with all sorts of salad dressings.

1) Spinach is used in this recipe. Spinach made Popeye the Sailor strong. Popeye would have liked this salad. However, this particular recipe does not, as of press time, come ready made in stores.

2) It’s not as if Popeye could stop a vicious fist fight with his nemesis Bluto to go to the supermarket to buy this salad. Bluto would knocked out the iron-deficient Popeye with the old one-two if Popeye had tried to leave the fight. And even if Popeye had to been able to got to the store, he would have need to eat quite a lot of Powegian Salad to have gotten the same amount of spinach as in a can of spinach.

3) And notice Popeye always eats spinach out of a can. The spinach in the can is already cooked. Maybe Popeye doesn’t like fresh spinach.

4) Oh no, I won’t believe that. I won’t. I won’t.. Fresh spinach is so clearly tastier and healthier for you and Popeye than the canned stuff. Popeye wouldn’t lead the youth of America astray. Indeed, I bet he only ate spinach out of a can, because Powegian spinach in a bag wasn’t sold in any store when his cartoons were being made. Yes, that’s it. I feel much better. Carry on.

– 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.

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Cemita, Mexican Sandwich

Posted on January 7, 2014 by pauldelancey

Mexican Entree

CEMITA
(Mexican Sandwich)

INGREDIENTSCemita-

2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 tablespoon butter.
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 pound round steak (sliced 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick)
at least 3 tablespoons olive oil.
2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 avocados
1 onion
12 ounces queso blanco or mozzarella
4 round rolls with sesame seeds
1/2 cup salsa

SPECIAL UTENSIL

kitchen mallet

PREPARATION

Mince garlic. Add garlic, onion, and butter to pan and sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Remove garlic and onion. Add garlic, onion, oregano, pepper, and salt to mixing bowl. Stir with whisk until well mixed. Whisk eggs in separate bowl.

Tenderize steaks with kitchen mallet if steaks not already tenderized. Bam! Bam! Coat both sides of steaks in garlic/onion/spice mix. Dip steaks into whisked eggs, then into breadcrumbs, coating both sides. Add olive oil to skillet. Sautée each steak on medium heat for 1.5-to-2 minutes for each side, until breading is crispy and golden brown. Add olive oil as necessary for each steak sautéed. Place steaks on paper towels to drain Sprinkle with lemon juice. Slice lemon and put a slice with each steak.

Peel and pit avocados. Cut avocados into thin slices. Thinly slice onion. Grate cheese. Toast rolls. Place steak Milanesa on bottom half of roll. Top steak Milanesa with 1/4th of the avocado slices, 1/4th of the onion slices, and 1/4th of the grated cheese. Evenly spoon 1/4th of the salsa on top of the cheese. Put the top half of roll on top of everything. Repeat for the other 3 sandwiches.

TIDBITS

1) “Cemita sandwich” is an anagram for “Ascetic ham wind.”

2) There is a town in Massachussets called Sandwich. Its police cars have “Sandwich Police” on their doors.

3) Jim Morrison was the lead singer for the band, “The Doors.”

4) The Parisians use baguettes for their sandwiches.

5) The bloody French Revolution was caused, in great part, by the high cost of bread.

6) “Bread” was another great rock band.

7) Rock beat scissors.

8) Ancient Egyptians did not have scissors. They played “Rock, Paper.” As paper beats rock, everyone picked paper. All their games ended in a tie.

9) Tie are a popular gift for Father’s Day.

10) Doris Day was a great actress and singer. She never took her clothes off in any of her movies.

11) Clothes get cleaned in a washer.

12) But often only one sock per pair survives the washing. Where does the missing sock go?

13) I think the socks go to an alternate universe.

14) Socks the Cat was President Bill Clinton’s pet.

15) I met someone who had the job of protecting Socks when President Clinton visited San Diego.

16) But no one protects the socks that go into our washing machines. Perhaps our washing machines have obtained consciousness and have learned to hate us, just like computer printers.

17) Printers should be called Marleys because they’re always jammin’.

18) I almost saw Bob Marley’s house when I visited Jamaica.

19) Jamaica’s jerk-chicken dish is wonderful.

20) Soda jerks were common in America before World War II when this great land had lots of stores with soda fountains. Now soda jerks and soda fountains are mostly gone. The Allies made the world safe for democracy, but not for going out for a soda.

21) I need a sandwich to regain my rosy outlook on life. Ahh.

– 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.

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Chivito, Uruguayan Sandwich

Posted on December 17, 2013 by pauldelancey

Uruguayan Entree

CHIVITO

INGREDIENTSChivito-

2 5 ounce steaks (London-broil, rib-eye)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 slices bacon
1 onion
4 hard rolls (Portuguese, Kaiser, Italian)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 or 8 eggs
4 slices ham
4 slices Provolone cheese
4 leaves lettuce
1 tomato

PREPARATION

Fry bacon on medium-high heat until crispy. Remove bacon. Slice onion into thin rings. Sauté onion slices in bacon fat on medium-high heat for 4 minutes or until onion is tender. Remove onion slices and put on plate with towel to remove grease.

While onion is sautéing, trim steak and ham slices until they fit the size of the hard roll. Sprinkle each steak pieces with pepper and salt. Put the steak in pan. Sauté steak in bacon grease on medium heat for 2 minutes on each side or until it reaches your desired level of doneness. Remove steak. Add ham pieces to pan. Sauté ham in bacon grease on medium heat for 2 minutes on each side.

Toast top and bottom halves of hard rolls. While rolls are toasting, slice tomato. Fry eggs in bacon grease at medium heat for 5 minutes or until they reach your desired level of doneness. Spread mayonnaise on both halves of each rolls. On the bottom halves, place a half slice of steak, then a ham slice, Provolone slice, fried egg, bacon slice, lettuce slice, tomato slices, and onion slice, and finally the top halves of the rolls.

Because of the fried eggs, this chivito recipe is “a caballo,” or “on the horse.” Serve with a lot of napkins.

TIDBITS

1) This recipe really should be made with Portuguese rolls. First, that is the roll they use in Uruguay. Second, this roll can really handle the juices of the wonderful meats inside better than say, an overmatched hamburger roll which would explode in seconds.

2) Portugal claimed Brazil in 1494. The Americas have been safe for juicy sandwiches ever since.

3) This is a huge sandwich. It combines a BLT with a Philly cheese steak and a ham sandwich.

4) Dagwood Bumstead of the comic strip, “Blondie,” ate gigantic sandwiches. Some of them appeared to be two or three feet high. The comic strip first appeared in 1930 and has been translated into 35 languages. Dagwood and his wife, Blondie, starred in movies from 1938 to 1950. Here is a movie clip showing the ever-late Dagwood rushing off to work.

5) Oh crudness, unless you got the e-book version or are reading this as a blog, pushing “movie clip” with your finger will be an exercise in frustration. Wouldn’t it be way cool if I knew how to make one of those little squares with the little black squares? You know the one where you scan it with your hand-held device and a website about the product pops up?

6) If I were savvy enough to do this, I could rule the world.

7) Here are a few things that would happen if I ruled Earth:

A) People would no longer be able to block aisles with their shopping carts.

B) Since the NSA knows everything about us, it will fill out our tax forms.

C) Bacon for everyone. Chocolate for everybody.

D) Bluegrass and Dixieland bands will perform continually at all airport security lines.

E) People will be given time machines so that they will not have to do laundry. Simply go back in time to a moment where your clothes are clean.

F) Car keys will come with a homing beacon so you will always be able to find them.

G) People must give their order at the fast-food counter within ten seconds of getting there. If they have more than fifteen minutes to decide what to get and still need to look at the menu when it comes their time to order, they will go to jail for a week.

H) People will be given clickers for pointless red lights at intersections. If you are waiting for a red light to change when there are absolutely no other cars around for a hundred yards, simply click the clicker and the light will change to green.

I) Ice-cube makers on refrigerators will always work. Always.

J) Bus drivers who pull away while you are banging on the door will spontaneously combust.

K) Airlines will give you a partial rebate when they land more than fifteen minutes late.

– 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.

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Deviled Eggs

Posted on October 23, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Appetizer

DEVILED EGGS

INGREDIENTSdevdegg-

4 eggs
1/3 teaspoon paprika
1 1/3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/3 teaspoon mustard powder

PREPARATION

Place eggs in a pot. Put water in pot. Bring water to boil. Cook for twelve minutes. (Read short sentences.) Do not overcook; a green coating on the yolk would look especially horrible for this recipe. Put eggs in bowl of cold water for fast cooling. Remove shells, cracking the eggs from the bottom first.

Cut eggs in half, lengthwise. Remove the egg yolks. Release your pent-up frustrations mashing them with your handy whisk. Mix in paprika, mayonnaise, and mustard powder.

Spoon this mixture back into the holes left by the removed yolks. Sprinkle only a lit bit more paprika over each entire egg for visual effect. Serve.

This is so easy. And it’s considered a gourmet food. Wow! There’s no excuse not to look suave and sophisticated at dinners or potlucks with this recipe.

TIDBITS

1) Paprika is by far the most popular spice in Hungary. The poppy seed is almost revered in that country. Hungarians refused to join the European Community until they were guaranteed unrestricted poppy-seed production. The European Union caved.

2) The ancient Egyptians boiled goose eggs. Apparently, those eggs are indigestible otherwise. A raw goose egg? Ugh. I’ll take the word of the ancients on this one.

3) Spicy stuffed eggs were eaten in 13th century Andalusia, a region of Spain. Spain discovered the New World in the late 15th century. Coincidence? Perhaps.

4) King Louis XV ate boiled eggs every Sunday. This practice ceased with his death.

5) The culinary term “deviled” arose in the late 18th century and referred to highly seasoned or fiery dishes.

6) My wife doesn’t like using the term “devil” in anything. So if you have another name for this dish, I’d appreciate hearing it.

7) Tampa’s baseball team used to be called the Devil Rays. They are now know as the Rays. So, other people must feel the same way.

8) My brother and I had egg holders when we were children in Australia. Neither of us ever played for the Rays. Coincidence? Perhaps.

– 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.

 

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Pierogies

Posted on September 21, 2013 by pauldelancey

Polish Entree

PIEROGIES

INGREDIENTSPierogies-

2 potatoes
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (or already grated)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 onion

2 tablespoons butter
4 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon more later)
4 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 cup sour cream

To prepare filling: Peel potatoes. Cut potatoes into 1″ cubes. Mince onion. Boil potatoes on high heat for 20 minutes. Drain water. Use potato masher or fork to mash potatoes. Grate cheese. Add potato, cheese, onion, salt, and pepper to large bowl. Use fork to mix ingredients together.

To prepare dough: Let butter soften. Add butter, flour, eggs, sour cream, salt, and olive oil to large mixing bowl. Knead ingredients into a soft dough. Divide dough into 3 lumps and cover with wax paper for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle flour on flat surface and on rolling pin. Roll the dough in a circle 1/4″ thick. Use 3″ wide glass to make 3″ circles.

To assemble: Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold dough over to make a half moon. Seal edges with the tines of a fork.

Add enough water to large pot to cover pierogies. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt. Boil water. Add pierogies. Boil for 8 minutes or until pierogies float.

Skip this step if you don’t give your pierogies a golden-brown crust. Add softened butter to pan. Add 6 pierogies at a time to pan. Sauté pierogi on each side on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes or until golden brown. (Just saying golden brown puts you halfway down the path to being a chef.) Remove pierogies from pan.

Garnish pierogies with sour cream and parsley.

TIDBITS

1) Other types of pierogies have garlic in them.

2) In 1986, French and Soviet spacemen quarreled over garlic. The French would not go into space without garlic. The Soviets complained about garlic’s bad smell and refused to allow it onto the space station. Did the world come close to war? I don’t know.

3) Garlic has been thought by many over the centuries to ward off vampires.

4) Perhaps the French though the Soviets were sending their vampires into space.

5) For decades, the Soviets sent their political undesirables into the gulags of Siberia.

6) Vampires are about as undesirable as people get and since space stations are farther from Moscow than Siberia, I understand the Soviets wanting to send their vampires into outer space.

7) And I totally understand the French government not wanting its astronauts to come back as vampires to infect the entire country because they were bitten by cosmonaut vampires.

8) I always have garlic in my home to ward off Russian vampire spacemen. Better safe than sorry, I always say.

– 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.

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Tunisian Meshwiya (relish) on Baguettes

Posted on June 12, 2013 by pauldelancey

Tunisian Appetizer

MESHWIYA ON BAGUETTES
(relish)

INGREDIENTSMeshwiya-

2 eggs
5 Roma tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley

1 baguette

PREPARATION

Boil eggs in water. (6 minutes for soft-boiled or 12 minutes for hard-boiled.) While eggs are boiling, also boil tomato, green bell pepper, and red bell pepper on high heat for 1 minute. Remove tomato, green bell pepper, and red-bell pepper and put in cold water. Their skins should peel off easily. (The skin of the tomato is the easiest to peel, then the red bell pepper, while the hardest to peel is the green bell pepper.

Dice boiled eggs. Cut tomatoes, green bell pepper, and red bell pepper into small bits. Mince garlic. Combine all ingredients except baguette in large mixing bowl with fork or whisk. Cut baguette into 1″ wide slices.

Top baguette slices with tomatp/bell pepper/spice mixture from mixing bowl. Also spoon liquid from mixing bowl onto baguette slices. Enjoy while you can. They go fast.

TIDBITS

1) About 1920 the French banned bakers from working before 4am. This didn’t give the bakers enough time to make loaves for the breakfast crowd. So they made the thinner baguettes which baked quicker.

2) In 2009, a bird dropped a piece of baguette into the Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Switzerland, causing a shut-down of the system. The NASDAQ stock exchange was twice shut down by squirrels chewing through cable insulation.

3) “Baguette” is derived from the Latin word “baculum,” meaning wand or staff. Baculum is also the name for a mammal’s penis bone.

4) Baguettes are sometimes used as swords in slapstick scenes in American movies. The French don’t appreciate this. But come on, I bet they have baguette sword fights on the sly.

5) In Baguette sword fights, you win if you stab your opponent with your baguette or you break your opponent’s baguette. Baguettes costs money and a shattered one sprays small crumbs all over the floor, making this game somewhat unpopular with mothers everywhere.

6) You can use the baguette as an old-fashioned fountain pen. Simply dip one end of the baguette in chocolate syrup. Again, permission from mother is recommended.

– 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.

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Quesillo Recipe (Crème Caramel) From Dominican Republic

Posted on April 21, 2013 by pauldelancey

Dominican Republic Dessert

QUESILLO (Crème Caramel)

INGREDIENTSquesill-

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice (1/2 cup more later)
1 cup sugar
6 eggs 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pineapple juice

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Add 1 1/2 cups pineapple juice and sugar in pan. Cook at medium-high heat or until sugar dissolves completely. Stir frequently. Pour pineapple syrup into mixing bowl. Add eggs and milk. Use whisk or lowest setting on beater until egg/pineapple syrup mixture becomes frothy. Pour mixture into mold or casserole dish. Pour 1/2 cup pineapple juice on top.

Put in oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until inserted knife comes out clean. Let cool, if you can. The hungry hordes might not wait that long. You can serve the quesillo by itself or top it with the syrup from the casserole dish.

TIDBITS
1) Santo Domingo’s history from 1500:

Period Owner of Santo Domingo
————– ——————————-
1500 – 1808    Spain
1808 – 1814     Santo Domingo
1814 – 1821      Spain
1821 – 1822      Santo Domingo
1822 – 1844      Haiti
1844 – 1861      Santo Domingo
1861 – 1865      Spain (voluntary return to Spanish authority)
1865 – 1870     Santo Domingo
1870 – 1872     Seeks unsuccessfully to be annexed by United States
1872 – 1916      Santo Domingo
1916 – 1924      Occupied by United States (which missed the 1870 invitation by 46 years)
1925 – present Santo Domingo

2) The most popular spice mix in Santo Domingo is sofrito and is rubbed on meats and sautéed.

3) Baseball is the national sport of the Dominican Republic. Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Manny Mota, Rico Carty, Cesar Geronimo, Cesar Cedeno. Tony Fernandez, and Sammy Sosa all hail from this country.

4) The Dominican Republic gets a lot of hurricanes.

5) ‘Merengue’ music comes from Santo Domingo.

6) What more do you need to know?

– 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.

 

 

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