Cluinary Tour - My Haitian Dinner

When I saw the fun Culinary Tour on Foodalogue I knew that I had to try it out and play along. This week the tour stop was Haiti. So I invited my Mom and Dad over for a Haitian Dinner.
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First up was Pikliz - a Haitian spicy pickle.

I chopped up 1/2 a head of cabbage.

Then finely chopped up 2 carrots and 1 onion in the food processor.

Then I mixed everything together and added a habanero pepper. Almost every recipe called for a scotch bonnet pepper or two, but I could only find habaneros.

I packed the whole mix into a BIG jar, with 2 tsp salt, 10 pepper corns and then I added white vinegar to fill up the jar.


Next was Joumou (pumpkin) soup and Diri ak pwa (red beans and rice).

I used squash that my Grandma grew in her garden and gave me - plus tomatoes I grew in my garden and canned.

Diri ak pwa
1 Tbs butter

1 small onion - chopped

1/2 yellow pepper - chopped

roasted garlic paste

tomato sauce - 1/2 cup

red beans, cooked - 2 cups

1 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. oregano

1 bay leaf

rice - 1 cup

1 3/4 cups stock

salt to taste

Saute onion in butter, add chopped pepper and rice. Add tomato sauce and spices, then add stock and red beans. Finally add garlic paste and bring everything to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 15- 18 mins.

JouMou Soup
2 cups pumpkin or squash - cooked

1/2 head of cabbage - chopped

2 carrots - chopped

1 small onion chopped

2 small potatoes chopped

garlic paste

stock or water - 4 pints

tomato sauce - 1/2 cup

2 tsp. lime juice

1/2 cup spaghetti - broken into small pieces

salt to taste

Saute the onion, add all the vegetables, spaghetti, tomato sauce and stock. Bring to a boil. Add garlic past and lime juice. Cover and simmer for 15 mins or until potato is tender.

Diri ak pwa cooking.

Adding spaghetti to Joumou soup.

Finally, Labouyi Bannann (banana cream).

1 unripe plantain

2 small ripe banana

1 - 12oz evaporated milk

1 - 12oz can of coconut milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

dollop of lime juice

Blend the plantain and banana together and then add the mixture to a saucepan. Add milks and vanilla and spices. Simmer over med. heat until thick.

I added some fresh ginger, but that wasn't in the recipe.

Plantain and banana.

Cooking Labouyi Bannann.

I found these sodas at the grocery store. I'm not sure if they drink them in Haiti, but they were good. The coconut one was the best. The champagne flavor tastes like a cream soda.

I made Mayi Moulin - white cornmeal mush to go with the soup.

1 cup water

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white cornmeal

Boil water and salt. Add cornmeal and stir together. Form mush into balls and place one into each bowl. Then pour soup around mayi moulin.

Whole dinner laid out.

Diri ak pwa

Joumou soup and mayi moulin

With added pikliz

And now with some fresh spinach.

Labouyi Bannann with cream and cinnamon.

Well, it was definitely a very interesting dinner! Minnesota and Haiti are very, very far apart. A lot of the Haitian recipes that I found included ingredients that I had never heard of and would never, ever find in the local grocery stores. So, I did a little improvising. I do not guarantee that any of these recipes are authentic, but they tasted good!

I actually like the cornmeal mush ball with the soup. It was a good combination and I have never eaten a cornmeal mush ball!

The red beans and rice were hands down the overall favorite.

The big excitement of the night was when my Dad 'accidentally' ate the habenero pepper from the pikliz jar.

Let's just say he couldn't finish the meal.......

I'm still trying to figure out how you 'accidentally' eat a huge, bright orange pepper. ?

Can Jam Feb - Carrots

It's time for another Can Jam!

Huh - That month went by fast.

This month the challenge item was carrots.

At first, I was nonplussed. Carrots? Hmmmm. I like carrots, but I'm not crazy for canned carrots. Plus there was the addition of safety concerns. We can only use boiling water bath canning not pressure canning, so the recipes would be limited to pickles, relishes or what?

Well, while I was researching the Daring Cook's Feb. challenge, a Mezze dinner, I discovered rose water. Then I discovered Morabaa-yeh Haveej or Persian Carrot Jam made with rose water and lime.

Ok, maybe I can get into this carrot idea!

Morabaa-yeh Haveej or Carrot Jam with Rose Water and Lime

1 quart carrot juice

2 cups shredded carrot

1/2 cup bottled lime juice

2 Tbs rose water

1 tsp butter

4 cup sugar

1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

In a large pot boil together carrot juice, shredded carrots, lime juice, rose water and butter. Boil for 5 mins, add 4 cups of sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil and continue boiling for 20 mins. Add pectin, return to a boil and boil for 1 min.

Pour into prepared jars and boil in a boiling water bath canner for 10 mins.

Makes 6 pints and 1 half-pint.

Shredding carrots.

I had a few limes hanging around in my fridge so I squished them into the pot too.

A little added acid.

Jars getting ready for tops.

Pretty! I love the color of this jam!



I made some challah bread to eat with the jam.

This jam is awesome! It doesn't taste like carrots exactly. It tastes like a combination of pears/apricots/peaches.

I asked my Dad to blind taste test it. He didn't even get close to guessing that it was made from carrots. But he said it tasted good!

Personally and honestly, I think this is the best jam I have ever canned.

*Best Jam Ever*

Just think of all the beta carotene.

Super healthy jam too!

DC Challenge - Mezze Dinner

Why is Catty eating chick peas?

1-What can I say? My baby has a discriminating palate.

2- She thought the can said "chickseys". Never! She wouldn't eat chicks!

OR (drum roll)

Number 3.......

It's time for another Daring Cook's Challenge!

blog check in line:
The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid


Nom nom! Mmmm chick peas! She was convinced they were tuna. I opened the can and they *kind of* smelled like tuna. Catty came running and ate two. Crazy cat!

OK This was a really fun, tasty, mind-expanding, awesome, taste-expanding challenge!

It led me down a totally new cooking path to some great recipes.

In fact, because of this challenge I made the *BEST JAM EVER*, but I have to save that for a different post.

Different group - 'ya know the Can Jammers.

~

But back to the Daring Cook's.....

I used a lot of chick peas in these recipes.

Thank goodness Catty has a small appetite.

Also, as a side note before we get started, this whole meal only took me 1 1/2 or maybe 2 hours (tops) to make. From start (walking in the door with grocery bags) to finish (sitting down at my parent's house to eat it).

I made the meal at home and then transported everything (in a BLIZZARD) to my parent's house. We baked the pitas together.

They have a baking stone.

I don't.

And it was fun.

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First I made hummus.

Chick peas, lemon juice, tahini, roasted garlic paste , salt.

Finished hummus.

Next I made baba ghanoush.

Roasted eggplant (from last year's garden- planting more this year-it was thaw, dump and whirr, easy!), tahini, more roasted garlic paste, lemon juice, cumin, salt.

I found the recipe here.

Food processor power!

Done.

Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with parsley. I added Turkish olives when I served it. The olives have thyme in the brine.

Next: Cucumber Raita.

Cucumber, mint, salt, greek yogurt, roasted garlic paste, cumin, cayenne pepper.

I didn't salt and drain my cucumber, so it was a little runny.

I added some feta cheese. Mmmm yum!

Next on the menu.

Falafels.

Chick peas, roasted onion, parsley, cilantro, salt, cayenne pepper, roasted garlic paste, baking powder, flour (and I added an egg to the recipe - everything needs an egg).

I baked them.

They were good. A little dry.

I love my Mom's flat cookie sheet. *hint, hint Mom*

Next: I roasted some more onions.

To add to Lentil Tagine. Recipe here.

I used dried apricots and walnuts. A bay leaf from my bay tree.

And some yellow tomato sauce I home canned last summer from my tomatoes.

Plus the other stuff in the recipe. It's a looooong recipe.

This is a great stew. It is sweet, but not in a gross way.

In a delicious, mmm-can-I-have-some-more? way.

I put raisins in there too and a little cooked bulghur.

I'm still using the bulghur I bought for this challenge.

Next: Pita Bread

This is the way I made the pita bread. Remember, I didn't have very much time to make this meal AND a few people were having trouble with the recipe SO I made them this way:
3 cups flour

2 tsp yeast

2 tsp baking powder (helps pitas puff)

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

2 Tbs oil

Mix it up and let it rest for 1 hour. Heat oven to 500F degrees. Roll dough out into circles. Let each dough circle rest 15 minutes before baking. Bake for 5 mins.

The dough is gorgeous! So easy to work with!

Don't roll the circles out too thin.

I did a little experiment.

I rolled some out super, super thin.

Then I did a few thicker.

I baked a thick one and a thin one at the same time.

The thick one puffed waaaaay up.

And the thin one?

Just puffy.

It still tasted good, but it couldn't be used for a pita pocket sandwich.

Mezze Dinner

Roasted red peppers and mozzarella balls.

Lentil Tagine with grape tomatoes.

Closer. Closer. Eat me.

Falafels.

Cucumber Raita. This would make a wonderful salad dressing. It was so cool and creamy with a minty kick.

Hummus.

Yum.

Not too garlicy.

Just perfect.

Roasting the garlic makes such a difference.

Baba Ganoush.

This was good too.

The start of a pita sandwich.

Pita sandwich another way.

Mom's way.

My way.

Dad's way.

Big pita mouth.

Now for dessert.

First: Halvah.

I found this in the cheese case. It's ground up seasame seeds with chocolate pressed into a square. Tastes like solid grease to me, but it was interesting to try.

Next up: Turkish Delight.

Well, you can't sneak eat these. They leave a trail of powdered sugar every where!

They were OK, but I would rather have a Cadbury Turkish Delight. Mmmmmm purple jelly........

All in all a WONDERFUL meal!

It was fun to make and eat.

Great to spend time with my Mom and Dad too!

And I discovered a new love: Rose water........but that's for another blog post.

*wink*