Nepal is officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a country is South Asia and the world’s youngest republic. It is ordered to the north by the People’s Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Kathmandu is the nation’s capital and the country’s largest metropolitan city.
Interesting Facts:
- The mountainous north is home to eight of the world’s highest mountains, including the highest, Sagarmatha, known in english as Mount Everest.
- Buddhism, though a minority faith in the country, is historically with Nepal as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who as the Buddha gave birth to the Buddhist tradition.

Recipe: Honey Almond Chicken

1lb. Chicken Breast
1/2 C. Yogurt
1/2 C. Cream
3 1/2tbsp. Raisins
2 Tbs. Honey
3 1/2 tbsp. Chopped Almonds
Juice and Rind from 1 Lemon
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. turmeric

Stir the yogurt, cream, almond, raisins, honey, lemon juice and rind, cumin seeds and turmeric well together and marinate the chicken 4 hours.
Put the chicken in an oven dish, spoon the rest of the marinade on top and bake it in the oven for 35 minutes at 350F.

Nepalese Honey Almond Chicken

Do you ever get a feeling that something will turn out perfectly? Even if you can’t explain why you feel that way? Well, that’s the way I feel about 2010. And the best way, for me, to start the year is to be with friends, feeling good about myself, be in good health, drink a cup of tea and cook a good meal. I decided to take on the ever traditional Turkey the way we Salvadoreans do it. We call it pan con chumpe which means bread with turkey. Basically it’s a gigantic turkey sandwich, every family has a different variation and actually made my new “traditional” turkey in the slow cooker (or crock pot). It was the BEST turkey I ever tasted! And that’s saying a lot coming from me! In El Salvador it’s tradition to make this turkey for Christmas eve and/or New Year’s eve dinner, here’s the recipe, according to me. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Pan con Chumpe:
Ingredients:

For the turkey: (Approx. 4-5 pound turkey)
1 cup. mustard
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
8 ripe tomatoes
3 green peppers (seeded)
7 garlic cloves
3 white onions
*Relajo spice mix, or:
1/8 c. sesame seeds
6 bay leaves
1 guaque or serrano chile
1.5 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
thyme and salt to taste
10 grams peanuts (can be omitted if there’s an allergy)
achiote to taste

Start the night before by mixing the mustard with the worcestershire sauce and salt to make a paste then use the paste to rub the turkey inside and out, then place turkey in the crock and refrigerate overnight, at least 8 hours.

For the Sauce:
Toast the tomatoes, green peppers, onions and garlic on a pan or an indoor grill. Remove the seeds from the tomatoes but keep the juice (you can use a sieve) and blend all toasted vegetables together (in a blender of course!:))
Toast the relajo mix, everything except the achiote, and grind using either a coffee grinder or a blender. Add the spice mix to the sauce and blend again. Then sift the liquid out of the blended ingredients.

Putting it all together:
The turkey has to be in the slow cooker for 6-7 hours so make sure you prepare for that depending on when you want to eat dinner. We ate at 5 p.m. so I put the turkey in at 9:30 a.m.
Set the crock on the heating unit on high for 4 hours. At that time turn the turkey over (it may be awkward, you can use tongs to help) and pour the sauce over it. Then just leave it checking in on it once in a while just to make sure everything looks good.

To make the Panes:
Use large french buns, artisan rolls or portuguese rolls. Cut in half and assemble your sandwich using mayonaise (if desired), lettuce, cucumber, tomato, radishes and curtido (you can make your own or find some at your local latin market, salvadorean market or bodega), add your desired amount of turkey and then pour the sauce over the sandwich. Serve immediately.

Pan con Chumpe

Notes: The recipe seems complicated but it really isn’t, there are just a lot of steps. When you toast the vegetables make sure you are turning them over constantly to avoid burning. *
The relajo mix is actally not hard to find (hey, I was able to find it in Winnipeg!) so I suggest you really try to find it, if you really definitely can’t find any then go ahead and make the spice mix as directed above.
The slow cooker literally makes the meat fall off the bone. It will be the juiciest turkey you have ever tasted!

Verdict: I hate to toot my own horn here… (well, maybe not too much) but this is the BEST pan con chumpe that I have ever tasted, my grandma’s is the only one that surpasses it… and only by a thread! I tell you, if you have the time and patience to take on this Salvadorean treat then I suggest you do it. It brought back very delicious memories of my childhood.
Enjoy, and hope that 2010 brings you more delicious recipes to try!

I had a difficult time deciding what to make for Morocco. All their food looked amazing! So I just made the decision based on what I had in my pantry. Chicken, limes, spices… check, all I had to go out an buy were the olives and really, you can’t go wrong with chicken (or prawns in my opinion!) . So here is the delicious Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon by The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen…

First, more for my benefit than anything else, a little information about Morocco: Oficially the Kingdom of Morocco, is located in North Africa. It’s capital is Rabat and its largest city is Casablanca (yes, the classic movie by the same name is based in that city). It has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean and is bordered by Algeria, Spain and Western Sahara.

Interesting facts:
- On November 18, 2006, Morocco celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence from France.
- Morocco’s official language is Modern Standard Arabic however, about 2,000,000 Moroccans in the northern part of the country speak Spanish as a second language.
-Moroccan cuisine has long been considered as one of the most diversified cuisines in the world. This is a result of the centuries-long interaction of Morocco with the outside world. The cuisine of Morocco is a mix of Berber, Spanish, Corsican, Portuguese, Moorish, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and African cuisines.

Recipe: Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon

Ingredients:
2 lemons or regular lemons (green lemons or limes work well)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 4 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed (I used skinless chicken thighs)
1 tsp cornstarch (optional)
1/2 cup green olives

Cut 1 lemon into 8 wedges. Squeeze enough juice from second lemon to measure 2 tablespoons; set wedges and juice aside.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Add next 5 ingredients; stir 1 minute.

Add broth; bring to boil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper; add to skillet. Add lemon wedges.

Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. Add olives and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly (you can add a tsp of cornstarch to help thicken the broth), about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over chicken.

Hot Moroccan Chicken

Notes: Not much to say, I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. All I added was the teaspoon of cornstarch to help thicken the “sauce”. I used sliced green olives since the recipe didn’t really specify, they worked very well! I also used “limes” instead of lemons, I use the quotation marks in limes because where I come from we called them lemons, limes are actually bittersweet (some call them sweet limes) and they originate from India y southeast Asia. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is a lime:

Now that I have that off my chest, I can continue.

Verdict: DELICIOUS! The spices in the sauce gave the chicken a very distinct taste, not overpowering at all but just hard to describe. Cinnamon and paprika go so well together that I think I will use the mix for other meats. There’s nothing more satisfying for a cook than to hear someone make “yummy noises” when they taste your food… and this recipe didn’t disappoint. It was quite citric but you can always add salt to it, although I found that serving it with… you guessed it… rice! Actually made the dish not so citrus-y. I completely and utterly recommend you make this! It’s something you absolutely gotta try!

P.S. I suggest ending the meal (or having during the meal) with Morocco’s most popular drink: green tea with mint, on its own or accompanied with hard sugar cones or lumps. Enjoy!

Interesting Facts:
- On February 18th, 1965 Gambia was granted independence from the U.K. and joined The Commonwealth.
-An agriculturally rich country, its economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and tourism. However about a third of the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
-Although Gambia is not an island or a penninsula, approximately 1,300 km² of its area is covered by water.

RECIPE: Poulet Yassa (Chicken Yassa) *ATTENTION!  must be marinated overnight!*
This is a stew of fried chicken and vegetables with chilies typically served with rice.
8 tbsp lemon juice
8 tbsp malt or cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar works well)
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 small cabbage, cut into chunks
3 carrots, cut into chunks
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 medium onions, sliced
2 oz peanut oil (see my notes on this)
1 chicken, cut into serving pieces (you can use skinless chicken thighs)
1 sprig thyme (or 1tbsp dry thyme)
1 habanero chilli, finely chopped (or 1tbsp Epicure Louisiana Hot and Spicy dip mix)
12 oz or 350ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Make a marinade from the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, onion and the spices. Place the chicken in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over it. Leave in the refrigerator over night. The following day remove the chicken from the marinade and fry for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown.

Add the marinated onions and the garlic to the chicken pieces and fry for about 3 minutes, then add the remaining marinade and chicken stock along with the cabbage, carrots and chilli. Cover the pan and simmer for about 35 minutes over medium heat.

Serve immediately with rice.

NOTES: The recipe was a bit confusing so while I went along I tweaked and made notes for your convenience. First things first, my fellow food enthusiast, reader and friend , Jessica, gave me an excellent tip… If you light some candles where you chop your onions, fire in close proximity to the onion being cut up will burn up the sulfuric fumes, now… it won’t completely stop your eyes from burning (especially when you’re cutting up 5 onions) but it really helped and it didn’t hurt me at all. The burning started when I transferred the cut onions to a separate dish because I moved them from the proximity of the candles so maybe just light a bunch of tea lights around the whole cooking area and cook by candlelight.

About the peanut oil, I’m in the process of packing up for a move and don’t really feel like buying bottles of new stuff just to pack it up and move it in 3 weeks so what I did is use the oil that separated from my peanut butter (of course I only use the natural just peanuts stuff, no preservatives or additives). I worked like a charm and it turned out perfect. 

VERDICT: A very good dish indeed. Served over brown rice it made a perfect dinner dish with the meat and veggies in the stew.  Make sure to brown the chicken before adding the vegetables, I had too much chicken in the pan and it didn’t really brown, it was still good but I imagine that browning it would’ve made it better. I only added some salt almost right before serving it and it was great that way. The recipe renders enough for 6 and I had all 6 people tell me that it was very good, I did have some leftovers for lunch the next day too!   All in all, Gambia was a great trip… taste wise.

Fun Facts:
- Denmark was ranked as the least corrupt country in the world in the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index.
- During the 8th–11th centuries, the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians, Swedes, Geats and Gotlanders.

Recipe: Bergen Easter Chicken (from http://www.mindspring.com/~cborgnaes/)

• 3 pounds chicken — cut in serving piece
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ¼ cup sherry
• ¼ cup parsley, fresh — chopped
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 4 ounces cheddar cheese or shredded gjetost (I used cheddar)
• fresh parsley for garnish — chopped

 Remove skin from chicken; rub with salt and pepper. Place chicken in large skillet with melted butter. Brown on all sides. Pour broth over browned chicken. Add sherry. Cover, reduce heat to low. Simmer 35 to 45 minutes or until chicken is tender. Use slotted spoon to place cooked chicken on a platter, keep warm. Add ¼ cup chopped parsley and cream to drippings in pan. Simmer, cook and stir sauce until about 1 cup remains and has a glazed appearance. Stir in cheese only until melted. Pour sauce over chicken. Garnish. 

 

Verdict: I redeemed myself with this recipe. It was a complete hit! Yes, it’s not the healthiest of the recipes I’ve made but it was delicieux!  Word to the wise, although I am an advocate of free handing I suggest that you use the exact amount of white pepper that the recipe calls for. White pepper is very powerful and you don’t want to render the dish inedible. You have been warned! :p
I served the chicken with plain whole grain rice (what else?!:)) and lightly steamed green beans (still crunchy) sauteed with a minced shallot and added a pinch of white pepper, just to kind of keep the “theme” of the meal.  It was a good idea… everyone had seconds, some had thirds.   I can seriously say that it was worth the trip to Denmark…  

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