Doing Georgian Ojakhuri – Part I

One of my favorite travel/food sites is Georgia About.  There are so many delicious and interesting recipes that I’ll never be satisfied until I try them all!  Today I refrigerated the makings for ojakhuri, a stewed pork dish. http://georgiaabout.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/about-food-ojakhuri-family-meal/.

I did fiddle with the recipe a bit.  I didn’t have any Berberis berries or know where to get them, so I substituted the zest of a whole lemon.  I doubled the amount of meat and I think the dog forgot to include garlic, so I corrected that.  Don’t worry Bassa, I’ve got your back

Ojakhuri Marinade

2 lbs fat pork, cut into cubes

2 red onions, sliced

4 humongus garlic cloves, slivered

Zest of one lemon

3 tbsp creme fraiche

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/4 cup white wine

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp coriander

2 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped

4 bay leaves

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix everything together, put into a cooking pot with cover and refrigerate overnight.

Le Petit Poussin

Whenever I see a poussin, I think of how much my mother loved to roast cornish game hens and how much we loved the days that she did.  It seems to me that little birds have a lot more flavor.  I’ve got to find some quail!

Because of my Fresh Paradise market baby boks, I wanted the poussin to have an Asian flavor so I cut her up the back, mashed her down and sprinkled with 5 spice.  No time for a marinade.

For the bok choy, just cut them in half, wash and saute with garlic and ginger.

Poussin a l’Asie

1 poussin

5 spice powder

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

1 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots, thinly sliced

2 star anise

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup chicken broth

Cut the back bone from the poussin with kitchen shears, flatten and sprinkle with 5 spice powder, salt and pepper.  Rub the poussin all over with olive oil, then refrigerate for about 1 hour.  In a hot skillet, sear the poussin skin side down for 8 minutes, turn and brown the other side for 7 minutes.  Remove and set aside.

Pour the tablespoon of olive oil into the skillet, add the shallots and star anise, then saute until the shallots are soft.  Add the soy sauce, honey and chicken broth, bring to a boil, add the poussin, coating it in the sauce, then cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Slice the poussin in half and serve with noodles and bok choy.

Open Faced Egg Salad Sandwich

I arrived in Stuttgart last September and one of the first curiosities I noticed in the supermarkets’ fresh egg section was colored eggs.  I thought to myself, that’s bizarre, I wonder what the deal is, then incuriously turned the page.

Later on I happened upon a blog, I forget which one, that explained that the colored eggs in Germany were hard boiled eggs.  Huh, I thought, that can’t be good.  They’ll probably be hard to peel and have that unsightly greenish/black ring around the yolk.

Easy to peel.

Perfectly cooked.

Still, what do they do with all these eggs?  They take them on picnics.  These are called picnic eggs and apparently, the Germans are so busy going on picnics that they don’t have time to boil eggs  If I could only convince them to boil quail eggs.

Egg salad

8 hard boiled eggs, chopped

2 tbsp chives, chopped

1 celery branch, sliced

1 1/2 tbsp French cornichons, chopped

1 heaping tbsp grain mustard

Salt and pepper

Mayonnaise to desired consistency

Mix everything together and mound on bread slices.

Barbecued Duck Legs with Maque Choux

It’s a beautiful day, 49 degrees and the sun is shining.  Fahrenheit, Roger.  If it was Celsius that would mean I was posting from some disagreeable,  sweltering,  hellhole.  But I’m not, I’m in Germany baby and I’m grilling

Our lovely daughter Jade, after 2 weeks vacation of chowing down and ice skating frenzy, is on her way back to school.  I wanted to make a special Sunday meal for her before she got back to the potatoes, rice, couscous and pasta  of the school’s cafeteria.  She has lodged a complaint about the dressing sodden salad that they serve so that hopefully, in the future,  she can at least enjoy unadulterated greens.

We haven’t had corn in a while, so I decided to make the Louisiana inspired maque choux http://cookinginsens.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/sunday-fried-chicken-and-maque-choux/ I always forget how good this simple dish is.

And who doesn’t like duck?  Especially with an Asian inspired marinade.  Poor child.  At least she comes home on the weekends.

The veal and spinach dumpling (German maultaschen) entree was probably overkill but we had them a full 2 hours before lunch, so that was okay

Barbecued Duck Legs

4 duck legs

5 spice powder

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp peanut oil

1 inch grated ginger

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 star anise broken

Rub the duck legs with the 5 spice powder.  Mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, oils, ginger, garlic and star anise.  Put the legs in a zip lock and pour over the marinade.  Squish around and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the grill to 400 F.  Brown the legs, then turn off half of the grill, place the legs on the cold side, lower the top and cook for 40-55 minutes.

Sometimes I’m Very Hungry

I was going to fry an egg for the top but I couldn’t wait.

Steak, Mushrooms and Onions

1/2 onion, sliced

2 tbsp butter

1/2 lb mushrooms

2-3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 rib steak, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder

Saute the onion in the butter until just tender, then add the mushrooms and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the thyme and set aside, keeping warm.

Sear the steak to taste and serve with the mushrooms.

Grilled Basil Chicken with Spinach Risoni

Yesterday I sent my husband a whining e-mail about not having a grill, so he went over to the commissary/PX and bought one, then spent most of the night putting it together.  Nice man.  Harpy wife.  Opposites attract

Frugal’s post on Mushroom Orzotto http://frugalfeeding.com/2013/02/17/mushroom-orzotto/ reminded me that I had brought over a bag of risetti/risoni/orzo from my pantry in France.

I’m very much a hater when it comes to rice but this rice-like pasta is fabulous, nothing like rice

I butterflied (for you Brits, Kings and Queens of the English language, that’s spatchcocked) a farm chicken and rubbed it with a basil marinade.

Having no bricks, I weighed it down on the grill with the “big black”.

Fabulous!

Grilled Basil Chicken

1 butterflied chicken

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp fresh basil

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Blend the garlic, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper together until smooth.  Gently loosen the skin over the breast and legs with with your fingers and insert marinade between the skin and meat, then rub marinade over the whole chicken.  Set some marinade aside for basting.  Refrigerate the chicken for at least 2 hours.

Grill the chicken on a 425 F grill over indirect heat, top down, weighted with bricks or a cast iron skillet, turning and basting every 15 minutes for a total of 45 minutes.  Start skin side down.

Spinach Risoni

1 small onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

4 cups fresh baby spinach

8 oz dried risoni, cooked and drained

3 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

Salt and pepper

Saute the onion, pepper and garlic in the olive oil.  Add the coriander and cumin and continue to cook for a minute.  Add the spinach and cook just until wilted.  Stir in the risoni, oregano, salt and pepper and mix well.   

Real Beef American Ribs

What concerns me most about the beef mixed with horse meat controversy is not that people were eating horse meat, the French do it all the time and it’s expensive!  It’s the mislabeling of the products, taking away the public’s choice.  Scarier still, how were those horses raised?  Were they well fed, in good health or just road kill?  Potentially gross!

A German government Minister in a statement about the adulterated products, ”Give them to the poor, we can’t just throw away good food!”  That’s right Mr. Minister, be yourself!  I love these mind snatching incidents when true feelings will out  No one can  accuse him of insincere sensitivity, no sir!   I’ll be home grinding all my mince from now on and frozen meat products won’t pass customs here, Roger.

I’d really like to grill something, not particularly horse, but something.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a grill.  Actually, I have lots of grills, just not here.  I thought my husband had shipped the one from South Sudan to Germany but apparently not.  I need a Germany grill.  Now.  I’m going to have to clean the oven again

The ribs I made today are real beef American ribs procured from the U.S. military commissary by my commissary-loving husband.  USDA, quoi.  Which means that although you might detect the presence of growth hormones, miscellaneous drugs and animal based feed, you’ll find no “My Little Pony” in our lasagna.  Uh-uh, we don’t play that!

He also found some Mississippi barbecue sauce labeled “Real American Barbecue”, sweet and spicy from Fremont, Ohio with the second ingredient listed after the tomato concentrate being high fructose corn syrup.  Boy howdy, we’re eating right today!  He-has-got-to-step-away-from-the-commissary!

Anyway.  My celeriac and parsnips were calling out from the crisper, “Eat us before it’s too late!  Remember what happened to the iceberg lettuce!”  So I made a little celeriac-parsnip casserole.  Tasty!

Real American Beef Ribs

2 slabs of beef ribs, seasoned with Emeril’s essence

Real American barbecue sauce

Place the ribs in a 150F oven on a rack for 1 hour, turn and cook for another hour.  Remove and slather with barbecue sauce, turn the oven up to 350 F and continue cooking for 15 minutes.

Celeriac Parsnip Casserole

1 lb parsnips, peeled and sliced

2 cups celeriac, cubed

Chicken broth

2 scallions, sliced

2 tbsp butter

2-3 sprigs thyme leaves

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

Bread crumbs

Boil the parsnips in the chicken broth for 2 minutes, then add the celeriac and continue to boil for 8-10 minutes.  Drain, reserving the broth.  Saute the scallions in the butter and add to the celeriac mixture, along with the thyme, salt and pepper and a ladle full of reserved broth.  Mash.

Butter an oven dish, add the celeriac mixture, then sprinkle with the cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake in a 350 F oven until browned and crusty on top.