40 - Costa Rica

The Republic of Costa Rica is in Central America.

It is bordered by Nicaragua, Panama, the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It has a population of around 5 million. It is a long standing democratic country and the people are highly educated as the government spends 6.9% of its budget on education compared to most countries who only spend 4.4%.

Costa Rica was inhabited by indigenous people before being ruled by the Spanish during the 16th century. It finally became independent again in 1847. In 1949 Costa Rica abolished its army and is one of only a few countries that still do not have an army!   

Costa Rican cuisine is influenced mainly by Native American, African and Spanish traditions. Dishes like tamale are very traditional having been originally made by indigenous people, the Spanish introduced spices and meat from livestock. The 19th century saw influences from Africa and the Caribbean.

For our Costa Rican meal we decided to make their national dish Gallo Pinto, peas and rice (literal translation is spotted rooster). It is usually served for breakfast but can be eaten at every meal. 

We had our Granddaughters staying with us and so we decided to make our Costa Rican meal for brunch.

To accompany the Gallo Pinto we made scrambled eggs, fried plantain, avocado and corn tortilla.

To make the Gallo Pinto first saute the peppers, onions and garlic.

Then add the black beans

Everything is stirred together with something called Salsa Lizano.
We couldn't find it anywhere but apparently you can substitute Worcestershire sauce or HP sauce, so we did!

Sprinkle over chopped coriander/cilantro leaves.

Finally add the rice and some liquid.

We had two helpers to make the corn tortillas.

The tortillas are made from corn flour and water

Make into small balls

and flatten them using the tortilla press.

Then dry fry until cooked

They can be kept warm until the rest of the meal is ready.

Serving the scrambled egg.

We also had avocado, sour cream (made from Greek yoghurt and lemon juice) and fried plantain

The final meal.

The Verdict

It was ok!

The avocado and scrambled eggs disappeared very quickly. 

The children weren't as keen on eating the corn tortillas as they had been making them, we have them quite often so were used to the taste. The rice was interesting, I think it will go well with some chilli during another meal. We probably won't make it again though.

38 and 39 - Congo-Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo

There are two countries with Congo in their name. We have decided to combine them on our food journey because the food is pretty much the same. However we are aware of the many differences between these countries.

Congo-Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, or The Congo, is a country situated on the western coast of Central Africa, to the west of the Congo River. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. It was formally part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa.

Democratic Republic of Congo, was know for a time as Zaire. It is in Central Africa and is the second largest country in Africa. It is bordered by, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola and the South Atlantic Ocean. It was first inhabited 90,000 years ago, more recently it was a Belgium Colony.

The cuisine of Congo-Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo represents food of all the indigenous peoples. Cassava, fufu, rice, plantain and potatoes are the main staple foods. Congolese meals usually comprise of a starchy food along with vegetables and meat in the form of a stew. 

For our visit to these two counties we decided to make Moambe Chicken with rice and fried plantain. Moambe is both countries national dish. 

The ingredients included, chicken, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, cayenne, paprika and bouillon.
You add peanut butter later.

After sautéing the onion and garlic and adding the spices you put in the chicken and tomato sauce.

This is brought to the boil and cooked for 15 minutes.

Now the peanut butter is stirred in and it's
cooked for another 10 to 15 minutes.
I put it in the oven to finish cooking.

Meanwhile we prepared the rice

and the plantain

You slice the plantain and gently fry it (we used avocado oil) until caramelized on each side.

Then you are ready to serve the Congolese food.

Chicken Moambe

Fried plantain

Plain rice

The complete meal.

The Verdict

We really enjoyed this meal. It had a lot of flavour and the plantain was very ripe so they had a slightly sweet taste which made them delicious.

We made something similar to this from another country. The traditional recipe calls for palm oil to be used. We found this oil had such a strong and unusual taste that it spoiled the food for us, it is also usually unethically harvested, so we used our usual choice of avocado oil.

37 - Comoros

 The Union of the Comoros is an independent country off the south east coast of Africa. It is made up from 3 larger islands as well as many smaller ones and located north of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean. Its capital is Moroni. Its population is about 850,000.

Comoros was inhabited by many peoples prior to being colonized by the French in the 19th century. It gained its independence in 1975. Since then it has been politically unstable and now has the worst levels of income and inequality than any country. Over half the country live below the poverty line ($1.25 US a day!)

Comoros is one of the smallest countries in the world, but it is also one of the most over populated. Over half the population is under 15. 97% of the population is native Comorian with Indian and Makua (a Bantu ethnic group from Mozambique) making up the rest. The official religion is Sunni Islam. It is the only Arab nation in the southern hemisphere.

Comorian cuisine reflects the cultures of various inhabitants who have visited and settled in the islands, including Middle Eastern, Indian, Portuguese and French. Fish, especially lobster and crab are popular as well as cassava and green banana. 

Our Comorian meal was heavily influenced by the French in habitants. Soup Faux Pois with Comorienne Mkatra Fouta  followed by Langouste a la Vanille.

It's the lobster season on the South Shore of Nova Scotia so an ideal time for a small dinner party! 

I started by getting the ingredients ready for the pea soup. 
Onion, garlic, ginger, chopped tomatoes make the base and lots of peas!

After simmering for 25 minutes everything is blitzed with a stick blender.

Just before serving coconut milk is stirred in.

Now to get the bread ready.

I'm not usually very good at making yeasted bread, having more success with sourdough but we needed some bread to go with the soup and sourdough wasn't an option so I thought I'd give it a go.
Flour, yeast and salt are mixed together with coconut milk and left to prove for half an hour.

,

Hmmm! It doesn't seem to have risen much, just spread out a
bit and it's very 'wet'!

So you heat a pan and add oil then drop on a 1/3 cup of dough and push it flat with your wet fingers (being very careful not to burn them in the oil!).
While the first side is cooking you sprinkle sesame seeds over the wet dough.
Then you flip the flat bread and cook the other side.

I cooked all the breads and heated them in the oven just before dinner.

Now to tackle the lobsters!!!!!!

We got our two lobsters from a local fisherman.
They were very fresh and very lively! 😅

We cooked them and left them to cool while we ate the soup. 
Then it was time to free the meat from those hard shells!
Lobsters make such a mess! 😋
We also made a sauce to go with them - I forgot to photograph it.
Butter is melted with shallots and then wine and vinegar are added and then quite a bit more butter and a split vanilla pod.
We were surprised how little sauce there was but it was very nice!
Spinach and onion were sauteed to accompany the lobster.

                                                    The Meal

Mkatra Foutra

Soupe Faux Pois (garnished with a slice of lime)

Langouste a la Vanilla
(We had started eating before I remembered to take a photo!)

The Verdict

YUMMMY!

Once again we have been surprised. 
The soup was so good, the coconut milk really lifted the flavour of the peas and the cayenne pepper gave a surprise kick.
The flat bread were also very moreish - they will be made again.
As for the lobster, being very fresh and just lightly steamed the meat was melt-in-your-mouth. The vanilla sauce was extremely rich but gorgeously buttery with a small hint of vanilla.

What a awesome meal made extra special as it was
shared with some awesome friends!
Thanks for coming to Comoros with us Susan and Stephen.

36 - Columbia

The Republic of Colombia is in northern  South America, it is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador and Peru. The Caribbean Ocean is to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Its capital is its largest city Bogota. 

The country's population is about 50 million and it has been inhabited since about 12,000 BC, discovered by the Spanish in 1499 and colonized by them in the mid 16th century. It gained its independence in 1819.

Colombia is the third highest megadiverse country. That means it has the highest number of different plants and animals, only Brazil and Indonesia have more. 

More than 99% of the population speak Spanish but there are also 65 Amerindian languages, 2 Creole languages and the Romani language. The people are ethnically diverse: original native inhabitants; Spanish; Africans; Europeans and people from the middle east. Due to this diversity the influence on the cuisine is vast, the range of flora and fauna also impacts this.

We decided a few weeks ago what we wanted to cook but we needed pork belly with skin still on it. This is difficult to track down locally so we had to wait to source it from the excellent Osprey Roost butchers shop in Halifax.

Our menu is Chicharron Colombiano, Chupe de Papa and Ensalada de Frijol y Maiz. 

First we made the bean salad so that it could marinate for a while. The recipe called for a range of beans - black, red, garbanzo and white - if we had bought cans of all those beans we would have had a huge bean salad so we bought a can of mixed beans. The beans weren't the same but similar enough. We also used cooked sweetcorn, red onion and cilantro (coriander). The dressing contained lime juice white wine vinegar, olive oil, cumin powder and chili powder.

Ready to eat.

                                  

    Next on to the potatoes. 

The recipe reminded me of a slightly bland Dauphinoise potatoes - no garlic! 

The recipe said you needed 4 potatoes - no mention of size or weight! and said to slice them into 4 - which way? Lengthways? Who knows? Anyway, we decided we would slice them like we do dauphinoise just thicker.

We just used two potatoes as they were quite big but as we added the milk and water we decided to use the whole recipe measurement for the liquid. We added ground cumin and salt and pepper to the milk/water. The recipe also asked us to add 1/4 teaspoon of 'colour'!!!!!!! We googled this and found that it is a spice called annatto, which as an orangey red colour to the sauce. We used paprika just to give a similar colour.                      

                                                   

The potatoes were sticking out of the liquid so we had to turn them to make sure they cooked all over.

                         We had to cut the pork belly into pieces and cut through                       the meat and fat so that the skin held the pieces together. 

                                               

     The pork is then rubbed with baking powder and baking soda          and put in a pan with water and salt.                          

                                               

This bubbles away as the water evaporates.

Once the water had gone the pork started to crisp up. The fat spat everywhere and the kitchen filled with the smell of very hot oil! We forgot to take a photo of this - basically it got pretty dangerous to get too close to the cooker! 

Suddenly the pork is very crisp and very dark coloured!

                                                 

               As a final touch we sprinkled grated mozzarella cheese                           over the potatoes and melted it under the grill (broiler).                      

                                               

Then we ate it! 

                                               

We got some wine to have with our meal. For some reason we got Chilean wine - I think we got muddled and mistook Chile for Colombia - easy mistake! Same continent I guess! I'm not sure we would have got any Colombian alcohol in our local liquor store anyway!

The Verdict

It was delicious! The pork was so crunchy and crispy and a fun treat. The bean salad was very moreish and something we will make again.

The biggest surprise was the potatoes. They were really good. They were creamy and fluffy with a gentle hint of cumin. This is an easy way of making a dauphinoise style potato and an addition of garlic will definitely add to it!