Country 13 - Bahrain

Bahrain is a collection of islands in the Persian Gulf. It is between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and is the third smallest country in Asia. The main island - Bahrain Island - is mainly desert.
Bahrain is situated on the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization and has been famous for pearl farming for centuries. It was one of the first countries to convert to Islam in AD628 and has been ruled by the Arabs, Portuguese and the Persian Empire as well as spending time under British protection. It was declared independent in 1971.
The cuisine of Bahrain is influenced by Arabic, Persian, Iranian, Indian, African, Far East and European food. Camels are used for their milk and their meat is eaten on special occasions. Hummus, tabbouleh, and flat bread are also staples. Other traditional dishes are falafel, muhammar - rice served with dates, qoozi - grilled lamb stuffed with rice, spices and eggs, shawarma - lamb or chicken kebab and machboos - the national dish of rice topped with fish or meat and a tomato sauces.

For our Bahrainian meal we decided to cook Chicken Machboos with raita. We had planned to make it a couple of weeks ago but various things happened and it got put off until this weekend. Once again the rice based dish seemed to be like a biryani, with lots of spices to bring flavouring. 

The recipe sat on our kitchen counter for 2 weeks and I occasionally read it through to ensure I was familiar with the process before I began cooking. During that time I took note of all the cooking times except number 5 which said 'cover and simmer for one hour'. quite an important step when you have left 30 minutes to make dinner! Still I didn't feel so bad when Gary made the raita and didn't notice the instruction to grate the cucumber! 😏

The recipe contains a mixed spice called baharat - this was the first thing to make. Black peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, whole cloves and green cardamon had to be dry roasted to release the flavours and then ground up with paprika and nutmeg. It smelt wonderful. I meant to take a before and after photo but forgot - so here's the after shot!

                        

After leaving the rice to soak for 15 minutes I prepared the rest of the ingredients. 

The recipe called for dried limes - no idea where to buy them from around here so I dried one myself.

The chicken should have had it's skin on but we only had skinless chicken breast so I cut it into smaller pieces and fried it in olive oil to brown the outside.

Then the onions needed to be sauted in ghee for 10 minutes before adding garlic, fresh ginger and a jalapeno chilli. (don't cut up a chilli and then scratch your nose - even if you have washed your hands several times before!!!!!!!!!)

Next the spices were added and everything fried together - mmmmmmm, a delicious aroma! 

Ah, Instruction 5! Add chicken pieces, tomatoes, chicken stock and the rest of the spices and SIMMER FOR ONE HOUR.     Hmmmmmmmm!

Gary, mean while was making the raita. Once we spotted the mistake about grating the cucumber we transferred the mixture to a food processor to make it more raita like!

After an hour we added the rice, some chopped cilantro and parsley replaced the lid on the pan and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

The liquid was absorbed and the dish was ready to eat.

Chicken Machboos with raita.

As Bahrain is a Muslim country they would have drunk this with tea, we had Sid's Cider in the fridge so we drank that!

                            

The Machboos was delicious. I had made half the recipe but still used a whole jalapeno so there was a nice kick to the dish which the raita helped to cool down. It was a little like the Kabuli Palau we made from Afghanistan but with more spices and so a more complex taste. I think a vegetable curry dish would have gone well with it but we hadn't been able to find one. The Machboos could easily become a vegetarian dish by leaving out the chicken and using mushroom or vegetable stock.

Country 12 - Bahamas

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The Bahamas are a group of over 700 coral islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the largest islands are Grand Bahama and Paradise Island. They are situated north of Cuba and south-east of Florida. This is where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the 'New World' in 1493.
The Lucayan people were the original inhabitants but then the islands became a colony for Spain and then Britain. Today 90% of the population is made up from the descendants of slaves and free Africans.
The Bahamas became independent in 1973 although the Queen is still their Monarch and it is one of the richest countries in the Americas.

Bahamian cuisine comprises of seafood and tropical fruits as well as chillies, cinnamon, coconut and, of course, rum! A lot of the traditional food is similar to the American South and is sold from roadside 'shacks' as well as in more expensive restaurants.

We discovered very quickly that Conch is a favourite seafood. We found we could cook anything we wanted as long as it had conch in it! Now conch (or conk as it is pronounced apparently) is not too plentiful on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. We even looked on Amazon to see if we could buy a tin!
So after a great deal of googling we found a conch recipe which suggested we could use prawns instead!

Our daughter and her boyfriend joined us for our Bahamian celebration! We had Cracked Conch/prawns, Peas and Rice, fried plantains and Johnny cakes. All washed down with this excellent cocktail, Bahama Mama.

We had read about Johnny Cakes - they are a type of bread which is eaten with savoury  meals or spread with jam at breakfast. While we were looking for conch in the international section of our local supermarket we were surprised to see a packet mix for them. So that is why we made them - or rather our daughter made them!

                                         

You just had to add milk to the packet mix and knead it into a dough. 

The dough was then kneaded again in small balls and pressed flat.

               

Finally they were fried on each side and left to cool - we reheated them in the oven when we were ready to eat.

              

                                  

Rice and peas are an important part of the Bahamian diet - they are served with just about everything. Amazingly we were able to find Pigeon peas at our local supermarket

                                   

Gary made this dish - I was already sampling the Bahamian cocktail - but by reading the recipe I can see that he fried onion, pepper and bacon together before adding tomato paste, the peas, rice and water and then let the rice absorb the water as it cooked!

Our daughter had cooked plantain before - we had only eaten it - so we left her to fry it in ghee.

                   

                                  

It was time to make the cracked conch prawns. They are called cracked because conch meat is quite rubbery and needs to be beaten before it can be cooked and eaten. Obviously our local prawns (shrimp) just needed to be shelled.

Each prawn was then dipped into a whisked egg and milk mixture, then into flour before being fried until brown and crispy.

     

I must admit we did make the cocktail - Bahama Mama - and sit in the garden sampling it before we began cooking.  It's a blend of orange and pineapple juice, coconut rum and dark rum and grenadine. It is very good, if a little sweet and very easy to drink - hic! 

                            

                            

Our meal is ready.

                                Rice and Peas

                           

                                Cracked Conch  Prawns

                           

                        

                                Bahamian style tartare sauce

                            

                                 Plantain

                             

                                 Johnny Cakes

                             

Mmmmmmmmm!

Our Bahamian meal was good - not the best thing we have made so far, but still good. I particularly liked the batter the prawns were cooked in. We made way too much rice and so there was a lot left over but the prawns all disappeared very quickly - as did the Bahama Mama cocktail!

Country 11 - Azerbaijan

 

Azerbaijan has got to be the best name for a country ever! 😀

Azerbaijan is on the borders of south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia. It is surrounded by the Caspian Sea, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran.

It first became independent in 1918, then became part of USSR in 1920, it regained it's independence in 1991 when it became a republic.

Cultural influences come from Iran, Russia and Turkey as well as the Caucasian people of the area. Food influences are from Iran and Turkey and are an important part of the culture.

We struggled a bit to choose the recipes to cook this week. Although we want to try new foods we also want to cook meals that we are happy to try and eat and with ingredients that we can source locally.
So our Azerbaijan meal was influenced this week by the blog that began our little adventure Global Table Adventure by Sasha Martin. Azeri saffron pilaf with potato kazmag, green beans with Azeri tomato sauce and grilled Lyulya kabab.    It was all delicious! 😊

This week we were able to source minced lamb from Sobeys in Bridgewater - which was a nice surprise. I made the kebabs early in the day so that they had time to rest and for the flavours to mingle before we cooked them.

Grated onion, paprika, garlic, cumin, mint, parsley and cayenne. I made half the recipe except for the cayenne which we enjoy so I mixed in more.

It was when I came to wrap the meat mixture onto the kebab sticks that I realised we didn't have any bamboo ones so I used the 3 metal ones that we have had for ever! The meat kept falling off the sticks so in the end I made sausage shapes and poked the stick through the middle. It worked!!!!!

The pilaf method was a little strange. We had to line a pan with thinly sliced potatoes and cook them in water and butter until they were turning a little brown. Then we added half the cooked rice, a layer of melted butter and then the rest of the rice and then even more butter - there is a lot of butter in this dish! Then the whole thing was covered and left to steam for 40 minutes. It was so tempting to keep checking on it as we were sure the whole thing would eirther dry out and stick to the pan or just not cook at all!

This is the dish ready for its final steam.

Meanwhile we made the green bean dish. The beans and onions are cooked in yet more butter until the beans are beginning to soften.

Then they are added to the tomato sauce which has been combined with plain yoghurt and sour cream. You will have to imagine the final result as I forgot to take a photo! 

Before we served the rice and while the kebabs were grilling/broiling we finished the pilaf.

We had to remove a cup of cooked rice and mixed it with a small amount of hot water in which saffron had been soaking. We bought saffron when we were in Dubai and it was exciting to be using some if it at last. The rice went a beautiful yellow with golden streaks of saffron.

               

The pilaf was transfered to a serving dish with the golden rice in the centre.

We scrapped the potato from the bottom of the pan

 and scattered it over the top.

The kebabs are ready.

Our Azerbaijan meal. 

No alcohol this week as Azerbaijan is a mainly Muslim country. They drink something called Sherbert, it's a bit like the lemon cordial that I make so we had that with some added basil leaves.

                         

We were very pleased with our Azerbaijan meal. Everything was delicious. The kebabs had a slight 'kick' from the extra cayenne, the green beans and tomato sauce were very tasty and certainly something to make again. We had missed out the last butter addition to the pilaf and it was, indeed, buttery enough, certainly an interesting way to change a basic rice into something more special.