Pakistani food

 I tried a new region's food last week - Pakistan. The flavours were similar perhaps to North India, yet very distinct. I made rajma which was a red kidney beans in sauce dish. This was quite good and I would make this again. I also made nauratan pullao, a mixed vegetable pilaff (rice) dish with cumin, cardamom pods, bay leaves, cinnamon, pepper corns and chili powder. This latter dish was interesting, but I'm not quite sure I'd make it again. One thing interesting though was that you sauteed the vegetables in the spices first, then add the rice and water to the pot, allowing the rice to cook IN the spices. It had a spicy kick to it, but also a very sweet flavour.

Red Kidney Beans with sauce

Mixed Vegetable Pilaff

The highlight of this cooking experience for me was the flat bread! I had never baked a flat bread before. I couldn't find a genuine Pakistani bread recipe so I made an Indian Roti. It has saffron (which came straight from Morocco thanks to a good friend!) and cilantro in it. And then you dry fry it. It was delicious

Indian Roti

Around the World in 4 Days

My kitchen has taken an adventure around the world the past few days. It started on Friday with a trip to Malaysia to discover what happens when one puts a bunch of seemingly random ingredients together in a salad. I steamed potatoes and carrots, boiled cabbage, bean sprouts and cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs, stir-fried tofu, chopped up spring onions and mixed together with a peanut sauce. And voila - Gado-Gado, a Malaysian salad. Very yummy! The cabbage added a nice colour to the salad. Actually, because of all the ingredients, the salad was very diverse in colour and flavour.

The Boiled ingredients

The salad before the peanut sauce was added.

Then tonight we headed to Senegal in Africa for a hearty vegetarian stew. This stew had potatoes, carrots, turnip, squash, cabbage, onions, leafy greens, tomato paste and peanut butter. Delicious! I am still full from this wonderful stew.

Senegalian Vegetarian Stew