Culinary Adventures with Camilla

We visited Singapore by tabletop earlier this week in our Cooking Around the World Adventures . On the Map Singapore is a tiny, heavily urbanized island/city-state in Southeast Asia. It's located at the end of the Malayan Peninsula between Malaysia and Indonesia. from geography.howstuffworks.com A Few Fun Facts Singapore consists one main island and 63 other tiny islands. Almost all of the islands are uninhabited. The national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim, was first discovered in 1893 by Agnes Joaquim, an Armenian. The orchid is a natural hybrid. Although English is the official National language, the national anthem ‘Majulah Singapura‘ is actually sung in Malay. The flying fox, the world’s largest bat, can be found on Pulau Ubin, one of the islands off mainland Singapore. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent. The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles...

We headed to Sierra Leone next on our Cooking Around the World Adventure . On the Map Sierra Leone is located on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Guinea to the north and northeast, Liberia to the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. from LonelyPlanet.com A Few Fun Facts Sierra Leone gained its independence from Great Britain on April 27th, 1961. The name of the country, from the Portuguese Serra Leao , means "Lion Mountain Range." English is the official language of Sierra Leone; however Krio, a language derived from English and several African languages, is widely spoken in all parts of the country. On February 14, 1972, the country made headlines when the world's third-largest gem-quality diamond – called the Star of Sierra Leone – was discovered in Koidu. Over two-thirds of all adults in Sierra Leone are illiterate and the country has high infant mortality and low life expectancy rates. The maternal death rate of Sierra Leone...

Continuing our tabletop travel for our Cooking Around the World Adventure  this summer, we headed to the Seychelles next. On the Map The Seychelles is a small island nation located in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar and east of Kenya. from HuffingtonPost.com A Few Fun Facts Pirates used to use the islands of Seychelles as a hideout. It is believed that Olivier Le Vasseur, an infamous pirate, had a treasure worth 100,000 euros that remains undiscovered to this day. Victoria, the capital city of Seychelles, is the smallest capital in the world. Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels, named his character Milton Krest after a tonic and ginger beer that he tried while vacationing in the Seychelles. This country was uninhabited until the latter part of the 18th century, when its first settlers arrived. Almost half of the country is occupied by national parks and reserves, supporting the government’s various environment and ecosystems protection and...

Thanks for a (gentle) nudge from the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf, we are getting back on track in our Cooking Around the World Adventure for the summer. So, here we are at Serbia. On the Map Serbia is country located in the Balkans, sharing its borders with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Albania. It is landlocked, although access to the Adriatic is available through Montenegro, and the Danube River provides shipping access to inland Europe and the Black Sea. from LonelyPlanet.com A Few Fun Facts Most Serbian last names end with the letters “ić”. The five most common are: Jovanović, Petrović, Nikolić, Marković, and Đorđević. In 274 AD, Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor, was born in the Serbian city of Nis. Between the 3rd and 4th centuries, a total of eighteen emperors, accounting for twenty percent of all Roman rulers, were born in what is modern day Serbia. The only Serbian word that is used a...

D asked me this morning, "When are we going to start cooking countries again, Mommy?" I know, I know, we've been slacking. Or rather, I've been slacking. So, here we are - for accountability's sake - we are getting back on the Cooking Around the World bandwagon and cooking through these countries. Now, where were we?!? Time to catch up and mark a few more countries off our tabletop travel list.  

This is a traditional Sammarinese recipe for beef steaks coated in seasoned salt that are pan-fried and finished by slow-roasting in a tomato sauce. Typically the steaks are baked for 4 hours after pan-frying. I needed to cut that time down, so I braised ours for almost 2 hours. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender. I'll try the baking method soon. Ingredients makes 4 servings 2 pound steak (I used a New York strip steak) 1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1 t freshly ground sea salt 1 t freshly ground pepper splash of olive oil 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced 1-1/2 C fresh tomato sauce 1/2 C red wine 1 bay leaf Procedure Cut the steak into four serving pieces. Blend together the flour, salt, and pepper and coat meat with it. Add a splash of olive oil in a large, flat-bottom pan that can hold all of the meat without crowding. Add in the leeks and cook until softened and beginning to caramelize. Press beef into the pan, searing it quickly for 30 seconds. Flip it ove...

We traveled by tabletop to Samoa for dinner last week in our Cooking Around the World Adventure . I am just finally getting around to blogging about it. I figured that I'd better catch up since we've already cooked from our next country. When I read that one of the most important aspects of the Samoan cuisine is that it is not heavily spiced and is characterized by the use of coconut milk and cream, I had not idea just how un-heavily spiced it would be...or how much coconut milk and cream I would be using. This dinner was not a hit. D called it 'blank.' Some of the most popular Samoan foods are taro, bananas, coconut, breadfruit, shellfish, pork and chicken. A traditional method of cooking uses a Samoan umu , an above-ground stone oven heated by glowing hot lava rocks. The food is placed on the rocks, braided into coconut fronds or wrapped in banana leaves. A bit about Samoa... Samoa is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. While it has been inhabited...

This is a very simple soup without a lot of seasoning. D's assessment made me chuckle. "Mom, it's blank."  What?!  "You know - blank. Plain."  Do you mean bland...with a 'd'.  "No. I mean blank."  Okay. You're right. It is blank...and bland. Ingredients 1 pound firm white fish (I used cod) 1 onion, peeled and diced 2 shallots, peeled and diced pat of butter splash of olive oil 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk 2 C water freshly ground salt to taste 2 Spring onions, thinly sliced Procedure In a large, flat-bottom pan, saute the onions and shallots in a pat of butter and a splash of olive oil. Lay the fish in the pan and add the coconut milk and water. Season with salt. Bring to the boil, then, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for up to 10 minutes, until the fish is opaque and firm. When the fish is cooked, remove from the heat. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls and garnish wit...

I was reminded tonight why we embarked on this culinary journey when the boys pulled out their atlases as soon as I announced dinner was from Saint Lucia. I remember someone commenting once - at a school meeting - that kids don't use atlases anymore. I beg to differ. My boys can't share an atlas; they bicker over who gets to use it. So they each have their own! from worldatlas.com Saint Lucia is an island nation in the Caribbean; it's considered part of the Windward Islands and gets its name Santa Lucia of Syracuse. A few fun facts... Saint Lucia is approximately 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC; It's volcanic and mountainous with some broad, fertile valleys; The first inhabitants were the Native American Arawaks. Then the Caribs invaded the island. The Spanish first arrived in the late 15th or early 16th century, but they did not establish trading posts until the 17th century; and The British gained control of the island in the early...

Cocoa tea. It's a ubiquitous breakfast beverage on the island of Saint Lucia made from the abundance of locally-grown cacao. I decided to give it a try as our dessert course from Saint Lucia.  • 2 C water • ½ cup crushed cacao nibs • 1 t freshly grated cinnamon • caviar and pod from one vanilla bean • 1 C milk • Sugar to sweeten (optional) Usually cocoa tea is made with grated cocoa; I had nibs that the boys crushed with a mortar and pestle. Thank goodness for Kitchen Elves. Pour water, crushed cacao nibs, cinnamon, vanilla caviar, and vanilla pod in a medium saucepan and bring to boil. Let it boil for a few minutes. Then remove it from the heat and steep for 10 minutes. Add in the milk and stir to combine. Heat to steaming, but not boiling. Add the sugar to sweeten - I used about 1/3 C organic granulated sugar. Strain to serve. For the smalls, I served as is. For the talls, I spiked it with some dark rum. That's quintessentially Caribbean, ri...

from worldatlas.com We're kicking off the countries that being with 'S' in our Cooking Around the World Adventure ! And we traveled to Saint Kitts to do it. Saint Kitts and Nevis is located in the Caribbean Sea, about one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago. St Kitts is larger than Nevis. Nevis is just about a single mountain with a height of 3,232 ft. The official language is English since the British settled on St. Kitts and Nevis in the seventeenth century. It finally gained its independence from Britain in 1983. Basseterre is the capital and the population of these two islands is 48,000. The main industries of St. Kitts And Nevis: tourism, sugar processing, salt and cotton. The main crops are rice, sugarcane, yams, vegetables and fish. The main exports include machinery, electronics, food, tobacco and beverages. For our dinner, we made Stewed Cod, Coconut Dumplings, and Spiced Plantains...I started with some traditional recipes I found a...

Wow! It's been a month since our last   Cooking Around the World Adventure   dinner. Yikes. I need to get better about this because I am bound and determined to wrap this project this year. Tonight we headed, via tabletop, to Rwanda, the land of a thousand hill. Rwanda is a land-locked country, just south of the Equator in central Africa. It's surrounded by four countries: Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The population is approximately 12 million people. And though Rwanda is densely populated, if you look at the horizon, you'll see hill after hill after hill. Hi, Bonjour, Muraho! The official languages of Rwanda are English, French, and Kinyarwanda. Here's what we ate...our spin on a traditional Rwandan chicken stew in a celery-tomato sauce. Ingredients 1 chicken, cut into serving pieces 3 T olive oil 1 onion, peeled and diced 2 shallots, peeled and diced 3 large tomatoes, blanched, peeled and mashed 4 celery st...

Our Cooking Around the World adventure got side-tracked last year. But we are determined to wrap up this culinary project once and for all. So, we're launching into the Rs this year...and we'll get through Z come hell or high water! Last night we ventured to Romania, via tabletop, making a traditional  Ciorba de Perisoare for dinner. That's a sour meatball soup. A little bit about Romania... Romania is located in southeast Europe. It's mountainous in the north while the south is dominated by the Danube valley. The river forms a delta as it approaches the Black Sea, creating a wildlife reserve for countless native and migratory birds. The Romanian language, like many others in southern Europe, is directly descended from Latin, although Romania is separated from other Romance-language countries by Slav speakers. Romania has considerable natural resources including oil, natural gas, coal, iron, copper and bauxite. Metal-working, petrochemicals an...

Almost caught up! I've posted recipes, but not the country write up. Sorry! Last week we traveled, in our  Cooking Around the World Adventure , into the Ps. First up: Pakistan. A few fun facts... The official name for Pakistan is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The name Pakistan means ‘land of the pure’ in Persian and Urdu. The national flower of Pakistan is the jasmine. The currency of Pakistan is the Pak Rupee. Pakistan is the world’s second-largest producer of chickpeas behind India. A baby is born in Pakistan every seven seconds. What we ate... As our starter, we made: Aloo Tiki And for dinner, we made: Koftay I actually liked the first dish so much that I even made it for breakfast this morning. And served it with eggs. Well, these Global Table Ambassadors are signing off for now. We'll be headed to Panama next!

When I saw this recipe, I knew that I wanted to make it. Then a friend gave me 2 cups of homemade duck stock and it was a done deal. This is, of course, my adaptation; the original uses fish stock instead of duck, lemon juice instead of lime, asparagus instead of peas, and parsley instead of carrot top greens. As always, I use what I have! boneless and skinless Pacific Cod (click for Seafood Watch designation: here ) 2 C homemade duck stock (thanks, Undine!) 2 T butter 2 T flour 1 egg yolk freshly ground sea salt freshly squeezed lime juice 1/2 C cooked and peeled shrimp 1/2 C blanched fresh peas 1 T carrot top greens Cut the fish into pieces. Poach in duck stock for 8-10 minutes - until fish is opaque and firm to the touch. Transfer the fish to a deep serving platter and keep warm. Melt the butter and stir in the flour. Gradually whisk in the stock. Simmer until thickened. Beat the egg yolk and whisk into the sauce. Season with salt and lime juice. Garnish...

We haven't ventured very far from our previous country which is directly north of this one. Though both nations - Niger and Nigeria - take their names from the Niger River, which flows through both countries, there are some marked differences. Niger is about a third larger than Nigeria. While Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with approximately 85 million people, On the flip-side, Niger has a population of just 5 million and is one of the least densely populated countries on the globe. French is the official language of Niger; English is the official language of Nigeria. A majority of people in Niger are Muslim, while over a third of Nigerians are Christian. Nigeria is largely fertile and forested, with many rivers and a long coastline; Niger is predominantly desert and is completely landlocked. By the way, a person from Niger is a Nigerien, while a person from Nigeria is a Nigerian. map from infoplease.com Here are some fun facts... Nigeria has two se...

We're on to the Ns for our Cooking Around the World Adventure . Here we go with Niger - not to be confused with Nigeria... that's up next! A few facts about Niger... The official language of Niger is not Swahili but French. The name Niger is derived from the phrase gher n-gheren which means “river among rivers,” in the Tamashek language. The country of Niger is one of the hottest countries in the world. The Nigerienne flag is perfectly square in shape and the colors of orange, white and green stand for the Sahara desert, purity and innocence, and green vegetation and fruitful agricultural areas of the country respectively. The remains of the dinosaur ‘Nigersaurus’, better known for its long neck and hammerhead skull was discovered in Niger. Slavery was declared illegal in Niger in May 2004. The land of Niger is slightly less than twice the size of the Texas. On August 3, 1960 Niger became independent from France and was under military rule till 1991. ...