Culinary Adventures with Camilla

This herbaceous, tangy condiment was perfect atop oven-roasted pork shoulder for our Cuban-inspired dinner. Don't worry...I'll post that recipe soon. This is basically a Latin pesto. And it's delicious! Ingredients 2 C fresh cilantro 1 C fresh parsley 2 T fresh oregano 2 T minced garlic 2 T vinegar juice from 1 lemon 3 T sundried tomatoes + some for garnish olive oil optional: freshly ground salt and freshly ground pepper* Procedure Put all ingredients except olive oil in blender and pulse to a thick mixture. Remove from blender and whisk in olive oil until desired consistency. To serve, place the chimichurri in a bowl and garnish with more sundried tomatoes. *Note: the sundried tomatoes I have right now are super salty. Not sure why. So, when I used them, I don't use any additional salt.

This way of cooking the tomatoes really concentrates their flavor and highlights their natural sweetness. It's definitely worth the almost three hour process. I promise! I used as many pearl tomatoes as I could squeeze onto a large round baking stone. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse and dry the tomatoes. Slice them in half. and lay them on the baking stone. Sprinkle them with freshly ground smoked sea salt, flower pepper, and dried oregano. Roast for one hour.  Pull them out of the oven and press each tomato with a fork, releasing their juices. Return to the oven and roast for another hour. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees. Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil. Roast for another thirty minutes. Use these lovelies to add a shock of tomato flavor to pastas, frittatas, and more. You'll see them in a soup I'm making for lunch tomorrow... and some mini quiche for Sunday.

Jake is home and we are back on track with a tabletop travel adventure to Burma tonight. I actually debated on whether or not this menu should be cooked and blogged with the letter 'b' as Burma is now Myanmar and has been since 1989. But, going with Sasha of Global Table Adventure's list...'b' it is! Apparently the United Nations recognizes the name change as do a few other countries, but it is not recognized by the United States or the United Kingdom. Interesting to note, when the boys tried to look up the country in their atlases, 'Burma' did not exist. It was listed, in the index, as 'Myanmar. However, when they went to the correct page, the country was labeled 'Myanmar (Burma)' on the map. Burmese cuisine is an amalgam of Indian, Chinese, and Thai cuisines. But what they do that really intrigued me: salads. So I came up with a trio of Burmese salads that take a vegetable - or fruit - and really make it pop with flavor. I should say ...

prepared by Kristina Scrivani at Stone Creek Kitchen  during their Spanish Tapas cooking class on February 24, 2012 2 heads of butter lettuce 2 avocado 1 cucumber, cleaned, striped, and deseeded 1 shallot 1 C ripe grape tomatoes 1 C parsley 2 cloves garlic 1/2 C sherry vinegar 1/2 C olive oil salt and pepper To make the dressing, place cucumber, tomato, garlic, shallot, and parsley into a food processor. Add vinegar. Process until mostly combine, but still chunky. Start processor again and add oil, slowly, until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Layer butter lettuce and avocado slices on a plate. Spoon dressing over the top. Grind fresh pepper over the top before serving.

We are continuing with the 'B's in our cooking around the world adventure, venturing to Bhutan for dinner tonight. A dinner with Bhutan-esque flavors, I suppose, since I didn't use the correct meat or the correct grain. Oh, well. It was tasty. Bhutan is a small, land-locked nation that is sandwiched between India and China in the foothills of the Himalayas. And its cuisine does seem to echo both of those traditions in a way. Bhutanese Chicken This recipe is typically made with chunks of chicken as a spicy stir-fry. I had chicken drumsticks, so we went with that. I didn't have any Bhutanese red rice - just ran out - and didn't want to go to the store; so I served the chicken with plain ol' brown basmati rice. 3 T cornstarch 3 T white whole wheat flour 1/2 t ground paprika 1/2 t ground ginger chicken butter olive oil 3 T sesame seeds 2 T minced garlic 1/4 C roasted bell peppers (I had yellow) 2 T minced fresh ginger 1/4 C  soy sa...

This wasn't a real recipe I found from Benin, but rather a combination of a few different recipes. I liked the flavors of  sauce gumbo (slow-stewed okra and tomatoes) and ago glain (crab seasoned with pili-pili ). So I combined them and came up with this. Pili-pili most often refers to African Birdseye peppers, but since  pili-pili simply means "pepper-pepper" and is a generic term for any African chile, I used a poblano chile I had in the fridge. I learned this today: the name for okra sounds like 'gumbo' in several African dialects. For something to be called a gumbo, it should contain okra. Interesting. okra poblano chile minced garlic sliced tomatoes chicken boullion crab meat, cooked and cleaned paprika smoked sea salt In a large flat-bottomed pan, soften the garlic and chile in a pat of butter with a splash of olive oil. Add the tomatoes, okra, and chicken boullion. Cook until the okra is cooked through. There's a reason Peace Corp volunteers...

I found several references to "spicy fish" as the traditional accompaniment to muhammar , but it was this post from another blogger (Elle from Where the Food Is ) that I used as a guide. Elle is also cooking her way around the globe. Hers was the first reference I saw to serve this with preserved limes. Serendipitously my preserved lemons were just finished. Perfect! Riley, half-joking, called this dish "itchy fish." After he rubbed the filets with spices, his hands began to itch. I have no idea to what he was reacting; he's eaten all of these things separately. But something caused a reaction with him. Still he ate it with no problem. He rubbed the filets with a mixture of minced garlic, ground paprika, curry powder, dried dill, ground cumin, freshly ground pink Himalaya salt and flower pepper. Traditionally this dish is baked, but I pan-fried the fish in butter with some fresh tomato slices. Serve with muhammar and preserved lemons .

Deb, the blogger behind Kahakai Kitchen, is the hostess of this month's Food'N'Flix . Food'N'Flix was started by one of my favorite foodie bloggers Heather of girlichef.com : "We are just a bunch of FOODIES who like to watch movies that make our belly rumble and our mouth water and then head into the kitchen to cook or bake something inspired by what we watched." Deb's pick for February: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Opa! Click here for her invitation to participate.  Toula Portokalos: Ma, Dad is so stubborn. What he says goes. "Ah, the man is the head of the house!" Maria Portokalos: Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants. So true! Though I really don't need to watch the movie again - I think I have it completely memorized - I will pop it in the DVD and sip on some ouzo. And what a great excuse to cook some Greek food. There seems t...

I saw this at a weekly linky party I join and it grabbed my attention immediately.  Kabocha Squash Gnocchi with Curried Fig Butter . Wow. Yum. Then I began to explore the blog - Beyond the Peel - and I am smitten. "Healthy food, uncompromising flavor." That's a motto I can get behind. Of course, since I can't follow a recipe to save my life, I used it more as a point of inspiration. Seeing as I didn't have any kabocha squash and I already had three leftover roasted sweet potatoes, I went with sweet potato gnocchi , made slightly differently then Beyond the Peel did. But I think the sweetness will complement the complex fig butter just as well. Also I went with a more rustic, chunky fig butter, adding capers and sundried tomatoes. Thanks for the inspiration, France and Joshua! Curried Fig Butter 15 dried figs (soaked in hot water for ten minutes), minced 1/2 C organic butter 1 T minced garlic 1 t fresh thyme leaves 1 t  curry powder 1/4 r...

Have I told you that I have a girlichef crush? I love that blog and everything she cooks. I was intrigued by her recipe for Posole de Camerones  last week and decided it would be the perfect New Year's Eve lunch. Of course I used it more as a point of inspiration instead of an actual recipe, making more than a couple of changes. However, I think I stayed true to the flavors. Delicious! INGREDIENTS Herbed Salsa Verde: 1 C arugula 1 C fresh mint leaves 1 C fresh cilantro leaves zest of 1 orange ground black pepper big pinch sea salt Lime Sea Salt: grated lime zest 1 tepin chili 2 T coarse sea salt Posole: 2 T olive oil 1 chopped onion chopped celery chopped carrots 5 C vegetable boullion 2 lbs uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 C cooked white hominy juice from 1 orange Additional Garnish: sliced sundried tomatoes anchovy filets fresh squeezed lime juice PROCESS Herbed Salsa Verde: Mince everything and set aside. Lime Sea Salt: Mash all ...