Category: Main Dish

Jeet?

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Or in non-Rhode Island speak, have you eaten yet? Yep, it’s state night and we’re sticking with our “island” theme for the week. Okay, it’s not an actual island as Mr. N now knows, but we’ve already done Hawaii, and besides we miss New England.

As for Rhode Island, well we knew right away what meal we’d whip up for this adventure. Any guesses?

Alright, how many of you guessed Rhode Island Clam Chowder? If you did, yay! You’re right. Now, how many of you knew that Rhode Island Clam Chowder is not a red chowder, not a white chowder, but traditionally a clear broth chowder? That’s right, tourists often go for and favor the traditional New England white clam chowders, but Rhode Islanders can be found digging in on a version that puts the clams center stage.

Now a true Rhode Island Clam Chowder uses quahogs, but we couldn’t find any so we’re making due with chopped canned clams in clam juice. Continue reading →

Livin’ on Island Time

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I mentioned in our last post that Mr. N is studying landforms in school. This weekend he had to put together a model of his chosen landform. Knowing that most of the kids would likely choose a volcano, Mr. N did the next best thing, an island – with a volcano.

And with islands on his mind, he also knew that he wanted to pick a “piece of land with water on all sides” for his next international cooking selection. Now when Mike and I think islands we think of the Bahamas, Hawaii, French Polynesia… Mr. N however surprised us with a country that’s not just one island, but one that’s home to 94 million people and comprised of 7,107 islands – the Philippines.

A quick search of Filipino cuisine and it was clear that Chicken Adobo is a popular recipe and was going to be our first selection. Raymund at Ang Sarap has a great explanation/history of Adobo here as well as a number of other delicious Filipino recipes. You can bet we’ll be reading up on several of his recipes these next few weeks.

Continue reading →

It’s Dinner Time Honey

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This week we’re wrapping up our culinary tour of Wales, and we’re going out in style. We haven’t done an elaborate meal in a while, so we took advantage of the gorgeous, lazy day with nothing on our calendar. We went back to our Welsh cookbook and found a recipe for Honeyed Welsh Lamb. Honey, rosemary, lamb and roasted goodness sounded perfect for this crisp fall Sunday.

We made lamb a while back, when we were sampling some New Zealand recipes and Mr. N ate his shank literally to the bone. Today he was on hand to help season our six pound leg of lamb with salt and pepper.

Continue reading →

Speaking my Language

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[By Mike]

So I haven’t had a turn at the blog for a while, and Kristy and I were trying to pick a good recipe for me to blog. We were searching for Welsh recipes a couple of weeks back and came to the recipe for Welsh Rarebit that’s featured today and I said, “Wow, that sounds like really good hangover food. I’ll blog that one.” To which Kristy replied, “You’re not going to tell some story about me being hung over, are you?” Of course not. I was planning on telling the story of my fluency in Welsh, but sadly she stole my thunder. I’ll add only one thing about her letter in Welsh–there was no way she wasn’t getting another date.

Rarebit is pretty easy to make, though it requires fairly constant attention. Begin by melting butter and whisking in flour over low heat.

Next comes a little Dijon mustard, a little Worcestershire sauce, and some salt and pepper. Continue reading →

Pass the Salt

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Now that all the birthday festivities are over, we’re back to our international cooking adventures. For the next two weeks we’re going to be cooking recipes from Wales. It was my pick this time. Wales has a place close to my heart. Not because I’ve been there. I know very little about the country on the south-west side of the island of Great Britain.

My love for Wales goes back to when Mike and I were dating. On one of our early dates, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the display of Christmas trees decorated from various countries around the world. While walking around, we came to the tree from Wales and leaning against the tree was a sign written in Welsh. Mike promptly began reading me the sign to which I was completely taken aback. This guy knew Welsh! I mean, who knows Welsh?!

We went on with our date and saw several more of the museum’s exhibits. It wasn’t until a few hours later that Mike owned up to the fact that he didn’t know Welsh. We both got a good laugh out of that one and enjoyed the rest of our date. Then I went home mortified – he must think I’m terribly gullible – but I hatched a plan. I went back to school (we lived several hours apart at the time) and composed a letter to him written entirely in Welsh. I painstakingly translated each and every word using an online Welsh-English dictionary. I’m sure the grammar was awful, but that didn’t matter. I sent the letter in the mail (yep – used good ol’ snail mail) and waited.

Mike received the letter, immediately knew what it was and ran right out to buy a Welsh-English dictionary. He spent hours deciphering the letter and called me instantly. The rest as they say is history… Continue reading →

Make It Pop

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Our brief exploration into Ecuador has taught us quite a bit. For instance, it is one of only two countries in South America that does not border Brazil and it also includes the Galapagos Islands. Mr. N was even able to point out Ecuador in his social studies class this past week! We’ve also learned that Ecuador is known for its variety of seafood ceviches and particularly for its shrimp ceviche, or Ceviche de Camaron.

This recipe couldn’t be any easier, making it great for a weeknight meal or a dinner party appetizer. We started by thinly slicing a few tomatoes and a red onion. 

We tossed them into a bowl and Miss A added our juices – key lime juice (but regular lime would work just as well) and bitter orange juice. Continue reading →