Eat the World/Aegean Kakavia (Greece)

Before I get to the recipe, I have some house-keeping to attend to.  My small fellowship of readers, should they return for this new journey, have probably noticed that this blog has been dormant for over a year.  I'm not going to go into a long explanation of where I've been or what I've been doing.  If you are one of my real life friends or if you follow me on Twitter, you already know the gist of it, and if you don't then you're probably just here for the food.  But I do need to explain the adventure we're about to set out upon.

At the end of last school year my son expressed a desire to eat Japanese food, but when it was suggested that we could visit a restaurant, he seemed disappointed.  When asked, he explained that he didn't just want to have some random Japanese dish and then resume the normal routine of baked potatoes with chili and pizza.  He wanted to immerse himself.  That was when the kernel of the idea was formed; I suggested that we could do just that at home.  I'd already become accustomed to going to the Asian Market when I wanted to make Momofuku Ramen or Pho; it wouldn't be much of a stretch to shop there for an entire week's worth of groceries.  Well, Boy loved this idea.  As a matter of fact, he loved it so much that he followed it to its logical extreme.

"Well," he asked, "if we can do a whole week based around Japan, we could do a whole week of Chinese food for my sister too, right?"  Girl loves Chinese food.

"Yeah, I guess," I admitted, "we could do Chinese."  I could already see what was coming.  My son's eyes lit up like it was Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled up into one.

"We should do a week for EVERY country!"

And so here we are.  I didn't make up a menu for every country, of course.  That's a bit excessive.  But I did plan out twenty-five weeks worth of menus.  Some I'm excited for (Spain stands out), others less so (unless the internet is lying, there isn't a whole lot going on in Canada, food-wise).  I've tried manage the menus so they have a familiar set up each week; with the exception of England, every Sunday I'll be cooking fish.  Fridays are for desserts; Saturday morning we'll sample breakfasts.  Saturday nights Wife gets a respite (most likely pizza), the same with Sunday morning.  Lunches aren't a part of the plan, though if we make something truly exotic Boy has claimed dibs on the leftovers so he can show his school friends.

Finally, you may have guessed, but with a project of this magnitude I am not claiming to have made any of these recipes.  Normally, that would mean they'd earn the "Other People's Recipes" designation in the title of my post, but for this project I'm simply going to list the country I'm cooking in.  Credit will still be given; I found all of my recipes on Google, and I will link to them in each article; if you feel like it, go to their sites and click around on their ads.  These posts are more about the journey, anyway.  You can come with me, if you'd like.

First up on the agenda is Greece.  You might have thought it would be Japan, since that's what started us down the road, but after spending a summer away at his Bio-Dad's house, Boy wanted to begin with the home of the gyro.  I can't say that I blame him.  But Sunday was to be fish night.

To that end, I chose Aegean Kakavia, or "beautiful fish stew."  We don't do a lot of fish in the household traditionally, because we live inland and try and do all of our shopping on one day, so a stew seemed a gentle way to break into the habit. It's traditionally a fisherman's stew, using the day's fresh catch and water straight from that ocean.  And yes, I lifted that bit of trivia directly from the Jamie Oliver recipe I cooked from.  I feel like it's important to the dish's mystique.

The first thing you want to do is roughly chop two onions and four stalks of celery.  These will go into your soup pot with some olive oil that has already been heated to medium heat, and allowed to cook down for five minutes. Then add five cloves of garlic--also roughly chopped--and cook for five minutes more. 

 On top of that goes four potatoes and three large beefsteak tomatoes--you guessed it--roughly chopped.  Toss in three bay leaves and a quart of vegetable broth, and bring things to a boil.  (Quick note--in an attempt to make things healthier, I used low sodium broth.  Unless you have an actual medical reason for avoiding salt, DO NOT DO THIS.  The next step of the recipe is to season liberally with sea salt and pepper, but let me reiterate.  This is a fisherman's stew, originally made with ocean water, making the salt a featured ingredient and not just an afterthought.)

Once you've got a boiling pot of soup, drop it back down to a simmer and wait fifteen minutes.  I spent mine watching a John Oliver segment on Youtube.  When the timer beeps, return the pot to a boil, add a pound and a half of white fish (I used cod) and repeat the process.  There's no need to mess with the fish if it's been butchered, except to double check for pin bones.  It will break apart when it's done cooking. All that's left is to chop a small bunch of parsley, a small bunch of dill, and juice one lemon.  Toss those wonderful aromatics on top of your soup and serve.

I really enjoyed this stew, and it was a good introduction to Greek cuisine. Some of the flavors reminded me of the Roasted Tomato Soup I made last year, and when I make this again I'll almost certainly roast my tomatoes and garlic first to try and get that depth of flavor.  And I will make this again, without a doubt.  It was easy, cheap, and most importantly, comforting.

Looking at the menu spreadsheet one more time as I prepare to post this, it is clear that we have a long road ahead of us.  Some weeks will be expensive.  In spite of all of my research, some recipes just won't work.  But day one of week one is in the books, and I'd call it a success.  We all ended up adding salt, but we all cleared our bowls, and Boy asked for seconds.  Not too shabby.

Italian Fish Tank (Recipe)

As I've said before, fish is something that I enjoy eating but haven't gotten much of a handle on cooking.  Last time, I put tilapia in a packet and trusted the oven to do it's thing, with good results.  Still, one recipe isn't enough to get fish into regular rotation at the house; to be a featured player at dinner time, an ingredient has to be versatile.  Versatile or pizza.

Atomic Chicken (Recipe)

It's not often I tease a blog post ahead of time as I've been doing on Facebook and Twitter; I also don't usually plan out my blog topics more than a week in advance.  The Atomic Chicken, however, has been on my mind for some time.  Years, in fact.  In "real life," I earn a living as the custodial supervisor for the local college.  Each year in January, before students return from their Christmas break, the various bosses in the facilities department get together for a chili cook-off.  However, unlike the start of the school year barbecue (which is matched by a pizza party for the graveyard shift), there is no equivalent event for those custodians who work at night; it is a day shift tradition only, and until August of this year I worked at night.  Except, that is, briefly at the beginning of 2007.  That year, I joined the day staff as a regular custodian just a week or two before the chili event.  I came, and I ate, but I didn't contribute.  While I enjoyed (most) of what I had, one thing was missing.  Heat.  Those of you who have been with me over a year may recall that I'm somewhat of a pepper belly.  A chili cook-off devoid of spice just seemed wrong.  As fate would have it, I didn't make it to 2008's chili feed; I was back on the night crew.  So when I rejoined the day staff as supervisor this past August, one of the first questions I asked my crew was "are they still doing that chili thing?"

Spaghetti Squash with Herb Pork Meatballs (Recipe)

I really love spaghetti squash.  Ever since I was introduced to it, it is my preferred way to eat spaghetti.  Forget extra nutrition (although it's there in abundance.)  I just think it tastes better.  The squash is rich and buttery, and goes well against red sauce.  The chorizo spaghetti recipe I presented a couple weeks ago is a prime example, with the chorizo and chicken broth both complementing the squash perfectly, but when I wrote the post I ended up using regular noodles to appease Boy, who does not at all feel the way I do about this amazing vegetable.  

Burger N' Brew (Review)

While blogging is a good excuse to go out and try new things, sometimes it is important to just go eat somewhere you love.  That is why, when I made a quick fifty bucks by participating in a focus group, I took Wife down the street to Burger N' Brew (4295 W. State Street, Boise, ID 83703 (208) 345-7700) instead of looking for the next big thing.  Well, that and I had a coupon from the Town Planner calendar.

Other People's Recipes: West African Peanut Soup

    I thought it was going to be a long time before something replaced the roasted tomato soup I've been making as my soup obsession. I was wrong. But I can't claim the credit for my new fixation.
     We're cookbook readers in my house. Myself most of all, but Wife will pour through different tomes of recipes over breakfast, and the kids like to go through and imagine what it will be like when they are old enough to make molten chocolate cakes and bacon wrapped meats without anyone hovering over them providing moderation. My favorite is "The Joy of Cooking." It's dependable, instructive, and thorough. Though (at least according to the Meryl Streep film "Julie and Julia,") the recipes in the original "Joy" were hardly tested compared to the cookbooks of real chefs, I have found it invaluable as a starting point for nearly everything, and as somebody who really likes tinkering with the recipes I make, a starting point is all I need. Boy and Girl are both drawn to the holiday cookbook Mother-in-Law got us for Christmas, with vibrant pictures that really sell the food. But it is Wife who started the latest obsession--Cooking Light. She bought one of their magazines simply because we were trying to eat healthier, but I have come to appreciate the publication on its own merits. So many "healthy" recipes cut out any sense of flavor, but Cooking Light recipes have never disappointed me. I enjoy their recipes enough that when I saw a giant anthology collection at the public library, I knew I had to check it out.

Tilapia Pouches with Squash and Tomato

I'm pretty terrible at cooking fish.  Every time I cook it on the stove, it breaks apart.  Things are doubly bad on the grill.  It's a delicate meat, and I am not a delicate cook.  For a long time, my solution to this problem was the easiest one;  I didn't cook fish.  Of course, I could have just banged away at it, and I'm sure I would have gotten a handle on it soon enough, but while Wife is tolerant of the average screw-up in the kitchen, she isn't enough of a fish fan to try faulty flounder.  Not wanting to ruin everyone's dinner, I stayed away from fish each time I went to the store, at least since my attempt at crispy battered cod the summer before last turned into a paste that smelled like cat's breath.  I like a good piece of fish, but not enough to face down a horde of angry diners when I'm not on point. 

At least not until I heard about pouch cooking.  I was familiar with it from camping, of course, but somehow I'd never made the logical leap to the oven.

If you're not aware, you can cook any number of meats and/or vegetables together in sealed foil pouches; providing you've found the right balance of ingredients, they will come out of the oven as little bundles of perfectly cooked individual dinner portions, steamy and aromatic.

Chicken Curry

As I've reiterated over the last three or four posts, I don't mind eating vegetarian.  Wife, although not the biggest fan of vegetables in the past, has been so dedicated to getting into shape that meatless meals were easy to commit to.  In the end, it was the children who were the most resistant to eating dinner without meat, so when Lotus and her son left our house the last week of May, I wasn't surprised when Boy requested meat be on the menu.  However, I was surprised when he asked for curry.

Curry was a staple of our menus when Lotus was living with us; we made it two to three times a month, and there were always leftovers.  But Boy had fallen in love with the dish, and he wanted to see how it would taste without the presence of his dreaded nemesis, tofu.  More specifically, he wanted to try it with chicken, a request I was more than happy to oblige.