Cuisines of Europe and Mediterranean week one

Paella cooked on Thursday

What is the key to make a great paella?

As we finished Cuisines of Americas we moved to the Europe and Mediterranean. Our instructor is really great, she not only extremely knowledgable in this region, but she also very passionate about teaching. The downside is her temper. Sometimes she is not happy with the class and makes everyone miserable.




Monday
For Monday we had Tunisia and Morocco. Specific of these countries is spicy food, a lot of distinctive sauces (harissa, charmoula), many fried items, a number of 'one pot' dishes.
Our team made pita bread, chakshouka (baked eggs in tomato-pepper sauce), and deep fried kibbeh balls (meatballs filled with onion and pine nuts).
We also started making sauerkraut for the later use, as it takes approximately 10 days to make. For this week our team is a 'dream team'.
I worked on chakshouka. Chop onion, bell pepper, a few hot peppers, garlic and make sauce out of these ingredients. Aromatics are paprika are cumin. When the sauce is thick and tasty, make small wholes and place raw eggs in it. Bake for 10-18 minutes until eggs are just set.
Also helped with kibbeh balls, there were too many of them, so I helped Sam to form these balls first and then to deep fry them.
Between these tasks we shredded about 15 pounds of green cabbage for the sauerkraut and salted it.
Was really good day, everyone worked diligently. The chef was pleased with the food we made.

Tuesday

Taramasalata

We moved to Greece and Turkey. In these countries are more vegetables used in general (climate are more favourable for agriculture). The number of fried items is less.
We made stuffed grape leaves with lemon and egg sauce (it's very traditional for Greece to thicken sauces and soups with egg yolk liaison and lemon juice), we made skordalia and taramasalata, persian rice pilaf, and muhammara.
Skordalia and taramasalata are two sauces very thick. Skordalia is made with cooked potatoes, bread, garlic, olive oil and yogurt. Taramasalata is made with carp caviar, bread, olive oil, lemon juice and onion.
Persian rice pilaf is quite different form the traditional one. Here rice is cooked together with ground meat, it has cinnamon, allspice and a lot of nuts. When the rice is cooked, it is wrapped in phyllo dough (or brick) like a cake and baked in the oven. The dish is very tasty.
Staffed grape leaves is very popular dish with another name - dolma.

Gazpacho 

Wednesday

Beans with lunguica

The next stop on our culinary 'trip' was Spain. The menu for the day was the following:

Spanish-Style Seafood Salad

Steamed Mussels or Clams with Chorizo

Andalusian Gazpacho

Lamb and Roasted Pepper Ragout

White Beans with Linguiça

Seafood and Meat Paella

The menu was not difficult, the chef was that day. She was not satisfied at all, everything was wrong. 

I cooked Andalusian Gazpacho and White beans with linguica.

Sometimes you feel really good when the day is over.

Quail with lentil stew

Thursday

The second day of Spanish menu.

The menu changed as following

Sofregit

Chorizo-Stuffed Mushrooms

Salt Cod Fritters

Almond Gazpacho with Grapes

Paella Valenciana

Chicken Braised with Piquillo Peppers

Quail with Smoked Bacon and Lentil Stew

I cooked paella and quails with smoked bacon and lentil stew. Paella I cooked before and now I realized that it was wrong. The way Spanish people cook it is without stirring. You brown your meat, add vegetables and rice, spread it evenly on the special pan (not so important, I mean by using a wrong pan you are not going to ruin the dish), add liquid (stock or water) and cook it slowly. The ratio is 1:3.5 (1 part of rice to 3.5 part of liquid). You should count as a liquid all your wet ingredients, for example - tomato puree.

We spoke about spicy saffron. I know this spice, but did not know the origin. Saffron is a part of crocus flower, there three strands in each flowers. These strands are picked manually. To get 12 pounds of these strands you have to go through many acres. 12 pounds of fresh saffron produces 1 pound dry. So now it's understandable why it is so expensive.

Friday

Rolled lasagna

Was the first day of Italy. 

Fungi al Tegane

The menu for the team was:

Spinach Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

Funghi al Tegame

Veal Saltimbocca

Risotto with Artichokes

Baked Rolled Lasagna

Sweet and Sour Eggplant, Sicilian Style

Pizza Margherita

I cooked fungi, baked rolled lasagna and risotto.

Baked lasagna was really interesting. You roll fresh pasta as usual, then you take a sheet of pasta, spread ricotta, provolone, cover with thin slices of proscuto, sprinkle with parmesan and roll it. When it's rolled, you cut the rolls in 1 inch thick pieces and place in the cooking vessel with some tomato sauce. Then you bake this till ready. It came out really good.