Nauru - Coconut Fish
We kicked this week off with a nice easy dish - Nauru's coconut fish. Simple is not, however, an indictment on the meal. The white fish, cod in my case, is marinated in lime juice, kick starting the cooking process, before coating in seasoned flour, beaten egg and coconut flakes. The fish is then fried, sprinkled with salt and served with lime wedges. A perfect starter or snack, though if I were to make again, I might make a nice sauce to go with it, or even just some mayo!
Ghana - Fufu
Recipe from https://eatwellabi.com/ghana-chicken-light-soup/
The eagle-eyed of my readers may recognise the name-sake of this dish because, that's right, it's another pap dish! As has often been the case, the official dish here is just fufu, but as this does not make an amazing meal on its own, I've cooked it with a chicken soup typical of Ghana. It's a spicy, tomato and palm oil based soup, with significant flavour from ginger and garlic. I used mature aubergine as the veg in here, though the official recipe calls for "garden eggs", relatives of the aubergine, but not quite the same - they are small, round and white in colour (more suited than our aubergines are for their name in the USA, eggplant!).
Pakistan - Nihari
Nihari was a dish that made me very happy. Tender beef cooked down for hours, spiced with a delicately balanced plethora of flavours, namedly star anise, bay, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, fennel, paprika, coriander, cumin, turmeric, red chilli powder, red chilli flakes, black pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, black cardamom, mace, ginger, nigella seeds, caraway seeds, onion powder, garam masala and peepli (long pepper). Some might say this is a little excessive. I would say this created a masterpiece of flavour. Served with rice, caramelized onions, chilli, coriander, ginger and lemon, this is definitely a dish to revisit (if you have the time to invest in it!)
Tanzania - Ugali
Two pap dishes in one week! Truly an exciting culinary time. Tanzania's Ugali was paired with Nyama Choma (which you may remember from Kenya's dish of the same name), though in a slightly different form this time - chicken thigh spiced and skewered along with peppers. Not a dish you can really go too wrong with, and the strong flavour of the kebabs (a mix of turmeric and curry powder) complemented the more bland ugali very well.
Belgium - Fries
Belgium's national dish is simply fries. I do not believe I need to go into too much detail about them at all. I made my own, cooking them in hot oil twice and sprinkling with a healthy dose of sea salt. For the main even, I chose to go for mussels, for a dish of moules-frites, cooking them with a rich sauce of sweated-down onions and vermouth.