Cooking Around the World: South Sudan

Way back on January 29, I cooked and served a South Sudanese meal. It was not as yummy as the Egyptian meal, but again, my family were good sports and ate what I had prepared. I downloaded an album from a South Sudanese musician, and we listened to it while cooking and eating.  (I can't remember the artist's name.....and I have already deleted the album from my Apple music.)

I cooked South Sudanese Tomato Salad, Sudanese Kirsa, and Peanut Stew With Beef and Spinach Combo. I used recipes I found on Global Table Adventure.

 the tomato salad

I really liked this, but I love tomatoes. Leah and Sam are not fans of tomatoes, so I am not sure if they even tried a bite.

 the beef, peanut, and spinach stew

This was interesting! Not my favorite (the peanut butter taste was a little strange to me.)

the kirsa

This flatbread was the best part of the meal!

I have not cooked from another country since this day. The first week of February we were in Florida for a week visiting Clay and attending some of the Florida College Lectures. We also went to Disneyworld for one day while we were down there!

This week I have been cooking normal American food because I had to make my grocery list during the 12 hour road trip home last Saturday, and I just did not have the energy nor brain cells to research and plan an international meal. I scheduled my grocery pick up from Walmart that very night when we arrived home.

I bought my groceries today for next week, and I have planned a Mexican meal. Yum! One of Clay's good friends in college has grandparents who live in Mexico. His mother cooks authentic Mexican food (he told me all about it), and he helped me plan my Mexican menu. I bought two products that are new to me.  I cannot wait to cook and eat this meal!

Cooking Around the World: Egypt

Tonight I cooked a meal from Egypt. I used recipes from The Global Table Adventure. Sasha, the author of the blog, mentioned that you would need every pot in your kitchen to prepare these dishes. She was not kidding! I used five of my stove burners. I needed six, but one of mine does not work. I also used my oven and my microwave.

 preparing the meal

First of all, this meal took a long time to prepare! And I made only three dishes: Fava Bean Mash, Kushari with Spicy Egyptian Tomato Sauce and Umm Ali (a dessert). You can click on the link on each recipe title for the recipes with pretty photographs. 

Here is my report.

Fava Bean Mash:

I could not find fava beans at my Kroger. The store manager didn't even know what they were! I googled fava bean substitutes right there in the grocery store and bought 1 can of lima beans and 1 can of butter beans since both were listed as acceptable substitutes. 

Here is the fava bean dish before it began simmering. 

 While the bean mixture was simmering, I cooked in three separate pots the lentils, macaroni, and angel hair pasta for the the kushari. I cooked the rice in my rice cooker.

I used only 1/2 the amount of cayenne pepper called for in the original recipe. That was spicy enough for us. Both the fava bean mash and the kushari were good. Jimmy, Leah, and Sam were all good sports and ate everything!

the kushari 

Here is my little bowl of fava bean mash with the toppings (lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, and chopped boiled egg). We did not care for the soft pita bread. When we eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, I plan to spread some melted butter on the pita triangles and bake them in the oven until they are crispy. Pita chips would be good with this bean dip too.

My bowls of fava bean mash and kashari with the tomato sauce.

The dessert was delicious! It called for only 1/8 cup of sugar, so it was not sweet at all. I don't care for raisins....I think chocolate chips would have been better!

Umm Ali

Before we ate, I explained to my family what each dish was and read a little bit about it from the recipe's website. We listened to Egyptian music (found on Apple music by Leah) while we ate and also while we washed the one million dishes that we used preparing and serving the food! During the meal Leah read us a few facts she found online about Egypt. The food was not too strange, and I think everyone enjoyed the meal.

One country down, over 190 to go!

Cooking Around the World

Leah and I were face timing Julie, and she told us about a fun thing she and Big Sam are doing this year. Once a week they are cooking a meal from a country in Europe. I think she said there are 51 countries in Europe, so it should take them about a year to complete this adventure.

What a great idea! The wheels in my brain began to turn. We could do that! We could cook a meal from each country in our world. I think there are 193-195 countries currently. (I'll have to research that.) As part of our homeschool, Leah and Sam are studying Africa. I think that's where we will start. I am not sure how long this will take us, but hopefully if I am consistent, we can complete all the countries of the world before Leah goes to college! I am excited about how much fun this can be. When I plan my grocery list and menu for next week, I will choose our first country. I'm sure I will be able to find all the recipes and ideas I need online, but I may also purchase the book Life From Scratch by Sasha Martin which recounts one family's journey of cooking around the world.  She also has a blog, Global Table Adventure, which is full of ideas and recipes.

I am envisioning good food, interesting facts, and maybe even some related music or short books as we begin our culinary adventure. I'll try to take pictures and share each week's meal.