Armenian Yogurt Marinated Chicken with Harissa

So, once again, we had a dish that involves a whole chicken. And, once again we have a dish that involves yogurt.

That said, this came out kind of bland...not terrible...not mind blowing...just kind of there...ya know, just like Armenia (AMIRIGHT??)

The most interesting thing about this dish is that Armenia considers their national dish to be a spice mixture, which still baffles me. Anyways, below is the recipe:

1/4 cup whole milk yogurt
One 1- to 2-inch knob fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
Kosher salt
1 whole chicken, cut in half
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon, halved
Harissa

To make the Harissa, follow these steps:

2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded
Sea salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to coat the top of the harissa

note: you can use equivalent powder versions for all of this if you'd like (that's what I did). 

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, ginger, cumin, chile flakes and salt. Whisk until smooth and pour into a baking dish. Lay the chicken halves, skin-side up, in the yogurt mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours to marinate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the chicken from the yogurt, leaving any excess behind, and lay them out on a baking sheet, skin-side down. Cook until the skin is brown and crispy, and then flip. Altogether, it should cook for 35 to 40 minutes.

Then for the Harissa, in a small bowl, combine the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and caraway seeds. Add the spices to a sheet tray and toast in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and set aside to cool. Add the paprika and chile flakes to the spice mix.

Using a mortar and pestle (or a food processor, like a normal human being), grind the garlic cloves until they become a paste, and then add the red bell pepper. Season with salt, and then add the spices and the 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil and blend well.

While this recipe (here) calls to grind in the bell pepper--I actually left it chunky:

All in all, this wasn't bad...just kinda boring and bland. Gorby got so bored, he walked out side and just slept in the dirt:

Anyways, next week, we'll have something a little more entertaining...next up is Australia. While they don't have an official national dish, the unofficial dish is meat pie. This stuff is so bad that they had an obesity conference last year explicitly dedicated to the meat pie scourge. So, I suppose Gorby and I are intrigued.

Argentinian Asado with Chimichurri Sauce

Man, Pork is just so delicious.

This was hands down, the best dish thus far...and the five or six people who were here absolutely devoured these. Gorby was, of course, pleased as well. Moreover, this was incredibly simple. This was also a pleasant surprise following the Fungie Debacle of 2013.

Here is the recipe I based this on--though it's confusing as hell--so I mostly just put this together willy nilly.






Ingredients:

Ribs (duh)
olive oil, salt, pepper to taste
1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
125 ml olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp brown vinegar
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp adobo spice mix


I was pretty flexible about the volume here--and where it says brown vinegar, I used apple cider vinegar. This was also accompanied by sweet potato fries which were as good if not better than the ribs.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Rub down ribs with oil, salt, and pepper.

3. Put the ribs in for an hour, flipping them every 15 minutes.

4. While ribs cook, chop up and mix together all other ingredients (I used a cuisinart) to make your chimichurri sauce.

5. (optional) turn up oven to 400 and put in the broiler for a few minutes to give it a little crust.

6. while still hot, dump the chimichurri over the ribs.

And that is that....really easy and really simple. Next week--Armenia and Harissa. You're probably thinking--oh hey, Harissa is a spice mix! Why in the world would anybody choose a bunch of spices as a national dish? I would agree--that's a good question. So, I'll be making a whole chicken with a Harissa-yogurt sauce. FUN.

Antiguan (and Barbadian?) Fungie and Pepperpot

The person who came up with this dish is either insane or brilliant. I'm still not sure which. I should also note that there are probably many Fungie and Pepperpot recipes that are infinitely simpler (and frankly, probably taste better).

Now. With that said, if you think you're interested in trying a dish that has eggplant, papaya, ketchup (ew), margarine (double ew), pumpkin, fish, and salted beef, boy do I have a dish for you.

The original recipe is here. I made some significant changes--namely that I didn't use pig snout because...well...where the hell do I get a pig snout in Baltimore? I also left out the "meat scraps", "4 cloves cut" (I'm not even sure what type of clove this is reference to), the okra (couldn't find it), taro root leaves (also couldn't find it), the peas (ran out of room in my pot), and of course, the pig snout.

I also made some substitutions--instead of margarine, I used canola oil, instead of pumpkin, I used acorn squash, and instead of salt beef, I used corned beef (which is supposedly close to the same thing).

Ingredients:

4 cups water (2 boiling, 2 cold)
2 cups cornmeal

butter, to coat
1 teaspoon salt, to taste
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
4 tablespoons ketchup
4 tablespoons oil
1 bunch thyme
1 bunch chives
1 lb spinach, chopped
1 lb eggplant, peeled & cut
1 lb okra, chopped
1/2 lb acorn squash, peeled & cut
1 lb corned beef, chopped
1 lb papaya, cut
3 small squash, cut
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper

1 lb of white fish

The corn meal piece is really easy--you just mix two cups of cold water with the corn meal (and mix slowly!). Then add this porridgy stuff to your boiling water until it's pretty stiff. Then mash this out into bowls to serve as a base.

 

The directions for the actual soup portion here were absurdly confusing...and had some nonsense about salting your leaf vegetables for a while before cooking. That seemed silly. I basically through everything around the same time and cooked for about 20 minutes and then added the fish in and cooked for another 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

To the side, is a picture of the result. It looks ostensibly edible...and it is! But I can't say I thought it tasted very good. Some members of the household thought this was surprisingly good. I thought it tasted like day old trash. But hey...edible!

Next up is Argentina and Asado (basically ribs with Chimichurri sauce). Should be much more tasty!

Anyways, Gorby eagerly waits at the counter for something that tastes better...