To America, the Land of NY Pizza- lime/cilantro chicken soup recipe

I know, I know... New York is the land of NY pizza. But I liked the sound of this title better than New York is the land of NY Pizza. Duh!

So I am going to America where I plan to eat in lots of restaurants. I want pizza, a ham, egg and cheese bagel sandwich, a nice Italian dinner (though there is a pretty good, decently priced place in Kech), my favorite sandwich (fresh mozz, turkey and lettuce on a roll with balsamic vinaigrette), Chinese takeout, and a Greek diner for a Greek salad and/or a big, greasy American breakfast. Fun stuff.

I won't be posting for about 2 weeks, so I thought I would leave you with a much requested recipe for a lime/cilantro chicken soup. I wrote it up in a letter to my family, so I'm pretty much just going to copy and paste.

The first part is a copy of the recipe on the internet. The second is my modifications and how I did it in Morocco.

Oh and for citations sake, I did mention Epicurious.com, but I did not mention that the chicken broth I made was a modification from the recipe in the PC Morocco Cookbook.


Hello fam! As you know, I've been cooking vast amounts of food, and the other day I made a soup that everyone(at least the Americans) loved. I know you all cook so I thought I'd share. It's called lime/cilantro soup. I found the recipe on Epicurious.com and made some necessary adjustments for Morocco. I'll give you the recipe and then tell you what I did differently just in case you want to make the Moroccan version. :-)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped (I used a red onion)
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon chili powder (this gives it a kick which I love though Jenn, you may want to do less- I used Cheyenne Pepper instead)
2 skinless boneless chicken breast halves cut into 3/4 inch pieces
5 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro sprigs, tied together with kitchen string

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
Sour cream (opt)

The Recipe:
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, saute until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add chili powder, stir 1 minute. Add chicken, stir 2 minutes. Add broth, corn, tomatoes and 1/2 bunch cilantro sprigs to saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Discard cilantro sprigs.

Add chopped cilantro and lime juice to soup. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with sour cream.

What I did:
I have to make my own chicken broth/stock so I took a kilo of chicken (about 2 pounds?) with the bones and everything and roasted it with salt until it was cooked. I then picked all the meat off the bones, put it aside and put the bones, skin and fat (whatever was left over) into the pressure cooker (you can use a pot but this takes several hours then). I added 16 cups of water and started the stove. Heat until it boils and if there is any foam on the top (the dark fat stuff) then skim it off. Add 2 heaping teaspoons salt, 2 large chopped carrots, 1 chopped onion, a small bunch of fresh cilantro, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tsp pepper (fairly heaping) and some rosemary (my recipe says 1 teaspoon, but I probably put 3 in). Close the pressure cooker lid and wait until the pressure raises and then turn down the heat. Leave it going for about 30-40 minutes or so. W/out a pressure cooker, just keep it lightly boiling covered for about 3 hours... taste to see if it's like chicken broth. When it's done, strain it and throw out all the solid stuff. I used about half of it for this soup and froze the other half for another soup sometime.

I started the recipe just like it says, but I used carrots instead of tomatoes and corn (the carrots soak up the lime nicely). I used Cheyenne pepper instead of chili powder and a little less than it says (though not much). I didn't add the 1/2 bunch cilantro because the chicken stock was made with it. I used about 6 1/2 cups chicken stock. I didn't cook it for 10 minutes because the chicken was already cooked well- maybe 5 to make sure the flavors came together and added the cilantro and lime juice towards the end stirred in for about a minute. It was very flavorful and yummy! I didn't use sour cream (we use natural yogurt as a substitute and I didn't know how that would taste) but I'll bet it would be good. :-)

Just wanted to share! I'll definitely make this one again.

The Best Potatoes Even Better- Day 2!

So today I heated up the potatoes. I think they were even better than yesterday. Even if you're back home and have a microwave, try this...

Put the potatoes in a baking pan and flatten them out. Shred cheese on the top and put them in the oven (lower temperature so they heat throughout) until the cheese melts.

Yummm...

Best Freaken Mashed Potatoes EVER!!!

Okay, so at least I think they're the best mashed potatoes ever. It took me a few tries to get them exactly the way I like. Here's the recipe (I'm just giving you the amounts I used this time in recipe format, but it makes a lot... you can cut it down pretty easily).

6 large potatoes
4 large garlic cloves
1/3 C + 3 Tbls butter
1 C Redball cheese aka Fromage Rouge aka Edam
2 containers yogurt without sugar (danon bla skkar)
(2 containers is about a cup... a bit less. I measured out each container once and found it to be a little under half a cup.)
1 1/2 tsp + 2 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp pepper

Wash and cut the potatoes into medium sized squares. I try and leave on as much skin as possible, but it's your call. Cut out all the eyes. Use the 2 tsps of salt in a pot filled with water. Add the potatoes and boil them until they fall apart pretty easily under a fork (but don't fall apart by themselves in the boiling water). This takes a bit of time... be patient. If they're underdone, they will be difficult to mash.

While the potatoes are cooking, dice up the garlic. Saute it in the 3 Tablespoons butter till it just barely gets brown.

When the potatoes are done, drain the water. In a separate bowl, add the potatoes, the buttery garlic, the butter (1/3 C), the salt and pepper, and the redball cheese. Start mashing together with a fork or whisk (and if you have easier tools, lucky you). It's quite a job so I use both and go crazy.

After everything is pretty smooshed, I add the yogurt. Mix and mash it in well until everything looks blended.

These are so yum... I'm eating them now. :-) Seriously, try these! Oh and the amounts aren't exact... I just threw stuff in there and then estimated about how much it was, so feel free to play around.

I dedicate this recipe to my buddy and regionally departed friend, Aaron Grant, and my friend/sitemate/housemate Mona. Cheers, guys!

Argan Oil- my new love...

I had never heard of this stuff in the US. Then I came to Morocco and only knew that it was expensive, Europeans buy it for anti-aging properties, and that it's made from goat poop. (please keep reading- this is a RUMOR!)

I work in the Small Business Development sector here in Peace Corps Morocco. I love this sector because I'm fascinated by new and interesting products... especially artisan stuff. How it works(in my sector)... we all get assigned to towns where our job is to get to know the people, integrate into our communities and work with local artisans. I have weavers in my town. Another girl just happens to work with an Argan Oil co-op.

So we had a training in Agadir not long ago and she brought many of her fantastic and wonderful products with her. I took some time to learn about the process. I was also looking for some interesting gifts for family and friends when I travel back to America in a few weeks.

Here's what I learned:
1. Argan oil (atleast at her co-op- I can't speak for others) is NOT processed from goat poop. Here's the rumor... Argan nuts come in an extremely hard shell that cannot be broken up without first being processed through the digestive track of a goat. Then the women go through the fecal matter sorting the seeds and processing them into oil. Actually, the nuts are NOT impossible to crack open as they do in this co-op. They are NOT collected out of goat poop.
2. The difference between facial and edible Argan oil is whether or not they roast the nuts. The facial oil will have more of a yellowish tint which comes from fresh nuts. The edible oil is made from roasted nuts.
3. This stuff is really expensive because it's a time-consuming and difficult process. You need a lot of nuts for just a little oil.

So, when I got back from my training, I decided to taste it. I mean, I couldn't really justify giving it out as gifts if I thought it tasted awful. Well, I loved it. It's so nutty and would be great in something. Definitely on salads, and maybe cooked into something(though I don't think you can heat it up really hot- mostly it's just a flavoring oil).

I am interested in finding some good recipes so I went looking online... I found 5. Is that really all? A chicken salad, some couscous and a few Moroccan tajines... I guess I have to learn to make good tajine anyway before I go home. Maybe I'll get to be a really good cook after awhile and invent something fabulous. Stay tuned...

American Diner Hash Browns in Southern Morocco

Diner Hash Browns... Oh so bad for your health(potatoes shredded and fried in butter)... but they taste so good!!! I had a craving for some good hash browns the other day. I've made these twice already and it took me some time to get them right... that middle ground between mushiness and crispiness, just the right saltiness and flavor...

All you need: a potato (for one), butter, salt and pepper. Now I actually add some Cheyenne pepper to mine too for a little heat and I like to eat my hash browns with ketchup and some hot sauce.

1. Wash, peel and shred the potato.
2. Squeeze out the water and let it sit to dry for a few... you don't want watery hash browns! You want these to crisp up. I actually add a touch of salt at this time and mix it in with my hands as I squeeze out the water.
3. Use a few tablespoons of butter... be generous (if not health conscious) because you want that nice brown crispiness. Melt on low heat. Since my low heat is a gas burner, you may want to go up a bit on an electric stove... your call. You want to melt the butter without burning a lot of it off.
4. Put the potatoes in and flatten them with a spatchula (I know this is spelled wrong, but my spellchecker cannot identify the correct spelling... sorry). Let them fry slowly.
5. Salt, pepper and spice the top. Divide the mass into spatchula-sized pieces and flip them over after you see that it's holding together more on the bottom... if you can see a bit of brown on the bottom, that's a good time.
6. When the other side is done, you have some yummy hash browns.

Notes-
1. As with most breakfast potatoes, slower cooking will make sure the insides get cooked along with the outsides. Otherwise you might have a nice brown outside and still uncooked potato inside. It's less likely to happen with hash browns (than say with homefries), but I've managed it before. Hey, I'm learning!
2. Hash browns take more salt than you'd think. Be careful not to over salt as usual, but I think this tastes better with salt really mixed in and dissolved (rather than when it's added after the fact). I think I added like a half tsp. when I was drying out the potato a bit and then almost (not quite) a tsp later sprinkled on top... It was not too salty and that's just for 1 large potato. Taste, taste, taste...
3. The potato doesn't have to be THAT dry... you don't need to leave it for like an hour or anything, but try to squeeze out the excess water.

Enjoy the hash browns! :-)

The Country with Little Takeout- Chicken Fried Rice!!!

Morocco is the country of little takeout. I'm quite certain it exists in the cities... I had Pizza Hut to-go when I was in Agadir last week, and I've seen it in Marrakesh too. The food is definitely good here, but I really do love my Chinese takeout. That is one thing I have to get when I go home along with NY Pizza, Italian food, and a bagel for breakfast.

...but for now, I do what anyone who has a dire craving for something completely inaccessible does... I make it myself! So I decided tonight was a good night for Chicken Fried Rice.

Now, this is not a terribly difficult dish, so don't get too excited when I say I made it from scratch. It contains pretty basic ingredients. To flavor the ingredients, I used soy sauce and sesame oil. Here's how I did it...

First thing, I made the rice. I used ruz glasse (pretty normal rice for you Americans, but we have 2 kinds here... the kind that gets soggy, and the kind that doesn't get as soggy. No sticky rice unfortunately). I put it in my pressure cooker 2-1 water-rice. I let it boil, covered the pressure cooker and then estimated about 6 minutes. When it finished, the water wasn't all completely absorbed, but I wanted slightly undercooked rice anyway. I did leave it on to boil for another minute. The water wasn't completely gone, but like I said, no overcooking of the rice... It should be just about done, but firm still.

Next, I drained the rice and put it in a flat-ish bowl. I wanted it to dry out a bit. The air is pretty dry here, so that doesn't take long... I just left it out a bit and mixed it around so the bottom would dry.

Here in small-town Morocco, we get our chicken from the chicken guy who either already has a stock of freshly killed chicken or he kills a chicken as you wait... What a service! :-P Eewww. I'm carnivore to the bone and I even think it's kinda gross to watch. Anyway, cut the meat off the bones and slice it into fairly small pieces. I put some vegi oil in a pan and started to fry the little bits of chicken. As it cooked, I added a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil.

After the chicken cooked (slightly brown on the edges), I sent it aside in a bowl. I then took my chopped vegis (I used onion, green pepper and carrots but it's your call) and threw them into the oil and fried them for a minute. After they started looking done I threw in more sesame oil, and soy sauce and then the rice went in. I poured a bunch of soy sauce on top of the rice and kept mixing it around until it browned from soy sauce and cooking. Make sure to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pan. (though I love it when the rice gets kinda crispy brown... that's more than okay!)

I love a bit of egg in my fried rice! So I scooted as much rice out of the center as I could, added a tad more vegi oil and cracked 2 eggs in there (I made a ton- usually 1 suffices). Once they started to cook on the bottom, I mixed them in with some of the rice and kept stirring everything around.

Finally when it was all hot and browned and yummy smelling, I added back in the chicken.

Result? Really tasty... I did have to add a tad bit more soy sauce later, but not much. Next time I would do it the same way, but maybe add more vegis and not so much rice. Also, I heard there is a trick using chicken broth for added flavor. I like the way this tastes though. Check out the photo below. Looks good, doesn't it?

Sesame Salad Dressing

Hello! I'm back from my lovely training/vacation. It was so fabulous. My host sister made me this fish Tajine that was to die for! I'll learn how to make it the next time I'm there.

For now, here is something I found online... I went looking for a good salad dressing recipe using the ingredients I have (all available here in Morocco for all the PCV's on here).

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/japanesesaladdressing/r/sesamedressing.htm

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsps rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground white sesame seeds

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients other than oil in a bowl. Add oil gradually into a bowl and mix well. Makes 2 servings


It's pretty easy. I just used the vinegar that is available at every hanut (the clearish bottle with the yellowish stuff in it) and toasted sesame seeds rather than ground white ones. The result is pretty good, and tangy. I used 2 different types of lettuce that I found at the market... which is amazing because we rarely have 1 type of lettuce. In any case, it tasted better after it sat in the fridge for a few minutes.

I bought a vinaigrette at the super marche (supermarket) and this stuff is way better. Anyone want a bottle of mediocre vinaigrette? I'd hate to waste it.

Sometime this week: BBQ ribs!!!