Greek style Salad

                                                                               Receta en Español

The influence of Greece is enormous in Albania. Here we have an example of this, a salad very similar to the most popular salad in Greece.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 sliced tomatos.
• 1 sliced cucumber.
• 1 small onion in small pieces.
• 1 sliced green pepper.
• Olive oil.
• Feta cheese chunks.
• A few olives.
• Salt.

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, season with salt and oil.

My comments to the recipe:

It is extremely easy and the taste is very good thanks to feta cheese.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Albania

Albania

 By Armejsa Kullolli (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 By Bosonic dressing (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Recipes from Albania that I cooked:

  Greek Style Salad









  Tava Elbasani (Lamb with yogurt)








  Nuts Kadaif

Albania on Internet:

http://guzhinashqiptare.skyrock.com/4.html

 

Albania

Butter Cookies from afghanistan (Kulche birinjee)

                                                                               Receta en Español

As in almost every middle east country , cookies with nuts are very typical in Afghanistan.

Ingredients:

• 175 grams butter soften at room temperature.
• 175 grams sugar.
• 2  eggs.
• 500 grams white rice flour.
• ½ teaspoon ground  cardamom.
• 30 grams sliced pistachios.
• 20 grams whole pistachios without shell.

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 350 ºC.
2. whisk butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy.
3. Add egg whites and mix well.
4. Add flour step by step. Add flour until the mixture is not sticky.
5. Add cardamon and sliced pistachios.
6. Mix well.
7. Take an oven proof tray and line it with parchment paper. Take a little dough with a spoon and put it on the tray , use your hand to mold it like a cookie. Do the same with the rest of the dough.
8. With the help of a fork make marks on the dough, draw a grid on the dough. If the fork sticks to the dough dip it in cold water from time to time. 
9. Put a pistachio in the middle of the cookie.
10. Place the cookies over parchment paper , leave a distance of 3.5 cm between them.

               11. Cook in oven for 12-14 minutes.

               12. Let cool before eating.

My comments to the Recipe:

If you add enough flour to prevent dough being sticky , cookies will not crumble. These cookies are delicious due to the taste of butter mixed with pistachios.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Afghanistan

Kabuli Pulao (Afghanistan)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Pulao is one of the most typical dishes in Afghanistan; it is rice with grapes.

Kabuli Pulao is a version of Pulao adding lamb meat. This is the recipe I will present today.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice.
450 g lamb.
2 cups meat broth.
1/2 sliced onion.
25 g blonde raisins.
1 carrot cut in strips.
2 teaspoon cumin.
1 ½ teaspoon cardamom.
1 teaspoon cinamon.
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper.
1 teaspoon butter.
Salt.

Method:

1- Fry carrots and grapes with butter. Put aside.

 
2- Take a big pan and sautée  onion until golden.
3- Add rice and broth, bring to a boil. Then cover and let cook on low heat during 20 minutes until rice is tender.
4- Take another pan, pour a litle oil and add spices. Cook some minutes until spices give of aroma, then add the meat and fry until done.
5- Place the meat in an oven proof dish, cover with rice, carrots and grapes. Cook in oven for 20 minutes at 250 º C.

Thie is the end:

My comments:

It is an easy recipe and very tasty due to the mixture of grapes and spices.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Afghanistan

Afghanistan

 By Shahid Parvez. Based on a file by User:Ssolbergj [GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Recipes from Afghanistan that I cooked: 

  Kabuli Pulao

  Butter cookies from Afghanistan (Kulche Birinjee)

Afghanistan on Internet:

http://www.afghanonline.com/recipes/




 By Christopher Killalea (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Afghanistan

coconut and guava sponge cake (Antigua and Barbuda)

                                                                             Receta en Español
Ingredients:

• 1 coconut.
• 8 guavas.
• 3 cups of flour.
• 1 cup of sugar.
• 2  eggs.
• 1 cup of milk.
• ½ cup soft butter.
• Yeast.

Where to buy the ingredients: it was difficult for me to find fresh guavas, I could find them as preserved fruit in a shop of latin products at Ramón de la Cruz, very close to Manuel Becerra. 

Method:

1. Open coconut , put aside water and keep the meat.
2. Use a food processor to crush guavas, then pass them through a sieve to get rid of seeds.
   
3. Mix guavas and coconut with the food processor.
4. Add flour and milk step by step.
5. Add butter, eggs , coconut water  and sugar, stirr.
6. Preheat oven at 180 ºC for 15 minutes.
7. Cook in oven for 1 hour at 180 ºC. At 30 minutes and every 15 minutes poke the cake with a knife, if the knife is clean when you take it out,the cake is done.
8. You can keep the cake fresh for 10 days if you wrap it using transparent film and put it in the fridge.

       

My comments:

It has a good taste. It is very important to get rid of  all seeds. It is not  pleasent to find them when eating the cake.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Antigua and Barbuda

Veal with tamarind sauce (Antigua and Barbuda)

                                                                                                                      Receta en Español

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• 225 g chopped mushrooms.
• 1 bunch of chopped chives.
• 2  tablespoon of soy sauce.
• ½ tablespoon sweet or hot paprika.
• 2 tablespoon parsley.
• 4 veal loin steak.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional).
• 1 chopped small onion.
• 3 chopped garlic cloves.
• 1 dessert spoon cornstarch.
• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate.  

Method:

1.       Pour oil in a pan and sautée onions and chives for 3 minutes.

2.       Add soy sauce and paprika , cook for 5 more minutes.

3.       Add parseley and set everything apart.

4.       Mix coriander, cumin and red pepper flakes, sprinkle over the meat.

5.       Take a tablespoon of the prepared mix of mushrooms and chives , place it in the middle of one steak, roll the steak leaving mushrooms in the inner side , use sticks to close the meat rolls.

6.       Fry for 5 minutes, set apart.

7.       In a pan  Sautée onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

8.       Add tamarind and cornstarch.

9.       Cook for 2 minutes.

10.   Serve steaks covered with the sauce cooked in numbers 7,8,9.

My comments to the recipe:

I find amazing the bittersweet taste of tamarind! , tamarind and meat are a perfect match.

Where to find the ingredients:

I bought concentrate of tamarind at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).
It is very strong , you should use just a Little of the concentrate.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Antigua and Barbuda