[nicneufeld]

Is it ethnic cooking if its casually inspired by an ethnic style of cooking but not necessarily authentic?  Well that's what I did last night, some sort of punjabi inspired mustard greens.  I'd never cooked mustard greens before, but since they inhabit that happy zone of healthy and not very expensive, I thought I'd give them a run.  I chopped up a whole bunch (50cents worth, but enough to fill a pot!) with a bit of leftover wilted spinach, a finely sliced onion, some minced garlic, and a diced jalapeno, added some water, and started cooking it down...meanwhile I had toasted a small amount of whole spices...half a bay leaf, black mustard seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and fenugreek, then crushed these, added ginger, a bit of cinnamon, salt (too much, sadly) and pepper and cayenne, added this to the simmering veg and let it all cook down til the liquid had evaporated.  Tossed in some shredded coconut, and it was pretty good!  If a bit too salty, my fault.

[beerocd]

So if its not authentic Indian food and you are Polish - you just made a Polish dish.
If you're non-denominational and you did that - then you just made....dinner.

-OCD

[beerocd]

Little overdone on top - inside is still moist. That only happened because I was gonna take a photo of it.  

-OCD

[bluesman]

It was Italian last night.

Bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese in Italian, also known by its French name sauce bolognaise) is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes taken to be a tomato sauce, but authentic recipes have only a small amount of tomato.

The people of Bologna traditionally serve their famous ragù with freshly made tagliatelle (tagliatelle alla bolognese) and their traditionally green lasagne. Less traditionally, the sauce is served with maccheroni or other durum wheat short pasta.

Bolognese Sauce

Brown 1.5lbs Ground Beef and 1.5lbs Italian Sausage

Saute onion, celary, carrots and garlic in EVOO

add some wine of choice

salt, pepper, Italian seasonings to taste

tomato sauce

dried black olives

splash of Balsamic Vinegar

simmer for an hour or more.

It's always better the second day.



sauce  getting ready to simmer.



to the plate! Serve with fresh grated Locatelli cheese, Italian Bread and some Luna Rosa.

[beerocd]

EVOO

Never - say EVOO again! It puts images of her chubby little sausage fingers in my head. I really can't stand her.

Dinner looked good though.

-OCD

[capozzoli]

So if its not authentic Indian food and you are Polish - you just made a Polish dish.
If you're non-denominational and you did that - then you just made....dinner.

-OCD

Funny!

Im gonna say that any dish that is either authentic too, or strongly influenced by a historically traditional dish that is connected to a certain ethnicity is "Ethnic" cooking.

The stuff I do seems really authentic cause I make a hobby out of researching the culture behind the cooking style. I want to know why some dishes are the way they are, and I want to make them that way. Sometimes it becomes a sort of scavenger hunt for ingredients. Its anthropological research...for fun.

Oh and where is the recipe for the gibanica? Is it the same as that Georgian dish?

Bluesman, Im making meat sauce tonight too, with eggplant parm. Pics to follow.

[beerocd]

There's no recipes for Balkan food. Pinch of this, hand full of that....

Here's what I believe went into today's dish.
1.5 to 2 lbs feta cheese (crumble it up)
1 16 oz container of cottage cheese
1 8 oz container of sour cream
1 block of philly 8oz
around 8 eggs
maybe a quater cup oil (or less)
and a little bit of baking powder to give the layers a little lift
You're going for a soupy texture for the fill. Somewhere around clam chowder consistency.
You can add more eggs, or splash in some sparkling mineral water if it's too thick.


Alternate phyllo leaves and above mixture until pan is full. Start with 2 layers of phyllo on the bottom.
Brush each layer of phyllo with a little melted butter prior to putting on the mixture. (makes it healthier)
You just want sparse dollops of the mixture all around, maybe 30-40% coverage with the mix and then start another layer.
You don't want mushy Gibanica. Also don't be prissy with the phyllo, wrinkle it up to make it fit, it adds texture. Occasionally throw down a double layer of phyllo - this ain't rocket science. If your pan is biger than the size of a phyllo sheet overlapping the sheets when fitting phyllo to the pan is fine.

Bake @ 350 until it looks done. About an hour or so, check the bottom crust to make sure it's not burning every once in a while.
And that's roughly it. Gibanica tastes different at each house I go to. Different feta, different oils, no one else we know does the butter thing. Ours is probably a little over the top on ingredients - it can be done as simple as cottage cheese, feta, eggs and oil.


-OCD
  

[capozzoli]

I guess the Phylo dough is the difference from the Georgian Alacha that is made with the layers of boiled bread dough. Interesting. Both sound greasylicious.

In keeping with the layered theme here is some eggplant parm. The real way to make this dish is to layer it. I made it with meat sauce tonight cause we had some thawed grond venison that was "use it or loose it." Usually I make this dish with no meat.

First rub with kosher salt and wrap the slices of eggplant in a clean towel or cheese cloth. and put some weight on them. Let them sit this way overnight. This will drain some of the excess water out of the fruit and make it more firm and less likely to be soggy when finished.





Then  flour-egg-flour and deep fry. When breading I never mix milk with my eggs. It promotes soggyness. 



Then set the fried slices aside to drain.



I make my Italian style meat sauce this way.

Brown and chop with a spatula meat in a little veg oil. Then remove and set aside. Brown a LOT of chopped garlic and about a half of a small onion chopped. After this stuff is starting to turn clear add the meat back in with some oregano, basil, salt pepper, nutmeg (A lot of nutmeg) a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of celery seed. Toss for a little an then add a four cups of chopped fresh tomato, or canned.  Bring this to a boil and then lower to a mild simmer. Then add water or broth as needed. At this time a add a good health portion of locateli cheese. Let this simmer till all of the flavors are married, about a half hour or so.



Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees and get a roaster pan. Pour some sauce in the pan and spread it around.

Layer the eggplant slices with cheese and sauce alternately as to reassemble the whole eggplant.





Then top with some cheese and sauce. Place in a 350 degreese oven till it gets hot and the cheese begins to resemble the cheese on top of pizza.

Serve with some macaroni or potatoes with sauce.

[bluesman]

Eggplant is on my favorites list. Add parma and it's muy magnifico.

Great job my freind!   

[beerocd]

I guess the Phylo dough is the difference from the Georgian Alacha that is made with the layers of boiled bread dough. Interesting. Both sound greasylicious.

When it's made with homemade stretched dough it is generally referred to as burek, and rolled instead of layered. So , the georgian dish is one humongous bagel?
I'm not much of a veggie guy but that looks pretty tasty. Another good thing to fry up like that is roasted and peeled red bell peppers. Good alongside some smoked meat, feta cubes, and bread. Even just in a sammich by itself with a dash of salt.

-OCD

[capozzoli]

Is burek the "celebration steak" ?

I seem to remember a dish that was like Beef Wellington  only with a roast beef baked inside of bread.

[beerocd]

Can't say I've ever had a Serbian Beef Wellington.

[capozzoli]

Found it after a long search. Its called Maslenica. "Passage Steak"

http://en.belgourmet.be/world_recipes/yugoslavian_recipes/Passage_Steak_or_Maslenica_recipe.php

It is indeed very interesting cooking. There are very noticeable influences from Eastern Europe, Greece, Italy and of coarse the Turks among others.

 Have you ever been there? I snuck over the border once through the woods from Hungary. The border guards told me I had to give them $500 for a Visa. F that, I just walked around them. I was on my way to Dubrovnik. Never made it all the way there though. Things were getting a little scary.

[capozzoli]

Italian again last night.

Chicken Marsala. We call this American style Marsala cause it is different from the traditional way it was made in the old country.  

First slice the chicken into scalapini type pieces and hammer them out a little. Then season them with a little salt and pepper.



While you prep the chicken let a pan get really hot and slice some mushrooms. The pan needs to be hot so that you can "pan sear" the mush rooms. Really hot pan and cold oil, immediately drop the mushrooms in. toss them around carefully and when they start to bron sprinkle them with some kosher salt. The salt will wrench out some moisture making it easier to get the shrooms crispy. They should be smaller and starting to get dark.

Remove the mushrooms and set aside.




Then dredge them in flour and saute over medium heat in the same pan you did the mushrooms.. Be sure not to let the pan burn cause you will want all the browning flaavor at the bottom there when you de-glaze with the wine.



While you are sauteing the chicken or before make a butter roux. This is a mixture of melted butter and flour that you add to thicken and flavor sauces. It leaves behind a nice buttery toasty flavor.




After all of the chicken is cooked return the mushrooms to the pan and add a healty pour of Marsala wine.



Then add some fresh grated nutmeg, a pinch of salt and pepper and a very small pich of cinnamon. Add a little chicken broth and a little heavy cream. Stir carefully for a moment to blend then add the roux a little bit at a time till the sauce starts to thicken nicely.

Serve with pasta and or potato and veg.



Good stuff!

One of the wife's favs.

[capozzoli]

Slovakian tonight.

I forget how to say this in Slovakian but it is Chicken Livers 'on' caraway seeds.

It is a sauce of onions, garlic, caraway seeds, marjoram, paprika, salt pepper, chicken broth, thickened with a little roux.



I will post the whole recipe, but does anyone really want me too?