Shashlik (meaning skewered meat) was originally made of lamb. Nowadays it is also made of pork or beef depending on local preferences and religious observances. The skewers are either threaded with meat only, or with alternating pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables, such as bell pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato.
Dumplings are a universally-beloved dish the world over, and while we usually think of ravioli as the meat-filled pasta of choice, elsewhere in the world they default to gyoza, jiaozi and manti.
Manti have made a fascinating culinary journey, starting with the Mongols and migrating to the Ottoman Empire in Turkey and from there spreading all across the Caucasus region and into the Silk Road nations of Central Asia.
This ethereal mixture of rice and lamb, redolent of sweet and warming spices, is the national dish of Afghanistan. Kabuli pulao takes its name from Kabul, the capital of that land-locked Central Asian nation.
Kabuli pulao is special occasion food in Afghanistan. "Pulao" is a type of rice dish made with a special, two-stepped cooking process for the rice that is unmatched in yielding separate, fluffy grains with excellent texture.
While each step in the recipe is not particularly difficult, the dish does require several steps to complete. First you simmer the meat, then you caramelize the carrots and parcook the rice. These steps can be completed ahead of time. Then you can just layer the three components together and finish the cooking on your stovetop.
Polo (a Central Asian variant on the word pilaf) is a food staple found across Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and parts of northwestern China. The different peoples of each region have their own takes, and their own flavors, for the recipe. This recipe is for Uyghur polo, the variant of the dish found in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Uyghur food is on the whole closer in taste to Indian, Persian, or Mediterranean food than it is to conventional Chinese food.
Ofada rices are mostly blends, and usually contain Oryza glaberrima (African rice) as well as the more common Oryza sativa Asian rice, and may be categorized as either brown/red Ofada or white Ofada on the basis of unmilled seed colour. Grain size, shape, and shade vary.
Ofada rice is unpolished. As African rice is more difficult to mill and polish, some or all of the rice bran is left on the grain, strengthening the flavour and making it more nutritious. Brown ofada rices are often very highly aromatic, whereas white ofada rice is typically non-aromatic. They are also known for swelling in size when cooked. It is sometimes processed using fermentation, which adds an aromatic quality to the product.
Ofada rice is typically priced higher compared to other available rices, and it has been regarded as a sign of status symbolism by some people. In contemporary times, it is sometimes served at classy parties.
Kenkey is a staple dish similar to a sourdough dumpling from the Ga, Akan and Ewe inhabited regions of West Africa, Ghana to be specific, usually served with soup, stew, or sauce.
Though ‘Kenkey’ also known as ‘Kormi’ or ‘Dorkunu’ in the year 2000 was termed as one of the foods which cause cancer particularly liver cancer when not prepared well, according to a shocking scientific research published by the Chronicle, kenkey also has it’s health benefits as well.
According to the report, maize which is a major dietary staple was identified as the “villain” . The moulds which develop on the maize particles, because of delayed or poor drying process, contain a bacteria called aflatoxin, a proven cause of cancer.
Riz gras, which translates literally to fat rice, is a rice dish with various infused flavors, most commonly including the standard Maggi cube, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and plenty of palm oil. However, if you go to the right restaurant, you can find upgraded versions of the dish that offer a good amount of toppings that make it a more of a true meal, rather than just flavored rice.
Sadza is made with finely ground dry maize/corn maize (Mealie-Meal). This maize meal is referred to as hupfu in Shona or impuphu in Ndebele. Despite the fact that maize is actually an imported food crop to Zimbabwe (c. 1890), it has become the chief source of carbohydrate and the most popular meal for indigenous people. Locals either purchase the mealie meal in retail outlets or produce it in a grinding mill from their own maize.
Zimbabweans prefer white maize meal. However, during times of famine or hardship, they resorted to eating yellow maize meal, which is sometimes called "Kenya", because it was once imported from that nation. Before the introduction of maize, sadza was made from zviyo finger millet flour.
A Potjie is a South African Stew type meal cooked in a large three legged pot over coals. It is often cooked as port of a social gathering in much the same way as BBQs are.
With a strong Indian influence in its food, how can Mauritius not have great curry? However it’s not the curry you may be used to from Durban or India. Mauritian curry has quite a different flavour, although the base is similar – there’s garlic, onion, fresh curry leaves and turmeric. There isn’t one type of curry in Mauritius – you get everything from tomato-based Creole curries (typically not that spicy – chilli is served on the side) to Indian ones. Mauritian curries are served with rice or bread,, lentils and delicious accompaniments – various chutneys and achard (vegetable pickles made with mustard) as well as the ubiquitous mazavaroo.
A Malagasy traditional dish, a pot over the fire with only leafy vegetables. It varies greatly throughout the country. Ro=soup Mazava=Clear. If there is meat, it is of lower quality and small quantity, meat being a big luxury for the Malagasy. If the meat is Zebu, one is to add a small tip of the bump. This recipe has meat, beef, so by some would not be traditional. Chicken, fish or shrimp can be used.
Vetkoek is a popular pastry in Botswana, and its name can be literally translated to “fat cake.”
It is a deep-fried snack that is made of dough, usually with mince fillings. The dough is made up of a mixture of yeast, salt, and flour. The filling is cooked before being placed inside the dough.
Another variation of vetkoek is one that is filled with jam instead of the minced meat.
There are also some kinds of vetkoek that have no fillings. Instead, the pastry is spread with jam, syrup, or honey.
Assida Zgougou is a very popular dessert in Tunisia. Assida Zgougou is a cream made from seeds of Aleppo pine, not to be confused with stone pine nuts and pine Armand.Traditionally, Tunisians exchange bowls Assida between neighbors and family members, making decorating bowls Assida as important as the taste of the recipe. Many use all kinds of dried fruit to vary the decorative shapes and colors (pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts)
This easy semolina cake is popular in Morocco, Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab speaking world. Commonly known as basbousa, in Morocco it may also be called chamia or qalb el luz. A quick, egg free batter moistened with yogurt is scored and decorated, baked until golden, then topped with sugar syrup. Sweet, moist and delicious!
You'll find a number of variations for basbousa including recipes with coconut, almonds or other ingredients. The syrup is sometimes flavored with lemon zest and vanilla, but in Morocco orange flower water provides traditional flavor. Some Moroccan families might layer the cake with pastry cream or garnish the top with a date and almond paste, but this recipe for almond basbousa keeps things classic and simple. There is less sugar in the batter than some other recipes, allowing the syrup to provide most of the sweetness.
From Asia and the Middle East to Africa, Europe, and back, spices have traveled far to find their place in the cuisines of many nations. But there's something very special about the flavors used in Moroccan food. Even though individually the spices seem similar to ones used in other cuisines, Indian per se, it's the unique blend that makes them so distinctively Moroccan. Arabic, Mediterranean, Moorish, and nomadic African cultures have had a great influence on the food culture of Morocco. And the ancient spice trade profoundly effected the play with flavors, contributing to how we recognize Moroccan cuisine today.
The need for preservation led to the liberal use of spices and the techniques of drying, salting, pickling, and fermenting. It's quite common to find dried or preserved fruits in many Moroccan dishes. This slowly braised lamb tagine features dried prunes and preserved lemons. Dried dates, apricots, and raisins are also very common. Lemons, preserved in salt, are used in a variety of dishes for adding citrus flavor or as a condiment. The tart/bitter lemon flavor truly brings out the savoriness of meats, particularly lamb. Instead of the usual roast lamb for Easter, how about a Moroccan tagine?
Tagine, named after the vessel the stew is cooked in, is pretty much the nationally recognized dish of Morocco next to couscous. It can be made with almost any meat and even seafood. The clay cooking vessel has two parts, a bowl-like pan and a conical lid, sometimes with a small vent hole. Cooking in a tagine produces the most succulent meat because the dome top locks in moisture by allowing condensation to recirculate and help along the cooking process. The meat ends up being so tender that it just about falls apart when pressed with a fork. There's really no better stew than a Moroccan tagine.
Though it's North African in origin, these days shakshuka is popular throughout the Middle East (particularly in Israel, where it may as well be one of the national dishes) and in hip neighborhood diners all over the coastal US. Given its versatility, it's easy to see why. It's quick; it's simple; it's easy to scale up or down; and it works for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack.
Baba ghanoush is a Levantine dish of cooked eggplant mixed with tahina, olive oil and various seasonings. The Arabic term means "pampered papa" or "coy daddy", perhaps with reference to a member of a royal harem.
The traditional preparation method is for the eggplant to be baked or broiled over an open flame before peeling, so that the pulp is soft and has a smoky taste.It is a typical meze (starter), often eaten as a dip with khubz or pita bread, and is sometimes added to other dishes. It is popular in the Levant(area covering Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Syria) as well as in Egypt and Armenia.
Couscous is one of the staple foods of the Maghrib (western North Africa). Couscous is made from two different sizes of the husked and crushed, but unground, semolina of hard wheat using water to bind them. Semolina is the hard part of the grain of hard wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum), that resisted the grinding of the relatively primitive medieval millstone. When hard wheat is ground, the endosperm—the floury part of the grain—is cracked into its two parts, the surrounding aleurone with its proteins and mineral salts and the central floury mass, also called the endosperm, which contains the gluten protein that gives hard wheat its unique properties for making couscous and pasta--that is, pasta secca or dried pasta, also called generically macaroni. Couscous is also the name for all of the prepared dishes made from hard wheat or other grains such as barley, millet, sorghum, rice, or maize.
Although the word couscous might derive from the Arabic word kaskasa, "to pound small," it is generally thought to derive from one of the Berber dialects because it does not take the article indicating a foreign language origin. It has also been suggested that the word derives from the Arabic name for the perforated earthenware steamer pot used to steam the couscous, called a kiskis (the French translation couscousière is the word English-speaking writers have adopted), while another theory attributes the word couscous to the onomatopoeic--the sound of the steam rising in thecouscousière, the most unlikely explanation.
Baasto/ Spaghetti can also be served with rice, forming a novelty dish referred to as "Federation". The dish is usually served with equal (whole) portions of rice and spaghetti, split on either side of a large oval plate. It is then layered with assorted stewed meats and vegetables, served with salad and an optional banana. It has been suggested that the name of the dish is derived from the union of two dishes in Somalia and also from the size and quantity of the food.