Armchair traveling via ethnic food

It's no secret that I love food. Part of the reason you haven't seen much activity on this blog recently is because I'm trying to break some bad winter habits, primarily too much eating, too much eating calorie high and nutrient low and practically no exercise except walking the kid to school...

So I've lost about 10 lbs and starting biking, walking, doing yoga, punching the Everlast bag, and lifting weights.

Meanwhile, my daughter went to Girl Scout camp. 

While she was gone, I really wanted Turkish food so we went to Aci Halal in Allentown. 

First course was a spicy vegetable dip that tasted primarily of red pepper. And Turkish pita.

My husband and I both got lamb dishes. Mine turned out to be like a meatloaf.

And can I just tell you how much I love that little bit of lettuce with cilantro and spices? I could eat a pound of it.

But I was really dying for good coffee.

Enter Turkish coffee, "medium." And a bubble gum soda to take home for the child.

Dinner (without tip) was $39. 

But I didn't stop spending. I bought a couple things in the grocery dept.

Pressed dates for baking. Plain halva, which the Mediterranean Deli calls halawa. It's a sugared sesame paste almost like fudge. But lighter.

The pretty jar is "crushing nuts with honey." It's a combination of various nuts with honey so dense that the calorie counts resemble candy. I put a little in my plain yogurt.

My husband picked out the cookies-- light chocolate wafers with marshmallows between layers dipped in chocolate.

Now today I finally stopped at the Mediterranean Deli. I needed my imported cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from Beirut.

Bought half the store.

Fig & nut jam. Dried cherries. Big bag of sesame sticks. Dried strawberries. Dried kiwi. Dried cantaloupe. Medjool dates. (I plan on making homemade fruit & nut bars before school starts.) hummus. Three bags of zaatar bread. One bag of mini pita. One pound kalamata olives. One pound Bulgarian feta. A big hunk of Armenian string cheese. A soft homemade cheese in olive oil and zaatar spice. Cucumber and yogurt dip.

I think that was the whole $85.

Lamb Vindaloo

Tonight I made an adaptation of lamb vindaloo with lamb sausage and mounds of vegetables.

I based the recipe off this one from the BBC. After all, if any anglophone knows how to make Indian food, it'd be the colonizing Brits:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lamb_vindaloo_41903

I modified it based on what I had in my pantry.

I started with a chunk of mild lamb sausage, and not even a big one. 

For the sauce:

- about 25 ml extra virgin olive oil

- about 35 ml canola oil

- one tablespoon balsamic vinegar

- 2 cloves garlic, sliced & chopped

- water, about 75 ml

- one pinch salt

- about 2 teaspoons Indian chili powder

- about 1 teaspoon cumin

- a large pinch cinnamon 

- about 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger 

- about 1/2 teaspoon mustard

- about 1 teaspoon paprika 

I whisked it, chopped the raw sausage in half and left it to marinade all day.

When I got home from work, I cooked the sausage in some oil. I chopped it and added vegetables to the skillet with the meat.

Vegetables:

- Lots of peas

- carrots 

- fresh spinach

- leftover potatoes from last night's dinner 

Then I added the marinade and cooked it all together.

I served with rice and plain steamed fresh broccoli (just in case in was too spicy for the wee one). In my opinion, it was just the right spicy. Yummy yum yums.

 The two photos in the skillet were taken by my daughter.

Lamb sausage skillet

Leftover potatoes from Christmas.

Diced.

Leftover fresh arugula & spinach.

Sautéed in butter.

Lamb sausage.

Seasoning: raj el hanout & low sodium soy sauce

Pasta tonight

Dinner tonight:

- fresh express iceberg lettuce garden mix with Annie's Goddess dressing

- pasta with red sauce, calamata olives and spicy lamb sausage 

- unsweetened applesauce

For him:

A Grasshopper

1/2 shot creme de menthe

1/2 shot creme de cocoa

1/4 shot half and half

1/4 shot plain coconut milk

(Shaken and served over ice)

For her:

Bicardi ready to drink mojito 

(Not the best mojito I've ever had but nice enough)

Margez

One of my favorite parts of travel to the Arab sections of French cities and to North Africa is lamb sausage, Margez.

This particular platter posted is from a café in the Tunisian resort city of Sousse, about 2.5 hours by train from the capital city of Tunis.

What's interesting about Franco-influenced Arab cuisine is the flood of bread with every meal, even more prevalent than in France. The North African region gives a basket of baguette slices its own twist-- by serving it with the chili pepper paste known as harissa blended with olive oil.

See the empty bowl in the background with red smears? That was harissa.

My travels have renewed my interest in checking out the halal butcher in my neighborhood.