Hi Jeremiah, Carmelia, Rachel, Diep and soon Adriana & Jenna,
Here are some fab recipes to make overseas! Tried to reduce/eliminate hard-to-find ingredients. Everyone else, some summer and all-American recipes a little early...
Spicy Gazpacho (cold tomato-based soup). Serve with avocado & steamed shrimp, white firm fish or even an omelet.
Cucumber salad is refreshing. Add some grated ginger for a more pronounced Asian flavor. If you don't have rice vinegar, use the lightest vinegar you have with a dash of water and sugar to equal 1/4 cup.
Watermelon Sorbet
Modifications: Puree with a food mill, blender, food processor or mash. Freeze until almost frozen, then take a big fork and grate until all is finely pureed. Freeze again. If it's still a frozen block, thaw a little while and repeat with the fork. Serve immediately. Tastes great with lime and mint!
Ranch Dressing--overseas version
1 small jar of mayo 8 oz/250 ml
juice of 1 lemon/lime
3 tablespoons Nido/whole milk powder (or use 1 tablespoon yogurt)
2 sprigs fresh parsley, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Grilled Jerk Chicken with Mango Chutney
Use any part of skin-on chicken. Make double paste; it keeps in the fridge for 1 week.
Homemade Ketchup
Save money in most cases by making your own ketchup. A 28-oz. can equals 5 or 6 small or Roma tomatoes (the kind that are oval-shaped). Leave out the oil to prolong freshness. And you don't need to cook it for that long. Add a 1/2 teaspoon tomato paste to the recipe and cook for 30 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon curry powder and 1 teaspoon sugar for curry ketchup. Delicious!
Barbecue sauce
Make ketchup recipe above, adding sugar, honey or molasses, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard or 1 teaspoon dry mustard and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Add 1 pureed onion and slather on at the last 2 minutes of cooking.
French fries
Peel (optional--depends on your preference and source) 4 medium or 6 large potatoes. Cut into chalk-size pieces, 3/8 inches julienne if you have a mandoline slicer. Cook in water for 20 minutes (or microwave 6 minutes for a faster parboil method). Fry in a deep, heavy pan at least 5 quarts/liters. with corn or peanut oil at high heat. Just starting to smoke, then add a little more. Fry until golden. If you can't get the oil hot enough or you want extra crispy, fry again until deep golden but not brown. Sweet potato fries also taste great! And while we're frying, here's something for a bumper crop of eggplant
Fried Chicken
Use any bone-in parts, cut equally to the size of a deck of cards. For an extra treat, crush 1 cup corn flakes and reduce flour to 1 1/4 cup.
Pancake Syrup
So, you got your hands on some pancake mix and have flipped 30 pancakes. Uh-oh. What about syrup? These days, I don't even keep that cellulose gum/high-fructose corn syrup commercial stuff in the house; I just make my own. You just need 4 ingredients: sugar, water, vanilla(or another flavoring) and salt. The last two are optional! The technique is to caramelize a little of the sugar to give the syrup color and depth of flavor.
2 cups sugar
2 cups hot water (a little less for thicker syrup)
dash salt (to enhance flavor & taste like commercial syrup, not maple syrup)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Cook sugar on stove on medium high heat until boiling and making a loud noise with bubbles and just starting to turn chocolate brown in one spot. You have to be very attentive, and not wait too long, or all the sugar will burn, and you will have to start over. Add hot water immediately. Cook until hard sugar dissolves, a few minutes. Add dash of salt and vanilla. If you are adventurous, try this great looking recipe for Coconut and Ricotta Pancakes with Ginger Syrup.
This is how to make Ricotta Cheese. Instead of heavy cream, use evaporated milk. You can use whole milk powder for the whole milk, or add water to more evaporated milk. Note that it take 8 cups or 2 liters to make 2 cups of cheese! Here are other recipes for your hard-won cheese...
Almost Cheesecake. Use "Vache Qui Rit" or "Laughing Cow" cheese in the little paper rounds for the cream cheese. 1 packet of 8 should do fine. If you don't have an oven, use a steamer and put in buttered glass or metal containers in a pot over a bigger pot of boiling water. Soft Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta and Chives-made a similar recipe for work. If you have a microwave, try this one night when you want something hot but don't want to really "cook." Use scallions or onions and some parsley in place of chives. Microwave on high and stir every one to two minutes until desired doneness is achieved. Tastes great with hot bread or even fried potatoes. Collard greens kale, or that tougher variety of spinach in West Africa will be fine for these Vegetable and Ricotta Roll-Ups. Note that the recipe calls for mozzarella cheese.
Flambé all those great tropical fruits like mango, banana and pineapple. These flavors marry well with nutmeg, vanilla, cream, lime zest and caramel.
Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce is divine! Try it with 2 tablespoons Kahlua. If you don't have dark brown sugar, try a little molasses with your sugar, or just use the sugar you have.
Some of these recipes you might recognize from Peace Corps. If you remember something you want the recipe for, let me know!
Bonne cuisine!
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