Morocco

I am thinking of doing a whole series of Tuesdays devoted to countries with red and green flags. Isn't this a great flag? Really, the Islamic countries have got it sussed with flags.

In the vein of focusing on food I want to eat more regularly with the kids I chose Morocco so I could use the tagine paste I bought months ago and once again indulge my own personal preference for meat and fruit combos.

I checked out the tagine paste's website for a recipe and it even suggested to use chard, a much delivered but mainly ignored vegetable from our locally produced organic veg bag. Yay. But my thirst for fruitiness and the plethora of damsons in the bottom of our fridge (still not yet made into jam... don't tell my mum and dad!) lead me to get inspiration elsewhere and to finally settle on such a mix up of recipes that I feel I could even claim this one for my own! I'll call it lamb, damson and swiss chard tagine. Thanks to this blog for the damson inspiration. I noticed she is currently blogging about a rich beef and coconut recipe from Malaysia, so maybe I'll go back there for a bit more inspiration soon. It's an Islamic nation. Maybe Malaysia has a great flag too?
  
THE DISH
Lamb, damson and swiss chard tagine.

serves 4
one glug extra-virgin olive oil

one pack of bone in lamb leg steaks shoulder, trimmed and cut into chunks (probably could use any cut)
1 large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large carrot, chopped into thick rounds
1/2 a 90g jar Belazu Tagine Paste
400g (canned) chick peas, drained
8-10 damsons
1 handful of chard, leaves and thinner stalks only, cut into strips
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
roasted almond flakes to sprinkle over

Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
Cook the sliced onions in oil over a gentle heat until soft and translucent (about 15 minutes). Add the lamb to brown. Pour off excess oil.
Add the tagine paste (half a jar) with 150ml water and add to the pan.  Stir to mix well then cover with another 150ml water and bring to a simmer. Add carrot slices and can of chick peas.
Turn the heat to low and simmer, partially covered for 1 hour.
Add the chard and damsons and cook, partially covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
serve with a sprinkle of roasted almond flakes. (I should probably admit, at this point, that when I tasted it I thought that rather bitter harissa type kick, which is probably what gives tagines their unique flavour, would not go down well with the kids so I add a tablespoon of sugar... shhhh).

serve with couscous (made with veg stock with added raisins) and I threw in some warmed flatbread that we had left over from a raucous party at the weekend to please the son with the bread fetish.

THE RESPONSE
Always a little of an uphill struggle when I haven't got husband-help to gee up the children. Youngest was super hungry as we ate too late for him and when he realised it was an adventurous day he threw himself in the armchair declaring that  he would not have tea, but only eat a peach. This is not a good sign. It can take him many minutes, and usually some serious shouting from a parent, for him to come around. But the lateness of the hour helped me feel sorry for him. I too have a terrible temper when I'm hungry, and I can spot hypoglycemia a mile off, so I got him a mini bowl full of almonds, and a couple of bits of pitta, for him to eat in the armchair. It worked like magic and soon he was at the table, actually digging into the couscous. Though he was simultaneously still declaring he hated couscous.


THE VERDICT
Eldest hardly blinks an eye at whatever is on her plate these days. It's such a relief. She's always been the easiest in this regard, actually, but I guess it's not surprising that she has the most mature taste buds. But she also ate the chick peas, declaring that she likes them. This is also a relief as she's vegetarian and really I would have preferred to have simply left out the meat for her version of tonight's meal, rather than pack it out with quorn alternatives. Mr Middle is beginning to eat heaps when he likes it. And he's developing a taste for meat. So the lamb was going down a treat. But even he also ate the chard and the chick peas. And Youngest actually ate most of it too... a mini triumph. Oh and I loved it - loved cooking it, loved eating it. N loved it. If this was the only upside of Travelling Tuesdays it would all have been worthwhile.

PUDDING
Another cheat: a friend bought N a massive chocolate and pistachio cake for aforementioned '45s' party. Well, pistachio has to be a good Moroccan treat, surely? The chocolate was a bit too bitter for the kids and the marbled cake a bit too green in the pistachio bit, but I guess that just means all the more for me :-)

 With N eating later, it never feels so easy to do any of that 'other' crossing continents stuff. We did find Morocco on a map, and watched some fab folk dancing. We even learnt which was its capital city (a place I had never heard of) had a look at some images of Rabat online. It was only later, when I was looking more closely at the map on a computer that I came across the Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla along its border. The Youngest had spotted how close its most northern tip was to the southern tip of Spain and we did say briefly that it was the way you would choose if you wanted to get from Africa to Europe. But I had no idea that there are whole cities on the Moroccan coast which are actually Spanish, and that naturally they are a destination of choice for migrants feeling nervous about an illegal sea crossing.  Goodness alone knows why Spain keeps them at all. On a purely practical level they must give the government such a headache. Mind you both articles I read about them did also refer to Gibraltar. Give 'em all back. That's what I say. And the Falklands. Better stop there eh? Probably controversial enough without getting into other areas of the globe a little closer to home!

Ceuta and Melilla immigrants: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/07/hundreds-of-migrants-storm-border-at-spain-enclave/

With apologies to Bangladesh

I am feeling rather loathe to blog these days. Perhaps the recent TTs have been too much of a cheat? I don't feel I've got anything to shout about really! This week could seem like I was really scraping the barrel. I decided that really the aim of this project was to get my kids eating a wider range of food, but recently I have realised that encouraging them to eat some weird Brazilian cake is all very well, but slightly misses the point if the likelihood is that we'll never have that cake again. So, I have decided that this autumn will see us revisiting some 'popular' countries (aka those with good takeaways nearby!) so that we can branch out from Pizza Express as our restaurant of choice, and rock up anywhere for a meal without complaints and moans.

So, out came the Anglo Asian menu card, and suddenly we were on our way to 'Bangladesh'. I did do some cursory web research to check out what country our 'Indian' take aways really originate in, but the most I could get was that Balti dishes may have originally come from the Baltistan region of Pakistan. My own experience of authentic Indian food on the subcontinent was so far removed from anything I have ever eaten at a 'curry' house here in the UK that I feel (sort of) OK with extending the label of the Anglo Asian from 'Indian' to 'Bangladeshi'. But this little introduction is really a confession to all those for whom true Bangladeshi cuisine means a great deal more than a phone call to a Stock Newington take away.

THE DISH
Chicken korma
Murgh Makhani
Lamb passanda
channa massala
Bombay potato
home made (!) poppadums
home made raita
 
THE REACTION
For some reason Youngest was around and up for helping with the preparation. Which was lovely because I am sure it helps him get his head around trying the food. He made the raita and fried the poppadums - which was great until I put them in the oven to keep warm and burnt them all! Good job AA delivered some more. He enthusiastically dipped his poppadums into all the bowls of strange looking dips (which I never do!) but this maybe because they look like they're made of melted boiled sweets! And then made his way through a bit of chicken with generic 'mild' sauce and only had a very small bit of tomato ketchup on his rice.


THE VERDICT
To be honest, the shocking reality was that all the dishes were just a bit too creamy and sweet. Eldest had recently had a chick pea curry at school and was not impressed with the AA version 'it's too sweet', and I had to agree with her. The murgh makhani was a bit too much like korma - but maybe with a bit more 'kick' but I have to say that the chicken you get in these dishes always seems a little 'processed' to say the least. Surely there's a gap in the market for 'real' Indian restaurants? Even the lamb passanda sauce looked just like korma and the lamb was a bit tough. It came with a 'special egg friend rice' which seemed to be slightly crossing continents but which all the kids liked (ye-hay). The potato dish provided our only respite from cream and coconut, and it was fresh and tomatoey. Which meant, of course, that the boys didn't eat it, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Mr Middle: Mum, I have tried that cucumber stuff.  Me: Nice? Mr Middle: No

At the last minute I remembered I'd brought nan bread ages ago. It's been in the freezer for 18 months so I felt very pleased with myself for getting them out to heat up but I totally forgot them in the oven and now their charred tendons are in the recycling bucket.  Ho hum. So, note for next curry take away: order some dishes that don't come in pale orange gloop! Maybe even make my own with happy chickens... now there's a thought!

At least we managed to get out the world map and talk a bit about Bangladesh, listen to some of its fabulous folk music and wonder at the flag, which I had no idea looked like this!

Having looked at the menu card again today I notice that they have a little section, which I didn't see when I ordered on line, called 'Bangladeshi village fish varieties'! Damn, had I seen that before we might have even been a little more authentic, as well as enjoying a generic curry! 

Mummy can I have some more reindeer meat?

There are some phrases you never imagine your children will use. "Can I have some more reindeer meat?' is certainly one of them. Which is interesting because that is exactly what Youngest said to me the other day.

 When you've schlepped along to the blue and yellow temple and emptied the contents of your purse into the Ikea tills the least it can do in return is inspire a Travelling Tuesday! And though there is an element of guilt in the recent marked increase in usage of pre-packaged TT fare, at which Ikea excels, I do have to keep reminding myself this is supposed to be a) fun b) kiddie friendly and c) do-able.

I did wonder out loud to the wonderful Annabelle, who joined us for the food, whether or not there was anything remotely authentic about the food you can buy at Ikea. But she reassuringly said that our Swedish friend told her that Ikea food isn't that far off the sort of food you get canteens up and down the country. So, authentic take-away/rubbish food then. Hooray!

THE FOOD
I sneakily began the introduction to Swedish fare in the car on the way home. Nothing like keeping two boys out shopping well past lunchtime to make them pretty much hungry enough to eat anything. And before they knew it they'd nearly finished the packet of dried elk meat sausages that I handed them (Vilt snacks).

The drinks went down a storm - the blueberry drink made lovely purple moustaches and the rhurbarb cordial (Saft Rabarber) is such a fantastic shade of pink that it seems to hardly matter that you can't really taste the rhubarb at all! And the grown ups seemed to manage their apple cider without any complaints.

But the starter didn't exactly have everyone salivating. There is a strong Danish gene pool running through our kids but we have been remiss at training them in the liking of pickled fish or rye bread. Two staples which the Swedes seem to have a penchant for too. Annabelle had even got the kids to make the rye bread (along with picking them up from school, getting them snacks, keeping an eye on her wee babby, making interesting conversation and generally being amazing) but that didn't seem to encourage them to try it even.


The Lovely Josie, who joined us too, was polite and adventurous, declaring 'I am not keen on fish' but getting on with it anyway. But apart from asking for some more reindeer slices my two boys and Mr Els got 'nil points' for their starter!

Starter
Rye bread with a variety of toppings: pickled herring (Sill Dill); salmon (Lax Najad) and sliced, smoked reindeer meat. For the first time in our whole married life there didn't seem to be a half eaten pot of 'rost aloi' (dried onions) or squashed tube of remoulade in our fridge. But we coped without them and downed our sorrows with Aalborg Aquavit (schnaps made with potato).  

Main
Meatballs, 'natch. It always takes me by surprise how tiny the Ikea ones are. Apparently that's common in Sweden. They make them with a combination of pork and beef and I was horrified to see that Skandikitchen says that the Danes tend to use a mix of pork and veal. Ewugh. I bought ready made rosti too. How much of a cheat is that?! Chucked in a few green beans and it was about the easiest Travelling Tuesday to date. The resident veggie got a couple of rosti with some melted ost (cheese) inbetween them.

Pudding
Also grabbed off a shelf in haste, but with enough chocolate to appeal to children, I actually forgot to get them out straight away as there was a lot of coming and going of people. Shame really because they were really not a big hit - overly sweet, pappy, full of fluff and without a grain of 'real' chocolate in sight - and we could have done with having some more people to share them amongst! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with names like 'Sotsak Skumtopp' and 'Sotsak Kakaboll'. Ewugh.

THE REACTION

The very nice thing about doing Travelling Tuesdays with friends in tow is that there are generally less complaints from the children department. They don't complain about being so hungry so much. They don't complain about the food presented to them so much. This maybe due to the good influence of the Lovely J, but I think they are just generally chatting more and more easily distracted. It's also nice for our kids to have some others to rope into the whole 'making Swedish flags' shennanigans.

THE VERDICT
Mr M: I hated the starter but loved the potato pancake and I like the meat balls with ketchup.
The Lovely J: if you put it (the herring) on the bread with the cheese and meat you can hardly taste it.
Mr K: Guys guys look - I love these (the kakabolls!). They have coconut and mashed up biscuits inside and when we made them at school we made little ones. (Now there's a thing he didn't tell me about school one day. I do wonder what else they get up to!!).

As we were heading out of the door of Ikea, having already paid for our food shopping and balanced not one, not two, but three trolleys between me and the 2 boys, I noticed that they had 'crayfish' decorations. Not one who easily misses clues to a festival I was sorely tempted. But the crayfish themselves were not to be seen in the immediate vicinity and I didn't rate my chances at suggesting we might go hunting for them. Shame in a way - it seems like crayfish parties are big in Sweden in August and September. Hey ho. Maybe we'll do a crayfish party next year. Ikea sponsored, or not.

Cornish fare

How good it is to be on holiday in Cornwall in a summer like this one's been. Actually hot days, swimming in the sea and hardly being rained off from anything. Nothing to beat it!

We felt we should definitely taste the wares and were not disappointed by our wonderful (in absentia) hosts Holly and Rob who left home made scones and Rodda's clotted cream. The combination of that, the perfect retro tea cups and a glorious late afternoon sun drenched garden, made it pretty much my all time top cream tea experience. Even better when two out of three children don't like cream... so much more to go around.

The beer wasn't bad either. Nor the pasties, though I think we didn't really got very near to authenticity with them. Still, they were pretty tasty none the less. A bit like sausages I guess.. you just can't help but like them, but if you ever really did any investigation into the contents you'd never have one again. I read a quote by the comic Milton Jones over the summer. "Christianity is a bit like a Cornish pasty. There's definitely something in it, but sometimes it's difficult to find out what it is."  

The saffron buns looked fun, but weren't really. N and I just about finished them off toasted but the kids weren't interested and I couldn't blame them. Dry, overly yellow, and with a strange taste that, no doubt, was supposed to be saffron, but was almost certainly some dodgy food colouring. I'll stick with scones thanks!

Ramadan Kareem

I think this week might just have been one culinary mash up too far. 

I've been thinking about Ramadan a lot. Always keen to be inspired by ready made festivals its presence in the diary couldnt really be ignored. Especially after last week's 4th July bash and all the excess it seems to represent. It felt nice to try to introduce the concept of fasting even though Ramadan also involves feasting. It began on Wedsnesday which happened to be the day of Eldest's school yr 6 leaving "prom". (Don't get me going on the whole prom thing for 11 year olds. That's for another rant). 

I spent a happy hour or so perusing the Internet and though I was unable to yield any particular ideas for an Iftar (the meal to break the fast) I did happen across the Muslim Council of Great Britain's Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools.  It's a fascinating read and I learnt loads. Not least that though children are not expected to fast a full day until they reach puberty they often fast from individual meals or do half days to get used to the discipline slowly and to enjoy the sense of community shared with the adults. 

Ramadan fascinates me. I am drawn to and repelled by its severity in equal measure. I feel glad I am part of a religious persuasion that doesn't require of me anything nearly as hard. And yet I feel totally amazed by the  commitment and satisfaction displayed by those who fast for Ramadan. I don't really know if the Council's guide for schools takes in a whole range of Muslim approaches to the month of fasting. Is there, as I suspect, a variety within the community, as there is with so many things which seem monolithic on the outside? The the report seemed to suggest unanimity of approach which I was surprised by. To be honest I was surprised that children fast at all. It mentioned that teachers should be aware that children may be very tired having risen before dawn for the suhoor (pre dawn meal). It suggested children be given something to break their fast even if they are being kept late, ie beyond the time for iftar (the meal at sundown) for detention for instance. And to offer children who have free school meals a packed lunch to take home if they wanted it. It even mentioned that some parents will keep children from swimming lessons in case they swallow water unintentionally (though it did concede that many feel this is unnecessarily strict). 

It made all the chocloate fountain plans for the "prom" seem ridiculously inappropriate for a school with so many Muslim kids in it. I got onto my high horse immediately and emailed the Head to see what was the likely fall-out. Would some kids find it very hard to be surrounded with sweet treats? Would many just not come? I had plans for providing some take-out boxes so kids could at least take some of the party food home if they were not able to enjoy it at the Prom itself. Wednesday was just mad for me and, to my shame, I never made it happen. But the kids seemed mostly to be there, and having a wonderful time, so families just must have made it work somehow. Like they do probably all the time when their particular needs are not catered for.

So, all this lead to me planning a Travelling Tuesday with a difference. I would simply delay our evening meal... I would not give any snacks after school but to talk about fasting, and the particular Islamic approach to it. So that we would feel just a little bit of hunger when so many neighbours are experiencing 18 hours without food. And then to break our (mini) 'fast' with some 'normal' food, knowing that curries and other things that may be gracing the tables of our Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Nigerian neighbours' iftars, would not go down well with the kids. I figured Muslims must break the fast with their 'normal' food so that in the case of British converts could that not be pasta or pizza?

I like to think that the idea, in theory, was a good one. In practice there were a number of definite problems:

1) A friend asked Mr Middle for a play after school and though I said I would pick him up before tea, I knew that he wouldn't arrive having 'fasted' since lunchtime.. that his post-school snacks would be much more impressive than any I usually serve up.

2) As I left with Youngest the long-suffering mum sent one of her many boys after us to see if he would like to join them. So that was two out of three who were not exactly going to know how it felt to be hungry.

3) As soon as I got home the Eldest's friend arrived so I could do the piano-lesson-run. It was a hot day and so I dished out ice creams. For everyone. Me included. It was only later when were half way to piano that I realised that generally ice creams are not allowed if you're fasting! (I was always like this as a youngster when I tried, several years in a row, to give up biscuits for Lent. It would be on about biscuit number 3 of the day, some way part through an evening, that I would remember that I shouldn't be eating them at all!)

4) On our arrival back from the lesson, we were all a bit hot and though I was careful not to fall into the ice cream trap again (!) I was a hairsbreadth away from glugging a pint of water before I realised I shouldn't be drinking either. 

5) When N arrived at about 7pm, relatively late from work, there was a distinct 'Where on earth is tea?' look in his hungry eyes. Hurray I thought - at least someone hasn't eaten since lunch. But he looked distinctly unimpressed when I told him tea would still be quite a while and though I did protest I couldn't quite bring myself to be hardline about the peach.

Except that it's the deciding what to eat part of feeding the family that I find so wearying. Happening upon Marks and Spencers 'Dine in for a tenner' seemed too good a deciding factor to pass up and I thought I could make it stretch to a family of 4 which includes 2 boys who don't eat much and a girl who's a veggie - and it certainly did stretch given that the boys had already had pizza by the time they arrived home! Even with a foreign twist (duck in plum sauce) it was possibly the weirdest iftar ever eaten. I love the idea that traditionally people have broken their fast with dates, so we enjoyed some lovely sticky sugary lozenges (well the kids didn't really enjoy them to be honest. Don't really understand it when they don't like sugary things) but that's probably where any likeness to an itfar meal stopped. We even finished off with profiteroles. I ask you.

I'd like to report that even though the 'travelling' aspect of the food left a lot to be desired all our conversation contributed to a fantastic insight to fasting, Ramadam and the Muslim faith. I wish. You'll have to look elsewhere for that... http://interfaithfriday.wordpress.com/ is a good start.. an interfaith innitiative in London and including a Christian's reflection on how it was to fast with Muslim neighbours for 10 days during Ramadan. There's a lot of inspirational stuff out there. Here? Here it's a bit more mundane! I think for me Ramadan will forever be linked to M&S 'dinner for two' and profiteroles. Just don't ask for any profound theological reflections!