Week 32 - 早餐 - China

CONGEE with YOUTIAO

Congee is a food I've been familiar with for a long time.  There are tons of restaurants across the Toronto area named after this dish and I've seen many a co-worker devour a bowlful for lunch.  But I've got to admit, up until now I've never had any inclination to give it a try.

Besides the foreignness of eating limp rice in the morning, consider its appearance.  As a mass of congealed off-white gruel, congee sure isn't winning any beauty pageants.  Creative sprigs of green from assorted toppings do help, until the spoon goes in and finds the often offensive mystery meat!

So imagine my surprise when despite my trepidation, I discover Congee to be.... amazingly delicious.  Comforting even.

Of course, it helps that this particular Congee was made by me with very little in terms of scary ingredients.  And actually, there are very few ingredients at all that go into Congee - something I'm learning is a plus when cooking a tasty breakfast.

Besides being the breakfast of choice for China, variations on Congee are popular all across Asia.  The recipes vary quite a lot but they all centre around rice that has been cooked to the point of disintegration in many times it's volume in water (8:1 is a common ratio).  Congee doubles as a nutritious meal and a great way to use up left-overs.  It is also commonly seen as an excellent pablum for babies and tonic for the sick.

Congee in China is most often served with Youtiao (seen above).  Here's what Wikipedia had to say about this salty doughnut-like pastry:

The Cantonese name yàuhjagwái literally means "oil-fried devil" and, according to folklore, is an act of protest against Song Dynasty official Qin Hui, who is said to have orchestrated the plot to frame the general Yue Fei, an icon of patriotism in Chinese culture. It is said that the food, originally in the shape of two human-shaped pieces of dough but later evolved into two pieces joined in the middle, represents Qin Hui and his wife, both having a hand in collaborating with the enemy to bring about the great general's demise. Thus the youtiao is deep fried and eaten as if done to the traitorous couple. In keeping with the legend, youtiao are often made as two foot-long rolls of dough joined along the middle, with one roll representing the husband and the other the wife.

Saucy!

I had every ambition of making these at home but a little research showed that these are a bread best left to the pros.  (If you're in Toronto stop by King's Noodle where you can buy Youtiao to go).

The Congee variation I made featured a healthy dose of ginger and chicken.  The texture was smooth and far from being exotic, the flavour was rich and familiar.  It had all the goodness of home-made Chicken Soup with the soothing "stick to your ribs" heartiness of Oatmeal.  I liked it so much that I ate it for a good five days afterwards.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

At it's easiest, Congee is as simple as boiling together water and rice.  With just a little additional effort it can become worth getting up for.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

Traditionally Congee has also been used to feed many people with little food.

For Overall Appeal:

Congee caught me by surprise and I am delighted.  I guess I should've known that several billion people couldn't be that wrong....

For next week, I leave you with a riddle.  What food is both a vegetable, starch and sandwich casing all at once?

Week 31 - Argentina

MEDIALUNA

In Argentina the overwhelming breakfast favourite is the celestially named Medialuna.   If you haven't been to Argentina just know that as the Croissant is to France, so the Medialuna is to Argentina.

Smaller than their cousin the Croissant, Medialuna come in two forms - the Medialuna de Manteca (which is made with butter and glazed with a simple syrup called Almibar) and the Medialuna de Grasa (which is made with butter and lard and isn't always sweet).  As a butter and sugar lover the choice here seemed clear.  So follow along as I attempt the Medialuna de Manteca....

The Medialuna de Manteca, like the croissant, is made from a yeast-dough that through a series of folds is layered with an abundant amount of butter.  This process takes several hours and creates something called laminated dough.

Hands up, who has attempted to make laminated dough from scratch?

No one?

I'm not surprised.  Although it has long been on my list of culinary adventures to try at home, the idea of creating all those glorious flaky, buttery layers by hand has intimidated me for years.  But for the sake of this blog and with some very generous encouragement from my colleagues at the bakery, I persevered and am here to tell you that it's really not that hard!  And more than that, it is infinitely rewarding.

The process is really quite simple.  After mixing together and rolling out your dough, you create a butter block (which looks exactly like it sounds) that is just under half the area of your dough.  Then working carefully, you wrap the butter block with the dough until it is completely covered.  You roll this new dough out and fold it in three like a business letter - this is called a "turn".  There are typically three turns in a recipe.

After all this work (which takes a long time because the dough needs to rest between each step) you are left with a beautiful dough that has been carefully layered with 81 layers of butter and pastry!

All this may seem like too much effort before breakfast, and it is.  The good news is that Medialuna dough can, and should, be made ahead.  You can make it the evening before or even make it and freeze it up to three months in advance.  In the morning all you have to do is shape it into it's characteristic "half moon" shape and pop it in the oven.

Medialunas were like their moniker - heavenly.  They smelled fantastic baking in the oven and tasted just as good as you'd imagine 81 layers of fresh baked bread and butter to be.  They had a gentle flake on the outside and the inside was slightly chewy.  The Almibar added a welcome sweetness and the whole pastry oozed with buttery goodness.

Now, it should be noted that I don't think most people in Argentina are baking these fresh every morning at home.  Like France or Italy, this country has a vibrant cafe culture and I can just imagine Argentinians stopping by the local cafe for a Cafe con Leche and a few Medialuna before starting their workday or heading to the beach....

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

These were way easier than I expected, but they did take about 12 hours to make.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

We actually had the pleasure of serving these to some guests, perhaps they would like to weigh in here....?

For Sustainability:

This may not be fair, as we did polish off at least 4 each....

For Costability:

For Overall Appeal:

I think that you can tell that I loved the Medialuna.  They were as much fun to make as to eat.   Not to mention that between their evocative name, taste and origins there is a certain romance about them.

For something completely different stay tuned as we try perhaps the world's most popular breakfast food - Congee.

Week 30 - завтрак - Russia

SYRNIKI, OLADI, and BLINI

We are fast approaching Easter and here I am with a blog entry from way back on Pancake Tuesday.  Too much breakfast, so little bloggin time....

For those uninitiated to the tradition, Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras is the hurrah before the season of lent.  Christians all over the world get ready for this austere season of reflection and fasting by doing what else...partying and eating pancakes!  

This year Jon and I went all out and tried not just one new traditional pancake but three.  As it turns out Russia, and much of Eastern Europe in general, is crazy about pancakes.  Some statistics even state that Russia has over 70 different varieties.  That's a lot of pancakes but for our purposes we narrowed it down to the three most popular:  Syrniki, Oladi and Blini.

Syrniki:

Syrniki are primarily made from Tvorog, a soft white cheese (similar to ricotta or cottage cheese) that is very common in Russian cuisine.  Mixed together with just a little flour, sugar, and egg, Syrniki were very simple to cook.

They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a very distinct, rich flavour.  They are commonly served with some sort of jam, icing sugar and sour cream.  Sour cream with sweet was a new concept for me, but it really worked to balance the cloying cheesiness of the Syrniki.

Oladi:

Oladi fall closest to the North American concept of a pancake.  In fact, the recipe is almost the same as buttermilk pancakes, except Kefir is substituted for buttermilk.  Kefir is a milk beverage that is very popular across Northern and Eastern Europe.  It's made by introducing Kefir grain to milk and fermenting it.  Half way between yogurt and milk, I'm not sure I would drink it straight but it made delicious pancakes.

Oladi are small and quite puffy on the pancake scale.  They have a tender crumb (probably as a result of the hard working bacteria in the Kefir) and a delicious crispy outside.  Like Syrniki they are enjoyed with jam and sour cream.

Blini:

Blini are the classic Russian pancake, and the one you've probably heard the most about.  In Russia there are whole cafes devoted to the blini and it's many, many variations.  They can be served as a savoury snack (with caviar, smoked salmon and cream cheese) or as a sweet (apples, strawberries, sweetened sour cream, syrup, etc.).  We were fresh out of caviar so we enjoyed them sweet with some Canadian maple syrup.

As this was the third pancake, I kept it simple and used a box mix I picked up at a local Russian Supermarket to make the Blini.

The inner food snob in me was prepared to turn up my nose but they cooked up beautiful.  Just check out their delicate lace-like tops.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

They are pancakes after all.


For Guestability:

These would be great for guests.  They smell amazing cooking, make a great presentation and of course, taste great.


For Sustainability:

Those Syrniki kept me going well until lunch.  In fact, they were hearty enough that we enjoyed the leftovers as a filling supper the next day!


For Costability:

With the exception of the Kefir and Tvorog, no extravagant ingredients were needed.  And if you were normal and making just one recipe, it would be very budget friendly.


For Overall Appeal:

Who doesn't love pancakes?  Syrniki, Oladi and Blini all have tremendous appeal. In fact, I've been saving this breakfast for months until Pancake Tuesday gave me the excuse I needed to eat three different kinds of pancakes in one go.  Try one, you won't be disappointed!

I've been searching for a special Easter breakfast to feature next week but have come up empty-handed.  Instead I've decided to honour the new Pope and see how Argentineans break the fast....

Week 29 - Kwizija - Bosnia and Herzegovina

BUREK

It seems the world is rediscovering the Balkans as a beautiful and inexpensive tourist choice these days.  A friend who recently went to visit, extolled it's virtues and when asked if they had any exceptional food didn't hesitate to answer, "Burek."


Bosnian Burek is a puff pastry made with ground meat, onions, and a touch of paprika.  It's artfully swirled into a spiral shape and served warm with yoghurt.
 They are primarily a street food and are found in specific bakeries called Burekdžnica. 


Versions of Burek can be found all over Eastern Europe and even into Arabia.  Some versions feature cheese, others vegetables like spinach or squash and yet others have various meat and veggie combos.  You could even say that Bougatsa, from Week 5 - Greek Breakfast (still my favourite breakfast of all time) is a distant relative to the Burek.

Unfortunately there are no Burekdžnica near us in Toronto, so I had to try my hand at this Balkan delicacy.  I was dubious that I would be able to achieve the thin layers of pastry indicated in the recipe, but almost like magic, the dough easily stretched to see-through thinness and was really easy to work with. After making the meat mixture, I rolled it and doused it in copious amounts of butter and oil.  The aroma of it baking in the oven was mouthwatering and worth getting out of bed on a cold March morning...

Altogether, Burek was delightful, especially fresh from the oven.  The pastry although still flaky was a bit more chewy than store-bought phyllo.  For my taste, ground beef is a bit heavy in the morning but the yogurt really helped to lighten it up.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Well, maybe I didn't just whip this one up in five minutes, but honest, it wasn't so bad and could totally be made ahead.

For Degree of Separation:

Pretty much anything with meat (that's not bacon) gets five Cheerios in this category.

For Guestability:

Although a bit weird for guests, you gotta admit it's quite impressive looking...

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

For Overall Appeal:

This was perhaps not the most delicious breakfast we've tried, but it was oddly satisfying.  In the future I might bring this back as a supper food.

It seems the Jumbo Breakfast Roll is not the only breakfast food to be immortalized in song!  Check out "Burek" by Bosnian musician Dino Merlin:

Week 28 - Iran - حلیم

HALEEM

Over the past few years I've become quite enamored with Persian cuisine.  With it's abundance of herbs, unique ingredients and sweet and sour flavour combinations it draws me in every time.  So on a recent outing to Khorak Supermarket (my favourite Persian grocery store in Toronto), I was stoked to come across a pre-made container of Haleem, a traditional Persian breakfast often eaten during Ramadan.

I usually prefer to make breakfasts as home, but Haleem although simple in ingredients (wheat and turkey) requires long hours of cooking.  (Before modern kitchen appliances it was simmered all night long in large wood-fired cauldrons.)  In fact, it is such a long process to make that it is tradition to make a huge patch and then go door to door sharing it with your neighbours.  

It's a distant cousin to Khichdi, which you may recall from Week 3: Indian Breakfast.  Basically, it's a thick porridge made from meat (usually turkey) and wheat that is simmered until the texture of both becomes a homogenous mush.  It's   often garnished with clarified butter and cinnamon.

Unfortunately we found this breakfast a little underwhelming.  It was neither sweet or savoury.  The turkey taste was definitely present and so was the sweet cinnamon topping.  Perhaps it's one of those breakfasts you have to grow up with because mainly we just found it confusing.

After mentioning our Haleem experience to some of my co-workers, one of them remarked that she had made some herself that week-end!  She was generous enough to bring in some of her homemade stuff so that I could compare.

Her version was a variation from Ethiopia and was considerably more delicious that the Iranian grocery brand.  Instead of turkey it was made with goat and being from Ethiopia, the cinnamon was replaced with spicy Berbere butter.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

Wheat, cinnamon and turkey are not a combo I ever imagined gracing my breakfast table.

For Guestability:

I imagine if you had guests from Persia they would adore it, but for my family, probably not.

For Sustainability:

Supposedly very calorically dense, this is a stick to your ribs kind of dish.

For Costability:

With a price similar to a box of Cheerios, Haleem was very reasonably priced.

For Overall Appeal:

I really wanted to like Haleem.  Unfortunately, it was just a little too far out of my comfort zone.  As an aside, I would like to urge everyone who hasn't sample Persian cuisine to give it a shot.

Next time - the Balkans!