So - we've been in a food rut - cooking the same foods week after week - and week after week, my grocery plan went the same way. It started with me wracking my brain about what KIND of food existed. My answer was always the same: American, Italian, Mexican, Asian.... over and over again. Sometimes we'd go wild with a shepherd's pie or something, but basically, we were inside our box.
"But the internet is at your fingertips!" you might say. And you are right - however, when you don't have a direction, the sea of recipes on the internet are nothing but overwhelming. I have no time or energy to be overwhelmed.
So, all of that need for breaking out of a rut without being overwhelmed, and also my propensity for wanderlust and a desire to be a more global citizen, led to this... kitchen adventure.
"What if we just threw a dart at the map and made something from that region?" I thought. "I wonder if there's an app to throw darts at maps." Naturally, there is.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-map-darts/id412812722?mt=8
So, I downloaded the app, and discussed the idea with my family.
Now, over the years, I have always thrown new "let's break out of our routine" challenges to them, and they are always receptive, thankfully. This time was no different. Everyone was on board!
So, our first dart landed - in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia?? Will I get a plate of rice and the sadness of famine?
Okay, okay. I know there are Ethiopian restaurants, but the 80s commercials for Ethiopian aid has ruined anything else I might know about the country. This might be a good opportunity.
We looked up Ethiopian dinners on the Google - and found two recipes that seemed agreeable to everyone; one was a lentil recipe and the other a chicken in red sauce recipe.
Neither recipe was difficult but they did require about 12 different spices. We are lucky to have a spice bar at our grocery store so we could just buy a bit of everything we needed. I recommend finding one in your area, or these recipes could get pricey.
Here are the links to the recipes:
African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce: http://www.food.com/recipe/
Ethiopian Lentils With Berebere Spice Mix: http://www.food.com/recipe/
Each of these recipes have their own Berebere spice-mix recipe. We only made the more extensive mix that is in the lentil recipe - and used it for both recipes. My teenager really liked helping me put the mix together and was an overall big help in the cooking.
Also - I totally misread the amount of green chiles the lentil recipe called for. I thought it said 6oz, when in actuality, it said 6 CUPS.
Even still, the lentils were great - but I'm sure the flavor would be much different when made correctly.
The chicken and sauce were amazing!
We made brown rice, as well, to round out the dish and also - in case anyone didn't like the rest of dinner.
No worries, though, because everyone DID like dinner. Well, everyone except our toddler, who was against everything but the rice (good thing we made that!).
We also pulled up Wikipedia and learned a few things about Ethiopia at the dinner table. Did you know that some of the oldest evidence for modern humans is found in Ethiopia?
We will definitely be continuing our randomized dinner globe-trotting, because it interjected a little excitement around here and everyone enjoyed the experience.
Next time, we will plan a bit better and pair a wine or dessert from our region as well.
After dinner, we threw our next dart on the map... stay tuned!
"But the internet is at your fingertips!" you might say. And you are right - however, when you don't have a direction, the sea of recipes on the internet are nothing but overwhelming. I have no time or energy to be overwhelmed.
So, all of that need for breaking out of a rut without being overwhelmed, and also my propensity for wanderlust and a desire to be a more global citizen, led to this... kitchen adventure.
"What if we just threw a dart at the map and made something from that region?" I thought. "I wonder if there's an app to throw darts at maps." Naturally, there is.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-map-darts/id412812722?mt=8
So, I downloaded the app, and discussed the idea with my family.
Now, over the years, I have always thrown new "let's break out of our routine" challenges to them, and they are always receptive, thankfully. This time was no different. Everyone was on board!
So, our first dart landed - in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia?? Will I get a plate of rice and the sadness of famine?
Okay, okay. I know there are Ethiopian restaurants, but the 80s commercials for Ethiopian aid has ruined anything else I might know about the country. This might be a good opportunity.
We looked up Ethiopian dinners on the Google - and found two recipes that seemed agreeable to everyone; one was a lentil recipe and the other a chicken in red sauce recipe.
Neither recipe was difficult but they did require about 12 different spices. We are lucky to have a spice bar at our grocery store so we could just buy a bit of everything we needed. I recommend finding one in your area, or these recipes could get pricey.
Here are the links to the recipes:
African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce: http://www.food.com/recipe/
Ethiopian Lentils With Berebere Spice Mix: http://www.food.com/recipe/
Each of these recipes have their own Berebere spice-mix recipe. We only made the more extensive mix that is in the lentil recipe - and used it for both recipes. My teenager really liked helping me put the mix together and was an overall big help in the cooking.
Also - I totally misread the amount of green chiles the lentil recipe called for. I thought it said 6oz, when in actuality, it said 6 CUPS.
Even still, the lentils were great - but I'm sure the flavor would be much different when made correctly.
The chicken and sauce were amazing!
We made brown rice, as well, to round out the dish and also - in case anyone didn't like the rest of dinner.
No worries, though, because everyone DID like dinner. Well, everyone except our toddler, who was against everything but the rice (good thing we made that!).
We also pulled up Wikipedia and learned a few things about Ethiopia at the dinner table. Did you know that some of the oldest evidence for modern humans is found in Ethiopia?
We will definitely be continuing our randomized dinner globe-trotting, because it interjected a little excitement around here and everyone enjoyed the experience.
Next time, we will plan a bit better and pair a wine or dessert from our region as well.
After dinner, we threw our next dart on the map... stay tuned!
Comments
Post a Comment