Spicy Potato Wedges

This easy side dish is perfect with chili, or with barbecue, but you can also serve it by itself as a starter with some sour cream dip or homemade salsa. Delicioso!

Ingredients

8 medium red skin potatoes

1 tb olive oil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

Chili con Carne

Is it Mexican? Or Tex-Mex? Should it include beans? What about tomatoes? Minced beef, or pieces of chuck steak? Fresh chilies, dried chilies or chili powder? And that's before we even discuss what to serve it with! Rice? Tacos? Tortillas? Jacket Potato?

There are many claims as to what makes authentic chili con carne (simply translated meaning "chili with meat"), and all the recipes differ in one way or another. People get very heated over chili (pun intended!), and you can find endless arguments across the internet on what ingredients should be included and what should be left out.

Refried Beans

This very simple side dish is a firm favourite in the Tex-Mex cuisine. The first time I ate it was in a Mexican restaurant in Cambridge, back when I was about 10-12 years old; even way back then I loved the contrasting smoothness and "blandness" (for want of a better word) of the beans, compared with the more spicy shredded chicken chili it came with.  From that moment on I was hooked!

The dish is traditionally made using pinto beans, brown beans or even kidney beans.

Crispy Chicken Strips

This is a simple Tex-Mex dish that is excellent as a snack, or as a filling for a tortilla or as part of a main course. I came across it by accident really, while looking for inspiration for dinner in the local supermarket. I saw this packet of seasoning mix for "Crispy Chicken Bites", which looked pretty tasty on the picture on the packet. Just as I was about to put into my shopping basket, I took a look at the ingredient list and thought

The Measure of Success

Cooking is a bit like art - there are many different styles and almost endless possibilities, a lot of effort goes into the end product - but at the end of the day what you serve up may not be to everyone's taste!

Now I can say to you, if you would only follow my recipes to the letter then you will be guaranteed a great dish, but maybe you don't want your food with as much pepper as I might, or you prefer it with more salt, less garlic etc
That's why the measurements in my recipes are guidelines only; so if you want to use 1 teaspoon of chili powder in your recipe instead of the 1/2 teaspoon that I put, then I say go for it!

If you are cooking regularly then you will cook on instinct anyway. I put measurements in my recipes for 1 tablespoon of this, or 1 teaspoon of that, but in reality, I very rarely actually use teaspoons and tablespoons for measuring ingredients. If you are tasting your dish as you go then you automatically know if it needs a bit

A word on chili peppers

As anyone who has ever been to the tropics and subtropics can testify, the hotter a place seems to get, the more the locals love to eat chili peppers! You would think it was counter-productive; eating hot, spicy food when the temperature is already blisteringly hot, but the theory behind eating food with chilies in it is to make you sweat and therefore cool your body temperature down.

Chili peppers are all members of the capsicum family and are therefore related to the bell pepper, that sweet

Telo met Bakkeljauw (Fried Cassava with Salted Cod)

One of the great things about tropical countries is that most of your time is spent outdoors, and that means there is a huge selection of street food on offer. Suriname is no different, and this following dish, Telo with Bakkeljauw, is one of the most popular street foods in Paramaribo. It reminds me in particular of the roadside snackbar at Paranam, by the aluminium smelter, right before you hit the Afobaka Highway and the entrance to the interior of Suriname. We used to make this trip regularly and would nearly always stop here for some Telo. Lovely!

I mentioned the other day about how versatile cassava is, and this is one of the many dishes that can be made from the humble root. It is of Javan origin, and is great as a midday snack!

Bami Kip

Despite the exotic name, this is a simple dish of chicken and fried noodles, of Javanese origin, and made popular in Suriname by migrant workers who came from Java island to Suriname in the 19th century as contract labourers.

It is extremely popular in Suriname and also in Holland, and is often eaten at birthday parties.

Ingredients
(serves 6-8 people)

For the chicken:
4 chicken legs (each cut into 3 pieces)
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tomato
2 Maggi bouillon blocks

An Ode to Cassava

Cassava or Manioc is one of the most versatile foods God graced us with. This humble root, native to South America, is a staple food in most of that continent, as well as much of the developing world and is actually the third largest source of carbohydrates in the world! 

The beauty of cassava is that it is so versatile. Just look at the way it is used in Surinamese cuisine (one of my   favourite cuisines and one I will be returning to regularly). Here is a selection of dishes made from cassava:

• Telo - boiled then deep fried cassava blocks served with salted cod. A Surinamese version of fish and chips!
• Cassava Chips - thinly fried slices of cassava - like potato chips infused with garlic and salt
• Cassava bread - a large disc of crispy sun-dried bread made from cassava flour - unmissable with Pepre Watra!
• Kwak - toasted cassava flour - delicious with soups, or even just with water!
• Kasiri - cassava beer brewed by the Amerindian tribes. The fermentation process begins by chewing and the spitting out the cassava roots!

Those are just a few of the dishes that can be created using cassava, and all of them are delicious (well I can't vouch for the cassava beer, but the rest are for sure!)

Basically, anything you can make with potatoes can probably be made with cassava root instead! Not bad for something that is highly poisonous in its natural state!!!

DID YOU KNOW?

Bitter cassava can contain up to 1 gram of cyanide per kilogram. A dose of only 2.5 milligrams is enough to kill a rat! 

Enjoy!

Welcome to my Blog!

This blog is about Food. And Cooking.

I love to Cook, and I also love to Eat. This blog will be about food, cooking styles, ingredients from around the world and also my general thoughts about the joys of cooking.

There will be recipes for some of my favourite dishes added along the way, as well as a look at some of the amazing ingredients found around the world.

Enjoy!

Rich