Around the World in 80 meals (meal number 12) Madagascar

King Julien & Move it

I was at Busch Gardens, and this show gave me the idea for the next meal.  So we are going to, as King Julien would say, "move it move it" all the way to Madagascar.  

Here is the link to the actual dish we will be cooking: http://www.food.com/recipe/madagascar-chicken-309431

Around the World in 80 meals - meal number 11 results - Tempura

Tempura

 For our 11th meal, we went to Japan for some tempura.  Tempura is the batter used to deep fry various meats and veggies.

Because I have only deep fried my food one other time, you could say that I am not an expert in this cooking method, and it showed.

I fried some fish, chicken, and some green beans, and nothing looked like it came from a Japanese restaurant.

I made four different variations of tempura.  The first was the recipe from the Food network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tempura-batter-recipe/index.html) without any changes.  Without any seasonings, it was very bland.  The batter was also very very very thin.  I did add more flour to thicken it up some.

I replaced the seltzer water with ginger ale for the second batch.  This made a small change in flavor, but not much.  The batter was a little sweeter.

For the third batch, I added some old Emeril's Creole Seasoning blend that I had in the frig.  This seasoning made the meal.  The chicken, beams, and fish all tasted good.  The fourth batch also used Emeril's Creole Seasoning blend, but I didn't use as much.  This too was good, but not as good as the third batch.

Around the World in 80 meals - meal number 10 results - Palov

Palov

 Well, this was a total bust!  It looked simple to make, and it was.  While it was easy to make, it simply did not have any flavor.  It was one of the most bland meals I have consumed in a very long time.

I attempted to give it some flavor, I mixed some of my left over Brazilian Black Bean Stew.  This helped, but it didn't helped that much.

I then tried to add some salsa to the dish to give it some flavor, and this was better than the Brazilian Black Bean Stew.  I then tried it with some ketchup (1 cup of ketchup and 2 cups of Palov), and this wasn't bad at all.

My next attempt to make this dish palpable, I added a couple of tablespoons of Emeril's Creole Seasoning that I had left over from the Chicken Cordon Bleu.  This actually made the meal taste good.

You could say that I will not be making this meal again.  You can see the recipe that I used here: http://momsdish.com/recipe/222/uzbek-palov

Around the World in 80 meals (meal number 10) Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan's Palov

I was on my way to work the other day, and I was listening to Morning Edition on WUSF.  They were doing an article on how Russia is now exporting immigrants (who they used to build the stadiums and infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympics) back to their home country against their will once they have completed their work project.

One of the countries that they mentioned during this article was Uzbekistan, and this got me wondering on what do people from Uzbekistan eat?

Therefore, I thought I would cook a Uzbekistan meal as way to honor the people who worked to build the items for the 2014 Olympics and who are now being kicked out the country that is hosting the Olympics.

After doing some research, I decided to cook Palov because it looks like a simple and tasty dish.

Bon Appetit

Around the World in 80 meals - meal number 9 results - Paella

Well, I thought I was caught up.  I was looking at Nicole's map that she posted on Facebook, and she had Spain colored in.  I was wondering when I cooked a dish from Spain.  I went through my photos, and I didn't see anything indicating that I cooked any other meals.

Thanks to Nicole, she was kind enough to remind me that I did not shop or cook this meal; she did when she was visiting me. :-)

Here is the recipe that she used, and I am happy that she reminded me of this meal so that I can add it to my "I am going to make this again list."

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-paella/