I Take On the AinA Challenge Head-On

Dearest daughter numero trois (#3) put on her blog a violent expose of food blogs where she eviscerates the vast majority of them as nothing but a bunch of serial plagiarists who just take whatever they find on the internet, repurpose it and call it original, in spire of the fact that the things they are copying were copied from someone else who got it from a magazine, who got it from a cookbook, the original source (yay verification that cookbooks are the way to go from the beginning).  #3, as you can see, is not one for subtlety.  I have no idea where she would get this trait as we all know that de-I is the total master of tact and subtlety.

Anyway we're not talking genetics here.  We're talking food posts.  I have taken the AinA challenge and I am going to post today recipes that are totally original.  I defy anyone to find them elsewhere.  Both were improvisations.

The first is POULET GRILLE A LA MODE DE GITE

(This is not so good French for Chicken Rental House Style)

I created this recipe at Lake Tahoe where I had bought chicken for grilling but didn't want to spend money on flavorings since we were only going to be there a couple of days.   I trusted that there would be some kind of flavorings at the rental house as there usually are things left by prior renters.  Indeed there were but it was an odd collection.  But it turned out great so I reprized it for some guests last weekend.

Start with a LOT of fresh garlic

This was for two small (3-4 pound) chickens

Use all those nifty knife skills you've gotten from watching all those cooking shows to break your chicken down into parts - much less expensive than buying the parts.

Here are the flavorings - the garlic, Southeast Asian Fish Sauce, turmeric,  and (not shown) oregano.  Olive oil, salt and black pepper also.

I used about a cup of the fish sauce and the olive oil, and a heaping tablespoon of the turmeric and oregano.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

Marinate for a couple of hours unrefrigerated.  Then grill as you like over charcoal or gas grill.

Sorry no pictures of end product...we were drinking :(

CABBAGE NORTH AFRICA STYLE

I just totally made this one up I love cabbage.  It is so disrespected but is so versatile and so sweet when prepared properly.  In this case I made use of two flavor mixtures that I concoct on a regular basis and have available in my kitchen.  And, yes, I did get these from another source, Saveur Magazine so you can get how to make them at their web site.

I started out with one large white onion sliced

And one cabbage sliced thin

I sauteed the onions until they started to caramelize 

Then I added the cabbage and let the cabbage cook down just a little (under a fairly high heat)

Here are my two stars

Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mixture with about 12 different spices and flavorings that is reminiscent of  prepared curry but not really at all.  It's pretty easy to make as for the most part you're just putting in already prepared spices and stuff.  I use it on all kinds of things.  It is a great rub for all kinds of grilled meat and fish.

Harissa takes more commitment.  It is found throughout Mediterranean North Africa and requires reconstituting dried red chiles, mixing them with flavorings and the sieving the whole thing to get rid of the seeds and skin.  I love the stuff.  I put it into soups and stews.  I put it on turkey sandwiches with mayo.  Yum.

I didn't measure how much I put in of the two but did take this picture so you can get an idea of how much.

Then you just cook it slowly for an hour or so.

The result is a lovely sweet (from the onions and cabbage), hot (from the two flavorings) side dish.  Great with the grilled chicken.

Enjoy!