Greetings friends and welcome to Jamaica! Today, on the back of my trip to tropical FNQ (Far North Queensland), I am featuring a recipe from the Caribbean. Riceycoco comes to us via the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972). It also comes very high on the list of words I find pleasant to say! And that is all the justification I needed to make it!
Riceycoco, is as the name suggests, rice cooked in coconut milk. It is traditionally eaten for breakfast which reminded me of a Sri Lankan dish called Kiribath (milk rice). There the difference ends. Kiribath is eaten with chutneys and sambols as a savoury dish whereas Riceycoco is sweet. I am not fond of a sweet breakfast so I ate mine as a dessert, similar to a rice pudding. To amp up the tropical vibes, I added some mango to the mix.
Rice and coconut milk is a classic in many Asian countries and I enjoyed the twist of having a sweet version of something I am more familiar with as a savoury dish. It was also a nice reminder of the tropics now we are back in cold, grey Melbourne! Its also a very soothing comfort food – a little bit like being cocooned in a warm cuddlepillar!
Riceycoco – The Recipe & Notes
I used coconut milk from a can instead of fresh coconut milk.
I also swapped out the brown sugar for maple syrup.
I served some additional coconut milk on the side.
This would also be spectacular with a dollop of coconut yoghurt.
If you want to be reminded of the tropics, like a sweet breakfast or want the nursery comfort of a rice pudding why not give Riceycocoa try Even just so you get to say the name a few times!
Hello friends and welcome to a spooky edition of Retro Food for Modern Times. Today, via Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972) we will be discovering The Zombie’s Secret. And also learning that some things are better left undiscovered. But we will get to that! So what is The Zombie’s Secret?
So, if not brains, then what is The Zombie’s Secret? What if I were to drop you a clue that this recipe comes from the Caribbean chapter of GHWC? Oh…I hear you say. It’s a cocktail. I bet it has lots of rum and is so potent it will turn you into the walking dead! No, but the cocktail in the link looks and sounds delish!!!
This is the Zombie’s Secret:
Turns out, The Zombie’s Secret is a weird fruit salad with a coffee cream topping. I’ll be honest here, I didn’t love this. I’m not a great lover of bananas and this was all a bit same-same in terms of texture. Bananas are kind of mushy as are avocados, as is cream cheese which also felt like it didn’t belong when I was adding it. It did, however, give the dish a cheesecakey vibe which was one of the nicest things about it. I toasted my coconut which added some much-needed crunch. Maybe the soft texture of banana, avocado, cream cheese, and cream is the texture of brains? Maybe this is the secret for vegetarian zombies? Maybe all the vitamins and minerals contained in bananas and avocados give our brain-hungry friends their beautiful hair and skin? Who knew discovering this secret would learn to so many questions?
The Zombie’s Secret – Recipe
The flavours in this were surprisingly good, it was really the lack of texture that let it down. I think someone (not me because ewww bananas) could use these ingredients and make a lovely cheesecake. Coconut crumb base, avocado, and cream cheese filling, topped with some bananas and the coffee spiked cream maybe with a little of Caribbean rum thrown in!
I love food that has an evocative/unusual name so as soon as I saw a recipe for something called Moors and Christians in the Caribbean chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972), I knew it was something I wanted to cook.
This dish which is a mix of black beans and rice comes from Cuba and looks back to the time of conflict between the Moors and Christians in Spain. It represents the end of this conflict and how two different cultures can live side by side in harmony. Which is a heartwarming story for a lovely spot of comfort food!
Moors and Christians was a great side dish to a very non-Cuban lamb and potato curry we were having that night for dinner. I could also see myself just eating it with a little pico de gallo-style salad. Or mixed some pulled beef or chicken as a burrito filling!
Moors and Christians – The Recipe
This looks to be a very simple version of Moors and Christians. There are some more elaborate versions on the internet if you want something more fancy!0
I was also fascinated to see that my dish which I cooked without a picture reference was a lot paler than most of the other dishes. I think this might be because I cheated a little bit and used canned black beans.
Travel Aspirations
I am fairly sure that Moors and Christians is the first Cuban-inspired food I have eaten. And reflecting on it reawakened a long-held desire of mine to travel there. I first got the urge after watching The Beuna Vista Social Club many years ago. The music, the dancing, the culture really spoke to me! Now that we can travel again, I guess I better start saving!
Hola Amigos! Today I am presenting an Argentinian dish from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972). Estofado is a stew made with beef, Spanish sausage, wine, and vegetables. And it is soo good! Absolutely delicious. We loved it!
The only drawback with the Estofado was that it takes over 3 hours to cook so it would not usually be an after-work dish. I was prepared though and left the office an hour early the night I planned to make it. The good point about the Estofado is that once you have browned the meat, the sausages, and the onions, you add all the other ingredients and then leave it alone for a couple of hours so you can get on with your work (or your life)! Just don’t stay too close to the kitchen because the aroma of the slow-cooked meat and the wine and herbs is quite distracting!
I quite like to hum a tune while I cook. And during the cooking of the Estofado, I found I was singing “Estofado…” to the tune of “Desperado”. I don’t really know the words to Desperado though so my version went:
“Estofado, why don’t you come to my tummy,
You’re smelling so good I know you’re going to be yummy”
I always remember my blogger pal Jenny’s advice on photographing brown food so I served my Estofado with some butter-roasted cabbage and a Parmesan crisp to try to relieve the browness of it all. I’ll be the first to say that my Estofado was not a pretty dish, this is hearty, warming tasty comfort food! And delicious. I will be making this all through winter!
Also, as with most slow-cooked, braised-type dishes, the Estofado tasted even better the following day.
Estofado Recipe
My short trip to Adelaide was amazing. As well as getting through a lot of work stuff I was also able to fit in a quick visit here, I had a delicious lunch here and had an amazing dinner at Two Pot Screamer! On my second and final day we popped across to the Adelaide market for lunch and a Portuguese tart that was to die for! Whenever I go to Adelaide I am always very impressed by what a great food and wine city it is. I can’t wait to get back there!
Hola Amigos! Today we are taking a trip to South America via Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972) for some croquetas de carne from Argentina. And to accompany them we are staying on the same continent but jumping forward in time to 1990 for some Peruvian Salsa. OMG, these were good! I mean not good for you – these are a treat for once-in-a-while. But…for those times when you get a craving for meaty cheesy fried balls with a spicy salsa…these will become your go-to. And once you have tried these croquetas de carne, believe me, those cravings will come far more regularly than before!
Croquetas de Carne
I have made croquettes once before with a ham and egg filling and the method was quite different. In that recipe, you made a fairly thick bechamel and then combined the ham and hard-boiled eggs and some herbs into the bechamel. With this one, you make your meat filling and then the roux/bechamel-type sauce in the same pan as the meat. It was kind of nifty as it meant you only used one pan. And less washing up is something that always makes me happy! 🤗
The croquetas de carne reminded me of our Sri Lankan short eat of Frikkadels which are also crumbed fried meatballs.
Croquetas de Carne – The Recipe
As good as these croquetas are, they did lack a little something-something. The croquetas are very rich; there is meat and cheese and a fried crumb! I felt something was needed to cut through the heaviness of the croquetas. Now, it just so happened that I made the croquetas on the same day that I wrote the post on my Moscow Potatoes. It was incredibly serendipitous that as I was begining to think about what I might serve with the croquetas that I happened to have the magazine page that contained the recipe for the Moscow Potatoes and Peruvian Salsa open right in front of me! Even better, I had all the ingredients for Peruvian Salsa in the house!
The chilli and lime in the salsa cut through the richness of the croqueta’s perfectly!
A match made in heaven! Or South America as the case may be.
Peruvian Salsa – The Recipe
A Return to The Compton-Batts
It wasn’t until just now that I had probably a tenth look at the menu put forward by the Compton-Batts that I realised how…well the magazine article calls their menu eclectic. I would probably go with batshit (erm Battshit anyone???) crazy. Here it is:
Moscow Potatoes
Pickled Fish
Blackened Tuna Sashimi
Chilli Stir Fried Lamb
Peruvian Salsa
Vegetables Cooked in Virgin Olive Oil
Asparagus with Parmesan
Berry Pudding with Armagnac Chantilly
First that is a LOT of food.
Second, it is a lot of food that does not really go together.
The Moscow Potatoes are, if not exactly Russian, inspired by Russia.
We then move across to…I don’t know where for the pickled fish. I initially would have thought this might be an escabeche so Spain, but there is ginger in the recipe which I don’t think is traditional in an escabeche. There is coriander in the garnish and coriander and ginger to me says Asia. I will say though that the recipe sounds delicious and I may well end up making it! Also, the recipe says to use white fish but the picture of the pickled fish looks like salmon to me. So the pickled fish is an enigma all round. Here’s a picture of it
Pickled Fish
The sashimi is obvs Japanese. But why would you have pickled fish and sashimi?
Then we have Chilli Stir Fried Lamb which uses a Chinese cooking method combined with Indian-style spices such as cumin and cardamom.
And the Chinese / Indian main is accompanied by a salsa from Peru. Which it doesn’t really need given it already has chlllies and lemon in it.
Also accompanying our stir fry we have some vegetables roasted in olive oil and some asparagus with Parmesan which for simplicity I am going to say is Italian-influenced. Here’s a pic of the asparagus which is drowning in olive oil. So again, two sides both drenched in olive oil and neither works particularly cohesive with the main dish!
Asparagus with Parmesan
Then for dessert there is a berry pudding (not a pudding but some berries soaked in port and Cabernet Sauvignon) served with an Armagnac Chantilly. So French inspired.
That is one wild menu I thought as I reached for another croqueta de carne dipped in some Peruvian Salsa. I’m glad I’m keeping it simple!
Rice and coconut milk is a classic in many Asian countries and I enjoyed the twist of having a sweet version of something I am more familiar with as a savoury dish. It was also a nice reminder of the tropics now we are back in cold, grey Melbourne! Its also a very soothing comfort food – a little bit like being cocooned in a warm cuddlepillar!
