It is somewhat of an understatement to say that Raffles is hooked on food shows. I mean, the kid would rather watch a cooking show than a cartoon these days. He is particularly hooked on The Mind of a Chef, a series narrated by his mama’s favourite foodie and wordsmith, Anthony Bourdain.

Streaming on Netflix, the slightly cheeky and off-beat series takes a peek into the life and food obsessions of a series of high profile chefs. And best of all, it combines all Raffles favourite things – travel, cooking, history and science.

It’s not in the least bit a kids’ show, and though we are selective with what we let our kids watch, and admit I was a little concerned at first about all the cheffy swearing, most of is beeped and Raffles is too focused on the food to notice. He’s particularly fond of the first series and its host David Chang, of Momofuku fame, and his ramen-scoffing, Japanophile ways. But in spite of the steaming bowls of ramen and the abundance of Asian treats, it is the episode on Eggs that Raffles has watched studiously time and time again.

Raffles, inspired by David Chang and his buddies, and tales from his father’s misspent youth, has now decided to that he too would like to get adventurous in the kitchen with the humble egg.

But before we delve into the mind of our little chef, we may need to delve into the mind of his father. You see, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Mr Eats World lived in Jerusalem. In a share house separated from the West Bank by only a wire fence.

It was a relatively peaceful time in terms of the ongoing conflict in the region and though Mr Eats World saw no direct fighting, security was tight and Uzi toting military men were just part of the scenery. Sadly, given he was barely 19 and drunk on the 90% proof local booze for most of his stay, details of his time there are a little sketchy to say the least.

What he does remember is that the Israeli folk he met were very hospitable, that the girls dining in restaurants were as likely to be carrying a sub-machine gun, as they were a handbag (because off-duty Israeli soldiers are required to carry their weapons at all times and all Israeli’s are required to enlist for a period of time), and that the Palestinians were some of the nicest people he’d ever met.

Oh, and that his favourite hangover cure was shakshuka, a dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce that was a popular breakfast standard in Israel. Needless to say when Raffles, in the spirit of David Chang, wanted to get a little creative with eggs, he decided to experiment with his dad’s old hangover pal.

So experiment we did. Though in typical Eats World fashion tossed authenticity out the window in favour of flavour. While Raffles loved the basic Israeli style egg and tomato, he decided it needed some zing, so we tossed a little Persian feta in for good measure.

But still he felt it needed a little something more and, given the dish originated in Northern Africa, decided to beef things up with a couple of spicy Merguez sausages.

And the result? Raffles’ shakshuka with feta and Merguez sausage is so good, I reckon it would excite David Chang himself

Shaking up Shakshuka with feta and Merguez sausage

August 29, 2016

by Aleney de Winter

Category Middle Eastern food Recipes

Ingredients

• 100 g olive oil
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 1 capsicum, deseeded and diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced.
• ½ tsp. dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 400g diced tomatoes (fresh and ripe is best but you can use canned)
• 2 Merguez sausages, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces.
• 4 eggs
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• To serve
• 1 tbsp. chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup of crumbled Persian fetta
• Crusty bread

Instructions

1. Heat a tbsp. of olive oil in a skillet on medium.
2. Add chopped onion and cook until it begins to soften.
3. Add garlic and capsicum and cook until softened.
4. Mix in chilli, cumin and paprika and cook until fragrant.
5. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and sugar and simmer over medium heat until the mixture starts to reduce.
6. Add the pre-cooked mergues sausage and cook until heated through.
7. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.
8. Use the back of a spoon to make 4 indents in the tomato mixture.
9. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into the indents, making sure they are spaced evenly in the pan.
10. Cover pan and cook for 7-10 minutes for soft eggs, or longer of you prefer your eggs well done.
11. Sprinkle with crumbled fetta, coriander and cumin and a drizzle with olive oil.
12. Serve with pita or crusty bread.

© 2021 copyright www.boyeatsworld.com.au

Disclosure:  As a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam we received a years subscription to Netflix, and while I will be posting regular updates about the service, and the tasty treats we scoff while we’re watching it, all opinions expressed will be our own.  

Sharing the shakshuka love over at IBOT

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Oh, how we love a market! Wherever we are in the world we always try to make one our first stop to get a feel for a town. We can roam for hours just looking, smelling and eating up the local culture. Quite literally. You see, we’re not ones for hunting out bargains, pre-loved wares or cutesy crafts. No, no, no. We’re after the food! Every. Single. Time.

There’s no better place than a local market to pick up on a towns vibe, witness local culture and customs, uncover local food secrets and just enjoy a great cheap feed in what is, more often than not, a friendly community atmosphere. Market days have made for some of our favourite and tastiest holiday memories.

Raffles still talks about buying raspberries by the bucket in Croatia’s Old Dubrovnik Market and filling our backpacks with fresh bread, stinky (but yummy) cheese and chunks of saucisson at market after market on our travels through France’s Dordogne.

Me, I have fond recollections of lingering over fresh fruit and vegies at the Rialto markets alongside the canals of Venice; perusing tables of seafood so fresh they’re still pulling them out of the fishing boats in Bali; and sampling the wares at Cambodia’s Kandal market where among the papaya, stinky durian and pineapples were platters of fried cockroaches, crickets and spiders!

As luck would have it on this recent Jervis Bay jaunt Huskisson’s monthly produce market, held in the pretty grounds of the Lady Denman Museum, was in full swing and while it was bereft of edible bugs and stinky cheese there were tables of bursting ripe fruit, mad musos, and plenty of great regional food made by gorgeous people from all over the world. Perfection.

One of those lovely locals was the friendly Raz, who was making her very first appearance as a stallholder at the laid back market. Raz was here to introduce her homestyle Turkish treats to Husky. There were platters of Turkish delight and tasty baklava she’d made the day before and the tastiest gozleme I’ve ever eaten (and let me tell you there have been a few in my life) made fresh to order.

The kids enjoyed watching her roll and stuff and fold the savoury pastries as much as they loved gobbling down their fresh fried goodness while I scored a few inside tips on making great gozleme.

And, having hit the kitchen with the kids and tried making them at home, I can attest that Raz’s tips were as golden as this great gozleme recipe! Our only issue, deciding whether we prefer the spinach and feta or the luscious lamb filling… or both!

THE RECIPE

Turkish Gozleme

Ingredients:

Dough:
3 cups unbleached plain flour, plus extra to dust
1 cup self raising flour
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups of warm water

Cheese & Spinach filling:
1 cup roughly chopped baby spinach leaves
1 cup roughly chopped silver beet
½ cup roughly chopped parsley
½ cup diced brown onion
200 grams crumbled feta
1/2 cup of grated mozzarella
½ cup grated cheddar
Salt and pepper to taste

Lamb filling:
500 gm organic lamb mince
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp of paprika
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tbs of pureed tomato
2 tbs finely chopped parsley

1 cup Olive oil (for frying)
Lemon, to serve.

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Add water and stir into flour gradually working in from sides until it forms a ball.
3. Remove dough and knead for about five minutes.
4. Place dough in clean bowl, cover with cloth and set aside for an hour.
5. Separate into six equal portions and roll out until dough is round (like a pizza) and thin.
6. Heat a large frypan or hotplate to a medium heat and add a tablespoon of oil.
7. Place filling of your choice to one side of dough round then fold pastry across top and seal edges tightly.
8. Place gozleme carefully on heated surface and cook for a few minutes on each side until golden.
9. Serve with fresh lemon.

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The Eats Worlds have a soft spot, located in our gut, for Melbourne. That’s not to say that we don’t also love the city’s wide tree-lined boulevards and skinny art-lined alleyways. Or that we don’t appreciate all her fab museums, dark and brooding city buildings, free trams or even the great arts scene. We do! Though, if I’m being totally honest, when this family comes to town, we do pretty much focus on chewing our way through it.

And Melbourne has so much to chew! From the Chinese noms in Little Bourke Street to great Greek eats in Londsdale Street. From the lip-smacking Vietnamese in Richmond and eye-opening African in Footscray to the delectable Italian delights in Carlton. Oh, and let’s not forget the great absolutely everything in Brunswick’s Sydney Road. Yep, we’re definitely fans… though it has been a while since this Sydney family has been on any culinary adventures south of the border. Enter the latest edition of the beautiful Flavours of Melbourne to rub a little salt into the culinary wound.

It’s rare that I write about the food and travel books that inspire our family because there are so many that it’d take forever, but I’m making an exception for the award-winning Flavours of Melbourne. It is so much more than just another food and travel book, in fact I’d go as far as to say it’s a 488 page love letter to Melbourne’s food and bar scene.

The massive tome from Smudge Publishing takes readers down Melbourne’s ambient laneways and up to its rooftops to showcase great bars, cafes and restaurants across the city, including some of our personal favourites like Vue de Monde, Maha and Gingerboy, as well as a bunch that we’re now desperate to try.

There’s also seriously interesting historical info, spectacular images of the city’s vibrant street art and of course, plenty of recipes from famed local chefs that superbly showcase Melbourne’s multicultural food scene. And boy does it have us hungering for a little gastronomic gallivanting.

As an extended visit by the Eats Worlds clan is unlikely anytime soon, the kids – inspired by the pages of Flavours of Melbourne – have decided to take matters into their own hands and recreate Melbourne in our apartment. When I point out that the physics of squeezing a city of around 4,000,000 people into our pokey two-bedroom shoebox could prove problematic, they decide instead to go to improvise with a simple laneway.

They grab a huge cardboard box that hasn’t quite made the recycling bin, pull out their poster paints and pump up some tunes to indulge in a little “dance painting” to get that funky Melbourne street art vibe happening in our living room!

Me? After being told to draw them a couple of eyes for their masterpiece I’m swiftly dispatched to the kitchen to recreate a Middle Eastern Lamb Pizza with Mint Yoghurt & Spinach (from Diksteins Corner Bar in Little Collins Street) that they’ve spied amongst the pages and pages of fabulous food.

THE RECIPE

Middle Eastern Lamb Pizza (adapted from recipe in Flavours of Melbourne)

Ingredients:

220 grams 00 flour
140mls room temperature water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon of dried yeast
Salt
400 gm organic lamb mince
1 tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tspn chilli flakes
½ tsp ground turmeric
Pinch of black mustard seeds
Pinch of salt
1 tbsn sultanas or raisins
1 tbsn flaked almonds
Garlic
Mozzarella
Mint (finely diced)
Yoghurt
Spinach Leaves

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Dissolve yeast in water, add oil and stir into flour and gradually work in from sides.
3. Remove dough and knead for about five minutes.
4. Place dough in clean bowl, cover with cloth and leave to rise until doubled in volume.
5. Pre-heat oven to maximum temp and place in pizza stones to get to temperature.
6. Mix finely diced mint leaves with yoghurt and set aside.
7. In a frying pan fry spices and curry leaves until fragrant.
8. Add lamb mice, garlic and half a cup of water and cook until water evaporates.
9. Take of heat and add sultanas and almonds and set aside to cool.
10. Roll out dough on floured surface.
11. Place base on hot pizza stone.
12. Smear base with a paste of garlic and olive oil, lashings of mozzarella and lamb mix and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
13. Top with spinach and mint yoghurt and serve.

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Yearning for another bite of unforgettable Muscat, we’re attempting to recreate the dish Raffles most enjoyed on our holiday, an Omani style Chicken Byriani, or ByriOmani (as he calls it).

It’s a great dish to add to our repertoire and is reasonably uncomplicated (at least compared to a Souffle). In fact it’s so easy that we going for recipe mash-up, adapting a Persian recipe and tossing in a few other touches and methods that better fits our memory of Oman. The best thing about Byriani is that it’s not an exact science and you can add and subtract spices at will and still end up with a delectable dish.

Raffles loves this experimental style of cooking and makes suggestions along the way. The one about adding chocolate is resolutely ignored.

He counts out the dry herbs for me, stopping to sniff and tell me with great delight how disgusting they all smell. Helpful.

My little sous chef particularly digs mixing the marinade and watching the spices change the colour of the yoghurt from white to yellow. He slaps it, quite brutally, over the poor chicken and we leave it to marinate for a few hours.

While we wait Raffles ties one of my scarves around his head to watch the fairly ordinary Sinbad – Legend of the Seven Seas and get his Arabic adventurer on. We continue our Middle Eastern theme by nibbling on some sticky sweet dates and pita bread crisps, drenching the latter in some hummus I made earlier.

Sinbad has sailed, so it’s time to prepare the rice and the saffron rose milk and we begin layering our concoction in a huge pot.

This is a really great dish for Raffles as there is plenty of colour and “craft” to the exercise but it requires very little ongoing maintenance so to speak…

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“Mama, what is a dreidel?” asks Raffles, a little belatedly given that he’s been singing The Dreidel Song on loop for the last several days. Good question, little man, and great timing too as it’s the most dreidelest time of the year.

But first a little background. Just like Christmas, Hanukkah – The Jewish Festival of Lights – is a time to rejoice, to celebrate, play games, give gifts and be with family. Unlike Christmas it doesn’t commemorate a major biblical event. Like most secular celebrations (regardless of faith) it does come with buckets of beautiful ritual and tradition. It also comes with deep-fried food. How could we not want to learn more?

To those who aren’t Jewish (and I count myself here) Hanukkah is probably the best known of the Jewish holidays but, to Jewish folk, it doesn’t have quite the same significance as holidays like Yom Kippur or Passover. It’s not even in the Torah as it commemorates a later event. Mind you, that event was a triumph over religious persecution – so kind of a big deal.

The attention the festival receives now probably has a lot to do with its proximity to another December celebration. You know… the one with Baby Jesus and/or Santa Claus depending on your religious persuasion, or lack thereof.

A note: This blog is not about whether a faith or belief is right or wrong but about tolerance and acceptance of others. Right now, my own personal belief structure is based predominantly around Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny with a side-order of Mutant Ninja Turtles. Why? Because they are real to my pre-school kids and it makes them happy. Do I worship them? Not at all! But  I do kinda like them! BOYEATSWORLD is not about judging differences but embracing all people, all cultures and all faiths, with respect. It’s about my children learning about the people of the world, and that includes the rituals of the different beliefs that float their secular boats as there is beauty and goodness to be found in them all.

So, with Buddha already sitting comfortably under our Christmas tree (to the right of Santa, the left of a hand-made raffia angel from South Africa and underneath a spectacularly glittery camel we found in the Middle East) I’ve decided to throw another spiritual curve ball at this year’s festive fun by taking Raffles on an edited highlights tour of the traditions of Hannukah, in honour of our Jewish friends.

For children, the eight-night celebration generally includes the lighting of a Chanukiah (a nine-branched candelabrum used especially for Hunnakah) on each day of the holiday in honour of a millennia old miracle where a small cruse of oil that burned for eight days. The festivities also include playing the dreidel game (and finally I answer Raffles original question… a dreidel is a four-sided spinning top), eating foods cooked in oil (in celebration of the aforementioned oily miracle) and exchanging gelt (golden coins, generally of the chocolate variety).

Little Raffles is lucky enough to attend a pre-school where different cultures and beliefs are embraced and his lovely teacher (who happens to be Jewish) has taught his class the Dreidel Song for their end of year concert.

Hence the sudden interest in dreidels and Raffles penchant for bursting into, “Oh – dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay! And when it’s dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play”, between renditions of Jingle Bells and Gangnam Style.

In the absence of an actual dreidel (though Google at least allows me show him what one would look like) his singing proves a jolly substitute. The lack of a Chanukiah is trickier… so we draw a symbolic one and Raffles is drawing in an extra flame on his picture each night.

As usual in the house of hunger, our research is going to look with particular favour on the tastier traditions. Raffles certainly has no issue when I introduce him to the giving of gelt. Indeed, so impressed is he with the concept that he asks us if he can be Jewish forever. That is until we gently explain that the coins are given to help children learn about charity and that there’s a lot more to being Jewish than simply eating chocolate.

“Like what, mama?”

Got a week, little man?

As Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil, festive foods tend to be fried in the stuff! Latkes (potato pancakes) are a tasty example of festive food and today they’ll make us an appetising afternoon tea. Traditionally served with apple sauce or sour cream, we’ve snuck in a side of smoked salmon and a dollop of crème fraîche for an extra tasty twist.

Happy Hanukkah!

RECIPE

Crispy Potato Latkes (makes 18)

Ingredients:

8 medium size Pontiac potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated.
1 small onion, coarsely grated
2 eggs
2 tbsp plain flour
Salt & white pepper, to taste
Oil for frying (you can use any cooking oil, but we’re using olive oil)
100 grams Smoked Salmon
Crème fraîche, to serve

Method:

• Place the coarsely grated potatoes in a colander and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
• Add onion, eggs, flower and seasoning and combine gently.
• Heat a little oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat until the oil is hot (but not smoking).
• Place dollops (about a tbsp each) of batter into the pan.
• When golden, turn the latkes, and cook second side until golden brown
• Drain on paper towel and serve immediately with sour cream and smoked salmon.

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