For Nigeria, I was planning on making these:
They are Nigerian puff puffs and are supposed to be similar to donuts. I found the recipe here and thought it would be easy to substitute out the flour for tapioca starch. It was hard for me to get the right consistency but I was hopeful when they mixture rose from the yeast.
However, when I tried to fry it, this was the best I could do:
I learned my lesson and was sure to get real donuts here:
So basically Nigeria didn't work out so it was off to the next day!
And thank goodness, I had a pretty safe plan for Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the countries I had done last year. It's crazy how far my cooking has come since then. A recipe for Cauliflower arroz con pollo I was a little intimidated by last year seemed really easy this time around and I thought it would make a great dinner.
I started by cleaning some chicken thighs and then rubbing them in minced garlic and salt. I used.. a lot.. of minced garlic. I'd say it was about two heaping spoonfuls.
I then put it in a pot to brown. I probably should have used some oil. I knew I would need some so it wouldn't stick to the pan but the instructions didn't say it so I skipped it. I really should have known better. After the chicken was browned I removed it from the pot.
I then added a can of diced tomatoes and a bell pepper. The recipe said to use green but I don't like the taste of green so much so I sent Dan to the store and told him to pick whatever color he wanted. That way if he picked something different, it wasn't directly me disobeying directions. Lucky for me, he likes orange a lot so orange we got. I also threw in some herbs such as cumin, oregano, and thyme.
While those cooked a bit, I put a head of cauliflower into the food processor and pulsed it until they were cut into rice sized pieces.
I then added the cauliflower and chicken to the pot. The recipe kept mentioning to monitor how much liquid you add but never actually says to add any liquid explicitly and compared it to making risotto. I figured they forgot to mention that you needed some chicken broth or something. I noticed everything was really dry so I added a few splashes of chicken stock.
Of course, after all those warnings, it was too much liquid. Oh well... I covered the pot and let it cook for 25 minutes.
While that was going, I heated up a few cans of black beans with more garlic and salt. I also made some mango salsa by processing some tomatoes, a mango, cilantro, lime, and jalapeno. It wasn't quite as good as my favorite mango salsa but it was close. I think the tomatoes or jalapeno could use some roasting to develop the flavors more.
It turned out so good! While beans aren't paleo, I just love them. Being Brazilian, I grew up eating black beans all the time. It's just not something I could ever really give up.
I had a friend in town as well. We invited her to join for dinner but she wasn't hungry so she said she'd just try a little bit. She ended up getting seconds. This is definitely a dish I would make again. It was straight forward and delicious. I would love to try adding even more veggies to the "rice" as well!
After dinner, we hung around Padres stadium to try to see the fireworks show. I think we succeeded!
And then I got to come home to some amazing leftovers...
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