Cooking Liberian Fish and Potato Green Soup with Dorothy

I have been in Monrovia, my parents' new home, for less than a week, and have already had many little adventures--quite a few of which came from our cooking experience with our local house help, Dorothy, who kindly agreed to teach us how to make a traditional Liberian dish.

We started out by taking a kee kee (pronounced kay kay) to the food section of a local market called Waterside Market. The kee kee drivers both to and from the market were very confident of their ability to squeeze through small places, and multiple times our kee kee brushed against a wheelbarrow and, to the dismay of its owners, started dragging it with us down the street. At one point we stopped, and a car got a little too close to the back of our kee kee. There was a great commotion, and come to find out, the car was caught on our kee kee! We had to evacuate the kee kee amidst much yelling in order to fix it. But what surprised me most about the streets was that there are essentially no traffic lights. I was absolutely astounded, just like when I experienced Vietnam's lack of pedestrian traffic lights. To say the least, intersections here are chaotic affairs!

Dorothy was very concerned for our safety, and made sure that we were holding our purses correctly so that they wouldn't get stolen. She took the lead, haggling for various ingredients, and we accumulated a large bag filled with potato greens, crawfish, three types of fish, and various little packets of seasonings. Besides knowing the necessary ingredients, it was nice having Dorothy doing the buying because she got local prices.

Back in the peace and air conditioning of our kitchen, Dorothy started doing the cooking while we looked on, lending a hand when we could. I tried to take detailed notes of the recipe, which I've included below. Dorothy worked from memory, making the soup as her mother taught her. She cleaned the fish, set a pot of ingredients to simmer into a flavorful broth, fried the fish, and cut up the potato greens. We tasted along the way--everything was quite fishy! Finally all of the components were mixed together. The end product had an extremely strong fish taste and smell. We all had a taste and agreed that the fried fish itself was quite tender and tasty, but the soup was just too fishy. We had such a fun time shopping and cooking with Dorothy, though!

Liberian Fish and Potato Green Soup

Broth:
2 Liberian fish (smoked)
4-6 Crawfish
2 cubes of shrimp bouillon
1-2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 small onion, sliced

Put ingredients into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Add smoked fish. Remove from heat and let sit. Strain. Remove meat from crawfish and add back into strained liquid. Add 3 fresh peppers (they are really hot) for mild hotness.

Fried Fish:
Clean 2 fresh Liberian fish and season with fish seasoning & pepper. Deep fry in sunflower oil until dark brown and slightly black (5-10 min on each side).

Greens:
1 tsp baking soda (to make greens tender)
6 cups potato greens, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion chopped

Sprinkle baking soda over potato greens.
Pour the leftover oil from frying into a large pot. Sauté half of the onions, all of the greens, and 1/2 cup of water together. Mix in 1/2 tsp baking soda and the rest of the onions. Cover and boil, stirring occasionally. After 10 minutes, add half of the strained broth (including the peppers and crawfish). Add another shrimp bouillon cube. Boil 10 min, stirring occasionally. Pick the meat from the bones of the smoked fish and put meat in remaining half of the liquid. After a few minutes, add the liquid and fish to the greens mixture. Dry 1/4 cup little shrimps for a minute in the microwave, then crush into powder with a mortar and pestle. Add to the simmering greens mixture.
Add fried fish to the greens mixture one by one, covering each fish with soup. Remove peppers. Boil 20 min, scraping bottom of pot, being careful not to break up the fish chunks. Add some black pepper to season.

Serve over rice.
Keeps for up to a week in the fridge.

Swedish Rice Pudding

Today I'm excited to share with you a recipe that was been in my family for generations. I just love making something that, so many years ago, and in another land, my great-great grandma used to make for her family. As a girl, I remember eating it at my grandma's house in her bustling kitchen, and at my aunt's house with all the cousins. It was so satisfying to break the slightly crunchy golden top with my spoon and dig up layers of sweet custard and rice.

Now that I've actually made this rice pudding myself, I've discovered that there's actually another layer to it—magic. The pudding goes in the oven all mixed together, with only a little cinnamon sprinkled on top, and out it comes, all layered and fancy. It's so cool!

You may have noticed that I've mentioned it as 'custard', even though it's named 'rice pudding'. Well, it should be called 'rice custard', because it has eggs in it, but that doesn't have quite the same ring as 'rice pudding', does it? Not all rice puddings have eggs, and so the name 'rice pudding' is sometimes appropriate. Side note: there are countless variations of rice pudding, as almost every area of the world has their own—this recipe is Scandinavian. Anyways, because this recipe does have eggs, we'll be using a water bath to cook the rice pudding in. But don't worry, it's not hard! The first time I made this, I didn't even know what I was doing. I thought the recipe was crazy, but I just followed the instructions and it turned out great.

What is a water bath, and why use it? A water bath is just a pan of water that the baking dish is placed in, while in the oven. The water bath insulates the custard, distributing heat evenly. It prevents the custard from cracking, being rubbery, drying out, and having the eggs curdle.
For the water bath, you want to use a pan that is about an inch bigger than the dish you are using to bake in. Set the baking dish inside the water bath pan in the oven, then fill the water bath halfway up the sides of the baking dish with hot water.
This Food52 article is a great reference if you're still unsure about using a water bath.

Vanilla If you want to make this rice pudding even more flavorful, you can use vanilla beans in place of vanilla. You'll have beautiful little seeds of flavor dotting your pudding! We do this sometimes when we have leftover beans after using up our homemade vanilla.

Rice Pudding
Serves 10-15

3 cups cooked rice (1 cup uncooked)
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 cups scalded milk
2 tsp. vanilla or 1 vanilla bean*
Raisins (optional)
Cinnamon, for sprinkling

1. Combine eggs and sugar in blender.
2. Slowly pour in scalded milk while blending so that eggs do not cook.
3. Pour into a big casserole dish, preferably glass or porcelain with high sides (not metal, as the custard will burn more easily). Add rice.
4. Sprinkle surface with cinnamon until covered.
5. Place rice pudding dish in a water bath in the oven. Bake 350ºF for 1 1/2 hours. When the timer rings, do not open the oven, but leave the dish in the oven until completely cool, about 5 or 6 hours. This helps prevent water separation.

*For vanilla bean: Sauté bean in milk for about 1/2 hour, then remove bean and scrape seeds into milk. Beans left over from homemade vanilla work perfectly for this.

Chicken Chow Mein

Living in Taiwan, we were bound to acquire a few Asian recipes—which we were happy to do, of course! Chicken chow mein is a more recent favorite in our house. We make it in large batches, because second helpings are an obvious necessity.

Chow mein originated in Northern China, and is commonly found in Chinese restaurants in America. "Chow mein" means stir-fried noodles, and it's just that: noodles stir-fried in a wok (or frying pan, if you don't have a wok—which you totally should!), made delicious with chicken, veggies, and flavorings.

Chicken chow mein is, of course, best eaten with chop sticks. I'm just not sure there's any other way to do it. If you don't know how to use chopsticks, now is a fantastic time to learn! It's really a very useful skill—I mean, what if you find yourself in the middle of Asia, with not a fork in sight? Not speaking from experience or anything...
But remember, when using chopsticks, never leave them sticking straight up out of your food! It's bad luck. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you ;)

If you need to clean out your vegetable drawer, here's your chance. Chow mein is a very versatile dish. Switch out the chicken for pork, beef, or fried tofu, or try it with some of these other vegetables:

-Bamboo shoots
-Bok choy
-Carrots
-Broccoli
-Snap peas
-Cabbage
-Scallions
-Mushrooms

I love having a variety of vegetables! My plate is always a mountain of chicken and veggies, with just a little bed of noodles. I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does!

Chicken Chow Mein
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Chicken & Vegetables:
300g (11oz) skinless chicken breast fillets, sliced into strips
1 red pepper, sliced
150g (5oz) bean sprouts
1 large spring onion, sliced lengthways

Noodles:
150g (5oz) dried yellow shi wheat flour noodles, or medium egg noodles*
dash toasted sesame oil

Marinade:
dash dark soy sauce
1 tsp. five-spice powder
1 tsp. chili sauce (optional)
1 Tbs. cornflour

Seasoning:
1-2 Tbs. peanut, sunflower, or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. light soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Slice chicken and vegetables.
2. Marinade chicken: Coat chicken with dark soy sauce, five-spice powder, and chili sauce, if using.
3. Boil noodles until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop further cooking. Toss with sesame oil to prevent sticking.
4. Mix cornstarch into the chicken to seal in the juices.
5. Swirl groundnut, sunflower, or vegetable oil around a wok (or frying pan) to coat sides of pan. Heat oil.
6. When oil is hot, add chicken. Cook until cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.
7. Add hardier vegetables first, cooking for one minute. Mix in more delicate vegetables (spring onions, bean sprouts). Stir in noodles.
8. Mix in light soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper.

*You're looking for noodles that are yellow and curvy. These noodles go by a few different names; you might see them as Egg Noodles, Ramen, or Canton Noodles, among others. Fresh or dried are both fine. Spaghetti will also work in a pinch.

Recipe from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BxiR7gDDNU&feature=youtu.be