One of our new year's tasks this year is to choose one country each week to cook a meal from while we're home and if we have access to a kitchen when we're away. I've printed out a blank map of the world and each week the girls pick a country and then we find a recipe online. No repeats allowed for this whole year. This is new for us this year as we've done different versions of this before- but they have clear favorites like Indian and Chinese that show up all the time. So this year we've got to try out 52 new recipes from 52 different countries.
So last night we tried Tyler Florence's Morrocan stew. We watch very little TV around here but when we do it's usually the food network or the travel channel. My girls know the food network chefs like other kids their age know Hannah Montana or the High School musical kids, whom they do not know. They often pretend to be Giada when cooking or tell me, "That's not how Paula would do it."
My lovely sis-in-law gave me this great Moroccan spice box for Christmas so we set it to good use.
I hate to say it, but the dish was not a success. The girls did not like the dish on account of mushiness. They did not like the texture. It was quite gritty from the squash and the lentils, which ended up not holding their form and and did get mushy- I'd have to agree. I should mention that the girls do eat stews and ate stew everyday while in Iran- but this was a no go.
Although, I did not mind the dish and happily ate it. They ate a bite and traded it for...
the classic stand-by- Trader Joe's hummus and pita. At least it was still somewhat regional! So now I have 8 frozen portions waiting in the freezer for easy lunches for myself. I would not choose to make this again- well, particularly after eating it for 8 more meals! but it was not bad.
I do not consider nights like this failures. We all cooked together. It smelled great and no one went to bed hungry. Yes, I have a ton of left overs to get through but I really liked eating warm stews at lunch in Iran and was wanting to cook more stews at lunch time anyway. I get bummed out when parents tell me that they do not try new foods because no one eats it or because their kids are too picky. I only cook one meal per night and if someone does not like it they do not have to eat it but I will not prepare anything else. They are free to help themselves with anything we have in the house and clean up after themselves. This has been so since they were each two years old- and yes, even at that age there were nights were they would go to the kitchen and get out the yogurt and some agave or honey (I only buy plain yogurt) and have that for dinner. Or like last night- cut up some pita and hummus. I do ask that they give a new dish a try but if they don't like it- that's that. I find that if they are part of the cooking process and recipe selection they are quite open to trying new dishes. Like last night, they will not always like them, but at least they know what cinnamon, curry and coriander look like, smell like and taste like mixed with apricots, squash and lentils. And they know that is typical of a northern African dish.