This is a now virtual recipe book. The idea behind this one is to create a journal of recipes which are a little more exotic and to challenge each of us to try something we may not have tried making before from a corner of the world we possibly haven't even heard of!

Each person will make (at least) one or two recipes and share them in the journal. However the catch is that you must first go to the random country generator http://www.randomcountry.com/random.php and find 1 or 2 random countries- the first ones that come up. You can add more if you like! Then when you have your random country/ies you can go to google and find a recipe.
Once you have tried the recipe, please post the recipe to this journal and your comments about it. As Uruviel as suggested it would be great if each person could also add a photo of their country.

Anyone can join, just PM me and I will advise the BCID!


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Recipe Index

1. Country = Burundi . Recipe: Ibiharage (Fried Beans)
2. Country = Costa Rica . Recipe: Coconut Red Beans and Rice
3. Country = Slovenia. Recipe: Castagnaccio (Chestnut Cake)

My first Country was Burundi, which I had never heard of before. It is a small landlocked country in Africa. Beans are a staple in Burundi and meat is rarely used since herding is secondary to agriculture. I found this recipe simple to make and it something I will always have the ingredients for at home which is great. Without chillies it would be quite bland and I'm tempted to add potoatoes or tomatoes to round the dish out a little.

Ibiharage
(Burundian Fried Beans) Recipe
Origin: Burundi Period: Traditional

Ingredients:

450g cooked beans (any of lima, pinto, kidney, black-eyed peas etc)
3 onions, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, mashed
80ml oil
2 chillies, finely chopped
2 tsp salt

Method:

Fry the onions and garlic in hot oil until the onions are translucent. Add the beans, chillies and salt and continue frying for 5 minutes more. Serve immediately.

From http://www.celtnet.org

This is such a cool idea!

The two countries I pulled out of the random generator's hat were Costa Rica and Slovenia. The first recipe I tracked down was one for Costa Rica. I didn't actually know exactly where Costa Rica was, but Wikipedia proved to be very helpful! It's a fairly small country in Central America, which is bordered by Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South and East. According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index, and is the greenest country in the world. So here we go with the recipe...


Ingredients

* 1 cup dried red beans (small)
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 small dried red chili
* 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
* 4 cups chicken broth or vegetarian broth or water
* 2 cups long-grain white rice
* salt, to taste

Directions
1. Pick and debris from beans then rinse and drain them. Sautee the onions in a little oil.
2. In a 6 quart pot combine beans, onion, garlic, chili, coconut milk, and broth.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until beans are almost completely soft when pressed, 75-90 minutes.
4. Stir in rice, cover and cook over low heat until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. (add a little extra broth or water if needed to prevent sticking.).
5. Discard chili. Add salt to taste.

And the next stop is Slovenia, a mountainous country in central Europe, which borders Italy, Croatia, Hungary and Austria. I decided to look up a dessert recipe for Slovenia, to make a sort of world wide two course meal. The one I finally settled for was this one -

Castagnaccio (Chestnut Cake)
4-6 servings

500g chestnut flour
150g pine nuts
100g sultanas
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

1. Mix the flour with a little warm water and the oil;
2. Add the Sultanas, pine nuts, 1 pinch salt and the Sugar and combine well.
3. Roll out to 1 cm [1/2 in] thick and place on a baking tray [cookie sheet] greased with the butter;
4. Bake at 180oC [350oF / Gas 4] for about 30 minutes.

Both the recipes look great and I can't wait to try them out :-)