Moroccan & Filipino

I think we've started a new tradition. We are good friends with the parents of two of our daughter's classmates. Last year we did a holiday dinner rotation. This year, we were the first to host, and so we did...I didn't want to serve the same thing I did last year which was a Korean food theme. This year, I decided to make my friends and family my trusty guineau pigs for my Moroccan experiment. I also made two Filipino dishes, one which is my tried and true Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo) recipe and the other, a brand new one that I lifted from the new issue of Saveur (thanks to Marvin from Burnt Lumpia for his post on that), which was "Ulang sa Gata" (Shrimp in Coconut Milk). Here's my cheese less salad. Just open up a bag of Spring Greens as well as dried cranberries and candied walnuts and you're good to go. Oh yeah, plus a bottle of Balsamic Vinagrette which I put in our nice wedding china gravy server. Looks classier that way. Ha. I normally serve this with bleu cheese crumbles for my cheese loving friends. I hate bleu cheese.

You can't go wrong with Cous Cous if you are making Moroccan (or Moroccan like, in my case) food. Basically, boil your liquid - chicken broth, water & a tiny bit of olive oil, pour over your dry ingredients (cous cous, raisins - because I couldn't find dried currants, damn you Henry's!), and cover it for five minutes. Fluff (ha ha, fluffer!) with a fork. Add in chopped cilantro leaves and season with additional salt and/or pepper.Here's the premier of my "Ulang sa Gata". This recipe is so fkn easy. It's on p.84 of the December 2008 issue of Saveur. Yeah, I was surprised but also happy that the food of the Philippines got some exposure in a mainstream foodie mag, especially one so chi-chi as Saveur.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup canola oil
10 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce), plus more to taste
1 tbsp plam, coconut, or white wine vinegar ( I used nipa palm vinegar)
1 tbsp sugar
2 lbs of head-on shell-on shrimp (medium to large)
*Important to have the head on - they add mega flavor dudes
**Trim the shrimp antennas off ahead of time
1 1/2 cups canned coconut milk. Hell I used the whole can
6 whole green Thai chilis

• Heat canola oil in a wok, add garlic s for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
• Add onion and cook until lightly browned - about 5 - 6 minutes.
• Stir in patis, vinegar, and sugar and season with black pepper.
• Add de-antenna'd shrimp (those are my words, not Saveur's) to the wok along with the coconut milk and chilis; stir briefly to combine, cover wok tightly and reduce heat to medium-low.
• Simmer until shrimp are cooked through - about 6 minutes
• The rest of the recipe says to uncover the wok and baste the shrimp, blah blah. But I didn't. Just leave the shrimp in there for a few more minutes. Remove from heat. Taste it and season it more if you want. Transfer to a nicer container and serve with white rice. Not that Uncle Ben's shit though.

Oh, look at their beady little eyes...Yummy. This is a dish you need to touch with your fingers. Rip that shrimp's head off and suck out the brainy juices. Oh yeah...I must say this came out pretty good considering that was the first time I've made it. I'll make this again really soon. Thank goodness for Seafood City having head-on shrimp for $2.99!!! Most places carry headless shrimp. The heads and the shells are the key to this dish's flavor! Watch out for those peppers! They are hot! Next time I make this, I'm going to make a slit in each pepper so the dish can be hotter. Here's my standard "make ahead of time and warm it up the next day" "Adobong Manok" (Chicken Adobo). Recipe is here from one of my previous posts in my now defunct old recipe blog. Wait, here is a better link with pictures here. Technically, this dish doesn't even have to be refrigerated, if you want to be old school. The vinegar acts as a preservative. Anyhow, I made this the night before the party and just threw it in a crockpot to warm for the next day. I also garnished it with sliced green onion tops. Okay, scallions!

Here is one of the Moroccan dishes I made, "Ras Al-Hanout Spiced Chicken". I'm not sure how authentic it is, but it sure used up a lot of spices which I had to hunt for at North Park Produce (it's so cheap there! yay!). Here is the recipe here, courtesy of Recipezaar. I simmered it for more than one hour; the meat was falling off the bone. This dish was a hit. Well, either that or my husband and guests were being polite to my face while surreptitiously spitting out the offending food in a napkin and hiding it from me.

This next one is "Slow Cooker Moroccan Brisket (I used Chuck Roast) with Red Onions and Apricots". See the recipe here (courtesy of Food Network). Let me tell you that this was the second time I've ever cooked parsnips. I added carrots to add color in here as well. I couldn't find brisket so I just used Chuck Roast. The meat was so so soft! It made the house smell good too!

I figured this dish would be a "can't fail" recipe. Just stick it in the crock pot and leave it alone. Done in 3-4 hours (if you use the high setting). Everyone seemed to like this dish. Note to self - make it again for a future dinner party. It's made out of WIN.

The desserts: Chocolate Chip Cookies (thank you fundraising cookie dough tub), my Lemon Cheesecake Bars (recipe here) and some baklava I bought at a bakery. Unfortunately, the baklava sucked.

The other desserts: Holiday Oreos (hello red dye no. 5), Ube flavored Polvorone (from Seafood City - it's not by Goldilocks though), and Dark Chocolate Shortbread Stars (Trader Joe's!).

One of the husbands made a Rum Bundt Cake. Kind of strong! But good!

My friend brought some Pan de Coco (Coconut filled bread) for us. Goes well with Bert's coffee...

This tree is supposed to look purple but it looks bluish purple with the flash. I got it last year at Borders for 75% off, plus the black disco ball ornaments. The other ornaments are Star Wars. Can you see Darth Vader at the top? And his ship in the middle? There's R2 and C3P0 in there, as well as Boba Fett.

And yes, the Yoda musical snow globe. "Oh the weather outside is frightful...". This cracked me up plus it was on sale last year the day after Christmas.

I'll be hosting my side of the family's get together next week. I'm going to make it really easy - Chicken Adobo, my deluxe Spam fried rice (because my nephews really like that), and that shrimp dish you saw earlier in this post. My mom will be making Pancit Bihon (noodles) and my bro and sis will be bringing some sort of dessert.