TBK cooks where the wild cooks go

 

                     My gift from the team at MTa back in 2020

One of the problem of having so many recipe books ( see my earlier blog here: https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2023/04/tbk-tells-from-farm-to-table.html ) is that some get hidden on the shelf behind the canned food in the kitchen and not used much! When Frythy and I were having a clean up and got all the recipe books out on the dining room table for a photo we found one that I had last used in 2020! Luckily I write who each book came from and when inside ( I am my father's son) and so this one was a gift from Jamie and Alex and the team at MTa Learning when they came to run a workshop for us back on 17.2.2020- thanks guys!

It was published in 2019 and contains "Recipes, music, poems and cocktails"

The inscriptions inside were spot on - thanks Jamie , Alex and Claire! My apologies for taking so long to use the book regularly! In my defence all my recipe books were packed in December 2020 and were in transit/ storage until I moved here in May 2022!

This marvellous recipe book takes you around the world with different dishes from different countries so in my week cooking recipes from this book I went to:

• South America- Jambalaya - a traditional mix of Creole and Cajun cooking with smoked sausages, onions, celery, capsicum ( green pepper Pav!) tomatoes, garlic, paprika and brown rice . Having read the recipe again before serving I cut the sausages into pieces. The spicy smoked Hungarian sausages from Deli Mart were the star of the dish.

                           Excuse the non Tupperware containers!

• Mexico- Guacamole- This bought back memories of the Mexican restaurant at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain where they made Guacamole on a little trolley next to your table. The Guacamole was great in spite of having one hard, one mouldy and only 2 good avocados. The Tortilla chips from Delimart tasted awful.

• Mexico- Pineapple with Chilli-I made hot pineapple with sesame seeds and lime juice a while back and everyone loved it . As my Sari Sari store sells fresh pineapples I decided to give this Mexican dish a try and served it with ice cream as recommended ( Is your mouth still watering Alex?- this one is Vegan and Gluten free!). We had run out of ice cream so used a little tub of chocolate ice cream from the Sari Sari store. There was some  pineapple  leftover so another day I had that with cream. I am really getting to like hot Pineapple with spices! Later in the week they had some really fresh pineapples on display so I made it again for Noel, Frythy, Joven and I and it was just as yummy!

• Jamaica- Chickpea and Potato curry- Alex from MTa is vegetarian and I like vegetarian food ( But I also like Chicken, Lamb and Beef) . In the Middle East we had a lot of chick peas ( Hummus, salads etc) and they are Low GI so I thought I would give this Jamaican vegetable curry a try. It was easy to make even in a brownout ( we had a record 9 power cuts in one day, good job I cook with gas!) . It was delicious and healthy.

• Morocco- Chickpea and Vegetable Tagine- Many years ago in Bahrain my houseboy , Jay, bought me a Tagine pot. You slow cook the dish in the oven in the Tagine pot and the water evaporates into the cone and then drips back int the bottom of the pot so it does not dry out. My closest friends will know that Jay died a few years ago leaving me devastated. The Tagine pot now has special significance for me and pride of place on the top of the kitchen cupboard. The chick pea and vegetable tagine ticked all the boxes- healthy, vegetarian, low GI, easy to make and very tasty!

                                       My Chickpea and Vegetable Tagine in Jay's dish

• Spain - Paella with Brown Rice- Some time back I bought a big bag of brown rice ( I think to make with curry but then I cut out rice to loose weight) so this dish allowed me to use up some of my rice!

                                       My big bag of brown rice!

It contains fresh prawns ( which Jhoanna and Jullymar washed for me and removed the shells etc), brown rice, red peppers, peas and garlic and is very easy to cook and serve.

• Ireland - Mussels in Wine with Chips. I think it was my old school teacher and good friend ( 45 years later) Russel Tilson that first introduced me to Mussels in Belgium on a school trip . Ever since I have loved eating them although I am always scared of getting food poisoning. My regular readers will also know that I gave up alcohol in 2017 so this is the first time I have had wine for 6 years. The recipe book recommended they were served with oven cooked chips and they were amazing- easily the tastiest recipe of the week. Luckily I had no guests so I was able to have seconds!

My favourite recipe of the week- Mussels cooked in wine and served with oven baked chips and Sarsens Malt Vinegar and Rosemary

Interestingly the author of the Recipe book Cerys Matthews, is Welsh. Some of you will remember her as the lead singer of Catatonia. She famously duetted with Tom Jones on "Baby, it's cold outside" . Nowadays she is a Radio DJ on BBC Radio 2 and 6 but she also loves cooking. Special thanks , as usual, to Phil Gregory for fact checking my blogs and providing me with additional information. He reminded me of that old adage "always read the introduction to the book so you know what you are talking about!"

I really enjoyed the Irish section as I visited there with my parents ( Kinsale, Ring of Kerry etc) and worked there ( we opened the Travelodge and Little Chef in Cork and later in Swords, Dublin). Cerys talked about her musical influences growing up. We both love Christy Moore, The Pogue's, Sinead O' Connor and Van Morrison. I would always buy several Irish CD's when I was working or visiting there and many of her favourites are still my CD collection ( 600 CD's)

There is also a lovely quote in the Ireland chapter by George Bernard Shaw:

" Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive"

One of the five courts in Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai - Source: https://propsearch.ae/dubai/ibn-battuta-mall ( accessed 27.04.23)

In each chapter of the book it gives you information on famous people associated with that country. Under Morocco it describes one Ibn Battuta ( 1304 - 1377) who spent nearly 30 years travelling an astonishing 75,000 miles across Africa, the Middle East , India, Vietnam ,and Spain making him one of the greatest explorers of all time. My friends in Dubai will have heard of him as their is a Mall on the outskirts which bears his name. The Mall décor and paintings are amazing, telling the stories of his travels with Elephants, Boats etc. I remember spending a fascinating day here on my way to Abu Dhabhi to see Erickson. It was then at the end of the Dubai Metro and had a coach station below where you could get coaches to Abu Dhabhi. If you are in Dubai pay it a visit.

It was Ibn Battuta who came up with one of my favourite quotes:

" Travelling - it leaves you speechless,

then turns you into a storyteller"

"Nice one Mr P!"

"Thanks Mr G"

When I lived in Bahrain I lived opposite a super guy from Ireland called Niall Murphy. Like me he has now retired and I love seeing his pictures on Facebook ( Like the one above) from the spectacular countryside there.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have researching and writing it. I thoroughly enjoyed all the dishes in it and making and eating them. Just as my anak TJ said- "the best thing about eating Tatay's food from around the world is that he tells you stories and shows you pictures from all the places he has been, so you feel like you went there!"

My special thanks to Jamie and Alex at MTa who I worked with over many years in the UK and Bahrain. If the name is familiar they supplied all the Experiential learning kit we used on the ILM and Diploma programmes in Bahrain

              Neil and colleagues practice an exercise from the MTa kit- Rectangle

If you want to find out more contact :

Jamie Thompson

Managing Director | Principal Facilitator

 

 

MTa Learning Ltd, Oldworks House, Wharfeside, Boston Spa, LS236AN, U.K

T: +44(0) 1937844800 | M: +44(0) 7855516468 | E: jamie@mtalearning.com |W: www.experientiallearning.org

Spookily Jamie contacted me as I was writing this Blog- It appears that since I left Bapco all the MTa Facilitator guides have gone missing. Just to clarify I did not take them but handed them over to Evan, John, Hazel and Zainab with all my other work materials!

We will be back with more recipes soon... maybe even a TBK cooks vlog!