Dinner inspired by our past travel

At the end of 2012, we traveled to Morocco where we were served shakshuka; a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, aromatically spiced with cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. It appeared one night for dinner and included meatballs. Tonight Mary recreated that meal using this recipe: https://downshiftology.com/recipes/shakshuka/https://downshiftology.com/recipes/shakshuka/

Here is a picture of the meal that we had in Morocco back in 2012:

And here is a photo of Mary’s shakshuka:

Hopefully someday soon, we can travel to a country where this dish is served, but for now this will have to do!

Morocco photos

Yes, we are still working on the full album, but here are some of my favorites so far!

Dinner inspired by our world travels

Publix, our grocery store, had tuna buy-one-get-one this week and that reminded me of our trip to Tunisia.  Canned tuna was a staple there, it seemed.  So, I searched the web and found a recipe for a Tunisian Tuna and Egg Brik, an item that we had while we were in Tunisia… and we enjoyed it there… lets see if I can make it here.

This is the recipe that I used:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/BRIK-TUNISIAN-TUNA-AND-EGG-TURNOVER-1203968

  Brik (Tunisian Tuna and Egg Turnover)

Brik, pronounced “Breek”, is somewhat like a delicious turnover, but like a soufflé, it must be served immediately. A Tunisian brik always has an egg in it, but it can have tuna, potatoes, capers and parsley. The casing, malsouka, is a cross between phyllo dough and a spring roll sheet. A brik is deep fried, olive oil is best, then drained on a paper towel. The trick is to hold the triangular brik with the point up while biting into it and not let the egg run down your chin. 4 servings Submitted by pacnw1 July 7, 2005 1 small onion (optional) 1 six-ounce can of tuna 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan 4 eggroll or spring roll wrappers 4 small eggs Olive oil for frying Lemon wedges   Mix together tuna, parsley, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Spoon about one fourth of the filling onto one half of each wrapper, making a  well to hold most of the egg. Break an egg into each well and fold wrapping into triangle shape to cover the mixture and the egg. Seal both sides of the wrapping together. Fry in one half inch of hot olive oil (vegetable oil can be used, but olive oil works best). When brown on one side, flip over to continue frying. A couple minutes on each side is enough if the oil is hot enough. Serve sprinkled with lemon juice.

They came out pretty good.  Even though, the store had no eggroll or spring roll wrappers, and I had to substitute phyllo dough.  My first time ever using phyllo dough.

Here are the photos of the process and finished product:

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”

Perhaps not so far away after all.  Many scenes in the Star Wars movie (Episode IV: A New Hope) were actually filmed in Tunisia.  And we just returned from a two-week tour that visited four Star Wars film locations, one location used in the filming of a Monty Python’s Life of Brian movie, and many many historic “real life” locations.

For such a small country, Tunisia’s history is epic!  I’m not sure if it all started with the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, but that is pretty much where our tour started.  The tour continued through the Rome empire, to the French “protection”, and then onto the US campaign during World War II. 

Present day Tunisia is an interesting blend of Muslin and Western law; for example women have had the same voting and eligibility rights as men since 1956.   Tunisia is a confusing mix of the ancient still very much alive nomadic life of sheep herders living along side of (and sometimes inside of) thriving metropolitan cities. 

We are currently sorting through the over 3,000 photos that we took in the two-weeks and hope to have them posted within a month.  Until then, here are a handful of photos showing us having a great time!