South African "Rhodes" Bobotie

One of my adventures during this interim period was volunteering for a few months in South Africa. In addition to learning about the complex past and current situation of this country, I was also exposed to some of the most amazing landscapes and cooking in my life.

This dish was made by my fellow architect friend Heidi, who is a native South African (and also knows how to make an amazing Bobotie). She explained to me that this dish  is quintessential South African cooking and is a  common dish for large get-togethers when grilling or doing a "braai" is not an option.
After eating this dish I was reminded of one of the most beautiful hikes I experiences in Cape Town. My first stop was the Rhodes Memorial and then further up into Devils peak, which is a part of the Table Mountain National Park and is by far the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.
Bobotie is an amazing and complex dish that leaves you wanting more with every changing bite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Memorial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobotie

and feel free to take a look at my photos from my trip

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joe_baker/sets/72157620011234355/


Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground lamb or beef, or a mixture of the two
• butter, olive oil
• 2 chopped onions
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 2 slices bread, crumbled
• 1/4 cup milk
• grated rind and juice of 1 small lemon
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon salt, milled black pepper
• a large handful dried apricots, chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• a handful of slivered almonds
• 6 bay leaves
• TOPPING
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Set the oven at 325°F. Butter a large saucepan and add a bit of olive oil.
2. Heat butter and oil in a saucepan and ( do not quite fully) brown the meat, onion and garlic until translucent. Stir in the curry powder, cumin, and turmeric, and cook briefly until fragrant. Remove the pot from the heat.
3. Mix together the crumbs, milk, lemon rind and juice, egg, salt, pepper, apricots, apple, golden raisins and almonds and mix in. 
4. Pile into the casserole dish and level the top. Push in the bay leaves and bury them in the meat mixture. 
5. Seal with foil and bake for 1 hour. Increase the oven temperature to 400°F. 
6. Mix together the topping milk, eggs and salt (you may require extra topping if you've used a very large casserole dish), 
7. Pour over and bake uncovered for a further 15 minutes until cooked and lightly browned. 
8. Serve with basmati rice and chutney, sprinkle a bit of turmeric over the rice for added yellow color.

"Maiden" Moussaka

My fellow architect friend Heidi shared this recipe with me one night and I fell in love with this dish and I have been making it ever since. Layers of eggplant, spiced meat, and a flavorful custard top make this dish in a sense a "Greek Lasagna". Try it out, you will love it too!
In thinking of a Greek piece of architecture to inspire my moussaka dish, I was reminded of the Caryatid porch or "porch of the maidens" as some call it, of the Erectheion. Like the beautiful Caryatids who hold up the structure; in this dish layers of eggplant hold up the top layers of meat and custard to make a harmonious and tasty dish. 


Ingredients:

• 
  
  
  
  • 1 medium sized eggplant
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 pounds ground beef ( you can use lamb if you want to be authentic)
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 3/4 cup dry red wine
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • about 1 tablespoon of nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
   

How to Make It,

1. Cut eggplant into 1/4" slices, brush with a bit of olive oil, and bake in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes, then set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium/high heat. Add ground beef and chopped onion and cook until beef is brown, breaking up beef with fork, about 15 minutes. 
3. Mix in tomato sauce, red wine, parsley, crumbled oregano and ground cinnamon. Simmer until mixture thickens and is almost dry, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.
4. Butter 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange half of eggplant in bottom of dish and cook ahead of time a 350°F. oven for 20 minutes and set aside.
5. tomato sauce, red wine, parsley, crumbled oregano and ground cinnamon. Simmer until mixture thickens and is almost dry, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Add flour and stir 1 minute. 
7. Gradually add milk, whisking until smooth. Boil until thick, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. 
8. Beat eggs in small bowl to blend. 
9. Whisk small amount of milk mixture into eggs. Return mixture to saucepan. 
10. Bring to boil, whisking constantly, then remove from heat.
11. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. 
12. Season custard to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
13. Spread meat mixture over the eggplant.
14. Pour hot custard cheese sauce over eggplant. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. 
15. Cover loosely with foil and bake 50 minutes. 
16. Uncover and continue baking until golden and bubbling on edges, about 10 minutes longer. Cool 10 minutes.

Chicken Corn "Rotunda" Risotto

This risotto will have you feeling at home in a palatially Palladian way.

Like the Villa Rotunda by Italian architect Andrea Palladio, risotto comes from Italy and is quite the work. Making risotto takes a half hour of stirring but it is well worth the hearty end result.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• half a red onion
• 1 cup of Italian arboreo rice
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• about 5 cups of chicken stock
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1 lb of chicken cut into small chuncks
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• parsley to garnish

1. Saute the onion in olive oil in a medium sized pot
2. Cut chicken into small chunks and salt mildly
3. In a separate pan cook the chicken chunks in a bit of olive oil until the chicken gets a little brown
4. Back in the pot of sauteing onions pour in about 1 cup of chicken stock 
5. Add arboreo rice into the pot
6. The trick to risotto is to alternate stirring the risotto and adding chicken stock and cream of chicken soup, add the stock and soup little by little and let the risotto cook over medium heat. the 1 cup of arboreo rice will expand and the stock will cook down.
7. After about 10 minutes, add the cooked chicken and corn to the pot. keep on stirring and adding the stock and cream of chicken soup.
8. Add the paprika and salt and pepper to taste.
9. Let the risotto sit for 10 minutes before serving and add chopped Italian parsley to garnish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladian_architecture

"Holy Kahn" Lentil and Sausage Soup

It's a cold rainy day in NYC, which seems like an ideal moment to make an elemental hearty soup.


When thinking of what building I could relate to this dish, I was thinking of buildings in India, since lentils are used in a lot of Indian cuisine. Also the 'optical lens' gets its name from the lentil (in latin 'lens') because of it circular and convex shape, so when you think circles and light one building stood out in my mind; Lou Kahn's National Assembly building in Bangladesh. This unusual concrete building I have heard has been mistaken for ruins when seen from the sky. It's curious circle, triangle, and square cutouts have an elemental appeal to them especially when light pours in from the outside. Enjoy this elemental soup, it will warm you up on a cold day, picture yourself in India.

• 1 lb. lentils

• 1 package of spicy Italian sausages, casing removed

• olive oil

• 4-5 quarts beef stock or water with beef bullion added
  

• 4 stalks of celery, finely chopped

• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

• 1 red potato ( if you want to make this soup even more harty)
  

• 1 lb. broccoli rabe

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (add more the more spicy you want it)
  

• freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

• freshly grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top

1. fill large soup pot with water and bullion or beef stock

2. chop potato into small pieces as you wish and add to the soup

3. chop onion and celery and saute in pan with olive oil until onions get a little brown, then add onion and celery to soup

4. cut broccoli rabe into 1 inch pieces, then saute in a bit of olive oil. add to the soup

5. remove casings from the sausage, cut into small pieces while cooking add salt and pepper. when cooked add to the soup

6. add lentils to the soup and let cook until lentils are tender about 15 minutes.

7. add salt, pepper, and cayenne to the soup until it tastes just right!

Spaghetti "Sant Andrea" alla Carbonara

Here is one of my favorite easy staple dishes inspired by a beautiful and unusual cathedral in Italy.

Some things just go well together. In this dish bacon and eggs come together in an unusual way to make a really tasty pasta dish "Spaghetti alla Carbonara" much like the combination of a Greek temple and a triumphal arch making a great facade of the cathedral as seen at Sant Andrea in Mantua.












When I first saw the the cathedral Sant Andrea, I thought how unusual to see a church facade compositionally made up of a triumphal arch superimposed by a Greek temple style pediment, interestingly when I walked in I saw that the facade had nothing to do with the interior. The inside was a beautiful light filled contemplative space, not something to be associated with soldiers coming home from battle or public life in Greece, which is why I thought of this building when making Carbonara. When you eat this pasta you do not think "bacon and eggs". You think what an elegant pasta with a rich full flavor and savory taste.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 package of spaghetti

• pinch of salt

• 10 cranks of fresh ground pepper

• smidge of olive oil

• 1/4 red onion

• 6 slices of bacon

• 3 egg yolks 1 whole egg

• 1 cup Parmesan cheese

• bit of Italian parsley to garnish

1. in a large pot, put on water to boil with a pinch of salt.

2. chop onion and saute in olive oil in a medium saucepan until they become a little brown.

3. cut bacon into small slices and add to the cooking onions on medium heat until cooked. turn off and let the bacon and onion sit.

4. add 3 egg yolks, whole egg, Parmesan cheese, and pepper in a small bowl. whisk until it becomes a thick yellow mixture.

5. when water boils add spaghetti in and cook until it is al dente, tender but firm.

6. strain spaghetti and add immediately to the saucepan with the bacon and onions meaning that a little bit of the spaghetti water goes into the pan. ( it is important that the saucepan is not hot at this moment so you do not cook your eggs when you add the egg mixture on top.)

7. stir the spaghetti and the bacon and onions mixing the 3 ingredients all together, meanwhile lifting up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan from the cooked bacon and onion.

8. when the spaghetti, bacon, and onions are mixed add the egg mixture on top of the spaghetti.

9. then mix the egg into the pasta mixture.

10. serve onto a plate or bowl and sprinkle with a bit of parsley.

11. enjoy, there is enough stress out there, food should not be one of them!

architect in the kitchen

My name is Joe and with the economy as it is, I am one of many out of work architects in New York City. In this time away from architecture (in the professional sense) I have done quite a few interesting things with my time, one of which, has been spending more time in the kitchen. So, to all of my fellow out of work design professionals out there, here are some of my favorite kitchen moments in conjunction with some architectural moments to hopefully inspire your culinary and design endeavors.