Travel Recipes – Info

Travel Recipes

Riyadh: Arwa’s Family’s Arabic Coffee

Ingredients

  • Cardamom seeds (take out of pods)
  • Saffron
  • Coffee beans

Instructions

Grind 2.5 tbs of coffee beans and add to a stovetop coffee pot. Add one pinch of saffron and one cup of water. Boil the mixture on the stove for 15 minutes. Then add 1.5 cups boiling water on top of it. Fold .5 tbs ground cardamom seeds into the pot. Then it’s ready to enjoy!

Arwa, Ghadah, and me standing in a friend’s living room in Riyadh wearing our abayas.

Jaipur: Shreiya’s Masala Chai

Ingredients

  • Milk
  • Sugar
  • Black tea leaves
  • Masala spice mix (cardamom, ginger, clove, black pepper, and cinnamon)

Instructions

Take half a cup of milk and half a cup of water. Put it in a tiny pot. Add one teaspoon of sugar and one teaspoon of tea leaves. Watch the color change. When it starts bubbling, add one teaspoon of masala. Let it boil to the top, let it come down. Let it boil to the top again, let it come down. Find a tiny strainer. Strain it into a cup. Enjoy with a biscuit. Remind Shreiya to show you how they drink tea in the villages. From a plate.

Recipe/copywriting by the incredible Shreiya Chowdhary.

A small pot on a stove filled with tea

Mexico City: Iñaki’s Ceviche

Ingredients

  • 2 Huachinango fillet (red snapper) and fresh shrimp (optional) cut in cubes, set aside
  • 1 1/2 roma tomato diced
  • 1/4 purple onion diced
  • 1 habanero cut in tiny pieces
  • 1/2 Cucumber diced (optional)

Mix all of the previous ingredients and add plenty of lime juice until it covers the top of the mix. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, bit of Maggi sauce, and some Worcester sauce. Put inside fridge for 1:30 hours at least. When done, add avocado pieces to decorate and eat with maiz tostadas.

Overhead shot of a table set with a dish of ceviche and side dishes of sliced avocado, olives, and corn tortillas

Tel Aviv: Beth Meluch’s “Shepherd” Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 Kirby cucumber
  • 8 cherry tomatoes
  • 1 small can black olives
  • 1 cup cooked corn, off the cob
  • 1 Bunch fresh parsley
  • Crumbled Bulgarit cheese
  • Tahini
  • Olive Oil
  • Fresh lemon juice
  • Salt & Pepper

Medium dice the cucumber and quarter the tomatoes. In a small bowl, whisk about 1 tbs of tahini, with 2 tbs olive oil, the juice of one lemon, and salt & pepper to taste. Toss the cucumber, tomatoes, olives, corn, parsley, and cheese with homemade dressing.

Side-by-side image of a woman cutting tomatoes and a close up of an Israeli chopped salad

Singapore: Hawker Stand Chicken Rice

Ingredients

  • Chicken Rice
    • 3 rice cups White Jasmine Rice, uncooked
    • 3 Tbsp Oil
    • 3 cups Chicken stock
    • 6 Cloves Chopped Garlic
    • 1 1/2 tbsp Grated Ginger
    • 8 Pandan Leaves To be folded into 2 bundles
    • 1 1/2 tsp Salt
  • Hainanese Chicken
    • 1 Chicken
    • Just enough water to submerge the whole chicken
    • 1 tbsp Grated Ginger
    • A big bowl of ice water
    • 2 tbsp Sesame oil
  • Onion Oil
    • 2 bundles Spring Onions
    • 10 tbsp Oil
  • Dipping Sauce
    • 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
    • 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
    • 1 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
    • 1 tsp Sugar
    • 2 tbsp Chicken stock
  • Chili Sauce
    • 6 big red chili
    • 3 chilli padi
    • 6 cloves Garlic
    • 5-6 slices Ginger 1 thumb size
    • 1 tsp Rice vinegar
    • 1 tsp Sugar
    • 1 tsp Ketchup
    • 1-2 Lime to taste
    • 2 tbsp Chicken Stock
    • 1 pinch Salt

Instructions

Hainanese Chicken

Fill a tall pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, hold the chicken by the neck and dunk the whole chicken in and out of the boiling water 3 times. On the final dunk, finally immerse the whole chicken into the water and cover the pot. Once the water is boiling (about 5 mins), turn the heat to low. Let the chicken simmer for another 10 mins, then turn off the heat but do NOT open the cover. Let the chicken continue to stew in the hot water for another 35 mins.

Meanwhile, prepare a large basin of ice water. Once the chicken is cooked, use a pair of chopsticks to lift it out of the pot from under the wings, then  plunge it into the ice water for about 20 mins. Remove the chicken and transfer onto a plate. Rub the whole chicken with 2 tbsp sesame oil. Measure out 3 cups of the chicken stock for cooking the rice.

Remove the stuffing from the chicken, chop into pieces and arrange on a serving plate. Pour the dipping sauce over the chicken (optional). Garnish with parsley and cucumber and serve with the chicken rice, dark soy sauce, chili sauce and spring onion oil.

Chilli Sauce

Wash and remove the stalks from the big chili and chili padi. Then peel the ginger and the garlic. Cut the lime and squeeze the juice. Add the big chili, chili padi, ginger and garlic to a blender and blend finely. Transfer the blended spices to a small bowl, then add in the lime juice and the rest of the Chili Sauce ingredients.

Chicken Rice

While the chicken is cooking, add 3 tbsp of oil to a wok and fry the chicken fats to extract the chicken oil. Remove and discard the crispy chicken fats once they turns golden brown.

Add in the grated ginger and chopped garlic prepared earlier and fry till aromatic. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Once aromatic, immediately add in the washed and drained rice and the 1 1/2 tsp of salt, then mix well. 

Transfer the rice mixture into the rice cooker. Pour in the 3 cups of chicken stock. Place the second bundle of pandan on top of the rice and cook for extra fragrance.

Onion Oil

In  a sauce pan, heat up 10 tbsp of oil over high heat. Once it starts to smoke, pour it over all the spring onion evenly in a bowl.

Three dishes of chicken rice at a hawker stand table

Kyoto: An Hanbun’s “Today’s Foreigner” Pasta

Ingredients

  • Furikake
  • Tien Tsin peppers
  • Al dente spaghetti
  • Cabbage rough chopped
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Crushed garlic
  • Olive Oil
  • Anchovies
  • Bacon
  • Sesame oil

Instructions

Cook spaghetti until al dente and drain. Heat 2 tbs olive oil on medium high, add garlic and tien tsin peppers, sautée for 30 seconds before adding pasta, anchovies, bacon, sesame oil, furikake, salt & pepper, and cabbage. Toss until well coated, cooking for 1-2 min or until cabbage softens. 

Spaghetti on a plate tossed with chopped cabbage and spices

Stockholm: Sofie’s Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients

  • 1 Onion
  • 1 cup Breadcrumbs
  • Milk
  • Cream
  • 1 Egg
  • Ground beef
  • Raw-stirred lignonberry jam
  • Potatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Fresh parsley
  • Vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Corn starch

Instructions

Soak breadcrumbs in a little milk for 10 minutes before adding the beef, egg, and chopped onion. Thin slice the cucumber, soak in vinegar, water, sugar, parsley, and salt & pepper. Quarter the peeled potatoes and boil. Cook the meatballs in olive oil, leaving fond in the pan. Add cream and a little corn starch, salt & pepper to make the gravy. Serve meatballs with gravy and cucumber salad.

A table set with plates of Swedish meatballs