Was going to say, plums seem to have asian origins: Plum - Wikipedia, strawberries as we know them are as much American as anything, being a cross between a big white south american fruit and the native european forest growing wild red strawberries. Sweet potatoes, you’d need to give a genus, as yams I’m pretty sure are African in origin, and cherries are definitely not american (s/n) in origin…
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Gourds are Asian or African in origin and were used in Europe since antiquity (bottle gourds at least). As for onions: they are decidedly old world, although the New World used other alliums before the Columbian exchange (wild garlic, for one).
Artichokes are Mediterranean, and blueberries are a bit of a question of definition. Both continents have a berry that is called blueberry and looks like this: 
, but they are different species, if closely related.
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Day 5 of camping, this past weekend our daughter, husband, and nephew joined us for two nights.
It’s been in the 40s and raining the entire time.
It’s not gourmet food but it is good food.
Pulled chicken, macaroni and cheese, tacos, fresh waffles, and bacon over a fire in the rain.
Check out the taco dip coffins our daughter made.
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Tonight I made mussakhan (Palestinian sumac chicken) and hummus. This dish is really quite delicious.
I go through sumac faster than any other spice (about a jar every other month) despite this dish being the only one I use it for. It is that good.
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Allspice, amaranth, black cherries, cherimoya, jicama, muscadine grapes, guava, passionfruit, prickly pear, soursop, tomatillos are also New World. New World beans go waaay beyond kidney and lima.
While there are new world plums, the common plums is old world. Same thing for onions - there are American wild onions, but the common onion sold in stores is old world. There are species of crabapple native to both the New and Old World. Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) are the ones native to the New World which aren’t really related to artichokes. Some species of blackberries are native and they’ve been crossed with old world to create some tasty hybrids.
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I love sumac’s zing. Can you give the recipe?
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Sure. It is a slightly modified NYT recipe just mostly for notes and metric.
Mussakhan (Palestinian Roast Chicken With Sumac and Red Onions)
Yield: 4 servings
Total Time: 1 hour, plus 1 to 3 hours marinating
Via NYT
Ingredients
- 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks [900 g]
- 1 large lemon, juiced (about 1/4 cup) [50-60 mL]
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving [60 mL]
- 1½ tablespoons sumac, plus more for serving [22 mL]
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin [2.5 mL]
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice [2.5 mL]
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon [1.25 mL]
- Sea salt and ground black pepper
- 1 large red onion (about 1 pound), halved and thinly sliced [454 g]
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts [30 mL]
- Naan or Arabic taboon bread, for serving
- Coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving
Preparation
- Slash the flesh of each piece of chicken diagonally a few times, around ¾ inch apart [20 mm], and then place the meat in a large bowl or plastic container. Add the lemon juice; 3 tablespoons olive oil [45 mL]; sumac; the garlic, cumin, allspice and cinnamon; and 1½ teaspoons salt [7.5 mL] and ¼ teaspoon pepper [1.25 mL]. Rub the mixture into the meat. Add the red onion and toss to coat. Cover and transfer to the refrigerator to marinate, 1 to 3 hours.
- When you are ready to cook the chicken, heat the oven to 375 degrees [190 C]. Transfer the meat, onion slices and any juices to a baking sheet and roast until the juices run clear when the chicken pieces are pierced at their thickest part, about 40 minutes. Once the chicken is cooked, cover the baking sheet tightly in foil and set aside while you prepare the toppings.
- In a small skillet, cook the pine nuts in the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil [15 mL] over low heat, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a paper towel to drain.
- To serve, heat the naan or taboon bread in the oven until toasted and warmed and transfer to a platter. Arrange the chicken and red onion on top of bread. Finish with a smattering of pine nuts, sumac [several dashes] and chopped parsley. Drizzle any remaining roasting juices so they soak into the bread, then drizzle with a little more olive oil.
Notes:
For my convection oven, 370 F/187 C is right, any higher and the onions blacken a bit too much.
Prepackaged naan works fine as does greek pita [used Goglanian Greca Pita].
Go heavy with a couple dashes of sumac for finishing over each chicken/onions/bread serving to get a nice bit of sour earthiness.
Parsley is definitely optional.
Fine sea salt or table salt for marinade. Increase salt if using kosher.
Red onion shouldn’t be too thinly sliced as they’ll burn in the oven.
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Thank you, definitely making this.
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DEElightful!
i, too, will be making this soon! i always have sumac (and za’atar) seasonings in the cupboard. love that earthiness, really goes well to cook chicken.
thanks!
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Days 8, it’s still raining but I’ve been wanting grilled chicken. I compromised and poached the chicken first so I could grill faster. Keeping a fire going in the rain is easy, standing out there in the rain is kind of fun.
The chicken was delicious.
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I love to know food origins. Thank you for more on the list.
Cheers!
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Is it just me?
My salmon tonight seems to be so bony.
I think where I used to buy it they removed the bones before selling?
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Sometimes it just depends on who cut the fish-my store is about 50-50 on how many bones I’ll have to pull. I made salmon stuffed with walnuts and herbs for dinner tonight and the fillets were bone free, but last week there were plenty.
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I’m so used to deboning my own (caught) salmon that I always check and almost always find some bones, even when they clearly have removed some.
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If they took the bones out, it wouldn’t be crunchy. But yes, it varies depending on where you buy, and sometimes purchase to purchase from the same place.
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Aha! You are Mr Milton, and I claim my £5!
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I had to remove a wine cork that had been cored out by the screw-type opener. I don’t have an AH-SO tool, so I made my own from two barbed skewers.
I advanced the skewers along the edges of the cork opposite each other with the flat sides towards the cork.
Then I rotated both skewers so that they dug into the cork and pulled both skewers simultaneously.
It took a couple of tries, but I was successful in getting the cork out.
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Mexican picadillo and Mexican rice. Yes those are flour tortillas. Don’t judge me.
This is the first time I’ve made this and it turned out very well. Simple recipe, good flavors. This would make a good filling for an empanada. I was searching for a way to use some of the ground beef I have in deep freeze - there are only so many hamburgers we can eat.
I might try making a Cuban picadillo sometime this week to compare.
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Who’s been judging you for flour tortillas? Ok, sure, the original tortillas were corn, but the flour ones still originated in Mexico. And they’re yummy. If I’m eating a fried taco, enchiladas, or tortilla chips, I want those to be corn, but I think the flour tortillas are superior for just about any other use.
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