What are some relatively easy dishes with readily available ingredients (say, nothing more exotic from a US perspective than Thai fish sauce) with unusual flavor combinations?
I’ll offer the example of my wife’s peanut stew – it’s a West African dish that she grew up with, and is a pretty basic stew of chicken and vegetables, seasoned with chicken bouillon cubes and chili pepper and with a big, big dollop of peanut butter mixed in to thicken and flavor the stew. It’s one my favorite dishes.
It’s too early for my brain to work properly, but I just wanted to say that this is a great dish. We make it for company and people love it.
I don’t know if it qualifies as exotic, but someone recently mentioned to me that she really wanted to try Avgolemono - Greek lemon chicken soup. So when she came around I made it. I was surprised to find that it included eggs.
Here is a recipe. As I was only cooking for 2 I just poached a breast in chicken stock that I already had and used cooked rice to assemble it.
It turned out to be a simple, subtle and delicious dish and I will certainly be making it again
I like to fry Ramen noodles like fried rice. Add an egg and some frozen vegetables and you have a decent meal for literally pennies.
I also like to make custard, which is just milk, sugar, and eggs. I add sweet potato puree for sweet potato custard, molasses, maple syrup (only REAL!), pureed carrots with cinnamon, winter squash, etc. Then you can go savory; chicken curry flan with apricot jam is one of my most requested.
I do keep some “exotic” ingredients on hand though. For me, these are staples: Chinese 5-spice, sesame oil, pumpkin spice, real maple syrup, and liquid smoke which can add the illusion of meatiness to meatless dishes.
Americans mostly associate basil with tomatoes (though that is changing), but stir fried basil chicken is a fantastic, easy mix of flavors. Just get some ground or diced chicken (or other meat), stir fry it in oil with shallots, garlic, and as many hot peppers you can handle; finish off with fish sauce (and/or soy). Throw in a giant handful of fresh basil leaves until wilted, and serve with rice. Holy basil is the traditional Thai basil to use, but if I don’t have it in the garden, I’ll use Thai sweet basil, cinnamon basil, or Italian sweet basil. Or even a mix of all three.
Shakshuka and Halal Cart chickenare two of many dishes that are not traditionally American but can be made using ingredients readily available in every grocery store.
I just grilled kifta (kefta) last night.
Ground meat - I used chuck but lamb would be great;
A grated onion;
A handful of chopped parsley;
Spices - I used cumin, coriander, a touch of cinnamon, pepper, about 3 Microplaned allspice berries;
Salt.
Mix together and press into ‘logs’ for skewering. I don’t have the flat steel ones that so many of the published recipes call for but bamboo seemed to work fine. The best part is that while kifta tastes and smells (especially during grilling) exotic, the spices are completely gettable in a regular grocery store. All I had to buy was the perishable beef and parsley.
I make a really delicious, really French savory custard by leaving out sugar, adding shaved Gruyere, and baking in a shallow dish with artichoke bottoms.
Also agree that keeping Chinese 5-spice powder, Thai fish sauce, sesame oil, garlic-chili sauce, black bean sauce, oyster sauce, mirin, and sake on hand will allow you to be exotic at a moment’s notice.
My wife stir-fries lettuce and garlic in oil. I’m not a big fan of it (too stringy and soggy for me), but she likes it and I would classify the flavour as a bit unusual.
Bobotie, probably the top qualifier for SA’s national dish - assuming the basic curry spices aren’t considered “exotic”. It’s a curried mince casserole (including dried fruit & nuts, usually) topped with an egg custard, baked until set.
Shakshuka is something I only tried recently and is one of my favourite dishes. Another dish that you could throw together is Chicken Tikka Masala. Chicken, cream, tomatos and hot peppers/curry make up the base and about the only really exotic ingredient is cardamom in the version I make. It has a lot of flexibility; no ginger? Add lemongrass instead! Since there is really no one recipe for it , you can make it your own. Here’s the Epicurious recipe as a starting point.