Expat What-to-Bring Tip #1

Living in Dushanbe means we struggle with utilities. Or lack thereof. It's a given. From lights to gas to water, its a really good day when you have all three. We've installed a second electrical line which gives us a glimmer of hope that we won't be subject to as many electrical cut offs in February as we were last year. As it was, we had lights for roughly six hours per day - three in the morning and three in the evening.

We are now trying to install a second city gas line, which really is the only way to heat the house. We haven't had city gas since last February so we hope the new line will be installed before the really cold temps hit us.

If you happen live in a country where you can't buy electric blankets, and even if you could you wouldn't because you'd be afraid that the quality of the electrical wiring in your house couldn't support such a thing and you'd go up in flames while fast asleep, then this is a perfect substitute.

My mom gets credit for the first ever Expat What to Bring Tip. Having lived the majority of the last thirty years overseas, my mom rocks when it comes to knowing what to bring and what not to bring. And I can tell you, I'm glad I listened.

A $10 hot water bottle.

If you are like me, when it's cold in your house, you are cold. And your bed is cold. And when you put your cold body in the cold bed, you are so cold that you can't fall asleep until 3 am. And if you are like me, that's no good for anyone.

Fill this puppy up with hot water, slip it into your bed half an hour before you plan to hit the proverbial hay and you'll never have a better night's sleep. Well, that is if you live in Dushanbe, have no gas, and have leaky windows.

Mountains and Bok Choi

Winter is slowly making its way to Dushanbe. In the past week we turned on the heat, fired up the new diesel heater and started shrink wrapping the windows to keep the drafts out.

Earlier in the week the temps dipped below freezing and we woke up to gorgeous snow covered mountains.

But the freezing temps meant that my baby bok choi needed to be harvested - stat! My baby bok choi is more like toddler bok choi, actually. It spent a bit more time in the ground than required.

If you want some pretty instant gratification in the garden, grow baby bok choi. They thrive in my big galvanized steel bins -- I'm not sure how'd they fair in the anemic soil of are garden though.

When it came to cooking the bok choi I chose simplicity. I almost went Asian with soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger, but in the end decided to go with olive oil and salt and pepper.

After cleaning it up and pulling it apart, I chopped the stems into bite sized pieces and roughly chopped the leaves. In a pan with heated olive oil I sauteed the stems for a few minutes, then added the tops with a splash of water. Once cooked I topped it off with salt and pepper. So so good.

Mix this in with Spicy Thai One Pot and off you go. Dinner's made.

Beef Tenderloin on Ciabatta Rolls

I had some thawed beef tenderloin and this big batch of bread dough in the fridge this morning just asking to be made into thinly sliced roasted beef on freshly made ciabatta rolls.

The dough is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's the master recipe, which requires absolutely no kneading and hangs in your fridge until you are ready to pull off a grapefruit-sized chunk and make yourself some bread. In fact, it's recommended that you don't wash the bin that your bread is in when you make the next batch as it enhances the sourdough flavor. No kneading and no dishes! My kind of breadmaking.

This book came on the heels of the Mark Bittman's life-altering No Knead Bread, which I think would be a fine substitute for this bread.

This has been in the fridge for about a week now and you can see the gorgeous air bubbles forming.

In this case, I wanted to make individual ciabatta rolls. With wet hands pull off a chunk.

Form six balls and let them rest for 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, put a cookie sheet pan in a 400 degree oven to pre-heat for 20 minutes. I'd use a pizza peel if I had one, as the book recommends. But this seems to work just fine.

Once the dough has rested, shape the balls into small rectangular-ish shapes. Again, wet hands help to manipulate the dough. A quick dusting of flour on top and they are ready to go in the oven.

After about 20 - 25 minutes in the oven, they're a perfect shade of brown and nicely crisped on top.

Now on to the tenderloin. Rinse it with water, pat dry and place in a pyrex baking dish.

Season to your liking. I used a grill seasoning, making sure to really coat the meat evenly so that each slice will have a flavorful crispy edge.

Preheat a saute pan with olive oil, until almost smoking. Carefully lay the tenderloin into the pan, making sure you lay it away from you so you don't splatter yourself with hot oil. Trust me on this one.

Rotate it until all sides are evenly browned - very browned, I suggest.

Once all sides are browned, put the tenderloin back into the oven, which you turned up to 425 when you took the bread out.

Bake until the thermometer reaches 140 for medium rare. Or, if you are in our part of the world where it's hard to break the habit of over cooking things to try to prevent Tajik Tummy, then by all means, follow me to 160.

It's true that meat continues to cook after you take it out of the oven. See? 170 a few minutes later.

While the meat is resting for at least ten minutes, move on to the sandwich. Slice open a ciabatta.

Grab your condiments of choice. Caramelized onions. Blue cheese. Spicy arugula. Had I had any of those on hand, I would have surely gone that route. However, this was the best I could do. Locally procured wasabi sauce.

Spread one side of the roll with the spicy wasabi sauce, top with thin slices of the beef and dig in.

Simplicity at its best.