Thursday 22 July 2010

The 2010 World Cup Final


For the final match of the tournament, the tall bloke agreed that as we were supporting the Spaniards, we should again eat from their cuisine. I had no idea what an incredible spread of tapas dishes was to arrive on the dinner table - all my favourite "platos" were served, some made from scratch and others from the unearthed selection at Waitrose.

We enjoyed:
White bean tapas with Manchego, chorizo in mojo pepper sauce, Pork meat balls in chipotle sauce which all came from the unearthed range and potatas bravas, tortilla and a green salad which the tall bloke made from scratch. We also enjoyed a selection of cold Spanish meats such as jamon serrano, olives and fried courgettes. It was a veritable Spanish feast and it was a worthy final meal for our World Cup Food diary.

We hope you've enjoyed reading our food blog and try some of the recipes - happy eating!





Germany 0 - Spain 1


The last of the semi-final matches and the choice of countries who's cuisines to cook from are seriously limiting now. Tall bloke put together one of my favourite rustic Spanish dishes: arroz al horno or rice in the oven. This recipe came from a book I bought for the tall bloke last Christmas called Cook Simple by Diana Henry. Here goes:

Serves 6
Ingredients:
8 tbsp olive oil
salt n pepper
12 chicken thighs
2 red peppers de-seeded and sliced
250gms chorizo cut in small chunks
1 large onion roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves crushed
3 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp of chilli flakes
1.3 litres of chicken stock
375gms of Spanish rice (paella rice)
2 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley
Juice of a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil

Method:
Heat the olive oil in a shallow pan, season and brown the chicken thighs on all sides. Take chicken out of pan and set aside. Add peppers and chorizo to the same pan and saute on medium heat until all is softened. Throw in the onion and garlic, then cook until soft. Stir in the paprika and chilli and cook for a minute. Add the chicken stock, return the chicken, cover, simmer on a gentle heat for 15 minutes. Transfer chicken, veg and stock to big, oven-proof dish. Pour the rice around the chicken and season well. Place in the preheated oven on 180degrees. Cook for 20 minutes until stock has absorbed and top is golden. When cooked, cover the dish with foil, leave for 5 minutes, scatter with parsley, lemon juice and an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Serve with lemon segments.

Uruguay 2 - Netherlands 3


With the arrival of the tall bloke's sister to the house hold for a week, whilst she and her fellow, newly graduated, visual arts degree course mates, did their final show at London's Truman Brewery (see her amazing work here), it called for a special meal to be served at the World Cup cafe! As the Netherlands soldiered past Uruguay, the tall bloke served Gegratineerde aardappelen met ham - potatoes-au-gratin with ham and meat balls. I wasn't lucky enough to get the recipe for the meat balls, but I can say that this dish was another triumph and it worked as a good welcome-to-our-home for his sister.

Argentina 0 - Germany 4




Saturday night saw a surprise crash out for Diego Maradona's Argentinian side from the tournament, as Germany soldier on to the semi-final, with a decisive 4-nil win. The tall bloke thought this was going to be a good match to watch, so we enjoyed a simple (aka quick to prepare) meal of hot dogs - or rather Frankfurters. We do enjoy this meal together a couple of times a month - it is not the most nutritious, but the fried onions and smear of mustard with extra ketchup, is particularly yummy.


Uruguay 1 - Ghana 1


For our Friday evening meal, the tall bloke elected to cook from the Uruguayan cuisine. Whilst another penalty shoot out decided the match (4:2) to give Uruguay the win, the tall bloke prepared Chivito al plato, which apparently is an extremely popular and widely eaten dish in the country. It consisted of eggs, bacon, steak, chips, tomatoes, cheese and mayonnaise, amongst other things, so it wasn't the lightest of bites. However! may that not cast dispersions over this dish - I can imagine that it would instantly clear even the heaviest of hang-overs!

Paraguay 0 - Japan 0


Tonight's menu was from the South American state of Paraguay, which we enjoyed as they drew with Japan, but went on to win 5:3 on penalty shoot out. Always a harsh way to leave a competition, but better than the old fashioned way of simply tossing a coin I suppose.

I couldn't believe it when the tall bloke pulled SO'O KU'I - a Paraguayan pie filled with mince - out of the oven. He even made the pie dough himself; he couldn't quite mask his own surprise that the dish turned out so well, on the first try. There is no photograph on the recipe he found on-line, but took a good one before serving me a large slice.

This meal is worthy of special praise and I urge you all to try it. It was seriously impressive and a really delicious, hearty meal - kind of like a South American version of a Cornish Pasty. Top marks tall man.

Monday 28 June 2010

Chile 0 - Brazil 9


Chile played valiantly, but the only criticism of the Brazil team by the ITV pundits was the size of their goalie's shorts. For tonight's dinner the tall bloke prepared a meal from the cuisine of Chile. For our starter, he had made empanada pastry from scratch and filled it with cheese, onion, garlic and nutmeg.

Here is the recipe for the dough, tall bloke said he made the "con queso" filling from another recipe: soften the onions in butter and add the garlic, then allow to cool. When cooled, spoon inside the onion mix with the cheese and nutmeg, into the rolled out dough. Form into small pasty shapes and bake in oven for 10 mins or until brown.

I made a salsa from onions, tomatoes, red chilli, cucumber, a squeezed lime, salt and pepper, which was a lovely accompaniment to the hot empanada.

For our main dish, the tall bloke prepared a Chilean rice and chicken in "caldo". Caldo is the Spanish word for a meat gravy, only don't imagine it is the same as the British brown version, this is an almost translucent juice, but it is highly delicious and a really lovely change.

I highly recommend these dishes. I loved the empanada (anything with pastry or bread!) and tall bloke said that he would repeat these, but add different fillings, such as tomato and ground beef.


Mexico 1 - Argentina 3


After the Festival (by all accounts a great day)(so hot!) I arrived home late and sunburned to find the tall bloke much chirpier than I had expected, after the obvious disappointment of the day. He said it was typical England and he was used to it. Well, that is very philosophical of you tall man, but what's for dinner tonight? Steak and chips was the short answer, which didn't exactly fill me with inspiration. I get the Argentinian connection, but considering the quality of research and creativity so far, I have come to expect more. However, ever the epitome of tact and diplomacy, I said nothing. What arrived on my plate moments later, was so impressive, as to make me very glad I never mentioned my inner thoughts. Tall bloke had made a red peppper chimichurri - a summery, tasty accompaniment to a perfectly grilled steak (the rarer side of medium) and home made chips.






USA 1 - Ghana 2


The match went into extra time but still, the team which topped Group C ahead of England crashed out of the last 16. Ghana scored during the first part of extra time and you could see on the players' exhausted faces, that they knew at that point, the game was won. This means Ghana is the last remaining African team in the 2010 World Cup. I've no doubt they will have wide support in South Africa.

In honour of the American "soccer" effort, the tall bloke ordered an "American Hot" pizza from our favourite, local pizza delivery place: Pizza Max. This pizza place doesn't look like much from outside, but the proof is in the deep pan Margherita, which I order without fail, every time we have a lazy supper. So good are the pizzas from this place, that I feel a slight anxiety about you getting too hooked on them. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Please cut us some slack for not cooking from scratch tonight (again) - it is the night before the Lavender Festival - an event I organise in Battersea (on Lavender Hill) every June. 10,000 people came last year, so as you can imagine, this household has been rather tied up in all the planning and preparations for the Festival!

Friday 25 June 2010

Portugal 0 - Brazil 0



As today is Friday (so I'm wiped from this week at work) and the tall bloke has surpassed himself with the offerings from the home v. world kitchen, I agreed that we should go out. However! We did not break the spirit of our World Cup food diary, so we went to Nandos restaurant for some Portuguese chicken and chips.

My apologies for the low quality image - it was taken with my Blackberry but this is no reflection of its capabilities, only a display of my poor talents as a photographer. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't snap it with the tall bloke's brand new i-phone 4, which arrived this morning. He hasn't stopped playing with it all day. I'm afraid he's going to become another one of those "its changed my life" type i-phone owners. Oh well, must remember tall bloke now has that bit of kit.

My Mum makes the meanest coleslaw I've ever tasted - perhaps this is because it is the original version of it for me, but I've tasted a great many world wide and really nothing beats Mum's recipe. She says it is much cheaper to make it yourself, especially if you are feeding the 5000 at a BBQ.

Mum uses the food processor to cut up the carrot, white cabbage and onion, but you can use a mandolin (if you are brave enough!). After all these raw ingredients are chopped, add full fat mayonnaise, a large splash of orange juice and 2 dashes of vinegar. Stir in each element, before adding the next. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Thursday 24 June 2010

Denmark 1 - Japan 3

Tonight's menu was chosen from the cuisine of Denmark. Not so good on the pitch this evening (another European team bites the dust) but absolutely delicious on the plate! The tall bloke pulled out another blinding bit of research-sourcing-cooking (wearing his Canderel apron of course, which is now filthy!)

Menu:

COME ON ENGLAND!

A very happy household enjoyed Serbian food whilst Capello's boys turned on the magic and won 1-0, putting us through to the final 16 of the competition. Next match is Germany at 3pm on Sunday, which is right in the middle of the Lavender Festival in Battersea, an event which I am managing.

The photo above is of Cevapcici, a sort of sausage made from lamb and beef mince. The tall bloke couldn't find bell pepper powder (not available in ASDA!) and instead, used chopped up red chillies.

The Serbian salad was absolutely delicious - spot on for a hot summer's evening. It was refreshing on the tongue and accompanied the Cevapcici perfectly. High recommendation points scored for this dish.



France 1 - South Africa 2

I cannot believe France have gone out of the World Cup already! Bit of shame that the host nation went out before the last 16 stage, especially as they won against the sorry looking side from France. The tall bloke was out, so the best I could muster unsupervised, was baked Camembert (studded with olive oil and Rosemary) and some fresh bread, served with a salad (French dressing of course). It was a lovely, light supper for 1 small person.

Here is the link to my photo of said meal: http://tweetphoto.com/28922506

Monday 21 June 2010

Spain 2 - Honduras 0


As the tournament rolls on, it is getting increasingly difficult to avoid repeats. After some feed back about my diner's diary, the tall bloke is determined to keep cooking different meals. So tonight, I returned home from work to find a huge Honduran menu being prepared. He handed me a ripe avocado when I went into the kitchen to see what was happening (every surface covered with bowls of different ingredients) and I knew immediately that a guacamole was required for this meal. Tall bloke said he had expected this cuisine to be similar to Mexico, but there were a few new things to me, including this weird sounding sweet potato salad with buttermilk dressing.

Here are the recipes he used - I had seconds, which says a lot about the delicious rating of this meal:

Baleadas (in Mexico: Burrito)


Sunday 20 June 2010

New Zealand 1 - Italy 1

For this evening's meal, we took inspiration from New Zealand - the tall bloke found an interesting recipe using lamb and decided that this was enough of a connection with the locally served cuisine as he cared to make. He used a recipe from a website I use quite a lot: Recipezaar. The sweet potato and feta cheese mash was delicious, if a little rich (just need a little bit). I liked this recipe for the a different lamb marinade, but during my digestion period I reflected that there really isn't anything that beats mint sauce (or jelly) as a condiment for lamb.



Saturday 19 June 2010

Japan 0 - Holland 1


Tonight's menu was inspired by Japan's match with Holland this afternoon. The tall bloke says this is not a traditional Japanese dish, more of his own fusion of Asian cuisine. I thought it was yummy, whatever it was called.

Ingredients and Name of dish:
Spring onions, chill, garlic, ginger, red peppers, mange tout, shitaki mushrooms and chicken with noodles cooked in sesame oil. (Japanese style).

Brown the chicken in the oil, add all the other ingredients (except the noodles) and lightly fry. Then add the noodles and a few shakes of soy sauce. Serve.

USA 2 - Serbia 2


For America's second match in the tournament, this time against Serbia, the tall bloke prepared home made beef burgers and home made chips - using red skinned potatoes. It was exactly what I needed on a Friday night and made excellent accompaniment to England's match - i.e. at least something was satisfying!

The burgers were made by mixing salt, pepper, parsley, Worcester sauce, garlic and onion with the raw meat and letting marinate for a few hours. Then the tall bloke patted the mixture into small rounds and cooked them on a medium heat, in a frying pan with a knob of butter. They were delicious!

The chips were sliced to shape (the thinner you cut them, the crispier they turn out), covered in sun flower oil and cooked at 220degrees for a good half hour.




Thursday 17 June 2010

Mexico 2 - France 0


This evening's match was highly entertaining and a wonderful accompaniment to our French meal. Not only in default support of Ireland, I was behind the Mexicans all the way - having lived there for a year I'm shamelessly bias. However, it was the losing team's cuisine which the tall bloke chose to prepare tonight and as I arrived home from a late meeting, out of the oven came salmon en croute, with boiled potatoes and sprouting. It was delicious. The tall man made the sauce (between the fish and the flaky pastry) from a recipe he says he made up on the spot. It contained:
6 sliced chestnut mushrooms
soft goats cheese
parsley
butter
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, add the mushrooms and cook on low heat. When mushrooms are cooked through (they always shrink), add the goats cheese and parsley, stir and remove from the heat.

Allow to cool before covering the salmon with the sauce. Wrap in puff pastry, wash with egg yolk and put into the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Spain 0 - Switzerland 1 !!!


This afternoon's game was a shocker! Spain have been widely tipped to win this year's world cup PLUS they were my second choice team (after England of course!) and their loss against Switzerland was generally deemed to be a real surprise. Tonight's menu was chosen from the cuisine of the losing team's country. So, whilst I was out enjoying myself with the team Canderel and other fellow, London food bloggers (check out later blog post), the tall bloke was cooking one of my all time favourite meals: paella con mariscos.

I did spend a fairly long period of time living in Spain, so really it is me who knows about cooking the national dish (one of only very few good dishes in my repertoire) and I taught the tall bloke this tried and tested method:

Paella
Oil your paella pan (or a wok is fine)
Add a chopped onion, one clove of garlic and seasoning - cook gently for a few minutes.
Add rice and saffron - coat all the rice with oil and saffron, by mixing with wooden spoon.
Prepare a stock (chicken or vegetable) with twice as much liquid as rice, and pour into the pan, using the spoon to soften the flow, in order that you do not "wash" the rice. Simmer.
Prepare vegetables - chop 2 colours of bell peppers, a handful of peas (frozen is fine) or whatever you want/have really - and after the stock has reduced almost completely, add to the rice.
Add the seafood (he used a frozen mixed bag and a handful of scallops) - around an over-sized handful per person and mix in.
Cook on a low heat, turning occasionally and I should say, "be careful not to catch it" but actually, that is the best bit (according to me and the good people of Spain).
Serve with lemon quarters and a jug of Sangria.

¡Arriba!

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Brazil 2 - North Korea 1

This evening's menu was chosen from the Brazilian cuisine. The tall bloke freely admits that the only original element made by him in this meal, was the salad dressing. So tonight, I share with you the links to the exact recipes he used - it was all super delicious:

Barbecued steak with a Brazilian style sauce (marinaded for 4 hours prior to cooking-very organised tall man). This link also takes you to the sauce he chose - the wonderfully named: Chimichurri Rojo
Fried onion rings
Feijao (beans)
Arroz branco (Brazilian style rice)

Monday 14 June 2010

Tomato sauce from Italy (via London)


This recipe is used by the tall bloke in many Italian dishes. Here you can see it on the cannelloni we had for dinner whilst watching the match against Paraguay. I hope you enjoy it too:

Tomato sauce - Method
In a saucepan, gentle fry some onions and garlic, then when just about turning translucent, add a can of chopped tomatoes. Season and add sage, oregano and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Italy 1 - Paraguay 1


Since I have several good Italian friends and I do enjoy this familiar European cuisine, it seemed most natural to have some kind of pasta effort for tonight's meal. The tall bloke served home made chicken soup with Ditali rigati (pasta shapes), followed by cannelloni filled with spinach and ricotta, baked with tomato sauce and cheese on top. It was a triumph: the meal, not the match; Italy played Paraguay and drew one all (fairly unspectacular, except for the heartening super-man dive and slip, by the Paraguayan goal keeper). The soup and the tomato sauce was made from scratch. I bought the cannelloni, ready stuffed.

Chicken Soup - Method
The tall bloke stripped all the chicken off the carcass from Saturday night's roast dinner for England's match, to make into a stock. To do this, put the carcass in a large pot on the stove, then add a couple of pints of water, salt, pepper, mixed herbs, sliced onion, carrots, celery and reduce until half the amount of liquid remains. Then strain out the liquid and return it to the saucepan (discarding the bits) and add the ready-shredded chicken. Heat on low until the meat is really tender. Separately, boil the Ditali rigati (with a pinch of salt) and when cooked, added this to the chicken soup and top with parsley. Serve with freshly baked bread.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Algeria 0 - Slovenia 1


Tonight's meal was an Algerian menu. You can see the result of today's matches HERE. Today the tall bloke and I visited the Northcote Carnival - full story HERE (courtesy of Cllr James Cousins) - and topped up our supplies with some cous cous (plain packet), some mixed olives and a bunch of coriander. The menu and recipes used were as follows (these were not from our usual repertoire):

Djedj b'L-Qasbour - chicken in lemon with olives (see recipe HERE)
Spiced Potato Cakes - (see recipe HERE)
Cous cous flavoured with saffron

The last item was something which the tall bloke seemed to know about. I can't say I've been a fan of cous cous... until today! He made a vegetable stock then added onions, cooking until translucent. Then he added the cut peppers, carrots and tomato pure, herbs and spices - a small pinch of cinnamon, cayenne pepper and turmeric, plus a cup of water. Cook this in a heavy saucepan (tall bloke says Le Creuset is best) for a half an hour with the lid on. Then add the cous cous and switch off the heat, but leave standing with the lid on for 5 minutes before serving.



You can see a photo of the meal taken on my Blackberry HERE




Saturday 12 June 2010

Roast recipes


The two best parts of tonight's roast chicken meal - in honour of Capello's boys (Come on England!) - were the chicken and the roasted carrots. Both were sweet and juicy. Here's how:

Roast Chicken
Rub under the skin a mixture of butter, garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Rub the top of the skin with this too. Stuff the inside of the bird with the lemon halves and the garlic, then smother in Greek plain yoghurt. Roast at 180degrees for 1.5 hours. Baste periodically (say 3 times during the roast). Leave to stand for 10 minutes before carving. Don't forget to make your gravy from the juices.

Roasted carrots with honey and cumin
Cut the carrots to desired shape. Put in bowl with a good squeeze of runny, clear honey and a small tea spoon full of cumin. Leave to marinade for 30 mins (perhaps whilst you prepare the bird and vegetables). Scoop the carrots into the roasting tin with the potatoes, 30 minutes before serving the meal.

Yes, I had seconds.

Come on England!


To celebrate England's first match in the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament, the tall bloke will be serving roast chicken. This is my all time favourite meal - I am known amongst my friends and colleagues to have the appetite of a bird, but when roast chicken is offered, I am always back for seconds! Obviously this is another dish we eat fairly often (Sundays usually - I'm quite a traditionalist), so the tall one changes the seasoning of the chicken and the accompanying vegetables. Tonight's version is as follows:

Menu

Roast chicken in lemon and garlic
Roast potatoes in ground nut oil
Roast carrots in honey and cumin (inspired by this story kindly supplied by The Nashman)
Tender stem broccoli
Sauteed courgette
Home made gravy (using juices of chicken)


"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."


Whilst researching tomorrow's dinner menu, I came upon this quote from Physiologie du Gout by Brillat-Savarin, 1822. My search through Australian, Serbian and German recipe websites, left me with one question: how much does what I eat, reflect where I am from?

The Australian cuisine takes its origins from the waves of European and Asian immigrants, such as the tradition of tea drinking (proximity to China) and roast lamb. Serbian cuisine is also a reflection of historical influences of the area, where Oriental and Slavic tastes are dominant. The Romans were the probably the first to make any significant comment on German food. Latin literature records that German cuisine was a simple affair, consisting of a lot of meat and a lot of mead (sausage and beer!). Both France and parts of Italy were later conquered by the Germans and with this came Charlemagne's rule, as did Switzerland and Austria.

I think these excerpts illustrate the connection between food and identity beautifully:

The Visit Serbia website welcomes, but warns: "The prices are low for western visitors, so go ahead, indulge yourself. Be aware though, if you are a vegetarian Serbia might not be the right place for you!"

The Australian Cooking website writes: "...more overseas tourists have probably eaten kangaroo than have Australian-born people."

The German website informs: "...until the Middle Ages, the German diet mainly consisted of meat and their by-products i.e. milk and cheese. Smoking, marinating and salting techniques were developed to store the abundance of meat, a practice which has survived and is evident with their myriad of sausages and preserved foods.".

And after all that, the tall bloke chose Algeria so he will be serving: couscous, Djedj b'L-Qasbour (chicken) and spiced potato cakes. Watch this space!



Friday 11 June 2010

Guacamole Recipe




I know the title of this blog is "He cooks, I eat" and that is absolutely the case. He is better at cooking than me. However! In the case of guacamole, because I lived in Mexico for 12 months (when I was 20) it is me who knows the recipe for an authentic, Mexican avocado dip. It is a favourite amongst my friends and every time I visit my family home, Mum always "happens to have" ripe avocados in stock. Hmmm...

I use the food blender for this - it makes the whole process SO much faster and you can more easily achieve the smooth dip texture. Be careful not to blend it too much though, else you'll end up with a green sludge with won't cling to the tortilla chips and looks like baby-food from an alien nation. If you don't have a blender, you will have to mash up the avocado in a bowl with the back of a fork and chop the onions as small as you can.

Ingredients:
2 Ripe avocados (warm them in the sun/on the radiator)
1 small sweet onion
1 large tea spoon of full fat mayonnaise
5 shakes of Tabasco sauce
5 cherry tomatoes (or 1 normal sized)
3 stalks of fresh coriander
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

Method:
Put all the ingredients (minus the avocado stone/skin of course!) in the blender and pulse until desired texture is achieved. My Mum likes it with the onion quite chunky, but I prefer it slightly smoother. Add Tabasco sauce and/or a squeeze of lime or lemon to taste.

Serves 4.


Mexico 1 - South Africa 1

For our first 2010 World Cup meal, Dan chose to serve Mexican food. This is already a favourite of mine and something we eat at home at least once every few weeks. It is also very familiar territory for me, as I lived in Mexico for a year.

Here is a photograph of our tacos with beef, home-made guacamole (I did that bit), shop-bought salsa, topped with cheese, fresh onion and cherry tomatoes.

He cooks, I eat. Part 1

I like football and I have been looking forward to the opening games of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The tall bloke (him who lives with me) is a keen cook (he'd say 'chef') and I enjoy good food (my delicate tum is his harshest critic). Earlier this week, he came up with the idea of cooking a meal every day of the tournament, matching the food to one of the countries playing. I liked this plan and have decided to write a diary of the results. I hope you enjoy reading/seeing the snaps (tall bloke does the photography too)( You can see some of his photos here: