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.

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.

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.