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.

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!

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)