We all liked the contrasting textures of the avocado and celery in this Chilean salad. Recipe from The Latin Kitchen website. Continue reading
Archive | World Cup 2014 RSS feed for this section
Algerian meatballs with chickpeas
22 Jun
This Algerian recipe for m’touem b’marqa hamra (meatballs and chickpeas in garlicky red sauce) is awesome. Meatballs are a bit time consuming, but worth the effort for this dish. I found the recipe on The Teal Tadgine website, and followed it pretty much as written. It claims to serve four to six people, but if it had made more, the four of us would have eaten it. Continue reading
Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup
22 Jun
These are the pancakes my mum used to make, which I included in Fern’s Food. We’ve played around with different recipes over the years, but have pretty much settled on this one now. Continue reading
Oto with boiled eggs
21 Jun
We ticked Ghana off our World Cup list with this dish of oto and hardboiled eggs. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, I opted to serve it for lunch, when I thought it might get a better reception. We ate with our hands, scooping up little clumps of oto and squashing them together, and added to the overall experience. I definitely liked it more than the rest of the family, none of whom scored it more than five. For the recipe, I looked at a few versions and came up with my own version. The Skinny Gourmet website goes into a lot of detail about how oto is often served for birthday or wedding breakfasts, and includes pictures of it being prepared. Continue reading
Tiramisu
20 Jun
We had this tiramisu for dessert on Italian World Cup night. I don’t follow a recipe for this — I just thin a tub of mascarpone with cream, flavour and sweeten it to taste, then layer in a bowl with coffee-soaked biscuits or cake, and top with grated chocolate. The longer it sits, the better it gets… Continue reading
Pizza
20 Jun
I served pizza and tiramisu for our Italian World Cup meal. I sometimes make a double batch of pizza dough and freeze half, which makes homemade pizza an easy weekday option. I copied the dough recipe from a magazine many years ago… Continue reading
Greek salad
19 Jun
When Lyra asked me what meal I would choose if I had to eat it every single day for the rest of my life, I picked Greek salad. As it is, definitely eat it at least once a week. Continue reading
Pavlova
19 Jun
Australia’s World Cup dish was always going to be pavlova – a great favourite of both girls. I don’t follow a recipe for this, but go with whatever fruit, dairy and number of eggs whites we have to use up. I just add twice the volume of sugar to the volume of egg whites, and it always turns out fine. Continue reading
Lamb souvlaki with tzatziki
19 Jun
For the lamb souvlaki, I used a marinade recipe from chef Simon Rimmer. I left the meat in the fridge overnight, and just whacked it onto skewers and the barbeque when I got back from work in the evening. Continue reading
N’dolé aux crevettes
18 Jun
I adapted this recipe from the one I found on the Celtnet website. Continue reading
Steamed mussels in white wine
17 Jun
I’ve always found the idea of cooking mussels a bit scary, but they were the obvious choice for our Belgian World Cup dinner. (Either that, or a jumbo box of Leonidas…) Turns out they were pretty straightforward and quick to prepare, even though I bought twice as many as we needed – especially as Lyra ended up eating dinner at a friend’s house, and Nova ate only one… Expecting to be tied up with the mussels, I opted for oven chips – which were a bit meh. Continue reading
Chicken fessenjoon with rice
16 Jun
Tonight’s dinner comes from Iran – chicken fessenjoon (chicken cooked in a pomegranate-walnut sauce) – served over steamed rice. While I was seeking out dried golden plums at the Persian grocers, I picked up some dried limes as well. I broke a couple up in the mortar before steeping in boiling water to make a delicious lime tea. This recipe is from the Food 52 website (with minor adjustments). Continue reading
Bircher meusli
15 Jun
Easier to eat than regular meusli, and a cold alternative to porridge in the summer months.
Apparently it was “invented” by the Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a pioneer of holistic health, who served it to patients in his sanitorium. Continue reading
Welsh rarebit
14 Jun
Welsh rarebit, should possible have gone for something with a more clearly English, but I didn’t… This Guardian article on Welsh rarebit was a good source of info, and I mostly followed their recipe. Couldn’t believe we could need as much cheese topping as the recipes suggested, and even after cutting it back quite a bit, I had more than enough. Served it with a watercress and avocado salad that I found on Epicurious. Continue reading
Introducing World Cup food 2014
2 JunAbout a month before World Cup 2014 started, Adam became obsessed with collecting Panini stickers of all the competing teams. He engaged Lyra in his pursuit, and I eventually got drawn in as well, helping him maintain his own/swap/need lists for the Facebook trading group, posting envelopes, and feeling a worrying sense of satisfaction when we finally received a Ben Halloran sticker in the post from a man in Monmouth and completed the Australia team.
Our older daughter Nova was completely unmoved by the football fever gripping the rest of the house. Thinking about how to make the World Cup a whole family event, I came up with the idea of cooking something from each of the 32 competing nations over the course of competition.
In the group stage, we will try to eat a country’s food on the day they are competing. I’ve made some predictions about which teams are likely to advance, but no doubt we’ll end up eating some meals dedicated to teams after they’ve gone out.
We’ll be scoring the dishes as we eat, to award our own World Cup winner for 2014…
Ten More Bites 