Dinner at Home – Sweden
We arrived in Stockholm at 9pm on Monday night and were collected from the airport by the lovely friends we were staying with. We didn’t have a plan for dinner and, given the time, I suspected they may have already eaten. I should have known them better though and, while I thought they were pottering around in the kitchen with a few snacks, they were actually preparing a traditional Swedish meal.
On the table in front of us were five types of herring, some dill potatoes, cheese, horse meat (I’m not sure this was traditional but it happened to be in the fridge), hard bread, red onion and yogurt. This was our third trip to Sweden so we were familiar with herring but hadn’t tried it in so many variations, we had plain, onion, garlic and tomato. There was also another tinned type that was described as the Marmite of the herring world: you either love it or hate it. We both loved it but Stephen found it particularly attractive and ate it at every possible occasion during the rest of the trip.
I neglected to photograph it but for dessert, our hosts produced a box of Daim ice-creams which are one of my favourite things about Sweden. For every jar of herring Stephen ate, I matched him with an ice-cream.
World Cup Cuisine – English Braised Broad Beans with Bacon, Peas and Mint
We didn’t have much enthusiasm for this after England’s shocking performance earlier on but, since we had everything we needed, we got on with it and did a much better job than Fabio’s 11.
This is a slightly revised version of the braised broad bean dish I loved so much last year, with the addition of peas and bacon. We had originally intended to cook some fish to go with it but Stephen spotted some crab while he was out shopping earlier so we put that on toast instead.
I was slightly worried that the crab would be over-powered by the other flavours but it wasn’t and it’s sweetness worked well with the leeks. The toast provided a good crunch and the bacon, obviously, made everything better.
We’re off on holiday now so our world cup series will be on a half-time break for now. We don’t have any dishes planned for the countries left in the tournament but one thing is certain, there won’t be any German food appearing any time soon.
World Cup Cuisine – USA Burgers and Pecan Pie
So, onto the USA, which is of course well known for burgers, amongst other things. As it was such a lovely day, we continued the barbecue theme. My sister and her husband came round to visit and brought my little niece along, who ran around a lot and tired everyone out, but it was a lot of fun.
The burgers were made from mince from our local butcher, which we have used before and was really good. It probably didn’t need a lot of seasoning, but we put in some Tabasco and some Worcester sauce along with salt and pepper and a little chopped red onion. We find that we don’t need any breadcrumbs or egg to bind it together, they are generally quite happy to remain in a burger shape until cooked.
We didn’t have any American cheese slices and weren’t planning to buy any as we never eat them, so tried to cut a slice of cheddar very square, which almost looks right but not quite. Added some lettuce, tomato and sliced pickle and we were ready to go.
We also barbecued some sweetcorn, which worked out well but is presented here in a totally non-American way on a Cath Kidston plate:
And then to finish, some pecan pie which was really good and was quite simple to make. We followed this BBC Food recipe but used ready-made pastry instead of making it. The pastry wasn’t a great success even though we bought it – I rolled it out and then because it was such a hot day it started falling apart when I tried to put it into the pie dish. I managed to do a bit of patchwork though and it somehow held together and more importantly, it tasted good!
World Cup Cuisine – Brazilian “Churrasco” Barbecue
This is a traditional style of barbecue which originated from the gauchos (i.e. cowboys) in southern Brazil – meat on long skewers cooked over a barbecue pit and then sliced off with a knife. Not having a barbecue pit close at hand, we made do with a normal barbecue. Also not having a really long skewer at hand, we had to improvise. I had considered walking into a kebab shop and asking to buy a skewer, but a quick visit to B&Q yielded the “skewer” that you see in the pictures, which is also known by its more boring common name of something like “2mmx16mm rolled steel strip”.
We simply seasoned the steak with a generous pinch of salt before cooking, which turned out to be all that it needed. As with the other steaks that we have cooked on the barbecue recently, it was a ribeye steak that we cooked quickly over high heat, which gave it a lovely char on the outside and left it pink and tender in the middle. Delicious.
A very popular ingredient in this sort of barbecue is chicken hearts on a skewer, but we sadly failed to find a ready supplier of large quantities of chicken hearts. Maybe next time!
In an effort not to eat a diet completely consisting of meat, we also had some sweet potatoes and salad. We could have been more authentic and cooked the sweet potatoes on the barbecue, but did them in the oven instead.
World Cup Cuisine – Cameroonian Ndole (Bitterleaf Soup), Yam Fufu and Plantains
I have been planning this one for a while, probably ever since last weekend when I decided that we needed to cook another African dish. As it turns out, Ghana have made it through to the next round, but we have already cooked a Ghanaian dish so thought we would try Cameroon now and maybe Ghana again later.
Ndole is the national dish of Cameroon. There are many recipes for it, but the things that they all contain are – it is a soup made from bitterleaf (or other green leaves if you can’t find those, e.g. kale, collard or spinach), peanuts and shrimps with additions of salted or smoked fish and/or almost any sort of meat. Some contain chilli, garlic and/or ginger and some contain tomatoes. We ended up mostly following this recipe.
I wondered where to find bitterleaf and tried Shepherd’s Bush market, but failed to find it there. While there I did manage to get yam and plantain though. The food sold in the market is aimed more towards Carribean cooking rather than West and Central African, which explains the lack of bitter leaf. I did learn about yams though – the white yam (which I bought) is popular in West Africa whereas the yellow yam is popular in the Carribean. A lot of the yams were from Brazil too, which was interesting but not what I was after. I bought one that claimed to be from Ghana. Which is kinda close to Cameroon if you look at a very small map of Africa while squinting. In North America, sweet potatoes are often called yams but they are actually quite different.
So the Ndole recipe itself involved sauteeing onion, garlic and ginger for a while before adding tomatoes. Then adding peanuts, cooking for a bit longer before adding greens (spinach in our case, which doesn’t take long to cook) and then smoked fish and chopped prawns. I figured that we are probably going to eat a fair amount of red meat this weekend, so even though various Ndole recipes included meat, we stuck to the fishy version. I ended up putting in smoked haddock as the smoked fish.
Fufu is interesting. It is a staple of many West African meals and includes a starch of some sort pounded and mixed to a texture similar to thick mashed potato. Often yam is used, but sometimes millet or other starch is used too. We had a yam and boiled it until it was soft, then peeled it and mashed it. Kerri was out last night, so I was doing the mashing on my own and I didn’t quite get it to the texture that it should have been because I didn’t have anyone to hold the pot while I did the heavy-duty mixing, mashing and pounding that was required. It was the first time I had tried it and the smell reminded me a lot of chestnuts and the taste was similar to mild chestnuts too. It went well with the Ndole, the taste and texture blending seeming to complement it well.
I also quickly chopped up a plaintain and fried it to serve as a side dish. It was interesting, sort of like a more savoury, firmer version of a banana, but didn’t seem to complement the rest of it as well as the yam did. Boiled plantains are often served with Ndole, but as we had the yam I decided to go for frying instead, but maybe boiling would have made it go better with the rest of it.
All in all, a very interesting dish and well worth the investigation. We will almost certainly try this again at some point and I am keen to try it with proper bitterleaf instead of spinach, potentially with some meat and chilli in it too. Kerri mentioned that it was the most interesting venture that we had tried into the various world cup cuisines and I think I would agree with her there. Pity Cameroon have been knocked out, but we can try another dish from Ghana when they next play in order to investigate West and Central African food further.
World Cup Cuisine – English Fish and Chips
That was a close one! England scraped though into the next round with a 1-0 win over Slovenia today. We were initially keeping something English to cook for later in the competition given that neither of us were going to be in this evening, but that started looking overly optimistic and as it turned out my night out was cancelled and at the last minute decided to get take-away fish and chips on the way home. Along with some worryingly flourescent mushy peas, which I took a picture of but didn’t actually eat. We’ll try to actually cook something English for the next round if we can!
World Cup Cuisine – Greek Stifado
We decided to go traditional with Greece and opted for Stifado from Jamie Oliver’s latest book “Jamie Does…”. I cooked this on Sunday ready to eat this evening and while it was good at the time, it was even better after two days in the fridge.
It’s a very simple recipe which involves marinating some pork shoulder and some diced beef in red wine, cinnamon, cloves, all-spice, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper for a couple of hours. This is added to some softened onions along with a tin of tomatoes and then cooked for three hours. Lemon juice is added at the end and that’s it.
I was a bit skeptical at first, I knew there was a fair amount of spice in the marinade to add flavour but it just seemed too simple. The onions are softened slightly but then everything else just goes in, without any browning of the meat first. It looked a terrible mess at this point but as ist started to cook down, it began to look more attractive and, more importantly, smell brilliant.
I really need to do some work on my descriptions because I always tend to rely on words like deep, rich, earthy, comforting but that’s exactly what this was. There were complex levels of flavour from the spicing, a strong meatyness from the pork and beef and a lightness from the lemon juice added at the end.
I was worried this would be too heavy on such a warm night but it worked well with a little bread and some simple, steamed asparagus. I’m glad we went with this option rather than the halloumi I’d been craving although it’s a shame Greece didn’t go through last night as that would have given me the opportunity I needed to get my cheese fix.
World Cup Cuisine – Spanish Tapas at Tendido Cuatro
A bit of a break with tradition here; we decided to go out and eat something Spanish instead of cooking. We decided tapas was a good idea, and immediately thought to visit our local branch of Lola Rojo, which we have been to before and really enjoyed. However, it was closed due to it being a Monday. Which was disappointing, but turned out to be a good thing because it forced us to be more imaginative. Initially we thought of somewhere else nearby which we have also been to, but decided that it wasn’t as good. Then we thought of Casa Brindisa in South Kensington which is a little further away, but is really good. Again, we had been there though.
Then Kerri thought of somewhere else in South Kensington that someone had recommended… and as it turned out, they had a branch in Fulham nearer to us too… Tendido Cuatro. It did strike us just how many places there were to get good tapas.
We briefly toyed with the idea of ordering a main dish each or a paella to share but the tapas list was so tempting that we opted to order a selection of small dishes instead. This happens every time we eat Spanish food so it was inevitable really, the food was so good though that we are both determined to go back and try the paella soon.
Shortly after finishing a glass of sherry, we started with some marinated anchovies which were served with a selection of breads. These were beautifully soft and melty with a generous heap of garlic to compliment the intense fishy flavour.
As we were finishing these, out came the jamon. The flavour was good but we both agreed that the slices were a little too thick. Not that we let that stop us clearing the plate. Some Manchego was required here really but we foolishly over-looked that while ordering.
Next up was some tuna tartare with avocado served with an avocado puree and herring roe. This was very good, the avocado worked well with the tuna and there was just enough lime juice to cut through the fatty fish without over-powering it. Not a particularly appetising dish visually but probably our favourite of the night.
Of course, we had to have the pulpo. Stephen enjoyed this more than I did, the heavy-handed paprika felt very dusty in my mouth and made for a strange combination with the oil. I liked the addition of potatoes here to bulk out the dish but Stephen muttered something about authenticity which led me to believe he wasn’t so keen.
And finally, baby lamb chops with padron peppers. A big success, juicy and moist with a great chargrilled flavour and just perfect with the padron peppers. We were going to order a side dish of padron peppers but decided against it when we saw this dish included them. How I wish we hadn’t been so silly as we ended up fighting over these they were so good.
Aside from the good food, the waiting staff were friendly and attentive without being pushy. As we were about to leave they presented us with a tray of liquers from which we chose a complimentary drink. Not a great idea on a school night but a lovely way to finish the evening and a reminder of how things are done in Spain and should be done everywhere.
Tendido Cuatro
108-110 New Kings Road
Parsons Green
London
SW6 4LY
World Cup Cuisine – Italian Minestrone Soup
Seeing that Italy were playing today, I was tempted to use the opportunity to make my favourite Italian dish: lasagne but that felt like cheating really. Part of the point of “World Cup Cuisine” was to find new and interesting things to cook and while this isn’t all that new and exciting, it was something I’ve been wanting to cook for a while.
Most of the recipes I found used cabbage which I’m sure is lovely in winter but it made more sense to use some summer vegetables this time. The bunch of sad looking asparagus in the fridge might have had something to do with that decision too. The broad beans were a last minute addition, I excitedly threw them into the shopping basket yesterday without a plan to use them and I didn’t want them to go the way of the asparagus.
There’s quite a lot of chopping at the beginning of this dish but after that it’s just a case of leaving it to simmer on the hob long enough for the beans to cook. I added some basil at the end which provided a fragrant note to the sweet tomatoes and earthy beans. This makes good use of the interesting summer vegetables that are around while still being hearty enough for the colder ‘summer’ evenings we’re having.
Minestrone Soup – Serves Two
Tablespoon olive oil
2 rashers of bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 stem rosemary, chopped
Teaspoon tomato purree
Tin tomatoes
2 litres vegetable stock
100g dried haricot beans
Salt and pepper
50g spaghetti, snapped into three lengths (macaroni is probably more traditional)
Handful basil leaves
Handful parsley, chopped
Parmesan cheese
Start by frying the bacon until the fat has rendered and then remove to a plate, discarding the excess oil.
Add some olive oil to the pan and gently sweat the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf and rosemary for about 10 minutes. Add the tomato puree, stir to incorporate and cook for a minute or so.
Return the bacon to the pan and add the tinned tomatoes, the stock and the beans. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about two and a half hours, or until the beans are just tender. Keep an eye on the water levels and top up if necessary.
Season and then add the spaghetti. Cook for as long as the instructions on the spaghetti packet tell you to.
About eight minutes before the spaghetti is cooked*, add the asparagus and beans and cook until everything is tender. Add the basil and parsley, stir to incorporate. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
*This sounds like a criminally long time to cook young broad beans and asparagus but since there is not much water left at this point, they will take longer to cook than normal.
World Cup Cuisine – Danish Breaded Fish Sandwich
After being out for a couple of nights, we got back into doing our world cup food this evening and chose Denmark. The Danish national dish is meatballs (called frikkadeller) but various types of open sandwiches on rye bread are also popular. Having a look at the Wikipedia page about Danish food, I noticed that there were two pictures of these open sandwich that both contained breaded fish. Once I had seen them, I really started craving breaded fish so insisted on that even though Kerri was in favour of a variety of different smaller sandwiches.
We floured, egged and crumbed two cod fillets and shallow fried them quickly to give them some colour before putting them into the oven for about 15 minutes. We also cooked a few prawns each, just boiled them briefly in salted water before shelling them. When the fish and prawns were cooked, we assembled the sandwich, inspired somewhat by the picture on the Wikipedia page. It included the fish and prawns along with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sliced lemon, mayonnaise and a blob of lumpfish roe.
It all worked well together and the breaded cod was particularly good, especially with some of the lemon squeezed over it. It would have been relatively healthy too had I not added loads more mayonnaise to mine.
