Week 62. Andorra. Trinxat.

I love my son more than you could ever imagine, but we have just had 24 hours of bliss without him. Looking after a two year old is an intense job and slowly, slowly your energy levels drain. You don’t realize it’s happening as it’s so slow, but 6 hours sleep starts to reduce your personality. You talk less at social events, you don’t do much needed exercise, you forget how to relax and simple things like doing the ironing become enormous jobs. It took us about two years to realize that just a very occasional break does wonders. In the last 24 hours I have had a 2 hour rest, a 9 hour (wow) overnight sleep, had a run, been for lunch, been to the cinema and been out for dinner. I feel utterly revitalized and ready to take on the world. I hate to be the smug parent who thinks they know best, and this is far from the truth, but what I can say is that if you are a parent and you get the opportunity for a break and a rest it doesn’t make you a bad parent – it makes you a better parent for when you are back with them in your possession. Adults need looking after too sometimes.

I drew Andorra this week and one of the very smallest countries in the world. Sandwiched in between France and Spain it has the highest capital in Europe in Andorra la Vella and is a prosperous country, largely due to the ski fields. I decided, therefore, that I needed to do mountain food. I’ve only been skiing once (I can parallel turn one way but not the other) but what I do know is it makes you ravenous. When it got to lunch time I needed mulled wine and a lot of hot food. Trinxat would have been perfect.

In the UK we have a dish called Bubble & Squeak which is named after the sound it makes in the pan when cooked. It is usually a breakfast dish and is made with the leftovers from a Roast Dinner. We usually make it on Boxing Day and use mashed roast potatoes and sprouts. It’s delicious but doesn’t take much thought and it lazily flavoured, usually with just salt and pepper. Trinxat is a a restaurant quality version of Bubble & Squeak. Think about the texture you would get by mashing a tough sprout and a hard roast potato. It’s rough and chunky. Trinxat uses cabbage and mashed boiled potatoes. They blend together much better and you can infiltrate the flavours garlic and pepper much more evenly throughout. The streaky bacon adds smoke and makes it more of a meal. I would eat it with some chunky buttered bread. If you were tired from a morning’s skiing, this is the dish to order. It will fill you with carbohydrates and iron and give you the fuel for another afternoon of exercise.

Right – I’m off to pick up the little monkey and take him to the park and kick a rugby ball about. I’ve got so much energy you see!

Trinxat Recipe:

I don’t want to be too strict on this as like Bubble and Squeak it can be thrown together.

You will need:

• Cabbage or Kale
• 3 Large Potatoes
• 3 Cloves of Garlic
• 5 rashers of smokey bacon

Boil a large cabbage or kale or both. Boil the potatoes.

Drain the cabbage and potato thoroughly and pat dry. Mash together with a little oil and salt and pepper.

Turn on the grill and grill strips of bacon on high. You want them very crispy.

In a flying pan, fry 3 chopped cloves of garlic softly for five minutes.

Pour the garlic infused oil into the bowl you set aside for the mash and stir it all in.

Return the flying pan to the heat and add in the mixture in small patties, frying them on both sides until they are browned.

Plate up and add the bacon strips. Enjoy!

Week 54. Hungary. Goulash.

For those reading this blog from overseas, let me paint a picture of London this weekend. It’s bloody freezing. When I teed off yesterday morning it was -3 degrees and when I finished 4 hours later it had peaked at a glorious -1. Late last night it snowed and today we were treated to the rancid phenomena of slush. Our snowfall was rubbish, an inch at best, and today we have all just gone out and squashed it, driven on it and turned it to mush. Tonight it will likely freeze solid and tomorrow morning, at 6:30am and in the dark, I will likely fall on it on my way to work. I will likely soak my suit, bruise my side and swear my entire way to work. I detest snow, unless it is in a suitable location, like a snowfield or on TV. For me it just creates issues. Yes the kids love it and yes it is pretty when you are walking in it when it is coming down, but that’s for such a small moment and then it is just a hassle. I know it is a Sunday night, I’m a bit tired and grumpy, but I’m over it.

I think I am just going to get it all out today and focus on how utterly bored I am of this long winter. Today is Feb 5 and the cold weather started in October. That’s over 100 days since it has been warm. Today my wife questioned why I was looking so pale and suggested I put some tinted moisturizer on my face. What?! I’m pale because my skin last saw warm sun over 100 days ago! I go to work in the dark and out of my window I look at another building through a stretch of 20 feet of outside. This is the only daylight I see for 5 days a week. A grey building lit by dull sunlight which disappears by 4pm. I leave for home at 6:30, again in the dark, to get up again in the dark. Repeat. No wonder people get depressed in Winter!

Anyway, I am an optimist so am looking forward to the days when the sun is out, the snow is gone and it feels like it is never dark. Bring. It . On.

I drew Hungary this week and immediately remembered conversations with two Hungarians who told me “when you draw Hungary you must phone me”. Unfortunately, unless I have made a glaring mistake, I no longer have contact with those people. One being an ex-girlfriend of a friend and one being an ex-workmate.

Apart from being able to do an awesome Hungarian accent, and knowing loads of people who have been to and loved Budapest (it’s on the list of places to visit) I don’t know a lot about Hungary. So – I decided that I would do the best known dish. If you are anything like me, you will have heard of Goulash, but never tried it. I assumed, terribly, that it was a glutinous mass of tasteless stewed vegetables and meat, but that is so far from the truth. Goulash is a stew (which can be watered down to a soup) which is laden with paprika which makes it sweet and smokey. The meat is beef which is slow cooked, adding to the depth of the dish. It is known for being a farmers dish, cooked in one pot over a fire and often to bulk it up potato. When Goulash is made in the home, it seems there are examples of when the potato is not in the dish, but alongside it, and this allows me to cook potatoes in the way I like the very most. Here is the order of my potato eating preference from least to most.

• Wedged (I can’t stand how they are usually soggy)
• Roasted (Good for Roast….but not much else)
• Grated (Hash browns are chavvy and Rosti is a bit middle of the road)
• Chipped (Skinny are amazing, Fat don’t do it for me)
• Mashed (With the right dish it doesn’t get much better – if cooked well)
• Boiled (oh yes – the best)

Boiled potatoes are hardly ever served in the UK. Mainly as it is not 1950 anymore, but they are delicious. They are potatoes as they should be. Not fried, roasted in fat drenched in cream or cooked with bacon. They hold their texture well, absorb sauce and can be light enough to not feel like you are being bloated with starch. I am a massive fan. With goulash they worked perfectly.

Goulash is a great dish. It is far better than its reputation and if you are looking for a hearty stew option, don’t bother with the standard thyme and oregano flavoured version – add in mountains of paprika and give this one a go. I will be doing it this way again many times.

Recipe:

• 500G Stewing Beef
• 1 Onion
• 5 Large Potatoes
• 4 TBSP Paprika
• 1/2 Tsp Marjoram
• 1/2 Tsp  Caraway seeds
• Water
• 4 Hours.

In a casserole cook the onions in oil or butter until soft. Add in the beef and brown. Add all the herbs/spices and stir in for 3 mins. Add enough water to cover it and let simmer for 4 hours. Keep adding more water if it dries up. Season at the end to taste.

Boil the potatoes and serve together.

Week 21. Peru. Papas a la Huancaina

The dish this week looks odd. Let’s break it down. Cold boiled potatoes on a bed of lettuce with olives, hard-boiled egg and a spicy cheese sauce. Why would you want to eat cold potatoes with a slushy cheesy sauce (also cold) and all on a slapdash garnish of lettuce?

In reality, there is so much more to this dish than what meets the eye. This dish is Auntie Rita – horrible to look at but gives you a present every time you see her. I found the dish after being contacted by Chilli Pepper Pete on Twitter who offered help in my research into Peru. Pete can get his hands on any chilli you like and he told me I must use Aji Amarillo chillies if I was to even consider cooking a Peruvian dish. He sent me some overnight so I got to work on the best possible dish. The reason I chose Papas a la Huancaina is that it didn’t sound incredible, but the reviews online suggested the absolute opposite, so I needed to taste it.

Week 8. Malawi. Mbatata Cookies.

As I reach week 8, I have started to become a bit conscious that I need to steer away from “one pot” dishes. Whilst the first 7 weeks have all been incredibly different dishes, there have been 4 dishes which have been created in my big Le Creuset. So I’m giving it a rest this week and cooking a sweet for the first time.

I say, to whoever is bothered, that I don’t really have a sweet tooth but I don’t really base that on much fact.  My wife thinks I’m talking utter rubbish, considering I always fancy a piece of chocolate after a big meal….but that’s just normal right?

Week 4. Liechtenstein. Alperrosti.

Liechtenstein is really very small. Tucked in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria, it only has 35,000 inhabitants. When I hear numbers like this I always put it into a sporting context. The population of Liechtenstein could fit neatly into the KC Stadium in Hull, home of Hull City FC. Bringing this back to cuisine, if you were to take the crowd at Hull and leave them to their devices for a couple of hundred years, do you think they would have created their own dishes, or do you think they might have just carried on with the usual. you know: Fish Chips and Peas, Chicken Tikka Masala, Spag Bol.