Mrs. crash and I are celebrating the World Cup by cooking a dish that is native to each of the participating countries at some time during the World Cup.

All dishes will be determined via a rigorous vetting process, whereby my wife enters "(country) cuisine recipe" in a Google search and picks something that looks tasty or interesting. If I can find it, there will be wine as well. The drive to BevMo from here is measured in hours, so there will only be a handful of country's dishes with wine pairing.

First up: The host country of South Africa.




We made Poulet Au Gnemboue for a main dinner course with a rice dish of Arroz de Coco.

Poulet Au Gnemboue:











Arroz de Coco:











I found a bottle of South African wine as well.



The finished product:



Results -

Not a huge fan of the Poulet Au Gnemboue. For all of it's promise, it was a bit bland. Filberts aren't my favorite nut either, which could have had something to do with it.

Arroz de Coco - Quite good. The Anaheim pepper gave it just the right amount of spice, and the flavors all worked together well.

At $10, the wine was a pleasant surprise.

Tomorrow - Algeria.

This is a cool idea, great thread. Crashjr, you're gonna be eating some weird stuff I think!

Cool idea! I look forward to your other creations.

Is a filbert the same thing as a hazelnut? I'm not crazy about hazelnuts.

nice thread, looking forward to your next meals!

too bad Sweden is to horrible to be in the WC this year would be fun to see you do a swedish meal!

What a great idea for a thread! I'm really curious what you'll come up with next.

The gap between (food) pictures 3 and 4 was pretty big. A creamy looking sauce outta nowhere. Could you tell us more about how you get there, in addition to pure pictures?

Also a huge fan of hazelnuts and not sure what filberts are...

Yes, filbert = a kind of hazelnut.

The blender photo didn't come out very well so I didn't add it. I made the creamy looking sauce by putting the nuts and a bit of chicken stock in a blender to make a paste, then slowly adding more stock until the desired consistency was reached.

This is awesome. I'll swing blatantly copying this idea past the girlfriend. She could very well be up for some adventurous eats.

crashjr...awesome thread.
anxiously awaiting more pics!

I think tis a requirement that if you buy expensive knives you have to show them off in your 2+2 food pics...I secretly do this on purpose too.

Cool idea. Are you just not going to eat when its North Korean night?

Tonight: Algeria



Algerian Harira - a traditional north African dish eaten during the month of Ramadan to break the fast and on other special occasions.



I soaked the chickpeas/garbanzo beans overnight. I cooked and rinsed them, then prepared the stew.



I cut a pound of lamb, after shamelessly posing my cooking knives for this photo





I heated olive oil, browned the lamb, and sauteed the onions and celery.







Added saffron, turmeric, fresh ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper tomatoes and chicken stock at intervals of a few minutes. Simmered for 45 minutes.



Added chickpeas and lentils simmered for 20 minutes.



Added a thickener of tomato paste, flour, and water. Simmered another 20 minutes until lentils are tender.



Serve with fresh cilantro, fresh parsley, and a lemon wedge.






Results: Great success! We haven't had much exposure to North African food before. This is a spicy, flavorful stew. We shared it at a small dinner party and it was a hit. It is being added to the recipe book and we'd be happy to eat Algerian food again.

that looks great man. Im totally going to cook one of these dishes soon...its so far from what i usually do...im really intrigued.

...and nice knives. I want your boning knife and slicer

Great thread! The Algerian Harira looks very tasty.

I'm rly interested to see what u come up with for Australian cuisine.

Damn, I may try to make this tonight.