Its too expensive back here in Britain for us to eat out every week so we came up with the idea of having a menu del dia from every country in the world in or dining room!
We planned to work our way across the globe alphabetically learning a little bit about each country as we go. So first up of course is Afghanistan and what a fantastic way to explore a country through its food and food customs rather than politics.
AFGHANISTAN
The first brilliant thing about this meal was we get to sit on the floor!! The kids loved doing this and thought we should have more meals this way. It was a fun, relaxing way to eat.
Our starter was Bolani and dip. This was really yummy its like a flat bread filled with potatoes, coriander and spring onion. After frying you get to dip them whilst still warm yoghurt, cucumber, mint and garlic dip.
Yes we did fill up on these!!
For the main course Kabuli Pulao. This is traditionally a lamb dish which we did for the meat eaters and for the two veggies we swapped the lamb for quorn beef style strips.
I hadn't tried these before and to be honest the dish did not need it for a vegetarian option as its a fab spicy veg mix on its own.
Garam masala, Saffron and Cumin make the kitchen smell lovely and I loved the mix of nuts and dried fruit. It was fairly easy to make and went well with salad.
The kids weren't as keen but as I had hoped with our menu del dia they did find bits to like and were full up by the end of the meal. We also had a lot of left overs from doing veggie option and meat! Enough to feed a party next time!
On to the kids favourite...AFTERS!
This cream roll is not what I would have expected for an Afghanistan pudding its very much like the cream horn that we can get in our local bakery.
The difference is the pistachios, Afghans are fond of nuts which seem to be in most of their dishes and I thought they went particularly well with puff pastry, cream and sugar!! Tricky to make but worth it YUM!
So our first country meal went really well and we hope to do one each Saturday and worked out it will take us about 4 years to do them all!!
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Well its going to take a little longer than that as we found it quite a lot of work organising ingredients and researching countries so after doing a few weeks we decided to make it fortnightly and then after a couple more we decided we would do them as and when we could fit it in! Being busy natural learners we can't always commit to a Saturday with lots of other things going too.
So the country meal has settled down into about 1 a month. Which makes us laugh because it will take about 20 years to finish!! I quite like the idea of my grown up children still visiting me for a country meal once a month!
Main course meat was the traditional Algerian stew using lamb and chickpeas amongst other veg spiced with ras el hanout spice mix which I had to source online. (this was the start of my realisation that we needed more time to prepare!) Unfortunately the kids didn't enjoy this one so all the more for Dad! (that isn't thumbs up in the pic its a point of disgust!)
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Well its going to take a little longer than that as we found it quite a lot of work organising ingredients and researching countries so after doing a few weeks we decided to make it fortnightly and then after a couple more we decided we would do them as and when we could fit it in! Being busy natural learners we can't always commit to a Saturday with lots of other things going too.
So the country meal has settled down into about 1 a month. Which makes us laugh because it will take about 20 years to finish!! I quite like the idea of my grown up children still visiting me for a country meal once a month!
ALBANIA
Albania is our second country, unfortunately I don't have any pictures for this one which is a shame because it is an interesting mix of foods.
For starter Albanians traditionally have what is called a Meze, its a mix of meats and cheeses with olives and salad. We served ours on a big platter and really enjoyed sampling all the different styles of cold meat and cheese.
The main course veggie option was Byrek which is a kind of filo pastry pie with spinach and feta cheese, it was a mixed reaction to this with half liking it and the other not keen at all! Fried meatballs were the meat eaters dish again Albanians love their cheeses so feta was in these too and they got a thumbs up.
Dessert was delicious for those of us with a sweet tooth! Kurabie is a biscuit with yoghurt in and really hit the spot with a yoghurt drink to dip in!
ALGERIA
Starter was a semolina based bread called bouzgene berber bread with a roasted red pepper dip. The bread was a bit strange I think it was the semolina taste that didn't appeal but we all liked the dip so might have to make this again with a hot crusty bread!
Main course meat was the traditional Algerian stew using lamb and chickpeas amongst other veg spiced with ras el hanout spice mix which I had to source online. (this was the start of my realisation that we needed more time to prepare!) Unfortunately the kids didn't enjoy this one so all the more for Dad! (that isn't thumbs up in the pic its a point of disgust!)
The two veggies in the family myself and my eldest tucked into our Algerian tagine with steamed cinnamon cous cous. I might invest in a proper tagine one day but for now we managed this in a large pan and it was nice enough for the disappointed meat eaters to enjoy.
I found it a bit of a strange mix with the aubergines which I must say I am not a fan of this vegetable and neither was Blossom!
Mhalbi with pistachios was the dessert which looked lovely and sounded a good mix of rice, milk, sugar and nuts and were it not for the overpowering taste of rose water I think it would have been ok we all thought it was disgusting lol!! It was our first dish to get 0 out of 10!
Rose water is a very strong flowery taste and we have discovered in other recipes since that it completely dominates the taste of a dish and for us ruins it especially when often you are putting so many spices and flavours in there and then it just tastes of rose water at the end. So we've made a decision to never add it to anything in future even if it is the traditional dish!!
ANDORRA
And then just to carry on our run of 10's the dessert went down just as well with all except Lee who is not really a sweet tooth so we let him off! Coques amb pinyons is a pine nuts pastry and although the kids are not nut fans (they are nuts though!) they really enjoyed this yummy mix of cake ingredients with cinnamon, lemon and pine nuts, especially as we washed it down with a granizado and finished with an iced coffee. Granizado is a kind of lemonade slush and the iced coffee is made with evaporated milk and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar!!! Wow whats not to like!
The 6 lemons take a little getting used to but oh how refreshing lol
Next stop Andorra the sixth smallest nation in Europe and mostly mountainous. The starter is a dish called trinxat which is similar to bubble and squeak utilising cabbage and potato as the main ingredients with a good portion of garlic meant that for me, Lee and Jasmine it tasted better than expected the other two were less keen giving it a 1 out of 10!
Main course for veggies come pescitarian we ate grilled trout with spinach and mushroom for this one as there weren't any suitable vegetarian options.
For the proper meat eaters they chose a Catalan roasted lamb as the stews were not appealing after last weeks similar stew options. In the end only Lee had this and gave it a 7 out of 10 and the rest of us tucked into the fish and gave it a 10 out of 10!! I think we've converted to pescitarians!
And then just to carry on our run of 10's the dessert went down just as well with all except Lee who is not really a sweet tooth so we let him off! Coques amb pinyons is a pine nuts pastry and although the kids are not nut fans (they are nuts though!) they really enjoyed this yummy mix of cake ingredients with cinnamon, lemon and pine nuts, especially as we washed it down with a granizado and finished with an iced coffee. Granizado is a kind of lemonade slush and the iced coffee is made with evaporated milk and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar!!! Wow whats not to like!The 6 lemons take a little getting used to but oh how refreshing lol
ANGOLA
Well the meat eaters really enjoyed this one but unfortunately the soup didn't live up to expectations being such a distinctive mix of flavours from cinnamon and ginger to turmeric and coriander.
It was a shame because it was giving off promising smells in the early stages of cooking.
Warm chocolate pie with vanilla sauce... savour that! Dessert we knew was going to be good with that title! This got 100 out of 10 from Blossom. The chocolate pie was of course delicious but we weren't ready for how much more delicious it could be with the sauce drizzled all over it. So much better than custard!
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
A mountainous region of the former soviet union we were wondering if this was going to be another stew and yes it was for the meat eaters! After a deliciously different starter of Fried halloumi salad we were feeling optimistic about the main course. I had tried halloumi before and have liked but the others hadn't had it before and it got a mixed reaction. The dish was a mix that you put in pitta bread and we all like pitta so for some it was just fill your pitta with salad and leave out the weird fried cheese and melon but for me and Summer we loved it all.
So onto the main course and the stew, Lee wasn't impressed feeling it probably needed doing for longer in the slow cooker.
The veggie option was vegetable kebabs with boulghour pilaf. We really enjoyed making the kebabs its such a fun way to have food picking your stuff and poking into onto your stick or as Blossom called 'charge, stab, kebab!' I loved the bulghour wheat mix but not as keen on the kebabs mainly because I don't like aubergine and even with the yummy glaze it didn't help my least favourite vegetable! The kids were not so keen on the kebabs but loved the make so that's good as the most fun part of this whole thing is getting us in the kitchen trying our hand at different cooking methods. The kids liked the bulghour too so there was plenty to eat
Shakarishee are Armenian sugar cookies which were incredibly sweet with nearly 2 cups of sugar in them! I found them far too sweet but of course the kids loved them!
ARGENTINA
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Stew for Lee again! Armenian lamb stew was the meat main which actually was a good taste but Lee felt it should have cooked for longer to be more tender. For the veggies and those not keen on stew was vegetable kebabs with bulghour pilaf. The girls enjoyed making the kebabs and they looked fabulous but...
...they weren't so happy with the taste!
The bolghour wheat mix was yummy and I thought the kebabs glaze very nice and made the vegetables taste lovely apart from aubergine which I haven't found a dish to like with this veg!
Dessert was shakarashee cookies which translates to sugar cookies and woah with nearly 2 cups of sugar they aren't kidding!! Of course the kids loved these. We also made a traditional Armenian drink called Tahn which is a refreshing mix of yoghurt with mint which the girls enjoyed more when dipping the biscuits in (I'm not sure if that tradition is in Armenia yet!)
After lots of searching we decided to make a main course dish the starter as we were limited on different dishes so we went all out new never been tried before...
Brown rice with fried bananas and grilled prawns on the side! It didn't go down too well with everyonethe peanut butter and banana mix is an acquired taste!
For our main course we went for the choice of either the traditional Angolan vegetable soup or Muamba de Galinha (chicken stew) Oh no not another stew!
It was a shame because it was giving off promising smells in the early stages of cooking.
Not having much to eat I devoured the dessert Bolo de Ananas ( Angolan pineapple cake) This reminded me of a pineapple upside down cake and was yummy with the caramel mix, of course it got stuck in the tin but we just scooped it out as well as we could!
ANGUILLA
Anguilla was interesting for a few reasons firstly we had never heard of it and secondly its a British overseas territory! So there's a lot of English influence but we did manage to find something different, it is the carribean after all!
So the starter was a carribean salad with honey and lime dressing with an optional side order of shrimp!
This was so yummy the flavours on the salad were delicious, apple cider vinegar with honey and lime gave it a fabulous tang that we all enjoyed.
Not everyone liked the shrimp but the salad more than made up for it
For the main course we did grilled chicken or quorn
with barbecue sauce and rice and peas of course!
Only Blossom didn't enjoy this one the rest of us were licking our lips for more! I think the barbecue sauce was made more special for the addition of mango chutney, my favourite!
We all love rice and as long as there isn't any rose water in it we can enjoy any flavour in it so it was good to try with thyme and lime juice, very nice.
Warm chocolate pie with vanilla sauce... savour that! Dessert we knew was going to be good with that title! This got 100 out of 10 from Blossom. The chocolate pie was of course delicious but we weren't ready for how much more delicious it could be with the sauce drizzled all over it. So much better than custard! ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
These two Caribbean countries should have come in here but unfortunately we seem to have missed them out so I'll be back round to finish off any we missed including a trial expedition to Antarctica food in the future!
ARMENIA
A mountainous region of the former soviet union we were wondering if this was going to be another stew and yes it was for the meat eaters! After a deliciously different starter of Fried halloumi salad we were feeling optimistic about the main course. I had tried halloumi before and have liked but the others hadn't had it before and it got a mixed reaction. The dish was a mix that you put in pitta bread and we all like pitta so for some it was just fill your pitta with salad and leave out the weird fried cheese and melon but for me and Summer we loved it all. 
So onto the main course and the stew, Lee wasn't impressed feeling it probably needed doing for longer in the slow cooker. 
The veggie option was vegetable kebabs with boulghour pilaf. We really enjoyed making the kebabs its such a fun way to have food picking your stuff and poking into onto your stick or as Blossom called 'charge, stab, kebab!' I loved the bulghour wheat mix but not as keen on the kebabs mainly because I don't like aubergine and even with the yummy glaze it didn't help my least favourite vegetable! The kids were not so keen on the kebabs but loved the make so that's good as the most fun part of this whole thing is getting us in the kitchen trying our hand at different cooking methods. The kids liked the bulghour too so there was plenty to eat 
Shakarishee are Armenian sugar cookies which were incredibly sweet with nearly 2 cups of sugar in them! I found them far too sweet but of course the kids loved them!
We had Tahn to drink which is a minty yoghurt mix, I liked this one but the kids weren't overly impressed until they dipped the biscuits in!!
ARGENTINA
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Lee was very excited about this one as it meant he could have steak! What he didn't know was that he was going to discover an amazing sauce to go with it.
The starter introduced us to the chimichurri sauce that Argentinians seem to have with everything. Choripan is a sandwich sold on the streets of Argentina from stalls like our hot dog stands. The choripan is a baguette filled with sausage but what makes it is the chimichurri sauce. Its delicious blend of spice, garlic and herbs that has a kick to it that the kids weren't overly keen on but me and Lee loved.
Chimichurri on steak for main course meant that Lee ended up with a plate full of steak as the girls opted out. For the vegetarians it was black bean chimichurri salad with chunky chips. Yep you guessed it the kids had chips for tea!
Pudding was salted caramel pots made with dark and milk chocolate and double cream, I don't think there was any complaints there with no chimchurri in sight!
The starter of fried halloumi with salad and melon was the first time some of us had tried this salty cheese. Fortunately filling pitta breads with what you liked meant that everyone could eat! Some were not keen on the melon I would have liked it more without balsamic vinegar, I find it too strong a taste.
The starter introduced us to the chimichurri sauce that Argentinians seem to have with everything. Choripan is a sandwich sold on the streets of Argentina from stalls like our hot dog stands. The choripan is a baguette filled with sausage but what makes it is the chimichurri sauce. Its delicious blend of spice, garlic and herbs that has a kick to it that the kids weren't overly keen on but me and Lee loved.
Chimichurri on steak for main course meant that Lee ended up with a plate full of steak as the girls opted out. For the vegetarians it was black bean chimichurri salad with chunky chips. Yep you guessed it the kids had chips for tea!
Pudding was salted caramel pots made with dark and milk chocolate and double cream, I don't think there was any complaints there with no chimchurri in sight!
ARMENIA
The starter of fried halloumi with salad and melon was the first time some of us had tried this salty cheese. Fortunately filling pitta breads with what you liked meant that everyone could eat! Some were not keen on the melon I would have liked it more without balsamic vinegar, I find it too strong a taste.
Stew for Lee again! Armenian lamb stew was the meat main which actually was a good taste but Lee felt it should have cooked for longer to be more tender. For the veggies and those not keen on stew was vegetable kebabs with bulghour pilaf. The girls enjoyed making the kebabs and they looked fabulous but...
...they weren't so happy with the taste!
The bolghour wheat mix was yummy and I thought the kebabs glaze very nice and made the vegetables taste lovely apart from aubergine which I haven't found a dish to like with this veg!Dessert was shakarashee cookies which translates to sugar cookies and woah with nearly 2 cups of sugar they aren't kidding!! Of course the kids loved these. We also made a traditional Armenian drink called Tahn which is a refreshing mix of yoghurt with mint which the girls enjoyed more when dipping the biscuits in (I'm not sure if that tradition is in Armenia yet!)
ARUBA
Cries of 'Aruba, Aruba, Aruba' to be told no its not that close to Mexico and you are thinking of Ariba! Aruba is a tiny Dutch Caribbean Island and the food is a mix of Dutch, English, Spanish and Caribbean. We went as close to the Caribbean traditional as we could starting with Bolita di Keshi. These cheesy fried balls were easy to make and exciting to watch cooking.
We all liked the Bolita di Keshi and the salad with fresh tuna and shrimp was a lovely flavour I just wouldn't bother with fresh tuna next time as it tasted just like tinned for quadruple the price!!
Main course was citrus chicken or citrus quorn fillets for the veggies! with potato salad. It was mixed feelings on this, I thought the flavours were lovely I gave it 10 out of 10 but Blossom didn't like anything and gave it 0 out of 10!! Afters was called forgotten pudding and was a lush mix of soft meringue style topping over a caramelised sugar base, yum!
AUSTRALIA
Well Lee's least favourite way to cook is barbecue!! Lol yep you guessed it gday mate we're having a barbie!!
For starters we made chorizo croquettes, pineapple coleslaw, prawn & avacado skewers with seafood sauce and dampers. Wow what a lot to fit on a small barbecue! No actually we cheated and made the dampers in the oven but we have since made this whilst camping and it is far superior to cook them on sticks over a fire, but that said everybody loved the oven made ones. The croquettes were a bit doughy and it is always the worry with barbecue cooking whether you have cooked the food through enough. The pineapple coleslaw was lush to alll except Jasmine who is not a fan of pineapple.
Main course had to be burgers and we made a potato salad for the side.
Nobody liked the potato salad as it was too vinegary! And burgers cooked with egg and bacon on top were a strange new taste that some liked and some found too weird!
When we looked into traditional Australian food it did come up bush
tucker so we attempted this for our dessert using a bowl of dried fruits and nuts. We
didn't include insects and bugs though! Our first taste of macademia
nuts went down very well. Unfortunately the lemon sorbet champagne drink to go with it was not received well!
AUSTRIA
Luckily for us for Austria we have an Austrian friend who gave us the heads up for the best recipes. We loved the names of the dishes so here goes..
Starter was Griessnockerl and nudelsuppe which together are dumplings and soup
All except Jasmine liked the soup, she found it too watery (we are used to thick soups) the rest of us loved the flavours though but we weren't so keen on the dumplings.
Main course was schnitzel with Austrian Caesar salad, the meat eaters had pork and the veggies quorn fillets. Lee felt the pork a bit bland with unnecessary breadcrumbs, Jasmine and I found the veggie option nice and loved the salad, in fact everyone loved the salad so that was a success.
The dessert was looked forward to by us all.. Kaiserschmarren and Palatschinken, well once we found out they were pancakes! The difference being that one was with rum and raisins in the pancake mix and the other spread with apricot jam once cooked. Rather than our usual rolled up pancakes in the pan the pancakes get shredded once cooked so the girls weren't too happy with their plateful of mess!Of course I loved the rum and raisin and I liked the shredding idea but I was the only one, nobody liked the apricot and I was talked into making the rest of the mix into tidy pancakes!!
AZERBAIJAN
Being near Armenia we wondered if the recipes would be similar, however we found it was quite different. First up was a traditional yoghurt soup, yes you heard me right! A dougha is made with 2 litres of thick plain yoghurt and Lee was quite pleased with his first ever yoghurt soup!
We all liked the flavour it was a little like a raita dip
The main course shakh plov which is a flavoured basmati rice with dried fruit and nuts placed inside a tortilla parcel then baked. I loved the rice it was so full of flavour but I was not too keen on the baked tortillas around it although it looked good! The kids seem to prefer the crispy tortilla to the rice!
The main course shakh plov which is a flavoured basmati rice with dried fruit and nuts placed inside a tortilla parcel then baked. I loved the rice it was so full of flavour but I was not too keen on the baked tortillas around it although it looked good! The kids seem to prefer the crispy tortilla to the rice!
We also made Shishlik (kebabs) to go with. Traditionally meat for the veggies we made vegetable alternative.
Jasmine loved making the pudding Baklava, it looked fabulous and we all loved eating it, Summer and Blossom took the nuts off as they aren't keen on walnuts. I thought they added to it but then I'm a nut fan!
A tropical island has to have a tropical dish so we made ours the starter. Delicious pineapple, melon, lychees, mango, papaya, passion fruit and coconut and makes a stunning centrepiece. Everyone liked something from the platter.
The starter for Bahrain is a traditional Bahraini kebab and this is a long way from what we think of when we think kebab! These kebabs are made from gram flour so like a bread but fried rather than baked. Garam masala and chilli powder flavoured the kebabs with a mix of onion, garlic and tomato that made these delicious. They were a big hit with everyone, we all could have eaten more. The kebab is served with a yoghurt dip which is made with lemons, mint and garlic, we all found the lemon too much but would do again and just reduce the amount.
We were really looking forward to this country as we love a good curry. Just look at all thoses lovely spices! Help was definitely needed in the kitchen!
In Bangladesh you eat with your right hand, no cutlery! Well that was messy! lol
Those of us that find the spicy too much for our palate went for a prawn curry that actually turned out quite spicy but was sooo yummy I couldn't stop eating even though I was sweating from my eyes!!
BAHAMAS
A tropical island has to have a tropical dish so we made ours the starter. Delicious pineapple, melon, lychees, mango, papaya, passion fruit and coconut and makes a stunning centrepiece. Everyone liked something from the platter.
For main course Lee went for barbecue ribs without the barbecue outside this time! I made orange grilled fish kebabs and we all shared the side of rice and peas.
The ribs were a little too spicy for some,
I loved the fish flavours, the marinade of orange soy sauce and ketchup went surprisingly well! Sadly the rice wasn't as flavourful as I had hoped.
I loved the fish flavours, the marinade of orange soy sauce and ketchup went surprisingly well! Sadly the rice wasn't as flavourful as I had hoped.
Banana fritters were fun to make although Summer wasn't keen on the taste but then she only likes bananas as they are. The rest of us couldn't get enough of those fried up sweets!! Drinks of rum to finish off for me and Lee oh yum I love my rum! or a juice made of coconut water for the kids.
BAHRAIN
This caused a stir between us as Lee was keen to skip this country out as it has such a poor human rights record but I stuck to our original plan of countries of the world foods. We have done a few countries that have questionable politics already but its always been about the food and I think this is a good way to look at a country through its lovely food traditions that way we can remind ourselves that there are probably a lot of peolpe like us there but perhaps stuck in a regime that is difficult to speak out against.
The starter for Bahrain is a traditional Bahraini kebab and this is a long way from what we think of when we think kebab! These kebabs are made from gram flour so like a bread but fried rather than baked. Garam masala and chilli powder flavoured the kebabs with a mix of onion, garlic and tomato that made these delicious. They were a big hit with everyone, we all could have eaten more. The kebab is served with a yoghurt dip which is made with lemons, mint and garlic, we all found the lemon too much but would do again and just reduce the amount.
Traditional bahraini chicken machboos for the main course was completely spoiled for us by the rose water!! We have had this rose water before and it has such an overpowering taste. Its so sad when you have spent all afternoon frying up spices such as turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and even the traditional baharat spice mix filling the kitchen with all those lovely spice smells to have it all taste like rose water at the end yuk! Never again we have all sworn the oath if we ever see rose water in a recipe we won't use it!
Luckily pudding was gorgeous, date and walnut pudding was always going to be good for me its one of my favourite grandma cakes! This one was a hot pudding served with cream delish!
BANGLADESH
We were really looking forward to this country as we love a good curry. Just look at all thoses lovely spices! Help was definitely needed in the kitchen!
I found a great resource online - The Asian Cookshop catered for everything I couldn't find in the local shops
As the Bangladeshi's have a platter (wooden board) on the floor with a mix of dishes to try we enjoyed mixing it up a bit on the lounge floor with a lentil dal and paneer chole to start.
I love a good dal and this was exactly that, we all tucked in with our paratha (similar to nan bread), this we thought was better than nan bread so I will definately make again.
In Bangladesh you eat with your right hand, no cutlery! Well that was messy! lol
The paneer chole was a chickpea curry with cheese and it was very nice, the cheese took on the flavours and kept solid so it was a bit like tofu. The curry wasn't too hot so we could all eat it.
For the main course Lee tried his hand at a beef vindaloo which turned out brilliantly and he and summer really enjoyed (that surprised us so she'll be having more spicy stuff in future!).
Those of us that find the spicy too much for our palate went for a prawn curry that actually turned out quite spicy but was sooo yummy I couldn't stop eating even though I was sweating from my eyes!!
I did a plain basmati rice to go with everything as there was so much flavour and it had took most of the day to prepare!
Now for the afters... the pièce de résistance!
Golap pitha (sweet rose) are the most amazing looking dessert, we enjoyed making them and actually following a youtube video we found they were easier than they look. Everyone made a rose and then they were fried till golden then soaked in cinnamon syrup. Wow they were as good as they looked.
We enjoyed the traditional drinks of Nimbu pani, a lime juice drink that was so refreshing and went well alongside the meal. At the end we just squeezed in a cold coffee! Strange but rather nice especially with the ice cream in!! Later in the week I bought a traditional tea spice which was yummy and we tried some Indian sweets that were very sweet but not quite to our tastes.
