Olympic Food Challenge: Great Britain

Way back in April, when the initial draw for the Olympic Food Challenge took place, a kindly soul* suggested that since I had drawn Great Britain I should cook a four course meal.  The idea being that each course should represent one of the home nations.  Of course I laughed off the idea as sounding like far too much work.

Tonight I have cooked a four course meal, one course for each of the home nations that make up The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland**. 

Starter: Wales - Glamorgan Sausage

I suppose the obvious choice for a light Welsh starter would have been rarebit but I have always had a soft spot for Glamorgan sausages.  For a long time they loitered as a poor vegetarian option on pub menus but I think they are due a come back.  Caerphilly cheese, leek, breadcrumbs, parsley and thyme are mixed together with some beaten egg and formed into sausages.  These are then coated in breadcrumbs and shallow fried.  A very simple and very tasty starter.

Fish Course: Scotland - Smoked Salmon and Oatcakes

Anyone who knows me may well be surprised that I have not picked haggis as the Scottish part of the British meal.  Well, haggis season starts today***, but even if I had managed to shoot a wee beastie this morning, it would still need to be hung for a couple of days before we could eat it.

The other thing synonymous with Scottish cuisine is smoked fish.  From Arbroth Smokies to Cullen Skink, smoked fish gets everywhere.  As we're eating four courses I decided to keep the fish course light and opted for smoked salmon with oatcakes.

Main Course: Ireland - Bacon Chops with Braised Cabbage

I did a fair amount of research for Ireland****.  I wanted to do the kind of dish that turns up on family dinner tables not a cheffy reconstruction, so I was happy when I was told I had to make boiled bacon with cabbage and potatoes.

Those of you who have been following the Olympic Food Challenge may have felt a little queasy earlier this week when we cooked pigs trotters.  We were certainly unsure about how they would turn out.  In fact, we were so unsure that I had bought emergency bacon chops just in case we had to throw the meal in the bin.  Surprisingly we ate the trotters and the chops ended up in the freezer.

Tonight they have been briefly pan fried, not boiled, and finished in the oven.  The cabbage was then braised in the bacon pan to make sure they benefited from the bacony goodness that was left behind.  Served with boiled new potatoes, this is not the most glamorous meal I have cooked in the last two weeks, but it is one of the best.

Dessert: England - Trifle

This was the first dish on the menu.  I love trifle.  Not the hundreds and thousands topped jelly-fest, but the sherry soaked, fresh fruit filled and almond topped grown up version.  We would normally make a huge trifle but as we are going on Holiday tomorrow we decided to make these two dainty individual trifles.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that.  Nineteen dishes, nineteen countries, nineteen days and one challenge.  The Olympic Food Challenge has opened my eyes to ingredients that I have never heard of before.  I have braised more food in two weeks than I have previously.  I have also met, and found a huge amount of admiration for, a group of food bloggers who have helped me cross the finishing line. Thanks for joining me over the last nineteen days.  Thank you for cooking, for blogging and for reading.  And thank you for your support.

*Yes Dan, you!
**I really am a sucker for a challenge!
***The Glorious 12th is not just for grouse.
****I asked J, the 29 year old receptionist at work, who happens to be of Irish decent.

Olympic Food Challenge: Andorra - Trinxat

Unless you have been ignoring me*, or you are new to Tonight's Menu, you would have missed out on my plans to eat the Olympics.  Two years ago, during the World Cup, I had the great idea to base our evening meals on one of the two nations that were playing in the evening kick off.  This opened my eyes to some great new food, which I wouldn't have otherwise discovered.  I wanted to do something similar for the Olympics and came up with the Olympic Food Challenge.

Tonight sees the start of the challenge.  I know that the opening ceremony isn't until Friday but the sport started today with the Team GB Women's football team beating New Zealand 1-0, so the challenge is on.  From my allotted list we thought we would ease ourselves in by cooking Trinxat from Andorra.

Andorra is a tiny country high in the Pyrenees mountains surrounded by France and Spain, specifically Catalonia hence the 'x' in Trinxat, which you pronounce 'ch'.  The recipe for this bubble and squeak style dish can be found here but I have tweaked it for tonight as there are only two of us and we couldn't eat an entire cabbage.

I mashed together cooked potatoes and cabbage, added fried garlic and seasoned the mixture.  The recipe asks for salty pork or bacon and I happened to have some Swillington Farm bacon, which I had been saving for a special occasion.  The bacon was fried and set to one side while we cooked the Trinxat.  The mixture was fried in the pan that the bacon had been cooked in and served in wedges with the bacon and a fried egg.  I'm not sure that this is the kind of healthy meal an athlete might tuck into before an event but I could eat this a couple of times a week.

*I wouldn't blame you

Fusilli with Bacon and Leeks

Scratching around in our cavernous fridge and our usually well stocked store cupboards last night, and again this morning, left us completely uninspired.  We simply couldn't fathom what we could cook from what food we already had.  The miserable weather conditions that we woke to were the muse that I was lacking.  I wanted a hug on a plate.  It was then I remembered a small packet of bacon nestled in the freezer and my food cogs started whirring.

Z scurried to the cellar to save the bacon and arrived back in the kitchen clutching a small amount of chicken.  I must remember to label frozen food stuffs better!  By now we both had our hearts set on an unctuous bowl of pasta, so Z braved the rain on her way home from work just to get some bacon.

The bacon was fried off with a finely shredded leek, some thyme and plenty of black pepper.  A glug of cream was poured in before cooked pasta was added to the sauce.  The dish was finished off with a hand full of parsley, some more black pepper and topped with parmesan cheese.