Guinea

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My knowledge of Guinea before I started this challenge, I could have written on my smallest toenail!  I now know that its on the west coast of Africa and it’s capital is Conakry.   Guinea’s National Park of Upper Niger is inhabited by many species but most notably the Giant Pangolin, a scaly anteater, the meat of which is controversially consumed as a delicacy in China & Vietnam.  I also discovered that there are 30 restaurants in Guinea, according to Trip advisor, 7 of which serve pizza!!  My recipe research presented me with Kansiye (stew), Sauce feuille (spinach stew) and Soupou Gertö (chicken sauce with sweet potatoes), the latter is the recipe I decided to cook.
My rating: 5/10 – mainly because it was a little bit too spicy for me to enjoy it.  It might have been improved if we’d had rice with it.

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This is how I made it:
Ingredients for 2 people
600g chicken pieces (I used thighs & breast, skin on)
1 & 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt, black pepper & chilli powder (according to taste)
1 & 1/2 cups water
2 small cloves of garlic
1 fresh tomato, roughly chopped
1 med onion, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, roughly chopped
1 chicken stock cube
250g sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
150g butternut squash, peeled & cubed
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 bay leaf
1/3 scotch bonnet chilli pepper (optional) – I used a whole green jalapeno pepper as I couldn’t find a scotch bonnet
Vegetable oil
Place the chicken pieces in a bowl with the lemon juice, salt, pepper and chilli powder and let it marinate for 1 hour or more.
Place the spring onions, onions and garlic in a food processor with the tomatoes, crumbled stock cube, 1/2 cup water, salt and pepper and blend.
Heat the oil in a stock pot and cook the chicken pieces until browned on all sides.
Once the chicken is browned, add all the other ingredients to the pot and simmer over a medium heat for 25 minutes or until the squash and sweet potatoes are soft, serve either on its own or with rice.
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Cyprus

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I have 2 distinct food memories from my first trip to Cyprus.  The first was of Crêpe Suzette – not a Cypriot dish obviously, but it seemed to be the chosen dessert in the restaurants of Ayia Napa in 1990!  I’ve loved it ever since.  The second was a little more authentic, a simple barbecued chicken in a restaurant with no menu, in the heart of the Troodos mountains – it had such an amazing flavour.

I found a number of recipes, namely Tavas (lamb stew), Kaloirka (tortellini) and Loukoumades (doughnuts). I came across a fair few Turkish and Greek originated dishes but I wanted to select something authentically Cypriot, so I decided on Afelia (pork with red wine and spices).  I served it with red peppers stuffed with cherry tomatoes & fried potatoes.  I used pork fillet, but I’d like to try pork shoulder next time.
My rating 8/10
This is the really easy recipe I followed:
Ingredients
500g pork
200ml red wine
1 tbs coriander, crushed
2 tbsps olive oil
salt, pepper
roughly chopped parsley to garnish
Method
Cut the meat into small pieces and marinate in the red wine and coriander overnight.
Drain and reserve the marinade.
Heat the oil and fry the meat in batches on a medium heat until slightly brown.
Add salt, pepper and the remaining marinade
Add some water, enough to reach the top of the meat.
Cover the pan and simmer until the meat is tender (approx 30-40 mins)
Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley

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Singapore

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Day one of my challenge, I’m starting simple with Singapore.  I have a little bit of an inkling as I’ve actually been there 🙂
Friends suggested a few ideas – Chilli crab, Laksa and some others I came across – Hokkien Mee (noodle soup) , Murtabak (stuffed pancake).  In my endeavours to start my project off on a positive note I opted for the relatively straight forward Hainanese Chicken.
There were a fair few recipes on the web with varying levels of difficulty and duration but I opted for the one below.
I found it simple to follow and the end result was enjoyable.  It was fresh tasting and healthy.  I might be tempted to add some coriander leaves and a few fresh chilli strands to give it an even fresher zing!
My rating – 7/10.
This is the recipe I followed:
Ingredients
1.6 kg chicken
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
6 slices root ginger, plus 2 tbsp grated root ginger
4–5 garlic cloves
400 g long-grain white rice
salt
4 spring onions thinly sliced
chilli sauce to serve
Method
Place the chicken in a large saucepan so that it fits snugly.
Cover with water, then add the rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, sliced ginger and one of the garlic cloves, lightly bruised.
Cover with a lid and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and allow to stand for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, strain and reserve the stock. When the chicken is cool enough to handle pull the meat away from the bones. Discard the bones and most of the skin (reserve some for later).
Cut the chicken meat into small pieces.
Heat a large heavy-based saucepan over medium–high heat. Fry the reserved chicken skin until the oil is released. Chop the remaining garlic cloves and add to the pan with the grated root ginger. Cook for 1–2 minutes, or until just fragrant, taking care not to burn the garlic. Remove the chicken skin from the pan, then add the rice and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until all the flavours are well combined.
Add 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) of the reserved stock. Season with the salt, cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the rice is cooked and the stock has been absorbed.
Remove from the heat and keep warm until ready to serve.
Heat the remaining stock to use as a broth.
Check the seasoning, adding more soy sauce if needed.
To serve, spoon the rice into bowls, add a ladle of hot stock and some pieces of the cooked chicken. Sprinkle with the spring onions and serve with chilli sauce.

How to start?

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It’s really difficult to know where to start or how to approach this challenge, so I am going to have a bit of a practice run. For 2 weeks I’m going to see how long it takes to do my research, select the recipes, buy the ingredients, cook the recipe and then write the blog.
After several Google searches, I have a list of 196 countries.  Yesterday I printed out all the countries & put them in a pot, except I seem to only have 195 (likely due to poor scissor use!) … so when I pick my last set of countries from the pot, I’ll find out which is the missing one and save it for the final recipe!
The 9 countries I’ve randomly picked from the pot to feature over the next 2 weeks starting from tomorrow (yikes!) are:-
       Singapore
       Iraq
       Bhutan
       Guinea
       Central African Republic
       Kyrgyzstan
       Haiti
       Cyprus
       Panama

The challenge

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Inspired by a TED talk I recently listened to by Ann Morgan, I’ve decided to set myself a challenge.  Two of my greatest passions are food & travel, so I am going to cook a recipe from every country in the world over the course of a year.  Not quite Julie & Julia (one of my favourite films), but an exciting foodie adventure none the less.
I would like to think that I’m quite an adventurous cook, but the reality is that I stick to what I know, both in ingredients and recipes.  So in order to broaden my culinary skills and experience .. this is my challenge!
I really want to ensure that I cook authentic recipes that originate from their respective countries, so I am appealing to my friends to help me ‘keep it real’ and if you know of or find any relevant recipes, please do share them with me.
Wish me luck!