Sahel

I was soooooo relieved to find that all the countries in a big band through the middle of Africa come under the "Sahel Region". This means they all share the same cuisine background- so we could cover them all in one night! Because Grant was away, we cooked the chicken stew recipe that has peanut butter in it. You blend together an onion, capsicum, garlic and tomatoes, and sizzle that with some chicken, more onions, peanut butter and spices. I left out the cayenne and most of the chilli powder or it would be...."too spicey"! It was very very tasty though, nice served with couscous and carrot sticks. Probably more a winter meal though. We didn't listen to African music as we were watching the cricket. Go New Zealand!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tajikistan

O.K, so I actually cooked a meal from Uzbekistan, then realised we had already eaten from there! (I guess that's not too bad if it's the only time that's happened!) I even cooked a similar meal: lamb and carrot pilaf. It was nice, but a bit dull for our travel seasoned palettes (ha ha ha). Anyway, they must eat the same sort of thing in Tajikistan, mustn't they? So we've knocked that one off. Also, a very late entry which Grant was supposed to post last week....

Papua New Guinea

We ate from here in the weekend, and as Grant still hasn't posted it: I will! He cooked a dish of mashed potato mixed with beaten egg whites and yolks then baked. It was nice; kind of a cross between mashed spud and souffle. Needed lots of melted butter though...

Panama

We had prepared a Ceviche des Garbanzos (chickpea ceviche) which was to be our dinner on Wednesday night. In Panama, they eat ceviche of fish, chicken, or chickpeas with saltine crackers, cold as an hors d'oeuvre. A ceviche is like a salad, but in the case of fish it uses raw fish and lots of lemon juice which "cooks" it. ANYWAY...we got invited to a barbie so took our ceviche and had it as a salad! It was very tasty. It had chickpeas, raw onions, cooked chorizo, some herbs and spices...it was too long ago-I've forgotten the rest! We are really enjoying trying some interesting vegetarian meals at the moment (well I am anyway!)

Oman

This country gets a huge thumbs up! We ate Chicken Biriyani; chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and layered with spiced rice, then slow cooked. Delicious!!!!! It took a long time to make, by the time I marinated the chicken, soaked the rice, fried the onions, layered it all up then cooked it for 45 minutes, but it was oh so worth it. Niamh's friend Ella was with us tonight, and both the girls came back for seconds... despite the spicy pappadums. ( I cooked up Garlic Pappadums and gave them to three hungry kids while they waited for dinner. They all took one bite, swallowed, then their eyes bulged out of their heads! Without saying a word, all three rushed to the bathroom and starting drinking out of the tap! When I looked closer at the ingredients, it did list green chilli as number three. Whoops...) In traditional Muslim fashion, we ate all our dinner with our right hands. It was kind of fun. We didn't however, eat our dessert with our hands, as it was Creme Caramel! I really did find this recipe on an Omani website, but if anyone can tell me why they eat Creme Caramel in Oman, I'd love to hear it. It was my first time cooking this fabulous dessert, and judging by the wide eyes and 5 minutes of silence around the table, followed by empty bowls, it was worth it. A great meal which we will make again.

Equador

Apparently, while the rest of the Andean region was dominated by the Inca culture, the coast managed to escape its influence and has maintained a very different cooking style. The recipe we cooked tonight, "Pollo en Salsa de Almendras" is an example of this. It was chicken pieces, potatoes, onion and garlic simmered in chicken stock. It was served with a thick sauce made from hard boiled eggs, cooking stock and almonds (yes I made a different sauce for Grant!) It had a very delicate flavour, but the sauce was delicious and quite different from anything we have tried before. We enjoyed listening to some funky latino music.

Slovenia

We're back from our holiday, feeling refreshed and rejeuvenated and keen to try the last few countries remaining on our journey! Tonight we went to the mediterranean country of Slovenia. The food is similar to Italian, but seems to be simpler and less regional. We cooked stuffed peppers: red capsicum boiled until soft, stuffed with a rice and mince mixture, and simmered in tomato puree and chicken stock. It was really nice! Niamh especially loved it, she says it is so good. We served it with some fresh summer vegetables, and a good lug of really good olive oil. It's great to be back!