Suriname and French Guiana

Well, we only had 2 little gaps left to fill in last night, and they were next to each other, so we did them together. Rake gave us a great recipe for white bean fritters from French Guiana, which we cooked and really enjoyed, and we made spicy chicken and rice from Suriname. It was cooked with ginger, garlic, onions and some other spices and soy sauce. Delicious! And now, we have coloured in the whole world, except for Antarctica. We are looking into finding out what they eat down there. It's hard to believe that our map, which started out all white, is now almost all coloured in orange. It has taken 120 meals and about 9 months, but we have done it! Look out for our meal (hopefully) from Antarctica, and then the final fling-a massive seafood platter from the world's oceans. WOW!

Jordan

This was a bit of a cheat dinner, because it was a hot night and we really felt like a barbeque, and we discovered that they eat shish kebabs in Jordan! So we made authentic kebabs with chicken, tomato, capsicum, mushrooms and courgettes and Grant barbied them. They were great! We did a very un-Jordanian thing though, and ate them in front of them cricket. Oh well, some things are sacred...

Moldova

Another former U.S.S.R country, another meat and potato meal... We ate meat and potato pudding, made from a mashed potato and egg mixture layered with a mince mixture. I found it really plain, and would want to season it a lot if I was to make it again, but the kids loved it! So here we are, 9 months and 115 countries in, and they still love mince and mashed potato.... A very filling meal, it would be lovely in winter. We served it with green veges. Keep checking our blog; we only have Suriname & French Guiana and Jordan to go until our map is all coloured in!

Turkmenistan (and Kryzygstan)

We know these are two different countries, but we've done so many from this region and all their cuisine is the same! And anyway, these guys are neighbours so we know their food is the same. We searched high and low to find a recipe that is not plov/pilaff; or rice and lamb, so were pleased to find this recipe for lemon chicken. It was a whole chicken, rubbed with spices, garlic and onion and roasted. The juices are then mixed with chopped green olives and lemon rind, and poured over the top. It was delicious; quite subtle but still noticably more flavoursome than ordinary roast chicken. And the sauce was nice for the grown-ups. We finished with 4 clear plates, so that must be a sign of approval. Just 2 countries to go!!!!!!

Uruguay

Last night we had black bean tortillas from Uruguay, with thanks to Aunty Rake who provided the black beans and ah, the tortillas... Very nice, we put grated carrot, cheese, sour cream etc in there too. It was a nice change to have burritos without meat. The black beans, however, failed to live up to their promise of being "the magical fruit", and sadly didn't make anyone toot. I'm sorry- was that too much information? On the home straight now; just 3 or 4 countries to go!!!

Armenia

What a foodie treasure-trove this place is! The cuisine is very traditional, and seems to have elements of both Russian and mediterranean food. It was really hard to choose what to make, and although tempted to make a favourite dish with eggplant or lamb, we decided to go slightly outside our comfort zone with a chicken noodle soup (in summer!). It is made from chicken stock, in which you boil egg noodles and poach chicken breast. You then mix in an egg and lots of lemon juice. So what you have is a smooth, thick, creamy soup, with an interesting salt/sour flavour. Kind of one of those love it/hate it things. Jo, Grant and Carter loved it, Niamh hated it! We served it with Armenian lavosh bread; a kind of flat "cracker" bread, which you break into pieces to eat. The website I got the recipe from claims it is the original bread broken in the bible. The music was fantastic-really folky.