United Kingdom - Chicken Tikka Masala
Recipe from https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/madhurs-chicken-tikka-masala/
Kicking this week off with my own home country of the United Kingdom, it's everyone's (in my part of England anyway) favourite curry, chicken tikka masala. Whilst not our official national dish, it's a toss up between this, fish and chips and a full breakfast in my eyes. It's believed that it was invented in Birmingham, but no one quite knows for certain.
The curry itself is chicken (I used thighs) marinated in ginger, garlic, cumin, chilli, paprika and garam masala, and then cooked up in a spiced tomato, onion and yoghurt sauce, and served up, normally with rice (which for whatever reason, I didn't photograph here) and naan. Veg-wise, I don't think green beans are particularly traditional, but as a Brit myself, I thought I could get away with bending the rules a little.
Djibouti -Skoudehkaris
Recipe from http://globaltableadventure.com/recipe/recipe-skoudehkaris/
The best way I can think to describe Djibouti's national dish of skoudehkaris is warming - spiced with, among others, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, the aroma itself is very inviting. Add to this the spice of cayenne (of which I added a considerable amount) and you've got a dish that will warm you right up. The bulk of the dish is lamb, a meat I've found myself eating a lot more regularly since starting this series, tomato, onion and rice. I must say, I think I added a little too much rice to this recipe, but I did definitely enjoy it nonetheless!
Spain - Spanish Omelette
Recipe from https://spanishsabores.com/best-spanish-omelet-recipe/
As a trained chef, one of the first things I learned was how to make the perfect French omelette - cooked on the outside, just cooked on the innards. Spanish omelette is, however, in my opinion, its far superior cousin. Complete with fried onions (which make any recipe 20x better) and potatoes, both fried low and slow in olive oil for that extra depth of flavour, this omelette is more filling and (again, in my opinion) a far more interesting eat. The tortilla* was rather large; I think I used about 12 eggs in total, which kept me fed for a little while. I would say that I over-cooked the middle a little and it could have been a bit more gooey, but all in all a very tasty dinner!
*Not to be confused with Mexican tortillas; according to the very informative https://spanishsabores.com, tortilla originates from "circular food".
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Cevapi
Recipe from https://nationalfoods.org/recipe/national-dish-of-bosnia-and-herzegovina-cevapi/
Bosnia and Herzegovina's cevapi are skinless beef sausages, generally eaten in the way I've presented them here; wrapped in flatbread and served with onion and a cold salad of cucumber, tomato, green pepper and sirene (though I had to substitute for feta). The cevapi were surprisingly interesting to make; the mixture contained minced garlic, beef stock, sparkling water and beef. This all led to a very wet mix, but the sausages still held their shapes well, and were very moist and tasty presumably because of this. This is definitely a recipe I would follow again, though I might try the other serving variation suggested by the recipe of using ciabatta, instead of making my own naan again
Peru - Ceviche
Recipe from https://www.eatperu.com/ceviche-recipe/
Ceviche is a method of cooking fish without any heat, simply by using acid to break down protein in the flesh. Peru's national dish does this using a mixture of lemon and lime juice and marinating chunks of white fish in it until cooked. The fish is then mixed with chilli, ginger and red onion and seasoned to taste. I served this with corn, boiled sweet potato and some sweet poptato crips I made. The result is a very well balanced dish, with the ceviche mix alone supplying all five of the tastes.
I enjoyed this recipe a lot, but I can imagine eating this in a nice warm country as a refreshing end-of-the day meal in the sun would be far more satisfying than eating it on a slightly chilly and overcast English evening in April.