Syria - Kibbeh
Kibbeh recipe from https://www.themediterraneandish.com/kibbeh-recipe/
Salad recipe from https://www.syriancooking.com/2010/07/08/syrian-everyday-salad/
Syria's national dish is Kibbeh, which is spiced ground meat (beef in my case) and pine nuts in a crunchy shell made of a mixture of beef, bulgur wheat and onion, and fried until brown. The spices used are allspice, cinnamon and coriander, which leads to a sweeter mix than you might expect.
The kibbeh were a lot more filling than expected; I managed 4 of the 6 pictured here. I served them with a traditional every-day salad from Syria of cucumber, green pepper and tomato with mint and parsley, as well as a minted yoghurt dressing for dipping.
Italy - Ragu alla Bolognese
Recipe from https://www.recipesfromitaly.com/bolognese-sauce-recipe/
Another familiar dish, Italy's national dish of Ragu alla Bolognese. Naturally, I made the pasta from scratch and served with the rich sauce of beef, pancetta and tomato. I did, however, learn a lot from this about how to make a more traditional bolognese, something I have bastardised many a time for a quick dinner. The recipe (which I am assuming is fairly authentic, being that the website is called recipesfromitaly.com) calls for milk to be added at the end of the sauce cooking process to "dampen the acidity of the tomato". The dish was finished off with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano.
Israel - Falafel
Recipe from https://www.haaretz.com/food/EXT.premium.EXT-RECIPE-make-your-own-authentic-israeli-style-falafel-balls-1.9990037
Israel's national dish of falafel is one I am very familiar with, being an excellent choice for anyone out there following a plant based diet. For those unfamiliar, falafel is a spiced and herbed fried ball made predominantly of chickpeas. I have served it here with pitta and a small salad of cucumber and green pepper, along with a beetroot houmous, a tahini sauce and a mango amba sauce.
This recipe made particularly green falafel which were very strongly coriander flavoured, and I liked the way this complemented the various sauces, when eaten all together inside the pitta.
South Africa - Bobotie
Recipe from https://www.africanbites.com/bobotie/#wprm-recipe-container-582993
South Africa's national dish is Bobotie, a moussaka-like dish of sweet, curried meat under an egg custard. Unfortunately, I was too excited by eating it and forgot to take a photograph of it served up onto the plate. The mince mixture is quite complex, with a combination of mince, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, dried herbs, apple, raisins, worcestershire sauce and, most interestingly in my opinion, a fair amount of fruit chutney. The savoury egg custard topping was quite frittata-esque, flavoured with bay, and complemented the sweeter meat very well.
Equatorial Guinea - Succotash
Recipe from https://foreignfork.com/succotash/
Equatorial Guinea's national dish is corn succotash, traditionally eaten as a main or as a side dish, and is the simplest dish I have made so far. It is a mixture of beans, corn, onion, garlic and cherry tomatoes spiced with garlic and onion powder along with thyme and basil. I think this is a dish I need to revisit, as I'm not sure I did the best job of this, and I think I needed to have a main dish to serve this alongside of.