World Cup Extravaganza

Never a pair to pass up an excuse to host a party, this weekend we thought we'd celebrate the World Cup through food and drink. We'd decided right at the beginning of the tournament that the menu would be focused around traditional dishes from the top four countries left to battle it out, so leaving it quite a lot to chance whilst still hoping for some international variety!

In the end, we got a real mixed bag, which somehow worked out coming together brilliantly - here's what we came up with...

Brazil
Top of the menu was a big batch of empanadas, with a chicken, chorizo and apricot filling, stuffed into shortcrust pastry. The mini versions we made were perfect buffet food and went down a storm. Jim also had a go at pao de queijo, a Brazilian bread made with cheese. Despite the dough looking a bit like houmous before it was baked, these turned out having a lovely light texture and were a good addition to the feast. As a dessert offering, we made Brigadeiros - like a Brazilian chocolate truffle, these were made using really simple ingredients (just cocoa powder, butter, and condensed milk) but were surprisingly difficult to form into balls due to their sticky texture. They tasted good, but I'm not sure I'd make these again - cake pops behave much better! Brazilian-themed cocktails also featured, with caipirinhas made with the addition of Passoa passion fruit liqueur. Tropical!

Argentina
World-renowned for their top quality barbecued meat, we decided we couldn't go wrong with a bit of a classic - steak and chimichurri sauce. The chimichurri was homemade using a blend of herbs including mint, parsley and dill, added to chilli and cider vinegar. Malbec was our Argentinian drink of choice - Otra Vida to be precise - which was an ideal accompaniment to the meat.

Germany
Another classic - frankfurters and sauerkraut! With all the food that our guests brought along too, we didn't make these with the rest of the buffet. However, they made an excellent 3am feast! To add to this, Laura made her first ever cream cake for the event in the form of a Black Forest gateau (or a schwarzwälderkirschtorte if we're being authentic) and despite a few initial issues regarding presentation, it turned out really well! Drinks-wise, we took the easy option and bought a crate of Becks.

Netherlands
This was possibly the trickiest country to find something interesting and traditional whilst still being easy enough to mass cater. In the end we went for herrings and a cheeseboard of Dutch delights! For drinks we went for gin (of course) and made Dutch Mule cocktails, adding the gin to ginger beer and limes. We also dug a bottle of Advocaat out of the back of the cupboard, although I can't say this was a popular choice on the night!

For a bit more variety we invited our guests to bring along nibbles from an eliminated country. The result was a veritable feast of international cuisine, including deep-fried arancini, tiramisu, hot chicken wings, chorizo and bean stew and homemade lemon and chilli houmous with veggies!

The spread, before the additions from our guests arrived!

The match itself turned out to be a bit on the dull side, but much merriment was had none-the-less and it was a brilliant evening all round.

Cheers,

J&L