We started with Group F because we have neighbors who are good cooks and who have lived in countries in almost every other group except Group F. We are hoping to draft these neighbors into the World Cup Café project, cheerfully or not, either way. But they were unavailable (and perhaps suspicious) when we approached them about this idea on Sunday morning. And we have to get started on this thing.

So…it was just us four for the Group F debut of the 2010 Word Cup Café.

I have the concept that the boys will help me cook all this food, and they do like to cook. However, with the weather pretty close to perfect outside, they didn’t want to spend much time in the kitchen Sunday evening. So instead C took a few minutes to create a “soccer report” and E colored flags from each country–and then they ran back outside to play until dinnertime.

The Soccer Report (Complaints over misspelling of key players’ names or misrepresentation of national banners should be addressed to the boyz…)

Italy (defending World Cup champion) is favored to win Group F with one of the finest keepers in the world: Gianluigi Buffon. Captain Fabio Cannavaro is good, also midfielder Gennaro Gattuso. Team name: the Azzuri, which is a shade of blue.

Paraguay is not favored to win Group F, but is favored to advance. Watch for F. Roque Santa Cruz, Oscar Cardozo and Nelson Haeddo Valdez up front.

Slovakia is not favored to advance. Martin Skrtel, Marek Hamsik and Stanislav Sestak are good.

New Zealand is not favored to advance. Ryan Nelsen is a good defender. Also Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen are good. People call the team the All Whites.

C’s Group F Summary:

Italy should have an easy time advancing if not winning Group F. Paraguay should be able to advance if they play hard. On the bottom half, New Zealand and Slovakia will try their hardest to upset one of the top teams. Overall, I think it’s going to be an OK group to watch.

I don’t have much to add except that New Zealand’s Ryan Nelsen is a former Stanford soccer star. And Nelsen has promised to leave South Africa if his wife delivers early, which is kind of sweet and kind of a PR stunt, since she’s not due until long after group play ends and C’s note “New Zealand is not favored to advance” could be considered a polite understatement.

The Food Report

If the Italian team is heavily favored to win Group F, so should Italy win a food battle in a household where 3/4 of the residents are Italian American. No doubt if Grandma Steph were here, Italy would have walked away with this. In fact, hard to imagine the younger diners would have eaten any of the other food. However, in this case the cook dropped some pretty high hurdles in Italy’s path (intentionally and accidentally). Still Italy squeaked out a victory with New Zealand coming second, Paraguay third and Slovakia fourth.

It doesn't LOOK too peppery

Meal-planning did not go Italy’s way. With Paraguayan cornbread on the menu, I decided there should be some kind of soup, which I assigned to Italy, while New Zealand drew the coveted dessert category. Now, I actually can make really good Minestra Maritata (a.k.a. Wedding Soup). But I realized at the last minute I should probably make it vegetarian, since one of the only four people eating this meal was now a veg-head. This necessitated a last minute switch from delicious homemade meatballs to “veatballs” which, let’s face it, don’t taste as good and don’t give the soup delicious meaty flavor as it simmers. I added some tomato to compensate (it’s not usually a tomato-ey soup). That was OK. But then I put in too much pepper. I don’t usually do things like that. What can I say? Good cooks (like good soccer players/teams) can have bad days. Still with the +1 bonus for “significant incorporation of vegetables” the soup scored an average 7.8 out of 10.

Our Pretty Pavlova

In contrast, the Pavlova (I know it sounds Russian, but it was invented in a New Zealand hotel for ballerina Ana Pavlova) turned out pretty nicely. New Zealand’s raw score actually topped Italy’s, but after the vegetable bonus/dessert penalty was applied, New Zealand fell just short with 7.6 out of 10

Sopa Paraguaya took third… I’ve never had Sopa Paraguaya prepared by actual Paraguayans, but I have made it before…four years ago during the last World Cup Café project (probably because it’s what comes up on the internet when you Google “national dish of Paraguay”). It’s not soup. It’s cornbread. This one had a good texture and lots of corn flavor, kernels, etc. But it turns out I’m the only person in my family who actually likes cornbread. Who knew? Average score: 4.75 out of 10

The most unusual dish (to us) in the meal was Bryndzové Halusky from Slovakia…sort of a cross between gnocchi and spaetzle with sheep’s milk cheese and bacon. Probably a lot of technical errors in preparing this dish…needless to say, I have never made Bryndzové Halusky before. I can’t even pronounce it. I won’t say you can’t find unpasturized Slovakian sheep’s milk cheese in the Bay Area, because someone will send me a link. I’ll just say I substituted a soft French sheep’s milk feta. I think my halusky batter was a little too thin and the holes in the colander I used a little too small…anyway, the halusky glommed together a bit.

Still here is a comparison between my Bryndzove Halusky (alongside some Sopa Paraguaya) and “real” Bryndzove Halusky.

Paraguay and Slovakia on a plate

Bryndzove Halusky

So you know, I’m on the right page. Actually, A found this surprisingly tasty. C and I thought it was OK. It would have easily beat Sopa Paraguaya, except E detested it. (But he did pick off all the bacon to eat.) Average score: 4.6 out of 10

RECIPES

Bryndzové Halusky (Slovakia)

• 1 lb white, starchy potatoes – not waxy
• 1 cup milk
• plain (all purpose) flour
• salt
• 12 oz. sheep’s milk cheese
• fried bacon pieces

In a large bowl, grate all the potatoes to a pulp. Add the milk, salt to taste and enough flour to form a thick batter that holds its shape when dropped from a spoon. Press batter through a large-holed colander into boiling water (or use a spaetzle maker) OR put the batter onto a board, tilt over the water and slice/flick off bits with a sharp knife that you periodically dip in water to prevent sticking. Halusky are cooked when they have risen to the surface. Scoop them with slotted spoon into a bowl until the batter is all used up.  If necessary, reheat the halusky in a pan with a little butter, mix in cheese until it’s melted and top with crumbled bacon.

Pavlova (New Zealand)

• 4 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup superfine sugar (or run regular sugar through your food processor)
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sliced kiwifruit and berries
• 1-1/2 cups lightly sweetened whipped cream
• 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a shallow jelly roll pan with parchment paper or silpat liners. Sprinkle cream of tartar over egg whites and beat until stiff. Whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Add the mixture to the egg whites a tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed, until all is combined. The meringue should be shiny, white, and stiff. Fold in vanilla.

Reduce oven heat to 200 F. Mound the meringue on the pan in a round shape about 6 inches in diameter. Bake for 1 hour. Turn off oven, leaving meringue in the oven until it is cold (or at least cooled down…you can leave it an hour or two or all the way overnight).

Arrange fruit over the base of the pavlova meringue, top with whipped cream, and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Use a serrated knife to gently saw slices.

Sopa Paraguaya (Paraguay)

This sounds like it would be soup, but it’s not. It’s cornbread.

(6-8 servings)

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 large sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup farmer’s cheese or cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup grated muenster or other mild cheese
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup corn kernels, grated off the cob
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 eggs, separated

Melt 2 T butter in a skillet and pour into mixing bowl. Melt additional 2 T butter and cook the onions over moderate heat until tender but not brown. Add cottage cheese (or farmer’s cheese) to melted butter in bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Add grated cheese, cooked onions, cornmeal, corn, salt, milk, egg yolks, and mix thoroughly. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and fold them into the batter. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8 “baking pan and bake in a preheated 400F oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Vegetarian Minestra Marirata (Italian Wedding Soup)

Real Minestra Marirata is not tomato-ey, but it’s not vegetarian either. To me, this soup needed some tomato to liven it up a little without the meat, hence I threw in some tomato sauce and a big diced up tomato. If you make it with real homemade meatballs and a good chicken stock, it doesn’t want the tomato. Also, you can put in any kind of greens…I had spinach, but I think escarole is more traditional and kale and/or chard can also be good. Don’t put in too much pepper

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup white onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (optional)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• a large bunch of spinach, washed dried and torn
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 diced tomato (optional)
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup Acini di Pepe (or other small pasta such as Orzo)
• package frozen meatless meatballs
• fresh herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, etc.) to taste

Heat olive oil in heavy stock pot. Add onion and sauté until transluscent. Add garlic for a quick minute (until you can smell it). Add spinach and cook another minute. Add broth, sauce, wine, bayleaf and pepper, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Bring soup back to a boil. Add pasta and meatballs and fresh herbs (basil, parsley, chives) to taste, simmer 10 minutes more.

Four years ago, we combined these two ideas into the World Cup Café project. Our goal: cook something from each of the countries participating in the World Cup during the run-up to the start of competition. It took a lot of internet research and a little help from our friends, we nearly destroyed our kitchen, and we didn’t quite make our deadline (but we came close)! Of course, as our boys were involved, the whole thing became a competition and all dishes received scores (adjusted to compensate for the obvious dessert-bias). As in the World Cup itself, many results were predictable, but there was the occasional surprise (most notably the unexpected triumph of Montenegrin Kacamak or Fatty Porridge which sounds nasty in either language but is, in fact, delicious).

Anyway, we’re at it again. We’re working through the 8 qualifying groups, in any order that strikes us, cooking meals with at least one dish from each country in the group. And, yes, we welcome the participation of friends (especially those bearing food from countries we know little about)! So let us know when you’ll be whipping up your best Slovenian dish and come on over…

I am not an “accomplished” person. I love the *idea* of being accomplished.  But the thing itself suggests a certain application of patient, sequential effort over time.  This is not my specialty.

My short attention span tends to get in the way, quite frankly. My older son, who I’m beginning to think might have a Quote-of-the-Month calendar stowed away somewhere, informed me the other day that “A lot of things are easy to learn, but hard to master.”

Yeah, well.  I might add that a lot of things are *interesting* to learn but *boring* to master (but I didn’t, Because that is not the sort of message you are supposed to pass along to children for whom you are legally and morally responsible).

Anyway, most things I can do, I can only sort of do.  I can sort of speak French, sort of play the piano, sort of understand how computers work and sort of train a dog.

And I can sort of cook.  Now, there are people who would say that I can *really* cook, but let me make it clear–a *real* cook is the person who can whip up a lovely meal with a few things from the farmers market and the stuff in your pantry you thought you’d never get rid of.  When a *real* cook makes dinner, the kitchen still looks nice afterwards.  A *real* cook has good quality knives she always keeps sharpened and the one excellent saucepan she purchased as a graduation gift to herself.

I am a sort of cook.

But here is one thing I can do: I can cook eggs. I poached a lovely egg for myself for breakfast just this morning.  I make excellent poached eggs, perfect boiled eggs and scrambled eggs so good nobody in my family really wants to eat anyone else’s.

OK, it’s not much of an accomplishment, but everyone’s got to have something.