Andorra - home cooking

Steve cooked: Trinxat with Catalan spinach salad

When we set out on this mission of visiting restaurants around London for every country in the world, we were well aware of the fact that we are in one of the best cities in the world to do such a thing. Surely there must be some kind of culinary representation for every single country in the world?

But then, when you dig a little deeper, you come to realise how small some of the world's countries are. Sao Tome & Prinicpe. San Marino. Lesoto. Andorra.

We did some digging around to see if we could find any restaurant that would serve Andorran food. Ridiculously I considered Mediterranean restaurants before releasing how how landlocked this tiny nation was, on the Spanish-French border. Eventually we realised it was time for Plan B. Time to get into the kitchen

Well actually, that's not strictly true. It was time to consult our good friend Google to discover just what Andorrans eat. And not being big fans of seafood, this was no mean feat. But time and time again, one dish cropped up and became an obvious option. Trinxat. A national dish consisting of potatoes, cabbage and bacon.

The method didn't look too complicated, and in all honesty the result didn't look like it would be all that interesting, so we also opted for the side dish of Catalan spinach salad to go with it.

It was my (Steve's) duty to don the apron and get to work on the meals, which I duly did on chilly Saturday evening in March.

The ingredients for the trinxat were as follows (to serve 4, or the two of us): 1 green cabbage, 1 lb of ptoatoes, 3 strips of thick bacon, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Peel and quarter the potatoes, and core and quarter the cabbage. Crush the garlic. Add them to a large pot of salted water and boil them until soft. Drain the pot and return to a low heat to allow the vegetables to stream dry a little. Roughly mash the cabbage and potatoes with the crushed garlic.

Dice the bacon into small cubes and fry it until fairly crispy. Turn up the heat and add the potato, cabbage and garlic mix on top of the bacon. Press into the pan to make a flat cake. Cook a little more under the bottom is browned. If you have a blow torch (seriously)... fire the top of it to brown that too.

Turn over onto a plate, bacon side up, and serve.

Now, when I cook, I start to sweat and swear a little when I have more than two things on the go on the hobs at the same time. This was one of those times, as I had to make the Catalan spinach salad at the same time.

For that, you need a good bit of spinach, olive oil, one garlic clove, a handful of raisins and a handful of pine nuts. Larger hands mean larger portions.

Wash, chop and blanch the spinach (I had to Google that). Heat up the oil and fry the garlic (sliced) until golden, then at the raisins and nuts until the raisins are plump. Place the spinach in a large bowl and top with the raisin/garlic/nut mixture and stir it a little until the spinach wilts a little.

And there you have it. It was actually much more interesting to taste than I originally thought. The trinxat was a really satisifying, tasty meal and the spinach salad was a great accompaniment. Much better than seafood anyway.

Algeria - Casbah-Palmeraie, NW3

Restaurant: Casbah-Palmeraie

Location: 42 Hampstead High Street, Hampstead, NW3 1QE

Date of visit: 27 February 2010

Time of visit: 8:30pm

Steve and Elle ate: Cous cous merguez (Steve) and assorted brochettes (chicken, merguez and lamb - Elle)

After such a long gap between the first and second restaurant visits (the Afghan restaurant was visited in October and the Albanian earlier in the month), we found ourselves tackling our third country within a few weeks. Given our experience of having to return to the Albanian restaurant two weeks in a row after not calling ahead, we exercised the new rule of absolutely calling ahead before committing to traveling to a restaurant! We have been lucky so far in that all three restaurants to date have been fairly local to us. Casbah-Palmeraie, our next restaurant on the list, is just off Hampstead tube station on the Northern line, on which we live.

Immediately outside the restaurant we were greeted with authenticity, with the centre-piece being a large wooden door with a handwritten Arabic sign on it (which probably just said "Push To Open", but it worked for me), large, long windows (showing a bustling, cosy scene indoors) illuminated by small LED lights.

As I pushed the door open (which felt like it was about to fall from its hinges) we were enveloped by sound, smell and atmosphere of something that definitely wasn't London. We were transformed into a bustling but comfortable and inviting North African assembly of diners. We were welcomed by a waiter and shown to a nearby table which, alongside the comfortable traditional seating, was very close to the floor. I wasn't too sure I'd be able to stay in that position for too long (there was an option of more conventional, higher seating) but as the evening wore on it wasn't an issue.

The authentic atmosphere was made even more so with the contrast in temperature between the warm and cosy interior and the icy February night outside. The wafting of incense also helped.

We were presented with hardbound (wood-bound?) menus with a detailed list of all the available options, including details of which ingredients made up each item, and from where in the Maghreb region the dishes came. The Casbah-Palmeraie is not exclusively an Algerian restaurant, but deals with dishes from all five of the Maghreb countries, so Elle and I made an effort to choose dishes that originated in Algeria.

We chose not to have a starter or side dish, although we were presented with some warm bread shortly after arrival. I opted for the Algerian dish of cous cous merguez, and Elle picked the assorted brochettes which was made up of merguez, alongside pieces of grilled chicken and lamb.

The food was presented very well, and came hot and in good portions. The merquez (basically spicy lamb sausage) had a great spice to it, but not too much of a kick. The cous cous was lush and plentiful, and garnished with traditional ingredients. The chicken and lamb were cooked to perfection, and certainly not too fatty.

Bu the time the food came, the lower seating arrangement was actually really quite comfortable, and it was difficult to imagine how we could be more relaxed. And with the attentive and rapid service, there really wasn't much to be said against the overall experience at this restaurant.

As tempting as it would be to come back to the same place when we get to Morocco, Tunisia etc, we highly recommend this gem situation in one of London's finer areas.