World Cuisine Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soup

Mulligatawny is an Indian soup, literally translated to "pepper-water".
The recipe I found is as follows: start with frying chopped onion, diced celery and diced carrots in butter, while regularly stirring. Add curry powder and flour and keep stirring. Add chicken broth and boil. Reduce the heat and mix in diced chicken fillet, cored and diced apple, rice, thyme, salt and (lots of) pepper. Just before serving, mix some cream.
For those who are very adventurous: I make my curry myself, mixing at least a dozen spices in a mortar and grinding them with a pestle, and then using them in a bechamel sauce. Essential if you would try it are cilantro seeds, ginger, cumin and lots of turmeric. It is quite a delicate job to finetune the different aromas, but if you succeed you have a curry exactly to your taste.

Answer: Soup

Bouillabaisse is a French fish soup, typically accompanied by rouille on bread.
You need at least three different fish, and of course they have to be very fresh - bought on the fish market the very morning when you prepare the soup.
To make the rouille, you need to mix in the blender fish stock, red chilli pepper, garlic, salt and some breadcrumbs. Mix all these ingredients to a smooth sauce.
For the soup, start with frying onions, leek and fennel in olive oil. When these vegetables are glazed, add tomatoes, garlic, saffron, a sprig of thyme, some bay leaves, a zest of orange and salt. Boil until the tomatoes fall apart. Then lay the fish on the vegetables, add fish broth and water, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add some shellfish (mussels, squid and crab), and simmer again for 10 minutes. Finally remove the thyme sprigs, bay leaves and orange zest and serve the soup in a deep dish over a piece of (grilled) bread topped with the rouille.

Answer: Soup

Menudo is a soup from the Iberian and South-American cuisine. Some sources claim it was invented in Mexico, but almost every Spanish-speaking city has its own recipe.
The following recipe claims to be a Mexican style menudo. It is really a slow food: you need at least 8 hours to prepare it.
Start with cooking tripe for two hours, regularly spooning off the fat. Repeat the same process with fresh water. Pour the water out once again, and boil the tripe in fresh water for one hour. Add a chopped onion, crushed garlic, ground red peppers, oregano, salt and black pepper. Simmer for an hour. Grill some arbol chilli peppers until the peel starts to scorch. Remove the peel and the seeds, and mix in a blender with japones chilli peppers (of which you have removed the seeds as well). Add the chilli mix to the soup and simmer for two hours. Finally, add ground hominy and simmer for one more hour. Serve with cilantro, onion and lime wedges.

Answer: Soup

Borscht is a soup from Eastern Europe (most probably from Ukraine).
Start with making the broth (unless you buy some ready-to-use beef stock) by cooking meat for an hour and then removing the bones.
Cook some shredded cabbage for 20 minutes in the broth. Meanwhile, chop onions, beet and carrots, and peel and dice some potatoes. Glaze the onions with the carrots in olive oil. Add the beets and some more olive oil, and fry for another 5 minutes. Then add the onions, carrots, beets and potatoes to the broth with the cabbage. Add tomato paste and salt and let cook for 20 minutes. Then add some vinegar, sugar, garlic and pepper, stir and let cool for 10 minutes. You may also add the meat which you used to make the broth. Add some dill and serve with dill and sour cream.

Answer: Main course

Bobotie is a main course that finds its origins in South-Africa. Basically it is a stew of mince meat with curry sauce and fruits, topped with egg custard.
Here is one of the many recipes.
Soak some white bread in milk. Glaze some onions in butter. Add minced meat (preferably ground beef) and garlic, and fry while stirring. Then add curry paste, various herbs and spices, sultanas and mango chutney or dried apricots. Simmer and add the drained soaked bread. Beat the eggs with milk and seasoning, pour over the stew and cook for half an hour. Serve with yellow rice (rice cooked with plenty of turmeric). The bobotie can be garnished with bay leaves, wall nuts and bananas.

Answer: Main course

Poutine is a Quebec dish intended as comfort food, which can be consumed as a main course.
Basically, poutine combines three foods: French fries, gravy and cheese curds.
The gravy is perhaps the element that will have the largest number of recipes. One of these recipes mentions you can make the gravy by melting butter, adding flour, and stirring in some beef broth or chicken broth. Cornstarch dissolved in water is needed to thicken the sauce to a satisfying viscosity. The gravy should be seasoned with salt and pepper.
While preparing the gravy, bake the fries to golden brown and season them with salt and pepper.
Then serve in a large bowl the gravy, the French fries and the cheese curds.
It sounds fine for a cold winter day, but personally I'd like a bowl of fried vegetables (for instance broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) to accompany this Canadian delicacy.

Answer: Main course

Ceviche is a main course, recognized by the UNESCO as cultural heritage of Peru.
Basically, it is a course of fish or crustaceans marinated in citrus fruit juice.
You need of course super fresh fish - if possible, fish you bought on the fish market the morning you would prepare it.
Fillet the fish (if not done by the fishmonger) by removing the scales, fishbone and the inner organs. Then dice the fish evenly. Squeeze lemon and lime and sieve the juice. Cover the fish wholly with the juice and add some ice cubes to cool down, and place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. Turn the fish regularly so that each piece of fish will be in contact with the juice. Add cilantro, grated ginger, habanero peppers and chopped onion (plus a pinch of salt if necessary) and put back into the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes. Serve with for instances steamed sweet potatoes and plantain chips.

Answer: Main course

Köttbullar are Swedish meatballs, usually made with mixed ground meat (beef and pork). It is rather easy to make, but if one does not live in Sweden the lingonberry jam that accompanies it, may be only found in specialized deli stores. Mix the ground meat with eggs, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and optionally some cream, and make nice round balls out of them. Bake in butter. Make a thick gravy with meat stock, butter, flour, cream, soy sauce and pepper (no salt needed because the soy sauce will give a salty taste). Serve the meatballs with the gravy, boiled or mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam and (optionally) gherkins.

Answer: Dessert

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert made with coffee and creamy cheese. It is frequently flavoured with amaretto liqueur or sweet Marsala wine, but don't add this if you make it for children or people who chose (or had to choose) to be teetotallers.
Here is a recipe fit for teetotallers.
Make a pot of strong coffee. Soak some ladyfinger biscuits in the coffee. Mix mascarpone cheese with egg yolks and sugar. Then start layering the dish: a layer of soaked biscuits, a layer of mascarpone mixture, and another layer of both. Garnish with cocoa powder.
If you use alcohol, you may mix it through the coffee and soak the biscuits in the coffee-alcohol mixture.
Some people prefer to omit the egg yolks or to lightly heat the mascarpone mixture, because raw egg can cause salmonella infections.

Answer: Dessert

Baklava is a dessert from the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. Basically it is a layered cake of phyllo dough filled with ground nuts, and a sweet syrup is poured over the cake when serving.
Here is a Greek recipe:
Smear butter on the phyllo dough. Chop some nuts in the blender, together with some cinnamon.
Then start layering: eight layers of buttered dough, nut mix, two layers of dough, nut mix, and so on. End with six layers of dough. Bake until golden brown.
Serve with a syrup made of honey, sugar, water and vanilla.

Answer: Dessert

Pavlova is basically a meringue cake, so a dessert. Australia and New-Zealand compete claiming to be the place of origin. Here is one simple recipe I found: beat some egg whites with sugar until they are really stiff. A Flemish cook used to say "You have to be able to turn the bowl upside down without leaking". Add to the mixture some lemon juice and cornstarch: this way the centre of the cake will remain gooey, while the outside is hard. Bake on a low temperature for a long time - it depends a bit on the amount you made. One recipe suggests baking pavlovas for single portions during two hours at maximum 100 °C (212 °F). Let the cake cool down in the oven and then add the filling (for instance a mixture of mascarpone and whipped cream with sugar) and the toppings (for instance an assortment of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and redcurrants). Serve immediately.

Answer: Dessert

Eton mess is an English dessert, especially for late spring or early summer (in the Northern hemisphere). Basically it is a mix of strawberries (in season May - June) or other red fruit, cream and meringue.
Here is a recipe I found.
Start whisking egg whites and sugar until they're very stiff - this will serve as the meringue. Bake in the oven at low temperature for at least an hour and let cool down.
Remove the crowns of the strawberries and use part of them to make a strawberry coulis: puree them and heat for a while to reduce the excess moisture (without turning the coulis into jam). According to taste and to the ripeness of the fruit, you may add a bit of sugar or a little measure of eau de vie de fraise (not for teetotallers, however).
Whip the cream with sugar to the correct consistency: you want it firm but not too solid.
Then serve the lot: meringue, a bit of whipped cream, a dollop of the coulis and some of the fresh fruit, all in a bowl per person.