Come to Dinner! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Borscht

I first tasted Borscht as a student in Russia and have loved it ever since. Some people are put off the idea of it because they don't like beetroot, but, to be honest, I don't think that the soup actually has too strong a beetroot flavour. The key ingredient of course is beetroot but the soup is also full of other vegetables and sometimes beef is added too. I think that one of the things that gives this soup such a great flavour is sweating the vegetables in unsalted butter before any liquid is added. A good borscht should be really thick - practically stand-your-spoon-up-in-it! In Russia you would add a spoonful of smetana (a type of thick soured cream/yogurt) to the soup before eating it accompanied by dark rye bread. Delicious!

Borscht is made in many eastern European countries, not just Russia. I believe that it is considered Ukraine's national dish. You can also make green borscht where the main ingredient is spinach.

Answer: Mint

Mint is the traditional sauce to go with roast lamb. Most people (like myself) by a jar of pre-prepared mint from the supermarket and add malt vinegar to it to make the sauce. Some people like to prepare their own using fresh mint.

Rosemary is another herb which goes nicely with lamb but you would be more likely to add this to the gravy than to make a separate sauce with it.

Answer: Vindaloo

Everyone who lives in the UK is likely to know that vindaloo is the hottest curry available from the local Indian restaurant or takeaway. A traditional lads' night out drinking is supposed to culminate in a curry, with everyone trying to outdo the others in how hot they can take it.

My homemade vindaloo is not THAT hot though. You can vary the heat to your taste by the amount of chopped green chilli you add. The vindaloo curry shows the Portuguese influence on Indian cookery, stemming from the days when parts of India were part of the Portuguese Empire. The recipe I have for vindaloo uses malt vinegar, although wine (vin) would have originally been used. Player Flamis informs me that this dish was originally called "Carne de Vinha d' Alhos" which is Portuguese for "meat with wine and garlic" and was brought by the Portuguese to Goa. It was added to the British repertoire and the name evolved to become vindaloo.

Korma is a very mild curry and Pasanda and Biryani would usually be of medium strength.

Answer: Shepherd's pie

Steak Provencal is from the Provence region of France, Colcannon is an Irish potato and cabbage dish and chicken Cordon Bleu is just not something you see regularly on menus in England (certainly not in the type of places that I frequent!).

Shepherd's pie is a mixture of cooked minced (ground) meat topped with mashed potato, which is then browned on the top in a grill (broiler) or oven. There are probably as many recipes for Shepherd's pie as there are cooks! To make mine I brown an onion and the minced meat and then add gravy, herbs, seasoning and a dollop of my special ingredient - tomato ketchup!

Technically the version I make should be called cottage pie as I use minced beef. Shepherd's pie should be made with minced lamb. I can see the lamb - shepherd connection but I'm not quite sure about beef and cottages...! If anyone has an answer to this please let me know.

Answer: Pumpkin pie

For those who don't know, Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second weekend in October. This is different from American Thanksgiving which is celebrated in November. I think that both countries have the same dinner menu though (Americans please correct me if I'm wrong!) The main course would be roast turkey with cranberry sauce and all the trimmings followed by pumpkin pie.

In my experience pumpkin pie seems a lot of work for not much reward but I'm sure many would disagree with me. The one time we made pumpkin pie it seemed to take forever to cook and dissect the pumpkin and then get it mashed suitably to become part of the pie filling. However I know that in Canada you can buy cans of ready-prepared pumpkin. That sounds like a great idea!

Anyway, I'm not planning on making pumpkin pie again any time soon. Jenny can make a darned good one herself!

Beavertails are something that I have heard a lot about but have never had the opportunity of tasting. From what I understand they are a type of flat doughnut covered in sugar, shaped like a beaver's tail I guess. They are very popular in Ottawa during the winter when it is possible to skate on the frozen Rideau Canal. Unfortunately when we spent Christmas in Ottawa the winter had been very mild (for Ottawa!) and so the canal wasn't frozen. Therefore there was no skating and beavertail experience for us :-(

Answer: Lasagne

Spaghetti Bolognese and Tortellini aren't cooked in the oven. Moussaka is an oven-baked dish made with minced (ground) lamb, aubergines (eggplants) and a white sauce but no pasta. The answer therefore is lasagne.

Lasagne seems to be one of those dishes that is made in so many parts of the world but always tastes a bit different depending on the chef. There are many variations on the meat sauce, and then some people use a cheese sauce and others a white sauce. You can use dried lasagne sheets or if you have the time and equipment you can make your own fresh pasta.

Answer: Haggis

I have no idea what Edinburgh cutlets or Angus pudding are, if they even exist. I just needed some wrong answers that sounded Scottish to try and fool you (although it won't have fooled the Scots)! Faggots are a kind of large meat ball made from pig's offal, belly meat and breadcrumbs and are served in gravy. I remember them from my childhood but you don't see them very much today. They're not exclusively Scottish anyway.

Haggis is a delicious lightly spiced mixture of oatmeal, liver and other offal. Traditionally it was cooked in a sheep's stomach but nowadays it comes in a type of plastic casing. One of the many advantages of moving to northeast England is that haggis is readily available in the butchers and supermarkets where it isn't further south. You can also buy battered haggis in the chip shop, known as haggis chippies.

Haggis is traditionally served with "tatties" (mashed potato) and "neeps" (mashed turnip or swede or rutabaga depending on where you're from!).

And, just in case your worried about me, my in-laws are lovely and I've never had to try to impress them. If I served them beans on toast they would declare that it was the best they'd ever tasted - and mean it! I am a very fortunate woman!

Answer: Oranges

Any Brit playing this quiz should have got this one easily. Jaffas are a variety of orange and we have a very popular brand of biscuit (cookie) called Jaffacakes here. These have a sponge base that is spread with an orange jelly and then topped with dark chocolate.

Chocolate jaffa tart is basically a larger, slightly more sophisticated version of a Jaffacake and was christened Jaffa Cake pudding by our youth group.

Answer: Boeuf Bourguignon

Chicken a la king has a cream sauce, Normandy pork would use apple juice or cider and Lancashire hotpot just uses the meat juices and some herbs and water to produce its sauce.

Beef Bourguignon should be made with a good Burgundy (Bourguignon) wine and be left to cook slowly at a low temperature for a few hours. The result is melt-in-the-mouth beef and a rich, delicious wine sauce. Mmm ...I 'm getting hungry!

Answer: Chilli con carne

Chilli con carne is another one of those dishes which seems to have wormed its way into the cuisine of so many countries. It's delicious and quick, cheap and easy to make. Whenever we have a bring share lunch at our church I always have to ask people what they're bringing or I know that half of them will bring chilli, myself included!

There also seem to be many different ways to serve chilli around the world. Here in the UK it would normally be with rice or a baked potato. When I made a chilli when we were living in Canada though and served it to a friend with rice he was stunned, as he'd never eaten it like that before. It seems that there the norm is to make it a bit more "soup-like", serve it in a bowl and eat it with bread. Now how do those Mexicans eat it...?