Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - United Kingdom

Good evening world this is the United Kingdom calling, the bridesmaid of Eurovision having placed 2nd 15 times in the contest's history.

In recent years the UK has turned to the more well know mature performer so I thought for the Chow Down to Eurovision I would need to do the same.

My inspiration comes from one of the UK's most amazing (mature) female cooks, but without just announcing it lets have a little game of who am I.....

• I am a reality show icon
• I am know for my skills when it comes to pastry
• I source my produce from my local supplier "Reg"
• I'd be embarrassed by dry pheasant
• My friends adore me!

WHO AM I?

Yes I'm not Mary Berry I'm Valerie Holiday from Come Dine With Me!

 Image via Youtube
 

I first saw Come Dine With Me when AB and I were traveling and so when it came to commercial TV in Australia, the dvd recorder was set!

If you haven't seen it, it's the other show along with Masterchef that was ripped off to become My Kitchen Rules.

This series of 5 guests is the best in the whole history of the program, Val, Nigel (Nigel, Nigel), Bernard, Paul and the entertaining Dawn who was the only contestant to fall asleep at her own dinner party. (I was very sad to hear of Dawn's passing last year, so young. RIP Dawn)

Allow Valerie to demonstrate her recipe (about 6 minutes in)....but it's not how I made it.

 Vikki told us what Love Is in 1985, but I'm not 100% convinced it isn't Valerie in her younger day, either that or Jane Turner playing Princess Diana

 

The video clip is even better and well worth a watch!

 

While Valerie is a welcomed guest at the to the Chow Down to Eurovision sadly I don't have my own pheasant supplier and budget cuts meant I wasn't paying $40 for the one I could get.  So even though the UK was represented by salmon and caper pie with mash potato last year, it had to be the seafood shell, there was no way I was doing that fruit pastry!

 

The key ingredient here is the shells that "you can get at the fish mongers, forgetting how much you paid, and wash them in the dishwasher, over and over again"

 

 

Valerie's Prawn Shells

Ingredients

• 40g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 300ml milk
• Salt and pepper
• 100g parmesan rated
• 400-500g green prawns
• 6-8 chives finely chopped
• 4-5 potatoes
• 50g butter
• 50ml milk

Method

• Boil the potatoes
• Mash the potatoes with butter and milk, pinch of salt to a pipe-able texture
• In a medium saucepan melt the butter on high heat
• Add the flour and combine to make a paste
• Cook for flour for about 1 minute
• Slowly add some milk while whisking to avoid lumps
• Reduce the heat and continually stir
• As the sauce thickens add more milk and continue to stir
• Repeat till all milk is used and sauce has thickened
• Add grated parmesan and stir through
• Add the prawns to the hot sauce, this and the time in the oven will cook them enough
• Season with salt and pepper and add chives
• Spoon the prawns into the shell and place on an oven tray
• Pipe the potato around the shell (no 2 designs are the same)
• Bake at 190°C for 10-15 minutes till the potato starts to brown
• If you don't have old shells lying around the place, a ramekin would do the trick.
• I can honestly say, I will probably never make this again....but enjoy!
  

To brown it up more without over cooking the prawns, pop it under the grill for 1-2 minutes.

Molly Smitten-Downes performed Children of the Universe for the United Kingdom in Copenhagen. 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Germany

Guten Abend this is Germany calling, with a breakfast post that will be at such lightening speed you can make it at 4.45am before watching Eurovision live. (In Australia that is)

You can imagine as the alarm goes off at 4.15am you have no time to waste so let's get straight onto our taste of Eurovision past.

Les Humphries singers were part of one of the greatest Eurovision years of all time 1976 and gave us a wonderful English grammar lesson with Sing, Sang, Song.

They placed 15th.

 

Ok so with almost 2 hours of songs and what seems like 8 hours of voting you are going to need your strength, so a German Farmer's breakfast or Bauernfruhstuck is perfect!
Plus you are finished in under 10 minutes, enough time to let you hit snooze just once.

 

 

German Farmer's Breakfast

Ingredients

• 4 boiled potatoes chopped (firm not mashable, do them the night before)
• 5 bacon rashers sliced
• 1 large red onion diced
• 2 kranskys chopped
• 6 eggs beaten
• Handful of grated cheese
• 1 green chilli (optional)

Method

• Add a splash of oil to a frypan on medium heat
• Fry the potato, bacon, onions and kransky for about 4-5 minutes
• Add eggs and stir through
• Add cheese and gentle stir like scrambled eggs till just cooked
• Season to taste
• Serve on rye toast with a sprinkle of chopped green chilli to perk you up!
• This feeds about 4 so there is enough for a top up at interval for AB and I



 

Elaiza brought a touch of the oom pah pah to the Eurovision final with Is it Right 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Denmark

God aften this is the host nation of this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Denmark. Last year the Chow Down to Eurovision finished in line with this song contest, but this time I really don't want either to end.

So having seen the contest I'd just like to say to Denmark you did a really, really good show, I even made the claim on Twitter that I think it was the best Eurovision production ever! The postcards, the greenroom surprises, and the genius idea of bringing food and Eurovision together, what a truly brilliant idea...wink wink!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologise to the rest of the world for the dreadful display Australia put on in Semi Final 2. The "comical" monstrosity of stereotypical Australian life coming to Europe was a train wreck and not a way of life known to any Aussie I've discussed the act with.

And to think we didn't already have enough to be ashamed about with our refugee policy.

Jessica Mauboy was not at her best on the night but clearly she is an amazing singer who I feel may have been put under immense pressure to do well rather than just told to go out there and sing your heart out girl! (that's how I would have managed her, but I'm not always right, just usually)

Any back to Denmark, just had to get all that off my chest.

Being the host nation I spared no expense and paid for a gravlax masterclass, where the chef was very informative and amusing even though the other participants asked some really stupid questions.

The group was like a casting call for Kath and Kim's Trude and Prue who almost had a heart attack when they realised they didn't have a salmon knife, "oh, the horror", but thankfully Peters of Kensington could relieve their shame for about $300. Oh, greash!

Needless to say I'll scope out my classes better in the future and try to avoid the faux foodies and look for more with people that cook, and with more comfy chairs. Beautiful design but uncomfortable.

Lonnie Devantier presented the high energy Hallo hallo in 1990 placing 8th and I think if I start a regime of Danish jazz cardio their well designed chairs with be comfy in no time!

I made two variety of gravlax beetroot and fennel. It was also at this class that I first heard about Nordic nut bread which is a brilliant accompaniment to the gravlax.



Gravlax (this is a 3 day process)

Ingredients

• Salmon (with pin bones removed)
• Sugar
• Salt
• Fennel seeds
• 1 large beetroot

Method

• This can be done with a whole salmon but I opted for 2 large pieces so I could do different flavours
• For every 300g of salmon your need 100g salt and 100g sugar (or thereabouts)
• Mix the sugar and salt together and cover the salmon
• If using fennel seeds, bash them in a mortar and pestle before adding to the sugar and salt mix
• Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 24 hours
• Next day turn the fish over and rearrange the salt and sugar mix to cover salmon
• Cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 24 hours
• Day 3 remove the salt and sugar and pat the salmon dry
• If using beetroot, cover salmon flesh side up with grated beetroot and let sit for about 8 hours
• Remove beetroot and pat fish dry
• Slice thinly with a knife (I don't have a salmon knife and no one has died so whatever thin knife you have will be fine)
• The gravlax can be served on Nordic nut bread with shaved fennel and a brown sauce I couldn't catch the Danish name of that is equal parts Dijon mustard and brown sugar, with a splash of olive oil, white wine vinegar and finely diced red onions mixed together.

Ensure you cover the fish, a tray of salt and sugar would make a boring photo.

There is no need to weight it down.

Denmark was represented this year by Basim and Cliché Love Song

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Semi Final Two Results

 

These 10 countries have secured a place in the Chow Down to Eurovision Final

 

Israel

 

Norway

 

Georgia

 

 

Austria

 

Lithuania

 

Finland

 

Ireland

 

Belarus

 

F.Y.R.Macedonia

 

 

Greece

 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Recap Semi Final Two

 

Here is a recap of all 15 countries hoping to make it to a place in the Final
Please cast your vote here...and you CAN vote for your own country! (voting has now closed)

 

 Malta

 

Israel

 

Norway

 

Georgia

 

Poland

 

Austria

 

Lithuania

 

Finland

 

Ireland

 

Belarus

 

F.Y.R.Macedonia

 

Switzerland

 

Greece

 

Slovenia

 

Romania

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Romania

Buna seara, you have made it to the end of the Semi Finals in Chow Down to Eurovision 2014....and this is Romania calling.

Today is all about balls, well quenelles if you please.

These fish quenelles were originally made with trout, but after I filleted and pin boned one trout I was well and truly over it, all that work for balls! What was really exiting me about these balls was the parsnip, I love the flavour, so I've kept the parsnip and threw back the trout.

As Romania is last in Semi Final 2 I thought we would have a look at their first attempt to enter the Eurovision Song Contest.

In 1993 Dida Drăgan performed an extremely interpretive and dramatic version of Nu pleca in the pre qualifying round (before they had semi finals) but failed to qualify.

Romania did make the final of Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 though!

 

 

Romanian Fish Balls
Ingredients

• 1 parsnip core removed
• 2-3 chat potatoes
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• 2 eggs
• Salt good pinch
• 400g white fish (boneless skinless I like Basa)
• Oil for frying

Method

• Add vegetables to a food processor and chop for about 20 seconds
• Add eggs, salt and fish and process for another 20 seconds till all combines but not a paste
• Heat oil in a saucepan on high heat
• Quenelle (shape with a spoon...how ever it comes out will be fine) about 1 tbsp. of mixture into the oil
• Fry for about 2-3 mins till brown and cooked through
• There should be enough mix for about 20 balls
• I serve with yogurt that has gherkins and capers chopped through it

This year Paula Seling and OVI are back to perform a Miracle for Romania. 

In 2010 when they were Playing With Fire they placed 3rd in the final, will they go 2 places better this year?

noroc!

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Greece

καλησπέρα kali̱spéra, this is Greece calling.......

 

Due to budget cuts and also being the second last dish in Semi Final 2 Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 Greece will just get on with it and present their dish.

We do have enough time and cash though to enjoy Anna Vissi singing of the joys of hitchhiking in 1980, possibly a time when the safety risks associated with hitchhiking were not at the forefront of people's minds.

She came 13th out of 19. (I really know how to pick songs that came 13th) 

 

 

Pickled Octopus  

Ingredients

• 1kg octopus tentacle
• 2 cups red wine vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2-3 gloves garlic chopped
• 1 tsp. peppercorns
• Handful of oregano leaves

Method

• Simmer octopus is an large pot of salted water for about 1-1.5 hours (being mindful the pot doesn't boil dry)
• Let cool
• Slice the octopus into chunks and put into sterilised jars
• In a bowl mix remaining ingredients
• Cover octopus with the liquid and sealed the jar
• Store in the fridge over night.
• Octopus can be eaten the next day
• I'm sure it can last longer but being such a food safety worry wart I wouldn't keep it longer than 3-4 days, so give some to friends or start with less octopus

 

Will Greece Rise Up in the votes to take Freaky Fortune featuring Risky Kidd straight through to the final? 

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