Italian? Malaysian? I've got it, Mexican?  

These were all answers I received when I asked my friends what they thought my favourite type of food was to cook.  They were somewhat shocked when I stated...American!  Don't get me wrong, I love to cook all of the above and over time I have been inspired by all of these foods as well as many others.  Alas, when I need to pull out a dish which I can make without thinking, it's dishes which I have discovered through American influences that are my go to recipes.

I know what you're thinking now, what kind of American dishes could possibly compete with classical Italian, French, Spanish dishes etc.?  Well, a hot creamy macaroni cheese can be heavenly.  A bread roll filled with succulent steak, topped with fried onions and melted cheese are the main ingredients for a satisfying Philly cheese steak sandwich.  Then there is the cajun influence which encourages yours truly to knock up an amazing jambalaya.  Yep, all of these may well have been influenced by immigrants landing on American shores but it is on these shores with which the dishes can now call home.

Whilst visiting the state of Michigan (in fact this is the only state I've visited in the U.S.) I was given a cookbook about the legendary dishes of this fair land.  During my many change of addresses, this book has been lost or lies sitting in a dust covered box somewhere, but there is one recipe from this book which has become a tried and trusted success.  In the book it was called Superbowl Chilli, but I'm more of a fan of the sport with a round football, so I prefer to call it World Cup Chilli.  It has been made during the last FIFA world cups and when the 2014 World Cup kicks off later this month, it will again be made by the bucket load.

World Cup Chilli

Ingredients

Rice Bran Oil (its one of the good oils)
750g Minced Beef 
750g Minced Pork
2 Large onions finely chopped
2 sticks of celery finely chopped
2 large peppers (capsicum) finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground oregano
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 bottle of beer/lager (you can drink the rest whilst making dinner) 
1 tin of canned tomatoes
1 tin of baked beens
1 tin of kidney beans
1 beef stock cube
Salt and Pepper


Construction
1, Heat the oil in a large 5ltr cooking pot or something of a similar size.
2, Fry the beef and pork mince until brown, don't worry if it sticks slightly to the bottom of the pan, this all adds to the flavour.
3, Pour the cooked meats from the pan into a bowl and put to one side. Now fry the onions until they go clear and slightly brown.
4, Add the celery and peppers to the cooked onion and continue to cook until the celery begins to soften.
5, Add all the spices to the onion, celery and pepper mix.  By cooking the spices now, you are releasing all their goodness.
6, Add the meat to the pan and mix together the spice vegetables and meats.
7, Pour in the beer/lager and cook until the liquid has evaporated.
8, Now add the tomatoes and beens to the pot and bring to the boil.
9, I like to crumble the stock cube straight into the pan at this point.
10, Allow the chilli to now cook on a low heat for about an hour, be careful to not let the sauce stick to the bottom of the pan. The sauce should be thick and delicious before serving.


And this my friends is how you make a chilli fit for a world cup match with your mates. There are two ways I serve this up; with steamed rice or made into delicious nachos!  

Which destination of my far flung travels does this tasty gem come from?  Well how many of you have heard of Sutton Coldfield? 

Sorry, I'd love to be able to tell you that I learnt of this delicious mince dish from ancient monks in some lost mountains of China, as incredible as that would be, I have to confess that I first tasted this meal at a Chinese restaurant in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

What made this so special, was the fact that I was in a restaurant with my parents, yet I could eat my food with my fingers.  The delicious mince is best served on a crisp piece of lettuce, rolled up and stuffed into your mouth...without losing a finger.

You can pick up pretty much all the ingredients from your local supermarket, however, I'd take the opportunity to make a trip to an asian supermarket to not only get better quality ingredients but will most probably be cheaper. 

What you'll need (this feeds four) -

1 iceberg lettuce (we've tried other lettuce and iceberg is best)
500 g minced pork (you can use chicken)
1" cube of fresh ginger diced finely
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 spring onions (scallions) chopped finely
1 celery stalk diced finely
1 (220 g) can water chestnuts chopped roughly (don't leave these out, key ingredient)
1 tbls dark soy sauce (the light stuff won't work as well)
2 tbls oyster sauce
1 tbls dry sherry (the alcohol burns off so its safe for kids)
1 tsp white sugar
1 tbls sesame oil

Knocking up the meal -

Prepare the iceberg lettuce to begin with by carefully breaking the lettuce up leaf by leaf.  Discard the outer leaves (two at most) and then carefully wash each leaf, you want to keep the leaves whole and in tact as these will be your plates later.

Now mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, dry sherry and sugar in small bowl and put to one side.

Add 1/2 tbls of sesame oil into your wok (frying pan) and heat until smoking slightly. Add the garlic, ginger, and spring onions, fry until they start to colour.  Now add the minced pork (or chicken) and cook until browned. Remove this mix from the pan and save in a bowl.

With a little sesame oil, add the key ingredient to the wok, the water chestnuts (do not substitute with chestnuts of any other kind).  Fry for a minute or so and then add the celery, cook for a couple of minutes, you still want crunch from the water chestnuts and celery.  Now add the special sauce you made earlier.

Allow the sauce to reduce a little, five minutes max and then add the pork back into the pan.  Fry until the mix becomes dark and sticky...but not burnt.  Your deliciousness is now ready.

Serve up the pork mix in a bowl, hand out the lettuce leaves and watch your guests enjoy scooping up spoonfuls of the pork, rolling it up on the green stuff and taking bites.  The groans of enjoyment will be enough conversation.

Having trawled the archives of my greymatter, I can now recall the first time I experienced the good old English Breakfast at one of my Dads favourite greasy spoons. I should point out at this stage, whilst growing up, builders and cafes were synonomous and when asking where the next building job was, the first question they asked would be about the location of the local cafe for their breakfast ritual. 

Although i had had many a fry up at home, it wasn't until my first cafe visit with Dad that I experienced the "floating breakfast". Dad and I both ordered the full works with a cup of tea. In a scene which would give Food Hygiene inspectors a heart attack today, the cafe owner carried out our breakfasts; two plates, two mugs and half a smoking cigarette. 

As the plates were put down, a feast revealed itself in front of me; eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, tomatoes, black pudding and fried bread, all to be covered with HP sauce. What makes it a floating breakfast? All of the above ingredients, floated on a thin layer of grease and when you tipped the plate, everything would slide from one side to another like passengers on an Irish Sea ferry crossing. 

I'm pretty sure the local mechanic used less grease, however, with little understanding of the effect on my arteries, I got stuck in.  Using my fork to make random kebabs of all the parts that made up the breakfast, I worked my way through the feast. After finishing the heart attack inducing meal and washed it down with sweet tea, dad and I sat back and enjoyed the ambiance of the greasy spoon.

In the good old days when knocking up a breakfast such as this, it would be common to drop a knob of lard into the pan before beginning to fry.  Alas, these days with the onset of the health conscious diet, using rice bran oil is much more sensible choice.  If you really want to be healthy, well healthier, you might want to grill the sausages, bacon etc., but then can you call it a fry up?  The key element to an english breakfast is the timing.  You don't want to start cooking eggs, toast etc., at the same time as throwing your sausages in the pan, as you'll have a half plate of cold food.  

A quick tip from my South African buddy is to throw your sausages into boiling water, which ensures they are quickly cooked throughout and you only need to fry for a few minutes afterwards to get that lovely fried look.   Oh and for the fried bread, save this until you've cooked everything else in the pan, add some more oil and let that bread soak up all those tasty juices.

This isn't the healthiest of meals, even if you reduce the amount of frying as above but life is all about moderation and this really is a great treat every now and again.  Unfortunately the demise of the greasy spoon, certainly in the UK, has meant you'll be hard pressed to find the atmosphere I experienced above, alas the enjoyment of a full english cooked at home can be just as satisfying (and probably less likely to cause cancer).