Know thine enemy

There's an ancient Chinese proverb that says 'if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself, nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.' So with this in mind I'm sure Mr Capello has done lots of research on the teams in our qualifying group, but in a bid to carry out some last minute reconnaissance of my own, I thought I would get into the mindset - or stomachs of our forthcoming opponents, and try to recreate a national dish in honour of that team. You know, keep your enemies close and all that...I think that was The Godfather, or maybe he nicked it from the Chinese chap?

First up and I am easing myself in with the USA. Given that our food tastes are broadly similar, I do feel like I'm cheating just a little bit. I've not had to ferret out any strange ingredients or even Google 'American food' for inspiration, I've got a pretty good idea. Let's face it, I could have just had a McDonald's and ticked the box, but as I'm watching tonight's match with company, the good guest that I am, I decided to make that American classic - the cheesecake. Technically I suppose it should be New York cheesecake, and certainly it has to be a baked one. My old faithful Nigella does have a recipe for the NY version, but my tin is too large, so I've opted for the 'London' one instead from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. I've baked this probably a dozen times (was feeling just a little bit lazy for inspiration), however it is foolproof and always a crowd pleaser. It's a pretty standard baked cheesecake recipe, crushed digestives and melted butter for the base, whipped up cream cheese, with whole eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar, plus lemon and vanilla to flavour, which you then bake for 50 minutes at 180c/gas mark 4. The 'London' twist is the addition of a thin sour cream layer that has been sweetened with caster sugar and vanilla. I'm not sure what is particularly London-like about this aspect, but it definetely works, so don't be tempted to skip this last bit.

All I have to work out now is how to safely transport it across London on the tube to get to my sisters. Here's hoping it goes down well, and more importantly that we get a good result. People might not want to eat it if we lose!

Next match Algeria.....I will need Google and maybe goat meat for this one.