Sklandrausis

Food trip has landed in Latvia and today´s recipe is Sklandrausis, what is most traditional Latvian dish.
It is a vegetable pie. Pastry is made from rye flour and filled with potatoe and carrot filling. The dish has originated from Kurzeme (the Western part of Latvia) in 16th – 17th century. The two-part name suggests that “rausis” (pie) was traditionally made by raking hot ashes or coal over the pies while “sklanda” means “slope” which refers to the upturned edges of the pie’s crust.

Even though sklandrausishas to be made according to the tradition, variations of the recipe exist. Some use sugar, others honey; some pour sour cream on top of the carrot layer, while others add caraway seeds to the filling for more flavour.

Recipe what I have used is taken from this page:

https://latvianeats.com/archives/174

Ingredients
400g rye flour
100g butter
240 g warm water
1 tsp sugar
0,5 tsp salt
7 medium carrots
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
2 medium potatoes
100ml milk
25g butter

Peel the carrots, cut in quarters, place in a medium saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender.
Peel the potatoes, cut in quarters, place in a separate saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender.

While the vegetables are boiling, prepare the dough. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Mix the flour with softened butter and add the water, stir well to form dough. Knead the dough for 5 to 7 minutes until the dough is soft enough to be rolled.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Roll the dough 3-5 mm thick. Use a 11 cm cookie cutter to cut out 15 discs.  Place the cases on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Prepare the filling. Drain the carrots and place in a food processor. Add honey, egg and sour cream and process for 20 seconds. Drain the potatoes, mash until smooth, add milk and butter and stir until well combined. Season with salt.

To fill the pastry, spread 1 teaspoon of mashed potatoes, top with a tablespoon of processed carrots. Repeat until all cases have been filled. Fold the pastrie sides up in six different sides so you will get the pastry shape like a star.

Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 15-25 minutes until the pastry has cooked and the filling turns slightly golden.

Lithuanian Kugelis

Food trip is Lithuania and today we are making Kugelis, what is oven baked potato dish with onions, ham and eggs. Tastes good and it is so easy to prepare. I served it oven baken chicken and this was absolute match. 😊

Recipe idea I got from here:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/kugelis-lithuanian-potato-pudding-1137453


Ingredients: 
900 g of shredded raw potatoes
2 eggs
1 big onion
200 ml fresh cream 10 %
1 tbsp flour
200 g ham
salt, pepper

Chop onion and ham. Fry these on pan until golden.
Add onion and ham to shredded potatoes.

Mix eggs, cream and flour into even mix. Season with salt and pepper.
Add egg mix to potatoes and mix. Pour all ingredients to the prepared oven pan and bake at 200 C for appr. 60 minutes until potatoes are baked and Kugelis is lightly golden brown from the top.

Сашні or Potato pyzy

Food trip is in Belarus and todayś recipe is Potato pyzy or potato dumpling filled with minced meat filling.

Recipe I got from here, but I also made some changes in recipe:

https://www.belarus.by/en/about-belarus/cuisine/potato-pyzy

Ingredients for dough:

250 g cottage cheese

100 g flour

4 grated potatoes

salt to taste

Ingredients for filling:

100 g pork and beef minced meat

onion, chopped

25 g egg
1 tbsp flour

salt and pepper

Combine the cottage cheese, grated potatoes, flour and salt, mix them well until you get soft and flexible dough. Keep it in the bowl for a while and make the filling meanwhile.

For the filling, add finely chopped onion, the raw egg, salt and spices to the pork and beef mince and mix it.

To make pyzy, form a round flatbread 1 cm thick (length ca 7 cm and wide 4 cm) , put the filling inside, cover it with a second flatbread and fix the edges.

Fry the pyzy in hot vegetable oil at 190 C from both sides (4 minutes from each side) until they get a beautiful golden color. 

Serve hot with sour cream.

Pасстегаи с мясом or small pastries with meat filling

Pасстегаи- this is dish from Russian cuisine. In fact these are open small pastries, what can be filled with meat, fish vegetable or etc. filling. This open pocket leave the possibility to add stock or melted butter to the pastrie, so after it will especcialy juicy and tasty. These pastries are made from yeast dough. As you allready understood Foodtrip 2019 is in Russia. 

Recipe I got from here:

https://www.alizy.club/vypechka/pirozhki/solenye-pirozhki/rasstegaya-s-myasom.html

Ingredients:
Yeast dough:
200 g kefir
480 g flour
2 tbsp sugar
25 g fresh yeast
0,5 tsp baking soda
1 egg
0,5 tsp vinegar
3 tbsp vegetable oil
50 g warm water
1 tsp salt

Add to warm water yeast.

Add yeast mix to kefir. Then add salt and sugar. Mix well.

Add 1 egg to mixed ingredients.

Mix baking soda with vinegar and add it to the other ingredients.

Add vegetable oil to dough and half of flour  and mix into even mass. Cover with food film and let it stand for 30 minutes. After this time you should see the bubbles in dough. This shows that "yeast" is working.

Add other half of lower and knead it for 5 minutes until dough is elastic.

Cover with food film and let it stand for 90 minutes. Now the dough is ready for use.


Filling:
6 eggs
60 g butter
400g chicken 
2 tsp salt
1 onion
0,5 tsp grounded black pepper
100 g rice
handful chopped dill
80 g flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
200g mayonese

Boil rice and let it cool completely.
Boil the eggs and let these cool down. Chop egg to small pieces.
Put 30 g of butter to pan, then add chopped chicken meat and onion. Add 1 tsp of salt and a little black pepper, then mix carefully. Cook until meat is done and then cool it down.
Mix dill with chopped eggs. Add minced meat, rice and mayonese.
Season with 1 tsp salt. Mix well.

Put dough to the flowered surface and divide it into 10 equal pieces. Roll pieces into rings and do not roll the rings thin as thin can be broken in time of baking.

Cover baking pan with baking paper and add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil to the baking paper. Spread it over the baking paper.
In the middle of dough ring add 1-1,5 tbsp of filling and close the edges and leave in the middle hole.
Put pastries to the paking paper. Take egg yolk and spread egg yolk over the pastries.

Take 30 g of butter and cut small cubes from it. Add to each pastry (to the hole) one cube of butter.

Heat oven to 180 C and bake pastries 20-30 minutes until these are golden brown. Let them cool about 25 minutes.

Varenyky

Food trip is in Ukraine. Today we are making Varenyky.

Varenyky is a popular dish made of boiled dough with difference fillings, such as meat, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, cheese etc. 
Varaniki or vareniki were made with usual for Ukrainians cottage cheese, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, boiled beans, mushy peas, fruits and even flour. Flour fillings were especially popular in Poltava. The dough for varenyky was made of fermented milk products with buckwheat, rye or wheat flour.

Recipe I got from here:
http://proudofukraine.com/ukrainian-varenyky-history-recipe-interesting-facts/

Dough ingredients:
1 egg
400 g flour
250 ml water
salt

Put half of flour into the deep bowl. Add salt. Warm up water till 30-35 degrees and add it to the bowl. Beat up one egg.  Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Add the second part of flour and place the mixture on surface covered with flour. Knead the dough with your hands. If it is sticking add some flour.

Continue kneading the dough until it becomes elastic (it takes about 10 minutes). Cover kneaded vareniki dough with a bowl or damp cloth and leave it for the “rest” for 40 minutes.

When the dough is ready, roll it out and using the special round shape (diameter 7 cm) or a cup cut out circles. Then place the filling in the center of each circle and tight up the edges. Put vareniki to the boiling water and boil for several minutes. 

Meat filling ingredients:

500 g chicken fillet
100 g sour cream 
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
100 g mayonese
chopped parsley
salt, pepper

Boil chicken fillet. Chop boiled meat with a knife or using meat grinder and add salt with pepper, sour cream and mayonese. Chop onion, fry it with vegetable oil, and then add to filling. 


Serve with sour cream.
Optional: Add burned butter sauce for serving.

Chak-chak

Chak-chak is now still one of the most popular sweet snacks in Kazakhstan and can be bought ready made in supermarkets. The simple dough is always more or less the same. After the dough is fried until it is crunchy it is mixed with a sugary honey syrup. Then it has to be formed quickly into a big dome. 

Recipe idea I got from here:
http://kazavida.blogspot.com/2009/01/chak-chak.html

Ingredients:
Dough:
3 eggs
2 teaspoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon salt
240 g flour
1 tbsp poppy seeds

Syrup:
330 g honey
1 dl sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Vegetable oil for frying

Break fresh eggs into a bowl, add brandy, poppy seeds, salt, flour and make soft dough. Divide dough into pieces, roll them out using your hands, about 0,2 cm thick and 5 cm lenght sausages.  Fry dough pieces in vegetable oil. 

Mix honey with sugar and boil the mixture in a separate bowl until all sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice.  Pour still boiling mixture into the fried dough pieces and mix everything. Shape chak-chak as you wish, Use cold water to wet your hands so you won't get burn and and the mixture won't stick to your hands.  Chak-chak is ready to eat when it cools down. Enjoy!

Pumpkin bread with milk chocolate and cranberries

Super moist pumpkin bread for Halloween. 😊

Ingredients:

220 g  flour
1 tsp baking soda
0,5 tsp ground cardamom
0,25 tsp nutmeg
0,25 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
2 L size eggs
150 g sugar
100 g farine sugar
340 g  pumpkin puree
120 ml vegetable oil
60 ml orange juice
60 g dark chocolate chips
60 g dried cranberries


Preheat oven to 180 C

In big bowl mix flour, baking soda, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger and salt. In a medium bowl whisk eggs and sugars until combined. Whisk in pumpkin, oil and orange juice.Mix dry and wet ingredients alltogether. Gently fold in chocolate and cranberries.
Pure batter into prepared loaf pan. Cover the bread from the top to be sure that bread will not overcook from the top. Bread is ready when the wooden stick inserted to bread will be clean. Time for baking is appr 55-65 minutes.
Let the bread cool down completely.

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Mongolian butter cookies ( Boortsog)

This time Foodtrip 2019 is in Mongolia and we are making tradititional Mongolian cookies called Boortsog. These could be eaten with milk or tea and dipped into honey or sugar. Served with butter or cheese these cookies are also very tasty. Recipe is very easy and idea I got form here:

https://www.internationalcuisine.com/mongolian-butter-cookies/

Ingredients:
240 g flour
55 g butter
120 g warm water
64 g sugar
salt
oil for frying

Solve the sugar and salt into the warm water. In a bowl, mix together the flour, water mixture, butter and knead extensively to a tough, dense dough, add flour or water as necessary. Let rest for about 30 minutes and knead again to remove any air bubbles.
Roll out the dough to about 1,5 cm thickness and cut into rectangles about 6*12 cm.
Cut a slit in the middle and pull one end through making sort of a knot shape.
Heat up you oil in a frying pan and deep fry until golden brown on each side.
Remove and serve warm with Mongolian tea.

Churros

Churros recipe. Crispy and sweet. You need to try these...

Ingredients:
250 ml water
60 g butter
1 tbsp sugar
0,25 tsp salt
140 g flour
1 L size egg
1 tsp vanilla sugar
vegetable oil for frying

For coating:
100 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. For the coating whisk together 100 g of sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish, set aside. Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat to 180 C. While oil is heating prepare batter.
2. 
   
4. Add water, butter, sugar and salt to a large saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add flour reduce heat to medium-low and cook and stir constantly with a rubber spatula until mixture comes together and is smooth. Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, let cool 5 minutes. Add vanilla sugar and egg to flour mixture then blend  with an electric mixer. Blend until mixture comes together and is smooth.
5. 
   
9. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a rounded star tip. Carefully pipe mixture into preheated oil, into about 15 cm lengths, cut end with clean scissors.
11. Let fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels to dry briefly then transfer to cinnamon sugar mixture and roll to coat.
12. Repeat process with remaining dough. 
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14. Serve warm. For serving homemade apple jam is reallly enjoyable.

Char Siew Bao (Char Siu Bao)

Foodtrip 2019 has arrived to China  and today´s recipe is Char Siu Bao.
It is basicly steamed bun filled with chinese BBQ pork.

Recipe for BBQ I have took from this page. Unfortunately all ingredients are not available, so I made some addjustments. It is no so authentical anymore, but anyway amazingly good. 😊

https://rasamalaysia.com/char-siu/

Char Siu (BBQ pork ingredents)
500 g skinless pork belly, cut into 2 long strips
2 tbsp finelly chopped garlic

Char Siu Sauce ingredients:
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp Oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark and thick soy sauce
1 tbsp five spice powder
0,25 tsp white pepper ground
100 g sugar

Mix all sauce ingredients, add garlic and pork belly and marinate overnight in the fridge.
Next day heat the oven to 200 C.
Place the pork belly to oven  and bake for 15 minutes from one side.
Remove from oven and turn the pork belly over, brush the remainig sauce over and place the pork belly back to oven for another 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 150 C and cook about 1 hour until meat will be very soft. 

Bao dough ingredients:
240 ml warm water
3 tbsp sugar
1  package dry yeast
400 g flour
3 tbsp vegetable oil
0,5 tsp salt
1,5 tsp baking powder

To prepare dough, combine warm water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Mix in alll other ingredients. Knead dough until smooth and elastic ( about 10 minutes)
Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place  1 hour or until doubled in size. 
Punch dough down; let rest 5 minutes. Turn dough out onto a clean surface; knead in baking powder solution (2 tbsp water+1,5 tsp baking powder). Let dough rest 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 10 equal portions, forming each into a ball. Working with one dough ball at a time (cover remaining dough balls to keep from drying), roll ball into a 15 cm circle. Place 1 tbsp filling in center of dough circle. Bring up sides to cover filling and meet on top. Pinch and seal closed with a twist. Repeat procedure with remaining dough balls and filling.

Arrange buns seam side down, in bamboo steamer. Cover with lid.

Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 3 cm; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Place steamer in pan; steam 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.
Adding a few drops of vinegar into steaming water will produce whiter buns, but this is optional. Steamer must be preheated otherwise bun would not rise to the volume as it should be. 

Filling ingredients:

A

250 g char siew diced

0,5 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp sugar

1 small onion diced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

 B

150 ml water

1,5 tbsp corn flour

Salt to taste

Heat oil and sauté onion for 1-2 minutes. Add all other A ingredients, stir fry for 1 minute.

Mix together water with corn flour, add mixture into the pan and stir well. Simmer until gravy is thickened,

Transfer to plate and allow to cool.

Japanese Yaki Gyoza (Fried Dumplings)

Juicy on the inside, crispy and golden brown on the outside, these Japanese pan-fried dumplings, Gyoza we are making in our Foodtrip 2019 stop in Japan.

I used this recipes:

https://www.justonecookbook.com/gyoza-wrappers/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/gyoza/#wprm-recipe-container-60570

Gyoza wrapper ingredients:

240 g flour
0,5 tsp salt
120 ml water
potato  starch for dusting

Gather all the ingredients. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add salt to juist boiled water and mix until salt is completely dissolved. Mix flour with water and knead it into dough ball. If flour is still separated add 0,5 tbsp of water at a time until you can form a dough ball.

Knead dough for 10 minutes. Cut dough into halves and Shape each half into a long log, about 3 mm diameter (it doesn't have to be perfect if you’re going to use a cookie cutter later). Wrap each log with plastic wrap. Cover halves with food film and let the dough sit for a 30 minutes.

Unwrap the dough. Sprinkle a little potato starch on the work surface and cut each log crosswise into about 12 pieces (may vary depending on the log length and width). Cover the dough with damp kitchen towel at all time to prevent from drying. Roll each piece of dough into a ball shape.Press the ball onto the work surface.Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, but DO NOT roll out (flatten) the TOP and BOTTOM edge. This is a trick to make a nice round shape. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling the dough to make a nice round shape. Try to roll out the dough to a thin circle. If you want a perfect round shape for your wrappers, press down the 8 cm cookie cutter and remove excess dough.  If the dough rolls back, leave it for a few seconds, and cut out. Cover the scraps with the damp towel. Later combine all the scraps as long as they still squish together and haven’t dried out too much. Re-roll the scraps and repeat the process. 

Sprinkle each wrapper with potato starch and stack the gyoza wrappers. Make sure to the wrappers covered with damp kitchen towel. Once all the dough is used, wrap the gyoza wrappers with plastic wrap and freeze or refrigerate until you’re ready to use. 

Gyoza frying ingredients:

38 Gyosa wrappers

1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying each batch

60 ml water for frying each batch

1tsp roasted sesame oil for frying each batch 

Gyoza filling ingredients:

200 g ground pork and beef mix

70 g cabbage
12 g green onions
2 shitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove (minced)
ca 2,5 cm piece of ginger (grated)

Gyoza filling ingredients:

1 tsp sake

1 tsp roasted sesame oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

0,25 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

Gyoza dipping sauce:

1tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

chopped chili

Filling and forming of Gyoza:

Remove the core of the cabbage leaves and cut into very small pieces

Cut green onions and shiitake mushrooms into small pieces

Combine the ground meat, cabbage, green onion, and shiitake mushrooms in a large bowl.

Add minced garlic and grated ginger to the bowl.

Add the seasonings

Mix well and knead the mixture with hand until it becomes pale in color and sticky.

Take a wrapper and place it in the palm of your non-dominant hand. Use a teaspoon to take a small amount of filling and put it in the center of the wrapper. Dip one finger in a bowl of water and draw a circle around the outer 1 cm of the wrapper with your wet finger until it’s wet all around.

Fold the wrapper in half over the filling and pinch it in the center with your fingers (but don’t seal yet!). Using your thumb and index finger, start making a pleat about once every 0,5 cm on the top part of the wrapper from the center toward the right. As you fold each pleat, press the folded pleat tightly against the back part of wrapper using your other thumb and index finger. Make 3-4 pleats.

Continue with the left side of the gyoza. Start making a pleat from the center to the left.

Gyoza cooking:

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, place the gyoza in a single layer, flat side down (in two rows or in a circular shape).

Cook until the bottom of the gyoza turns golden brown, about 3 minutes

Add  60 ml of water to the pan. Immediately cover with a lid and steam the gyoza for about 3 minutes or until most of the water evaporates.

Remove the lid to evaporate any remaining water. Add 1 tsp sesame oil around the frying pan.

Cook uncovered until the gyoza is nice and crisp on the bottom.

Transfer to a plate and serve with dipping sauce. For the dipping sauce, combine the sauce ingredients in a small plate and mix all together. 

Lechon Kawali (Filipino Crispy Fried Pork Belly) Recipe

Foodtrip 2019 is in Philiphines and we are making Lechon Kawali or Filiphino Crispy Fried Pork Belly. This tastes especially good.

Recipe idea I found from this page;
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/lechon-kawali-filipino-crispy-fried-pork-belly-recipe.html

Ingredients:
1 kg boneless skin-on pork belly, cut in half
8 garlic gloves
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
120 ml soy sauce
salt
Vegetable oil for frying
Rice vinegar for dipping sauce

Place pork belly, skin side down, in a large pot and add enough water to completely submerge meat. Add garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower heat and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook until pork skin can be pierced with a knife with no resistance, about 1 hour. Transfer pork to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and season liberally with salt all over. Refrigerate pork until skin has completely dried, 6 hours or overnight.
Remove pork from refrigerator and cut into 2 cm slices.

Heat oil to 200 C. Working in batches, fry pork until deeply browned and skin has bubbled and crisped, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer pork to a paper towel-lined plate and season with salt to taste. Serve immediately with vinegar for dipping.