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.

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.

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. 
13. 
    
14. Serve warm. For serving homemade apple jam is reallly enjoyable.

Carta di Musica

I just read a book by Frances Mayes "Womens in Sunlight" It is so enganging book wit delicious descriptions of Italy nature, food and frienship. Food description were just so inviting, so I could not resist to try some dishes alsoo in my kitchen.

So here is my version on Carta Di Musica- flatbread from Italian island Sardinia. There is a lot of recipes and techniques available.
These are very thin flatbread. It is said that bakers roll it out until a sheet of music can be read through it. The bread is crisp and crarcker-like.

Ingredients:

240 g durum wheat flour
235 ml warm water
1 tsp salt
olive oil
salt flakes
rosemary leaves

Mix all the ingredients. Knead the dough for 10 minutes and wrap into food film.
Let it be at least 1 hour in room temperature but more time is even better. The dough will be elastic and formable.
Divide dough  into 10 balls, Roll the dough balls as thin as possible (you should see throw the dough after rolling). Spray over with olive oil. Sprinkle rosemary leaves and salt flakes to bread. Bake at 200 C until golden brown.

Serve with fresh tomatoes, cheese and glass of wine.

Jalebi

Foodtrip is in Pakistan. We are baking traditional Pakistani sweets called Jalebi. Jalebi is pastry what is fried and immersed with hot syrup. Very sweet but interesting dessert. Saffron gives nice yellow colour and cardamom pleasant taste.

Recipe idea I got from here:
http://www.angelfire.com/country/fauziaspakistan/jalebi.html

Ingredients: 
250 g flour
300 g sugar
200 g kefir
a pinch of saffron or yellow food colour
vegetable oil for frying
1 tbsp vegetable oil for batter
a pinch of salt
crushed cardamom 
powdered sugar

Mix together 125 g flour and 200 g kefir to get a smooth batter. Keep ca 24 h at room temperature.
In the next day mix in the remaining flour,100 g water, salt, saffron water or yellow food colour (put saffron together with 1 tbsp of hot water and let it be for some minutes and add safron water to batter) and vegetable oil. Set a side.
For making syrup add sugar to a pan. Add water and mix with sugar and let it all come to a boil. Let it simmer till syrup becomes sticky and form a one string consistency. Basically place a drop of cooled syrup in between your thumb and index finger and then when you move fingers away from each other, it should form a single thread.
Pour the batter into the piping bag. Pipe spirals directly to the hot vegetable oil. The thickness of the batter should be approximately 0,5 cm. Bake Jalebi until golden brown and place these directly after baking to warm syrup for 30 seconds. 
Put Jalebi into serving plate and dust over with cardamom and powdered sugar.

Apricot galette

It is almost summer andjuicy apricots are already available. Today I share with you galette recipe. Preparation is easy.

Dough ingredients:
180 g flour
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
150 g cold butter
3 tbsp of ice cold water

Filling and cover:
360 g apricots cut into halves
6 tbsp sugar
1,5 tbsp corn starch
1 egg
4 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp sugar for covering

Mix together flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add the diced butter to the dry ingredients, and using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until dough is crumbly but there are still some small visible pieces of butter.
Drizzle with ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix gently with a fork until dough just comes together, do not knead the dough.
Form the dough into a ball and place it on a piece of plastic wrap. Place in fridge for at least one hour.

Let the dough rest for a few minutes at room temperature. Roll out the dough into a large circle about 0,5 cm  thick, on a baking paper. 
Slice the apricots into halves (take out sstones) and place them in a bowl. Toss with the granulated sugar and cornstarch. Put the apricots on top of the dough, leaving a border around the edges  (ca 5 cm). Fold the dough over the fruit and press gently to seal. Transfer the galette to the freezer for 15 minutes.

Whisk together the egg in a small bowl. Brush the edges with the egg wash, then sprinkle with sunflower seeds and  1 tbsp sugar. 

Bake until golden brown, about 35-40 minutes at 200 C. Let cool, then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Rhubarb-elderberry cake with cream yoghurt

Elderberry cordial and rhubarb, what a magnificent combination.😊 It is definitely worth to try. 
Slightly sour cream from yogurt and whipped cream in combination with sweet sponge made from almond flour.

Ingredients

Cake sponge:
55 g butter
100 g sugar
half lemon peel
1 egg + 1 egg white
1 tbsp elderberry cordial
0,5 tsp vanilla extract
50 g flour
50 g almond flour
0,5 tsp baking powder
0,25 tsp baking soda
0,25 tsp salt
65 g cream yogurt

Roasted rhubarb:
200 g chopped rhubarb
1 tbsp elderberry cordial
half lemon peel and juice
70 g sugar

Cream:
200 ml whipping cream
1 tbsp elderberry cordial
50 g cream yogurt

Put rhubarb with elderberry cordial, lemon juice, lemon peel and sugar to baking tin. Cover tin with aluminium foil.Bake at 225 C until rhubarb is soft. Take rhubarb out of oven and let it cool completely

Whip the butter ( in room temperature) with sugar and add lemon peel. Add egg and egg white, and also elderberry cordial. Mix flour, almond flour, salt baking powder and baking soda in bowl. Add flour mix in parts to butter-egg mix and mix until you get the even batter. At last add yogurt and half of roasted rhubarb. 

Line cake tin (diameter 20 cm) with baking paper and fill with batter. Bake at 200 C for approximately 30 minutes. 
Take cake out of cake tin and let it cool completely. Cut it into two discs.

For making cream whip the cream and add yogurt, elderberry cordial, 3/4 part of roasted rhubarb and some teaspoon of rhubarb syrup (you get it with roasting of rhubarbs). Mix gently until you get even cream.

Put one cake disc to cake plate and immerse with rhubarb syrup. Add half of cream and put second cake disc to the cream layer. Immerse the second cake disc and cover with second half of cream. Decorate with roasted rhubarbs and rhubarb syrup.

Keep the cake one hour in refrigerator before serving.

Rhubarb galette

It is spring and rhubarb season. Today I share with you galette recipe.
Preparation is easy.

Dough ingredients:
180 g flour
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
150 g cold butter
3 tbsp of ice cold water

Filling and cover:
200 g rhubarb-chopped in 1 cm pieces
6 tbsp sugar
1,5 tbsp corn starch
1 egg
4 tbsp almond slices
1 tbsp sugar for covering

Mix together flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add the diced butter to the dry ingredients, and using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until dough is crumbly but there are still some small visible pieces of butter.
Drizzle with ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix gently with a fork until dough just comes together, do not knead the dough.
Form the dough into a ball and place it on a piece of plastic wrap. Place in fridge for at least one hour.

Let the dough rest for a few minutes at room temperature. Roll out the dough into a large circle about 0,5 cm  thick, on a baking paper. 
Slice the rhubarb into pieces and place them in a bowl. Toss with the granulated sugar and cornstarch. Put the rhubarb pieces on top of the dough, leaving a border around the edges  (ca 5 cm). Fold the dough over the fruit and press gently to seal. Transfer the galette to the freezer for 15 minutes.

Whisk together the egg in a small bowl. Brush the edges with the egg wash, then sprinkle with flaked almonds and  1 tbsp sugar. 

Bake until golden brown, about 35-40 minutes at 200 C. Let cool, then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Pretzels

Pretzels are our family favorites and always when I am in Germany I bring these always also to home. 😊 These are so delicious.
Here is also recipe, so you can make these also in home. 😊

Ingredients:
180 ml warm water
6 g dry yeast
0,5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
about 250 g flour
sea salt flakes

Soda bath:
1000 ml water
60 g baking soda

Whisk the yeast into warm water. Allow to sit for 1 minute. Whisk in salt, sugar, and oil. Slowly add 250 g of flour. Mix with a  dough hook attached to stand mixer until dough is thick. Add more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. 
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough for 5 minutes and shape into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. 
Divide dough into six even parts and roll the dough balls into 50 cm ropes. Form ropes into pretzels.
Bring baking soda and  water to a boil in a large pot. Drop 1 pretzel into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzel out of the water and allow as much of the excess water to drip off. Place pretzel onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with coarse sea salt. Repeat with remaining pretzels.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve pretzels with lingonberry jam.

Somali Sambosa

Samosa or sambuus as it is called in Somali is a deep fried triangular shaped pastry filled with meat and spices. It is commonly made for afternoon tea – asariya.

Recipe I got from here:

http://www.somalikitchen.com/samosa.html/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcsn_x93HU

175 g flour
1 tsp salt 
2 tsp olive oil
130 g warm water
500 g minced meat (beef)
One large onion
1 bunch of coriander
1 tsp of curry powder
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Samosa filling
Marinate the mince meat with the curry powder. Place in the fridge for one hour.  
Dice the onion and chop the coriander.
Saute the mince in a sauce pan until cooked through.
Add the onion and coriander and cook for a minute or two.
Season with salt.
Let the mixture cool.

Samosa pastry
Place plain flour, oil and the warm water in the bowl and mix until you have a smooth dough
Divide the dough into  3 ball.
Roll three dough balls out flat, each to size of a plate.
Spread a little oil on top of each round and stack them one on top of the other. The oil prevents the  dough rounds sticking to each other.
Roll the stacks to roughly the size of a dinner plate. Cut into quarters.
Fry the quarters on both sides one at a time for a minute on each side in dry pan. Don’t overcook!
When each quarter is dry-fried separate them and wrap with plastic.

How to wrap the samosas
Mix two tablespoons of plain flour with a 60 g of warm water to form a paste to seal the samosa edge.
Form each quarter into a cone shape by folding the sides from the rounded end over each other and seal with the paste. You should have a cone shape with a triangular shaped top that looks like an ice cream cone.
Fill the cone with the mince mixture.
Tuck the pointed top end down over the sealed edges and seal with the paste.

You should now have a neat triangular samosa. Repeat with remaining pieces of pastry.

Cooking the samosas
Heat the oil in heavy shallow frying pan over medium heat. Test the oil with a small strip of excess dough and if the pastry floats up then you are ready to start frying your samosas.
Place several samosas in your frying pan. Turn to brown to a light gold.
Drain the cooked samosas on paper.

Paczki or Polish donuts

This is recipe for traditional Polish donuts, what are very fluffy and delisious. These are prepared from yeast dough, but the preparing method is very different from usual preparing of yeast dough and it also contains special ingredients like spirit. Adding spirit helps to avoid the absorption of excessive oil and helps to form crispy crust.
All this makes from these donuts amazingly fluffy and delicious pastries. 

Recipe I found here:
https://www.kwestiasmaku.com/kuchnia_polska/tlusty_czwartek/paczki_najlepsze/przepis.html

Dough ingredients:
50 g fresh yeast
250 ml milk
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
500 g flour
1 egg
4 egg yolks
50 g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp spirit

Vegetable oil for frying
Strawberry jam (without pieces- marmalade) for filling of donuts
Powdered sugar fo covering of donuts

Heat milk to 30 C. Mix yeast, 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour with milk. Cover bowl with food film and put bowl into bigger bowl filled with hot water. Let the yeast activate approximately 15 minutes.

At the same time sieve flour into big bowl and mix it with salt and vanilla sugar. Foam the egg yolks and egg with 2 tbsp of sugar into very strong foam. It will take 15 minutes.

Mix egg foam, yeast mix and flour mix into dough. Knead the dough for 15 minutes. At the end add melted butter and spirit. Knead more until the liquids are combained into even dough. Cover the dough with towel and let it raise for 1-1,5 hour in warm place.

Spread raised dough in flat surface covered with flour. Push air out of dough with your hands. Roll the dough into 2 cm thick layer and cut rings (diameter 6,5 - 7 cm) from the dough. Let rings raise under towel for 30-45 minutes.

At the same time heat the oil in fryer or in pot until 180 C. Bake donuts from both sides approximately 4 minutes until these are golden brown. Let donuts cool a little before starting to filling with jam. If donuts are too warm then the jam will flow out of donuts. For filling use long cake tips (designed specially for pastry filling).

Cover donuts with powdered sugar.

Quick & Fluffy Vitumbua – Tanzanian Coconut Doughnuts

This week we are in Tanzania and I ’d like to introduce to you Vitumbua. These are Tanzanian rice doughnuts.
Vitumbua should be golden and crunchy on the outside and have cardamom taste. The batter is made with coconut milk which makes these doughnuts pure white in the middle and melt-in-the-mouth.  Traditionally, they’re made using rice that’s been soaked overnight.

Recipe idea I got from here:
https://www.africanbites.com/vitumbarice-pancakes/#wprm-recipe-container-570269

Ingredients

Vitumbua:
400 g Veski Mati rice
1 package (11 g) dry yeast
225 g coconut milk, slightly warmed
165 g sugar
0,5-1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom+nutmeg

Coconut dipping sauce:
400 ml coconut milk
165 g light Muscovado sugar

Vitumbua:
Soak rice in large bowl overnight.
Drain the water and add in a blender together with coconut milk, spices, sugar, salt and yeast.
Blend until puree.
Pour in a large bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm area until doubled in size or when you see bubbles in forming.
Heat the pancake pan on a medium heat and brush the wholes with vegetable oil.
Add dough to warm pan until 3/4 full. Cook for 2-3 minutes from both sides. Originally it is used pan with deep holes, but unfortunately it was not to possible to find this kind of pan, so  i used usual pancake pan. 
Let the donuts cool sightly and enjoy with caramel dipping sauce.

Coconut Caramel dipping  Sauce:
Bring the coconut milk and brown sugar to boil together in heave bottomed pot.
Reduce heat to medium low, cook and stir frequently until the mixture is thick and the volume is reduced by about an half. It takes 20 minutes or more.

Mealie bread with blackened Chilies

Cornbread from Zambia is especially delicious, because it is made with fresh corn kernels instead of cornmeal. "Mealie" is th another name for corn in Zambia. This mealie bread is very moist and tastes delicious. The spice chilies taste grate with sweet kernels.

Recipe idea I got from here:
http://globaltableadventure.com/recipe/recipe-mealie-bread-with-blackened-chilies/

Ingredients:
450 g canned corn kernels, drained
4 M size eggs
4 tbsp melted butter
260 g flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
0,75 tsp salt

half of  chopped blackened chili pod. 


Blacken chili over flame or in pan. Chili should be black almost all over. Set a side to cool, then peel and dice it (leave seeds out).

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Set aside 140 of corn kernels.
Then, in a blender, pulse together the remaining corn kernels, eggs and melted butter. Add in the last cup of corn and pulse briefly to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Then, stir in the corn mixture and diced chili. 

Spread in a greased bread baking tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Serve warm with salted butter and ice cold milk.

Buns from yeast dough,covered with Craquelin, filled with baked apple filling and whipped cream.

These buns are crispy outside  and soft inside. Covered with crunchy Craquelin and filled with baked apples and whipped cream.

Craquelin:
60 g of brown sugar
60 g of flour
55 g of butter
Little bit of salt

Make the Craquelin. Put sugar, flour and butter in a bowl and stir to even and sticky dough.
Form the dough into a thick disc and place between 2 sheets of food film. Roll it out to 3 mm thick and place the dough (still between the food film) flat in the freezer.

Dough
500 g of flour
50 g of sugar
1 tsp sea salt
230 ml milk
100 ml vegetable oil
25 g fresh yeast
1 egg

Mix yeast with sugar. Mix all the ingredients (except flour).
Flour add in parts. Put the dough warm place to rise for 60 minutes.
Make the balls from the dough with weight 60 g each and place them on the baking sheet. Let them rise for about 30 minutes.Grease with egg yolk.

Remove the Craquelin from the freezer, peel off the food film and use the 5 cm cutter to stamp out the discs. Place a disc on top of each dough ball
Bake buns at 220 C about 15 minutes or until the buns are golden brown. Let the buns cool down completely.


Baked apple filling
500 g cleaned and chopped apples
50 ml water
50 g unrefined cane sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp corn starch

For making apple filling put the heat the apples with water and let the mix boil until apples are soft. Add sugar, cinnamon and starch mixed with a little water.Let the mix boil some more minutes and let it cool down completely before using. 
For making whipping cream filling, whip 500 ml of cream with 100 g of sugar. Put cream to piping bag.

Cut off the upper part (with Craquelin) from the buns. Scrape out a little content from bun lower part to make a place for baked apple filling and whipped cream. Add 2 teaspoons of baked apple filling to the bottom of bun and fill with whipped cream. Place the upper part to the filling.