Poppy seeds crackers

Lunch ideas? Yea, sandwiches or salad! Come to think of it, crackers fall into the sandwich category, if you jazz them up a bit with cheese and fruit.

Ingredients


220 g. flour
3 tb. sp. olive oil
3 tb. sp. poppy seeds
1/2 t. sp. salt
1/2 t. sp. baking powder
warm water


Method


1. Sift the flour and add the rest of the ingredients, except the water.
2. Start kneading adding as much water as you need to form soft and non-sticky dough.
3. Roll out the dough and cut it in whatever shapes you prefer.
4. Bake at 220 C until gold brown.


I added some cream cheese (ricotta is better), strawberries and honey to mine. 

Filo dough with leek, cheese and egg filling (Banitsa)

I'M BACK! I should apologize for the long absence, but ever since I said that I would post only on Sundays, they've become busy/lazy days when I don't feel like even checking up the blog. So, this mid-week post is a compensation of sorts.

On Saturday, we (Bulgarians) celebrated our national holiday commemorating 3 March 1878 when the Russian-Turkish war ended and after 500-year yoke, Bulgaria gained its freedom from the Ottoman (Turkish) empire. A day when I remember how grateful I am to the Russian and Bulgarian men who have given their lives, so that we could be free. Although as a child, I didn't give the holiday much thought and I dreaded the long speeches of statesmen and the folk music concerts on television, adulthood has given me a bit of wisdom. Recalling all the history lessons we've had on the hardships of life under foreign rule, the loss of lives and the struggle to keep our national identity, I feel very proud of my ancestors, who kept the Bulgarian spirit in a time when both Turkish and Greek influences threatened it (I hope nobody misunderstands, as I carry no ill feelings towards either nation. The past is the past.) Although I'm uncertain that we as a nation possess the dignity of the ones before us, I also know that every generation has its battles. I just hope we handle ours graciously.

Enough with the history lesson though. Let's get a bit culinary. My contribution to the holiday was a traditional Bulgarian dish called banitsa (filo-dough with leek, cheese and eggs filling). There are all sorts of versions of it both savory and sweet, but I made mine the traditional way. I can find filo-dough only in the Arabian store here, but with a little time on one's hands, it's easy to make at home. That's what I do. I have this crazy idea that if a meal is festive, it has to take quite some time to make. Buying the fillo-dough would mean just assembling the products and throwing the banitsa in the oven. It just doesn't sit right with me. That being said, the special ingredient of a festive meal is the people one shares it with, so if time is an issue, it's not a crime to take a shortcut. Moreover, fillo-dough is made just with flour, salt, vegetable oil, vinegar and water, so it's one of those products you can buy from the store and have no worry about its ingredients, etc.

I personally would probably always roll out my filo-dough as it's something I've watched my grandmother do and I feel very honored to carry the tradition in my family. So, this is how it goes:

Ingredients


500 g. flour
1 tb. sp. vinegar
1 tb. sp. olive oil
1/2 t.sp. salt
warm water


8 t. sp. olive oil


250 g. feta cheese
2-3 leeks
2 eggs
parsley (optional)


Method


1. Sift the flour in a big bowl and make a well in it. 
2. Add the vinegar, olive oil, salt and a little warm water.
3. Start kneading and add as much water as you need until you form soft dough.
4. Cut the dough in 12 pieces and form balls with them. 
5. Roll out a circle from each ball the size of a cup plate. When you roll out the first, place it on a plate. Spread 1 t.sp. olive oil on top of it and then add the second circle on top of the first. Spread 1 t.sp. olive oil on it and add the third circle on top. Do the same thing with the rest of the circles, arranging them three by three, by three, so on. At the end, you should have 4 sets of dough circles. 
6. Roll out each set as thinly as you can. You should be able to see through each leaf, when it's rolled out well. In order to make the process easy, sprinkle flour on the bottom of the surface where you'll be working and also on top of the circle sets every time the dough starts to stick or doesn't roll out easily and smoothly. Congratulations, you now have 4 sheets of filo-dough.
7. Cook the diced leek for about 5-10 min, adding 1/4 cup water, so it can soften.
8. Beat the eggs and mix with the cheese. Add the leek and some parsley.
9. Spread from the mix on each filo-dough sheet and roll it. Arrange in a round form.

10. Bake in a 200 C oven until gold brown. 


Natural yoghurt drink goes very well with it. I just added a spoon of yoghurt to the plate. Hope you enjoy it! :)

Jeg har ikke skrevet i et stykke tid, men på lørdag fejrede jeg Bulgariens national helligdag med en traditionel ret, som jeg ønskede at dele med dig. Det kaldes banitsa - lavet af filodej med ost, porre og æg påfyldning. Jeg er ikke sikker på, om du kan finde det i supermarkeder, men du kan prove med Arabiske butikker eller den BulgarskMad butik i København (hvis du bor der).


Alternativt kan du også prøve at gøre det derhjemme. Det er ret nemt, men det kræver omkring en time at gøre.


Ingredienser

500 g. mel
1 spiseskefuld eddike
1 spiseskefuld olivenolie
1/2 teske salt
varmt vand

8 teske olivenolie

250 g. feta ost
2-3 porrer
2 æg
persille 



1. Sigt melet i en stor skål og lav en fordybning i det.
2. Tilsæt eddike, olivenolie, salt og lidt varmt vand.
3. Begynd æltning og tilsæt så meget vand som du har brug for, indtil dejen er blød
4. Skær dejen i 12 stykker og form bolde med dem.
5. Udrulle en cirkel fra hver kugle med størrelsen af et bæger plade. Når du rullerden første, placere den på en tallerken. Spred 1 teske olivenolie på toppen af ​​det og derefter tilsættes den anden cirkel oven på den første. Spred 1 teske olivenolie på den og tilføje den tredje cirkel på toppen. Gør det samme med resten af cirklerne. Der bør være 4 sæt af tre dejen cirkler, når du er færdig.
6. Udrulle hvert sæt så tyndt som du kan. Du skal se gennem hvert blad, når det er rullet ud godt. Drys mel på bunden af ​​overfladen, hvor du vil arbejde, og også på toppen af ​​cirklen sætter hver gang dejen begynder at klæbe eller når den ikke udrulle let og gnidningsløst. Tillykke, du nu har 4 blad filo-dej.
7. Kog hakkede porre for omkring 5-10 minutter med 1/4 kop vand, så det kan blødgøre.
8. Pisk æg og blandes med osten. Tilsæt porre og nogle persille.
9. Spred blandingen på hver filo dej. Arranger i en rund form.
10. Bakes i 200 C ovn indtil guld brun.


Serveres med yoghurt naturel. Velbekomme!

Leek and potato soup

First, I'd like to say Happy Valentine's day to all who are celebrating! I myself am more hung on the idea of honoring the day of wine (st. Tryphon) as it evokes many funny memories from my childhood. I and my family together with my uncles' families would go to the vineyard, where the kids (us) would play and the adults would drink some good red wine. Most years, the snow covered ground and frozen garden pond provided lost of entertainment and funny stories. Now, it's just me and my sister, sipping some red wine bought from the local store and laughing about all those past moments. Traditions, what will we do without them?

I've been thinking a bit about the blog and how I want to proceed with it. Since, I'm not quite fond of writing all that much during the week and my posts seem somewhat unfinished to me, I decided that it shall be a Sunday edition, when I would take my time in posting step by step recipe explanations with more pictures (hopefully better quality too) and a little more attention to the writing part too. I'm also going to try doing double-language posts (English and Danish) as I need to establish a routine practicing my Danish. Finally, I'm gonna keep the blog strictly 'food' related. If I have the patience to listen through skype explanations of gardening - growing vegetables and fruit - from my dad, I'd also love to include these. He has a life-long experience and lots of best-practice advice he's been giving to his friends and integrating in his work, so I think it will be a great way to keep his wisdom through an online shared note-taking. I hope you're interested. I'm going to reinvent the personal style part of it in a separate blog some time later on, as I've changed its concept a bit and I'm not ready to delve into it now, but if you're interested, there will be some bits and pieces of what I'd choose in my Pinterest account.

Unbelievable as it is, I managed to write an entire post without the tiniest hint of the title. So, here it comes. I checked out a very interesting recipe a couple of days ago. Reading just the name "leek and potato soup" immediately caught my attention, as both ingredients are on the top list of this season's food and I love them both. Here is the recipe. The author gives plenty of information on how the recipe could be modified for all sorts of diets and explains the process with beautiful pictures. You should check it out!

The only changes I made were that I used only 10 g olive oil and substituted the double cream with cream fraiche. It was absolutely lovely. If I had tomato salad, it would have been even lovelier. :)

Rice noodles and eggplant soup

I've had two eggplants laying around half a week, so today it was their turn to go in the pot. First, I was thinking about baking them and making a salad, but the weather has been rather chilly and we needed something warm and cosy. I hadn't made cream soup before and I was very curious how that would turn out. Now that I have tasted it (divine combination of flavors, by the way), I realize that I like too much having something to chew besides the noodles. :) What kind of soups do you prefer?

Ingredients


rice noodles
1 onion
1 leek
2 red peppers
2 eggplants
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
red pepper
curry
salt
olive oil
parsley
3.5 cups vegetable stock


Method


1. Peel and cut in medium sized pieces the eggplants. Leave them in salted water for 15 min. Boil them until soft. Strain and set them aside.
2. Dice the onion and the leek. Saute them for a couple of minutes. 
3. Throw in the chopped peppers and add the tomatoes. Cook for 5 min. and add the hot vegetable stock. Cook until the peppers are almost ready. Then add the eggplants and the spices. 
4. When ready, remove from the stove and let the soup rest for a bit. Blend until smooth.
5. Boil the rice noodles.


Serve the eggplant soup with rice noodles. 


I should figure out how to make it, so there are less bubbles after blending. Any ideas?


We thought the rice noodles are better on their own, while the soup goes greatly with some sprinkled feta cheese or freshly baked bread.


Velbekomme! (Bon appetit! in Danish)

Grocery shopping and pizza Misfortunata

Today was another lucky day of sweet discounts... 1 kr ($ 0.18) for an apple/orange. So, I rushed to the store as soon as it was open... you know, it's not just our household that checks the newspaper. :) As I was picking up apples (they all look disturbingly perfect - glazed and same-sized) a young shop assistant came over and started rearranging the boxes. Nothing out of the ordinary and worth noticing, right? Well, I wish so. But when she picked up a half-full box and poured the remaining apples in another half-full box, my heart ached. It's not potatoes. It's apples! If one mishandles them, they go bad faster. This is some serious offense against them. I still remember picking up apples with my dad from our garden. He'd make sure each apple is picked with its stem (longer shelf-life) after which we'd wrap them in paper and arrange them in boxes with as little space between them as possible (less movement and damage when being transported). We'd check each apple for worm traces or other imperfections that cause quick rotting, so we could leave them aside for immediate use. Then every once in a while, my dad would check the boxes in case there are apples that have started going bad. The paper prevents the spread of rotting, but he still thought he should be diligent about it. And we always have apples until spring. Maybe not as perfect as the ones in stores (because they're not as juicy as when they're picked up), but all natural. So, you see... when I notice anyone being careless about apples, I get a bit on edge. Nothing personal. ;)

Now, about my pizza Misfortunata... I'm not sharing the dough recipe, because it simply didn't live up to our expectations. This means I'm still on the lookout for the perfect pizza dough. :/ The topping was amazing though - mozzarella, onion, maize, pepper and parsley. Combined with some salad, it made the perfect easy meal to go with an episode on Project Runway. I'm not much about fashion, but I love seeing things created from scratch. Plus, I'm a woman - anything to do with clothes is in my blood. :) 

You know how short skirts are always a hit... I'm particularly excited that there's a trend to wear maxi skirts with a see through top layer. They make for such a youthful and elegant look. So, I think I'm gonna get one for this spring/summer and wear it like this.

Healthy breakfast/ lunch

Waking up to find the town snow white is a dream! If it was sunny, the snow would have glittered!! But it's Denmark and we live under a huge, rarely giving way to sunlight cloud. That's alright... we can still walk on the fresh snow, listen to the lovely sound our boots make and enjoy the tranquility the view and the lack of traffic creates. Super nice!

Going back to food now. Wheat isn't commonly found on our table. Mostly we just don't remember about it, unless a friend/ tv show/ food blogger mentions it... like it happened this time around. So, today I went to the store and bought some wheat to boil for lunch. Yummy! I especially like the combination of wheat, natural yoghurt and fruit. So, here it goes.

Ingredients


100 g. wheat
5 dates
1/4 cup raisin 
1/4 cup minced walnuts (I didn't have any today. :/ ) 
1 t. sp. lemon zest
1 t. sp. orange zest
1 t. sp. vanilla sugar


1 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 orange
1/2 apple


Method


1. Boil the wheat and leave it aside to cool.
2. Cut the dates and the raisin in small pieces.
3. Mix the what with the dried fruit, the walnuts, the zest and the vanilla sugar.
4. Serve with yoghurt, and orange and apple slices.


It has everything you need! But more than that, it's light and fresh, which makes it the perfect breakfast or lunch! :)

Light carrot and apple salad

When I'm back home in Bulgaria, I and my dad indulge in freshly home-made carrot and apple juice. Although both carrots and apples are juicier right after you pick them from the garden, we make fresh until Christmas. The flavor balance is just perfect!

Fortunately, carrots and apples in Denmark are relatively cheap, so I can keep up with the tradition.... with one tiny adjustment. Instead of juice, I make salad. It takes seconds to make and provides some more fiber than juice does. You can also add more ingredients to it for a satisfying lunch!

Ingredients


3 carrots
2 apples
1 red pepper
olives
fresh onion


1/2 t. sp. honey
1 t. sp. lemon juice
1 t. sp. olive oil


Method


1. Cut the vegetables and the fruit however you like them most. I shave the carrots (going easy on the teeth :D) and cut in small pieces the rest (although, it's healthier to keep the pieces as large as possible - less oxidizing) . 
2. Whisk the honey, the lemon juice and the olive oil and add to the salad.


I would also add a boiled egg to make it a more substantial lunch meal. Otherwise, I also have the apples and carrots with raisin and a cup of natural yoghurt. 


I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! :)

Baked potatoes with tomato sauce

Potatoes with ketchup! That was my response to the question "what do you want for dinner/ lunch?" when I was a child. Nowadays, I vary that with feta cheese (yummy combination), when I don't feel like cooking tomato sauce. No, I don't buy ketchup, cause I don't particularly like all the listed ingredients. Coming from a country where you occasionally get cheated about food ingredients doesn't help much with trust issues either. Today, I was thinking about лютеница (Bulgarian tomato spread, which we most often use for bread), so I thought I'd make something similar (too time consuming to make from scratch) to go with the baked potatoes. It turned out a bit more liquid than the original version, but I didn't want to keep it on the stove any longer.

Ingredients

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 onion

1 carrot

1 red pepper

1 1/2 tb. sp. olive oil

salt

ground red pepper

ground black pepper

garlic

1 tb. sp. parsley

5 medium sized potatoes

ground red pepper

ground black pepper

parsley

spearmint

salt

olive oil

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them however you like. Grease a baking form or use baking paper. Spread the potatoes in the baking form. Sprinkle the spices and bake at 220 C until ready. Use a couple of drops of olive oil when you get the potatoes out of the oven.

2. In the meantime, chop the onion, the carrot and the red pepper. 

3. Cook them together with the chopped tomatoes until it gets dense and the chopped vegetables soften. Add the olive oil, the garlic  and the parsley just a few minutes before you remove the tomato sauce from the stove.

4. Let the sauce cool for a couple of minutes and then blend it until smooth. 

Serve the potatoes together with the tomato sauce and store the rest of the sauce in a jar. Let it cool at room temperature and then refrigerate for later use. By the way, if you decide to combine it with feta cheese and spaghetti, for example, you'll love it! :)

Carrot bread with ricotta dip for lunch

I've been craving a ricotta dip for a few days now and since I haven't had it in a very long time, it seemed like a good idea to remind myself of its taste literally. What I've noticed is that it goes equally nicely with both vegetables and fruit. So, I decided to match it with carrot bread (my first). Sadly, even though I knew I should squeeze the water out of the carrots, I missed the step. It didn't bake as nicely as I would have wanted it and it should have had twice the volume it ended up with (I just made half a doze without considering using another form - my mind's elsewhere today :S), but it was delicious anyway. I particularly enjoyed how well the bread and the dip go together.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup flour

30 g. butter

3/4 cup carrot

1/4 cup yoghurt

1/2 t. sp. baking soda

1/2 sp. baking powder

1 tb. sp. sugar

1 t. sp. salt

1 tb. sp. poppy seed

1/2 t. sp. ground cardamom 

1/2 t. sp. cinnamon

2 tb. sp. raisin

For the dip

100 g. ricotta cheese

3 tb. sp. sweet corn

1 tb. sp. peas

2 tb. sp. fresh onion

1/2 red pepper

salt

basil

Method

1. Mix the eggs and the soft butter.

2. Put the baking soda in the yoghurt.

3. Sift the flour in a big bowl and add the dry ingredients.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour and mix them well. Add the blended carrots and the raisin and fold them into the batter. 

5. Bake at 220 C until ready.

If you are making the ricotta dip, just cut the pepper and the fresh onion and mix everything together. Garnish with basil.

Have an enjoyable and productive week!

Hand-made pasta

I've been considering making my own pasta for a while now, but I never got down to it until today. Although it was probably the hardest dough to roll out, looking smugly at the separate pieces on the rack and later tasting it made the effort quite rewarding. It also turned out cheaper than buying fettuccine!

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/4 t. sp. salt

Method

1. Sift the flour on the counter and make a well. Put the eggs inside.

2. Start beating the eggs with a fork, adding flour little by little.

3. Once the mixture gets thicker, start kneading, integrating the remaining flour. If it gets too dry, add a little water. It it remains sticky, add more flour.

 4. Once you have a well-formed dough, roll it out thinly, sprinkle a little flour and roll it in. Then start cutting the roll as thinly as you like.

5. Roll the pieces out and let the pasta rest for a bit on a rack. At this point, you can either prepare the ingredients for your sauce or refrigerate it for later use. When you boil the pasta, be ware that it will cook fast - about 5 min.

I made my pasta with leek, sunflower seeds, herbs, cottage cheese and olives.

Potato pizza

Remember when I said rice is better than potatoes unless they're baked? Well, today I baked some potatoes with other vegetables and mozzarella. The way I arranged everything in the tart form reminded me a lot of pizza, so that's how I called it.

I admit I get a little zealous when I work on my idea of palatable art. It's also a great thing nobody around me is too eager to give their opinions on how food should look, cause I might get in a war over it, metaphorically speaking. 

Ingredients

5 boiled potatoes

125 g. mozzarella 

3 eggs

50 g. milk

1/2 red pepper

1 carrot

peas

cauliflower 

basil

spearmint

Method

1. Slice the potatoes and the mozzarella.

2. Cut the rest of the vegetables in your preferable way.

3. Arrange the potatoes and the mozzarella in a tart form like shown on the picture above. Fill the middle with diced potatoes.

4. Decorate with the rest of the vegetables.

5. Whisk the eggs and the milk. Add the spices to it.

6. Pour the mixture, starting from the outer layer of the form and finishing with the middle. Be careful, not to spoil your arrangement.

7. Bake at medium high temperature until ready.

Next time I would put the peas more to the periphery, cause they weren't covered by the egg mix and got a bit too dry.

Rice with vegetables

A funny fact about my life: I live in potatoe-loving Denmark, but I prefer rice... mostly! Except baked potatoes maybe. Potato soup is also superior to rice soup... etc. Talk about taste! Food is probably one of the major issues in families that everyone needs to make compromises on. I guess we're fortunate there are so many meals in a week that nobody should feel being taken advantage of.

Ingredients

1 cup rice
1 onion
1 leek
1 pepper
1 can tomatoes 
1/2 cup maize 
1/2 cup peas
salt
sunflower oil
ground red pepper
basil
savory
spearmint
lovage


Method


1. Boil the rice and remove the water. Set aside.
2. Fry the chopped onion and diced leek in a little sunflower oil for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the chopped pepper, the maize and the peas and continue frying for a few minutes.
4. Add the can of tomatoes to the pan and continue cooking together with the spices, except for the ground red pepper (add it five minutes before you take the dish out of the stove).
5. Let the vegetables aside for five minutes and then add them to the rice, mixing them well together.


It could be served both as a vegetarian main course or as a side dish. Enjoy!