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. :)

Orange chocolate chip cookies

Fruit or chocolate? Cookies or cake? Why not have it all in one? That's what orange chocolate chip cookies are for me. I and the raising eyebrows' taster at home particularly like the combination of orange and chocolate, as I'm sure most of you dear readers do.

I'm too tired to write anything else except the recipe, but if I have time tomorrow, I'll tell you why... or most likely show you. Winter and sea lovers will be excited to see. ;)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter/ coconut oil (I prefer the latter, as it adds a little more exotic feel to the cookies)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

4 tb. sp. orange juice

1 t. sp. orange zest

1 t. sp. baking powder

1/2 t. sp. baking soda

1/4 t. sp. salt

chocolate chip

Method

1. Mix the butter/ coconut oil with the sugar until creamy.

2. Add the eggs one by one, whisking them well.

3. Add the orange juice and zest and continue whisking.

3. Add the baking powder, the baking soda and the salt to the flour and sift it in the bowl where the wet ingredients are. Mix well together.

4. Finally, add the chocolate chip and integrate in the dough. 

5. Let it rest wrapped in plastic foil in the fridge for a day. (I wasn't feeling like waiting, so I made them the same day.)

6. Bake in a 200 C oven. Let them cool for about 5 minutes, before you remove them from the baking paper. Leave them on a rack to cool additionally. Enjoy! :)

I also did a batch with coffee and raisin, but they weren't as good.

Cinnamon buns

In a few minutes we're going for dinner with a lovely Bulgarian family, so I thought I'd make the dessert. I've been thinking about trying cinnamon buns ever since I read Kanelbullar post, but I only got to them today. I mostly followed the recipe, except that I made about 1/6 of the size, used the egg for the dough, replaced the dried yeast with fresh yeast and I also used raisin instead of topping the rolls with sugar. Now, I somewhat regret the choice, as their shape got a bit all "over the place" or in other words, they popped too much. However, I'm also conflicted by the very pleasing taste they create. Next time, I think I'll just cut the raisin in very small pieces... maybe that'll work. In any case, I'm sure they'll be savored. :)

A take on egg salad

Remember how I mentioned I'll try a more challenging crochet design than the one I did on Sunday? Well, I browsed some video tutorials on flower-making with chaining, double and triple crochet. THANK YOU to all the lovely women sharing their knowledge on youtube! It's so easy to follow - stopping, resuming and repeating to suit one's learning best. My needle (0.66 mm) and thread are a lot tinier and thiner than the ones used on the tutorials, though. So, I wasn't particularly excited about the size of the flowers I ended up with... one will have to look at them through glasses just to spot them (I'll make some adjustments and give these designs another try). Instead, I did my own thing again. It's mostly chaining and then applying three layers for achieving volume. I should remember to keep it a little loose. At least, that's what my mom said back when she tried to teach me. But I don't like loose at all. Until my fingers hurt, it's like I haven't worked with it. Crazy, I know. Anyway, this is what I did last night. I know it's a tiny amount of finished work, but I watched a scary movie in the meantime. :O

I'm not sure whether I'm gonna make a dozen of these (or more, depending on what I end up using them for) or mix them with other designs. I'm also having some serious dilemma what I wanna use them for. I thought about embellishing a headband, a bolero, a cushion case, cards, etc. If it's a bolero/cushion I'd wanna do it from scratch though, which means hand-sewing (I'm gonna buy a sewing machine one day!)... scary but possible! :)

Moving on! :) My version of egg salad. I haven't had egg salad before, so I have no idea what the classic version tastes like. I was a bit pressed for time, so I didn't check out a recipe either. I did have eggs in the fridge though and the only food I could think of was boiled eggs, yoghurt and salad, so I guess it worked out the way it should have. I used home made whole grain bread (the same recipe I use for other bread, but with whole grain flour) to make sandwiches with the egg salad. It was yummy!

Ingredients

2 boiled eggs

1/2 leek

1/3 cup maize

80 g. natural yoghurt/ cream fresh

ground black pepper

ground red pepper

salt

Method

Well.... mix it all well and bon appetite! :)

Apple pie

Previously, I've made an apple tart with pastry cream, which is a fabulous dessert to share with friends. Its thin crust leaves plenty of space for the abundance of cream and apples, which I love. Pastry cream is more of a festive dessert ingredient for me though. On the other hand, I'm very fond of fruit infused pastry for a weekday dessert. Apple pie, maybe? Yes, that's what sprang in my mind first. If I had thought about it some more, I would have gone for crumble, but there is always a next time. :)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

100 g. butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 tb. sp. icy water

2 apples

1 tb. sp. corn starch 

1 tb. sp. oatmeal 

1 tb. sp. sugar

Method

1. Mix the butter and the sugar together until creamy. 

2. Add the icy water and the egg yolks one by one, whisking them well together.

3. Finally add the flour and quickly form soft dough. Refrigerate for about 1 hour wrapped in plastic foil.

4. In the meantime, peel and cut in small cubes the apples. Mix them with the corn starch, oatmeal and sugar. (Alternatively, you can use nuts, which will absorb the moisture of the apples.)

5. Roll out a bottom and a top crust layer from the cooled dough. 

6. Place the first in a tart form(s) and spread the apples on top of it. Then cover it with the top layer. Cut the crust with a fork on a couple of places, so the pie can breathe. Bake at 200 C until ready.

I'm gonna try a vegan version of this some time before the winter has passed. Pretty optimistic about it too. :)

Crochet coaster

Two years ago, while on a holiday in Bulgaria, I asked my mom to show me how to crochet. She's not a woman of much patience though, so every time I stopped trying to get myself out of a situation, she'd just start pointing out the right way or get the needle and thread out of my hands, so she could show me again... and again. At that point, I'd start laughing uncontrollably, which made the whole endeavor so much more time-consuming and ineffective. Eventually, she gave me a book and told me I could learn now on my own. Hmmm... I don't do well with such instructions, so I left the whole project aside. This weekend, I accidentally stumbled on it and I thought I'd give it another chance.

I wasn't particularly excited about the shape though, so I unthreaded the whole thing and started wondering about a small project. I and my sister were watching our favorite BG series, 

so I in no way wanted to also look into patterns. I wanted something simple (just to get used to working faster) but also practical. Since my sister doesn't have a coaster for her coffee glass, I thought I'd make one for her. 

Admittedly, it's as simple as it gets. But I kind of like it, especially the round shape. Most importantly, my sister thought it was cute too. :)

I'm thrilled about trying a more challenging, but still small design now. Some creative project to go with tv-time.