Christmas Baking

There is sooooo much to say about X-mas baking, however I'm not the most competent person in this field, I do make a batch of muffins or cookies from time to time, but I'm deffinately not a boulanger, and I would rather do a four course meal than an ellaborate cake (I have tried, taste is just ok, the look, not so much) But X-mas would not be complete without some baking, so I have found a nearly foolproof recipe and stripped it to it's bare essentials, tested a few times, and it really works, at least in the taste department.

Stollen

Stollen is a traditional German bread made for Christmas, the recipe varies from household to household, and it is charachterised by the vast amount of dried fruit used and almonds as the dominating flavour.

Ingredients:

• 1kg of flour
• 100g fresh yeast (preferred) or 20g of dry bakers yeast (I tested both and fresh yeast just works better, the dough is more moist and pliable and the surface of the loaf comes out smoother)
• 300-350ml milk
• 200g sugar
• A pinch of salt
• a combination of any of the following spices: ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, vanilla sugar or essence, ground bitter almonds or bitter almond essence, ground ginger, ground turmeric
• 400g butter
• 200g candied citrus peel
• 150g dark raisins or sultanas
• 150g golden raisins
• 150g candied dried cherries
• 200g sweet almonds
• a small amount of rum(traditional) or cognac, or Amaretto(in that case, do not use bitter almond essence), or Cointreau(for a special twist)
• some extra melted butter
• icing sugar

Method:

Soak raisins and cherries in alcohol overnight. Coarsely grind almonds in a food processor (or wrap them in a kitchen towel and crush with a rolling pin, if you really need to outsource your emotions). Chop candied peel finely.

Heat milk until lukewarm. In a small bowl combine the yeast, a spoonful of sugar and flour and the milk. Let it ferment until frothy and increased in volume (10 minutes or so, do not leave without attention, as you might end up with all the kitchen table covered in foam that acts as, and btw actually is, alive)

While the yeast ''wakes up'', in a big bowl combine flour, rest of sugar, salt and dry spices. Melt butter but do not heat it up to a high temperature as it may kill yeast. Add essences (if using) to butter. Pour yeast mixture and butter in the flour mixture, mix with your hands, add all the fruits and nuts and knead as if you were asked to give a massage to your sweetheart and they had reallllly tense muscles. Do it with love but with enough vigour too.

Shape the dough into a ball and leave to rise for 2 hours in a warm place, than knead lightly and shape into a loaf.

Bake in 180 degrees Celsius for 1.5 hours or a little bit less, test with a skewer, if it comes out clena, the stollen is done.

While still hot, brush with extra melted butter and dust with icing sugar. Keep it in a cool, dark place for at least 5 days to mature, before endulging with a slice of stollen and a glass of fragrant mulled wine.

An Asian Meal for a Latvian Bloke

Feeding a bloke is a tricky thing. On one hand, what could be easier than that, just get plenty of meat and remember that guys need far more calories than we, girls, do. On the other hand, the way to guy's heart goes through his stomach, and his heart is the place you really want to be at, isn't it? So why don't you spice up your relationship with a hot Asian meal? Just keep it simple enough, so you are not completely stuffed beforethe dish even hits his palate :)

Dead Easy Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• an onion
• chicken breasts (2 average ones were just right for me and my hungry sweetheart)
• A few tablespoons of ''Patak's'' garam masala curry paste (or any other curry paste, red, green, Thai or Indian style, you pick, but I have a passion on ''Patak's'' since my New Zealand year, this taste just brings up nice memories. Check their webpage for their products www.pataks.co.uk)
• half a can of canned crushed tomatoes
• a wee can of coconut cream
• sugar and salt to taste
• oil

Method:

Dice the onion finely. Cut chicken in strips or smallish chunks. Heat some oil in a wok (or an ordinary pan, it really does not matter, I just prefer wok to a pan 'cos I don't like non stick coating) and cook onion until transparent. Add chicken, cook it unil it has lost it's pinkness. Stir in curry paste, add tomatoes and coconut cream, cook until chicken is done, adjust salt and sugar to your taste.

NB!Serve with the best rice you can afford and cook it in a proper way(nothing ruins an Asian meal as quick as gooey rice cooked in a plastic bag). I suggest puting the rice in a pot with a tight fitting lid, adding salt, shaking the pot so rice creates an even layer in the bottom of the pot, than putting your finger vertically in the pot so the tip touches rice, than pouring in cold water until it reaches the first joint of the finger. Than put on the lid and cook on a low fire until all the water is absorbed.

Spicy Butter Veggies

Ingredients:

• large knob of butter
• a good pinch of sesame seeds (optional)
• dry garam masala spice mix
• caraway seeds
• coriander seeds
• a thumb of ginger
• a mix of quick cooking veggies, fresh or frozen (I used frozen cauliflower, grean peas, green beans and some fresh capsicum)
• salt

Method:

Chop the ginger finely. Melt butter in a lidded pot, grind up caraway and coriander seeds in a pestle (adding some salt makes grinding more effective), add all the spices and sesame seeds to the hot butter, cook until fragrant. Add ginger, veggies and a little amount of water to create steam. Close the pot with a lid and cook until veggies are tender, adding a bit more water if it evaporates too quickly. When veggies are done, cook without the lid for a few minutes so the watre evaporates and butter browns. Serve on the side of Dead Easy Curry or just with rice as a main course for vegetarians or girls.

Hope you will enjoy this meal as much as we did :)

Fall Stew

Autum is the right time for warm and hearty foods. Gardens and fields are full of bursting ripe goodies that are crying to get eaten, so grab a pot, toss in the nicest looking, smelling and tasting vegetables and get the pot bubbling!

Sweet Fall Stew

Ingredients:

Use quantities to suit your taste.

• onions
• a clove of garlic
• potatoes
• carrots
• pumpkin
• apples
• pepper
• instant stock (Once I said that using instant stock is one of the worst kitchen fails, but since I live in a dorm I have found the little cubes rather handy)
• oil
• sour cream

Method:

Chop garlic and onions finely (a little trick for onion chopping- cut off the top part of an onion but leave the bottom where roots come out intact, peel off the skin, cut in half lenghtways. Sit them flat side down on a chopping board and make cuts starting from the top end and going nearly to the bottom, but not quite to the end so that the onion resambles a comb and holds shape, than chop the comb crossways) Heat some oil in a saucepan and brown onions and garlic well. Add scrubbet and diced carrots (at this stage you can brown them as well if you have time, but this step can be omitted), peeled and diced potatoes, peeled, deseeded and diced pumpkin and apple pieces. Add some water, pepper and instant stock, simmer slowly until everything is tender or mushy, stir through some sour cream and serve!

You can add different vegetables, herbs and spices, if you have them on hand and omit instant stock bor replace it with real stock, feel free to improvise. Remembet, this is just another example of dorm cooking, so it's less fancy than my usual style, but still tastes great!

A Little Bit of Greece

I know it's a little bit too late for a spinach recipe, as the season is over, but you still might get some, and even rather old and tough leaves will do for this recipe. Spinach is rich in iron, and iron is essential for producing hemoglobin (hemoglobin is that stuff that makes your blood red and more importantly transports oxigen through your body)
Spinach and feta pies are traditional for greek folk, I have never tried an authentic one, so mine are e far cry from the original greek recipe, but my family loves it.

Spinach and Feta Pie

Ingredients:

• 1,5 cups of flour
• 100 grams of butter
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• a few tablespoons of milk
• 300-400 grams of spinach
• a block (300-400 grams) of feta cheese
• 2 eggs
• a handful of cashews
• pepper

Method:

Grate cold butter with a coarse grater, sift together salt, baking powder and flour, rub it together with butter to form crumbs. Gradually add milk until stiff dough forms. Roll it out and use a bit more than half to line a loose-bottom round baking tin.

Put spinach in a microwave proof container, add a spoonful of water and microwave on high for a minute or so. Let the spinach cool down for a couple of minutes, than squeeze out the liquid and chop it up. Chop the cashews in smaller pieces as well and brown them in a dry pan if you wish.

In a bowl mix eggs, feta, pepper, spinach and cashews (feta is salty, so you won't need any salt). Fill the dough shell with filling, cover it with the rest of the dough, pierce the top in a few places and bake in 180 degrees for an hour.

Serve warm or cold or pack in a lunchbox :)

Uni meals: rice, veges, saveloys

So, I have started that delightful part of my life- living in a university dorm. And it means cooking myself or eating crap or starving. Obviously I choose the first option!

Dorm cooking has certain qualities and you must mind a few things.
Cooking for one is a hassle, so one must cooperate. [check, my groupmate Egija is happy to cook together]
You won't have a whole lot of fancy equipment. [I have one non stick pot, two plates, a large mug that suits as a bowl as well, a good knife, fork, spoon, wooden stirrer+ Egija has got a similar pot, mug, bowl, knife, fork, spoon at least for now, we are going to get some more pots and pans, chopping boards, but not much more]
You are on a short budget [let's not talk about money, but you can imagine, can't you]
You do not want to shop every day, the time can be used for sleeping or studies and shops are full of temptations [see the statement above]

I and Egija decided to cook togeather on Thursday. At that stage she had no money but some rice, 3 saveloys, a little bit of sour cream, some gerkhin and mustard sauce in the bottom of the jar and instant stock. I had nothing, so I bought a bottle of ''extra virgin'' rapeseed oil (one letter and one step down from my favourite grapeseed oil, but 3 times cheaper and still tastes ok) salt, mixed pepper, some carrots, a garlic, parsley root, 2 small red capsicums, two onions (one smallish and one large) and half a loaf of rye bread and a bag of dried dates for breakfasts and suppers. That's what we made for two lunches!

Orange Vegetable Rice

Ingredients:

• a bag of bagged rice
• half of the parsley root and some leaves
• a smallish onion
• one clove of garlic
• a carrot
• a red capsicum
• 2 tbsp of sour cream
• 1 cube of instant stock
• oil
• pepper
• 2 saveloys

Cook the rice in unsalted water. In another pot brown finely chopped onion, parsley root and garlic in oil, add diced carrots and capsicums, add some spoonfulls of water and cook until carrots are semi-tender. Add the instant stock, season with pepper and add the cooked rice. Put saveloys in the same pot cook until carrots are done, add sour cream and chopped parsley leaves. Serve with love!

Sauteed Onions and Saveloys with Orange Salad and Rice

Ingredients:

• A large onion
• 1 saveloy
• 2 carrots
• a capsicum
• a clove of garlic
• 1 bag of rice
• oil
• pepper
• instant stock
• salt
• gerkhin and mustard sauce

Slice onions in rings and saveloys in fine slices, brown them in oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook rice in water with instant stock. Dice carrots and capsicums, chop garlic finely, mix them together and add oil, salt and pepper. Serve onions and saveloy over rice with salad and gerkhin mustard sauce on the side!

Sweet Chilli Sauce/Dressing

Everyone knows sweet chilli sauce. (At least everyone who has been to an Asian themed restaurant) Yes that is that sweet, red, runny and damn spicy stuff you dip your deep fried prawns or chicken pieces or tempura veggies or spring rolls or whatever in depending on the authenticity of the restaurant. You might also have a bottle sitting in your fridge. However often that bottle sits there for ages and goes off after being used for just a few times simply because you do not eat Asian every day, at least that was the destiny of my last commercially made bottle from the Thai aisle in the supermarket.

So what exactly is sweet chilli sauce? Essentially it is red chillies, garlic, white vinegar and loads of sugar all boiled together to form a thick still runny sauce. Cheapies are thickened with starch or some creepy E's. More sophisticated recipes call for adding lemongrass, galangal and other exotic spices that are virtually impossible to get, at least for the mortal people like me. (I have never seen galangal in my life, lemongrass can be found in Stockmann from time to time, but is bloody expensive)

I really like the flavor of this sauce, but the supermarket ones are a far cry from perfect, and cooking a large amount at home is a hassle, so I invented a dressing rather similar to this traditional sauce that requires no cooking and can be made in small amounts for single or a few days use.

Sweet Chilli Dressing

You will need a pestle and mortar for this recipe. I will give the minimum amounts of ingredients that still work, multiply them as many times as you wish but remember- taste degrades while storing, do not store for longer than 2-3 days

Ingredients

• 2 long red chillies
• one large or 2 small cloves of garlic
• 2 slightly heaped teaspoons of sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons of white (rice, wine, champagne or similar) vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of mildly flavored (grapeseed, rice bran, canola) oil
• salt
  

Take seeds out of chillies and slice them finely. Slice garlic the same way. Put vegetables in the mortar together with sugar and pound vigorously until the mixture is as smooth as possible, there are just a few pieces of skin ant fibers visible. Add the vinegar and give it a good stir.
From this point on you can choose two paths. You can just add the oil, whisk the dressing until there ate no droplets of oil visible, season with salt to taste and serve it straight away or you can to it the fancy way. Take a reasonably fine sieve and pour the veggie-vinegar mixture in it. Push as much of it through sieve with the back of a spoon as you can, use the remains to flavor a stew, a curry, a soup or simply discard them and mix the liquid with oil and salt to form a clear, bright orange and very stylish dressing.

This can be drizzled over almost everything and works well as a salad dressing or dipping sauce too. Enjoy!