Tag Archive for: Europe
Albanian Byrek
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb baked peta
- 5 eggs
- 1 cup butter melted; scant
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
- 3 cups milk
Instructions
- Mix together the eggs, salt, yoghurt and milk.
- Grease a large baking pan (traditionally byrek is baked in large, round, metal pans).
- Begin layering: cover the pan with peta, then the milk mixture, then drizzle butter/oil on
- Keep layering (peta, milk, butter) until you run out of ingredients.
- The top should be melted butter/oil.
- Bake for 40 minutes at 375 F.
- Remove from the oven. Cover the byrek with a wet dish towel. Let sit until cool.
- Remove the towel. Place a large pan upside down over the byrek pan. Flip over the byrek so that it comes out upside down onto the other pan. This will ensure that the top of your byrek is soft and not crunchy.
- Cut the byrek into small squares or diamonds and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Byrek is a delicious pie very common in Albania and other Balkan countries. "Peta" is not the same as "pita." Peta is a dry, baked, very thin, tortilla-like dough. It soaks up a lot of moisture in this byrek recipe. If you can't get baked peta, and you don't want to make your own (it is a very time-consuming process!), you can use phyllo dough. However, then you must cut down on the milk/egg mixture significantly because the phyllo does not absorb nearly as much liquid as the peta does.
Swedish Chocolate Balls
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup quick oats
- 3/4 cup + 3 tbsp butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp cold, strong coffee
- coconut or granulated sugar to coat each ball
Instructions
- Mix butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Mix in the other ingredients.
- Form small balls.
- Roll the balls in oats, coconut, or granulated sugar.
- Place the balls in the fridge to harden.
Notes
"Fika" is coffee time, which includes not just a cup of delicious, strong coffee, but cookies, cakes, and more. This is a favorite Swedish sweet to have at Fika.
Russian Chicken and Potato Pie
Ingredients
- 3 carrots grated
- 6 medium potatoes boiled and thickly sliced
- 1 1/2 lbs raw chicken or turkey breast cut into short strips
- 2 lbs white mushrooms chopped and fried in a little oil
- 6 medium onions diced and fried separately in a little oil
- 4-5 raw potatoes peeled and very thinly sliced
- 8 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
- salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.
- This is a layered casserole. In between each layer is a layer of “egg pancake”. To make an “egg pancake”: beat one egg in a cup with a fork, pour onto a hot, greased skillet and tilt the pan so the egg covers the bottom of the skillet. Do not turn over the egg.
- When the egg has cooked, carefully remove the “egg pancake” from the skillet.
- For a 9 x 13 baking dish, you will need 2 “egg pancakes” to cover each layer.
- You can be making the “egg pancakes” while you are preparing the other ingredients.
- Place the carrots in the bottom of the baking dish. Lightly salt the carrot layer. Cover the carrot layer with 2 egg pancakes.
- Place the boiled potato slices on the egg. Lightly salt. Cover the potatoes with 2 egg pancakes.
- Place the chicken or turkey on the egg. Lightly salt. Cover the chicken with 2 egg pancakes.
- Mix together the mushrooms and onions. Place the mushroom and onion mixture over the egg. Lightly salt. Cover the mushroom mixture with 2 egg pancakes.
- Place the thin potato slices on top. Stick thin potato slices vertically around the edge of the casserole and push them down so they aren’t sticking up above the top of the dish, forming a border around the casserole. Lightly salt the top of the casserole.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are done. Top with shredded cheese and return to the oven until the cheese is melted and golden brown.
Notes
During the week we eat simple food like potatoes and eggs, but on the weekend we make it fancy by putting it all together in a casserole! You can also add black pepper or provincial herbs to this casserole.
Russian White Radish Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups daikon radish sliced into thin sticks
- 2 cups ham or cooked chicken sliced into thin sticks
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup onion sliced into thin half circles
- Mayonnaise
- Salt
Instructions
- Begin by making “egg pancakes”.
- Heat a little oil in a skillet.
- Beat one or two eggs in a cup with a fork and pour the egg into the skillet.
- Tilt the skillet so the egg covers the bottom.
- Do not turn over the egg.
- When the egg is cooked, remove it carefully to a cutting board.
- You should have a stack of either 6 small “egg pancakes” or 3 larger “egg pancakes”.
- Let the eggs cool for a few minutes. Then roll up the “egg pancakes” and slice them thinly.
- Stir together the daikon radish, ham or cooked chicken, “egg pancakes” and onion.
- Add salt to taste.
- You can prepare these ingredients a couple hours ahead of time.
- Just before serving, stir in mayonnaise.
Portuguese Hot Pot (Cozido à Portuguesa)
This is a delicious, traditional, and healthy Portuguese meal for the whole family. Every region of Portugal has it with small differences. We eat it mainly in cold months.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb beef
- 1/2 lb pork spareribs
- 1/2 lb pig's forefoot
- 1/2 lb pig ear
- 1/2 chicken
- 1/2 lb bacon (toucinho)
- 1 chourico sausage
- 1 black pudding (morcela)
- 1 flour sausage (farinheira)
- 6 medium sized potatoes
- 3 turnips
- 1 Portuguese cabbage
- 3 carrots
- salt
Instructions
- Boil everything together in water in a large stockpot on the stove for about 1 ½ hours.
- To serve, arrange all the ingredients on a large platter.
French Quiche Lorraine
Enjoy Quiche Lorraine warm with a salad for a main dish or cold as a starter. A French woman who belongs to our congregation gave me this recipe from her homeland.
Ingredients
- 1 roll puff pastry
- 1/4 lb bacon
- 4 eggs
- 14 oz crème fraiche
- 3 cups grated cheese
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Place pastry in a pie pan and pierce with fork.
- Place the bacon on top of the pastry.
- Beat the eggs and add some salt and pepper.
- Add the crème fraiche and beat gently.
- Mix in half of the grated cheese.
- Pour the egg mixture on the bacon. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Bulgarian Paunch Soup (Shkembe Chorba)
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 veal paunch
- 1 cup milk
- black pepper
- chili pepper
- salt
- garlic
- vinegar
Instructions
Step 1
- Prepare the paunch for cooking. If you manage to find prepared paunch, continue with step 2.
- Boil the paunch with boiling water for 3-4 min then immediately clean the inner part with a knife.
- Boil it again for another 3-4 min and clean the outer part with a knife; remove the skin too.
- Wash the paunch, put it in a saucepan and cover it with cold water.
- To be ready for cooking, the punch should be boiled about 3 hours.
- While boiling, it should be always covered with water.
- After that, take it out and chopped it in small pieces.
Step 2
- If you manage to purchase prepared paunch, then start here.
- Wash the paunch, chop it and start to boil it with 1 quart water.
- Wait 20 min, add the milk.
- Wait 10 min, add salt and some cooking oil.
- Boil for 5 min.
- In an additional small pot, mix the chopped garlic and the vinegar.
- Serve the soup and flavor it with the garlic mixture and the chili spice.
- If you like black pepper spice, you can add it to flavor the soup.
- For best taste, the soup must be consumed hot.
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