Food Worth Cooking

Molasses Cookies

2011-12-16T17:12:00.003-06:00

Since it has been finals week and I’ve had so many papers to write. I am a bit behind. So, to make it up to you all I will be posting the recipes now. I have them all typed up, but I just haven’t had time to post them. As such, the introductions will be almost non-existent. I will, however, post them under the days they were supposed to be posted. Here is today’s: Molasses Cookies! They are super delicious. I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients

· 3/4 cup sugar

· 2/3 cup softened butter

· 1/4 cup orange or lemon juice

· 1/2 cup dark corn syrup

· 1/2 cup dark molasses

· 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

· 2 teaspoons ground ginger

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

· 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

· 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Directions

· In a bowl, cream sugar and butter

· Blend in orange or lemon juice, corn syrup and molasses

· Combine the dry ingredients before adding to creamed mixture

· Mix well

· Chill overnight

· Roll out the dough to about ¼ in

· Cut into shapes

· Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets

· Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes

Glass Candy

2011-12-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

This is a recipe that has been in my family for a while. It is really easy and really pretty when you make various colours. Here is today's recipe: Glass Candy.

Ingredients

2 cups of sugar
2 cups of light corn syrup
1 tablespoon of food colouring
1 tablespoon of flavouring oil

Directions

In a thick sauce pan combine the corn syrup and sugar
Bring to a boil while stirring constantly
When it starts to boil heat to 300 degrees F without stirring
When hard crack is reached, remove from heat and stir in colouring and flavouring
Pour onto a cookie sheet that has edges
Make sure to set to cool overnight
Using a kitchen hammer, break into small pieces

Weihnachten Stollen!

2011-12-07T10:28:00.001-06:00

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today I will be posting a recipe that is near and dear to my heart. The good German that is me demands this at Christmas time. Now, this is a food that you can buy at all times of the year. However, I find it best to eat it at Christmas. So, today I present to you Weihnachten Stollen! I hope you enjoy this super traditional German food.

Ingredients

· 1 ½ cups warm milk at 115°F

· 2 packages active dry yeast

· 6 ½ cups unbleached flour, divided

· 1 ½ cups butter

· ¾ cup sugar

· 3 eggs

· ¾ teaspoon salt

· ¾ teaspoon grated lemon peel

· ½ pound raisins

· ½ pound chopped almonds

· ½ cup chopped candied fruit

· 3 tablespoons butter, melted

· 1 ¼ cups of confectioners’ sugar

· ¼ cup of lemon juice

· 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

· 2 sheets of rolled marzipan

Directions

· Combine milk and yeast

· Let stand 3-5 minutes

· Add 1 cup flour and mix well

· Cover and let rest in a warm place until light and foamy or about 1 hour.

· In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar

· Beat in eggs, one at a time

· Add salt and lemon peel

· Stir in the yeast mixture and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

· Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

· Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

· Punch dough down; knead in raisins, nuts and fruit

· Divide into two parts and roll each into an oval

· Fold each in half lengthwise and place on a greased baking sheet

· Brush with melted butter

· Cover and allow loaves to rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

· Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown

· Cool on wire racks

· Combine confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract

· Brush on tops of cooled loaves.

· Cover each with a sheet of marzipan

Kaiserschmarm

2011-12-06T11:30:00.000-06:00

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today’s recipe comes from Austria! Hurray! Austria is so pretty and beautiful. Since I <3 it so much I will be posting the recipe for what is probably the most famous sweets in Austria. Today you get Kaiserschmarm! It’s delicious. Of course, Austria is known for its sweets so this is a really sweet recipe. If you don’t like sickly sweet things, I don’t recommend eating it. That being said, if you make it for a Holiday Party it will be the hit of the party. So enjoy!

Ingredients

· ½ cup of unbleached flour

· 5 tablespoons of vanilla sugar

· ½ teaspoons of sea salt

· 1 cup of heavy milk

· 5 eggs that are separated

· 2 tablespoons of butter

· Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

· Sift flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl

· Pour the milk slowly into the dry mixture while stirring

· Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating until well blended before adding the next egg yolk

· Place the egg whites in a separate bowl

· Beat until egg whites form stiff peaks

· Gently stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter

· Fold in the remaining egg whites.

· Melt 1 tablespoon butter in an 8 inch skillet over moderate heat

· Pour in half the batter and cook about 4 minutes or until browned on the bottom

· Loosen edges and slide pancake onto a plate using spatula

· Invert the pancake back into the skillet and cook until both sides are brown (Takes about 2 minutes)

· Remove to a warm platter and keep warm

· Repeat with the rest of the batter

· Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve

Soft Maple Candy!

2011-12-05T11:47:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas!Joyeux Noël!

Maple Candy is a recipe that comes from my country’s northern neighbor, Canada! It is so delicious. I <3 it crazy like wow! Of course, I hardly ever get to make it because as far south as I am it makes getting good maple syrup rather difficult. That is not to say that it is impossible, but Canadian maple syrup is expensive! OMG, really. $15 a bottle for just the small one and that would be with my discount. Ugg… Really, that’s like buying Saffron. I will have to make some this year though. I do have lots of Canadian buddies and family. I hope you enjoy this. It is really sweet and filled maplely goodness. Also, it is really easy to make since there are only 2 ingredients, but keep in mind that you do need to know how to make candy for this. I also recommend getting a candy mold as they are much more fun when they are in a molded shape.

Ingredients

· 2 cups of pure maple syrup

· ½ cup of chopped walnuts

Directions

· In a large, heavy pan, bring maple syrup to a boil

· Cook to 235°F while stirring occasionally to prevent scorching

· Remove from heat and cool to about 175°F without stirring, this will take about 10 to 15 minutes

· Stir mixture rapidly with a thick wooden spoon, or it might break, for about 5 minutes or until the colour lightens and the candy becomes creamy, but still thick

· Stir in the walnuts

· Pour into molds

· Cool before popping out of the mold

Julen Brød

2011-12-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

God jul!

It just is not a Norwegian Christmas without Julen Brød. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it is Christmas bread. That is pretty easy to figure out though. Norwegian is the closest language to English that I have found outside of the English speaking world. Norwegian recipes have a special place in my heart in the same way that German ones do. Actually, it’s all Feno-Scandinavian recipes and German recipes. Anyways, if you do not like fruit cake, you may not like this. I do, but that is just me. This is another recipe that is in metric units that you will need to convert. I will convert the temperatures on this one for you. So that will be less work.Enjoy!

Ingredients

· 7 g active dry yeast

· 235 ml warm water, about 110 degrees to 115 degrees

· 100 g sugar

· 1 egg

· 55 g butter or margarine, softened

· 3 g salt

· 2 g ground cardamom

· 470 g whole grain flour

· 70 g raisins

· 120 g diced citron or mixed candied fruit

Directions

· In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water

· Add sugar, egg, butter, salt, cardamom and 470g flour and mix well

· Stir in raisins, citron and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

· Turn onto a floured surface

· Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

· Place in a greased bowl, turning once to greased top

· Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

· Punch dough down and divide in half

· Shape each portion into a flattened ball

· Place in two greased 9-in. round baking pans

· Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour

· Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown

· Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

Vacanze Cookie

2011-12-03T23:00:00.000-06:00

Buon Natale!

Vacanze Cookies are Italian! They are interesting. Some people won’t like them as they are fried cookies. Strange, I know, but they are tasty. Hope you enjoy making these!

Ingredients

· 1 tablespoon of sugar

· 1 teaspoon of lemon zest

· 1 teaspoon of vanilla oil

· ½ teaspoon of sea salt

· 4 eggs

· 2 ½ cups of unbleached flour

· Canola oil for frying

· 1 cup of honey

· Candy sprinkles

Directions

· In a large bowl mix together sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, and sea salt

· Add eggs and 2 cups of flour and mix until well blended

· Turn out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining flour

· With a floured knife cut into 20 pieces

· Roll each piece into a rope

· Cut rope into ½ inch pieces

· Heat the oil to 350 degrees F

· Fry cookies, about 5 at a time for 2 minutes per side

· Drain on paper towels and place in a large bowl

· Heat honey until it comes to a boil

· Pour over the cookies

· Move the cookies to a serving platter cover with candy sprinkles

· Allow to cool before serving

Boże Narodzenie Ciastka

2011-12-02T10:17:00.000-06:00

Wesołych Świąt!

Boże Narodzenie Ciastka are from Poland, duh. Anyways, this is a recipe that I received from this wonderfully eccentric Polish lady that I know. She told me that I had to share it with the world. So, I am. Keep in mind that this recipe is in metric measurements and you will have to convert them. Since I am European, I have metric measuring cups and do not need to do so. They sort of taste like licorice. So, if you do not like licorice, I do not recommend this type of cookie. It is delicious though. I like them and a bunch of my friends that do not like licorice love these. Enjoy!

Ingredients

· 225 g. butter

· 205 g. shortening

· 400 g. vanilla sugar

· 5 large eggs

· 940 g. whole grain flour

· 30 g. baking powder

· 3. salt

· 15 g. anise oil

Directions

· Preheat oven to 175 degrees C

· Cream butter, shortening, and vanilla sugar

· Add eggs and anise oil

· While mixing stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt

· Mix until soft

· Chill dough for half an hour

· Roll out the dough and cut out with cookie cutters

· Grease cookie sheet

· Bake cookies for 15 minutes

Pebber Nodder

2011-12-01T23:30:00.000-06:00

God jul!

Pebber Nodder is a cookie from Danmark that is made around Christmas time. They are a type of spiced shortbread cookie that one can eat with Glogg. They are quite delicious. They are fairly easy to make and they keep really well. So, here you go.

Ingredients

· 1 cup of butter

· ½ cup of vanilla sugar

· ½ cup of white sugar

· 2 large eggs

· 2 ½ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

· 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Directions

· Preheat the oven to 350°F

· Mix the butter in sugars in a large bowl until smooth

· Beat in eggs one at a time and stir until light and fluffy

· In a separate bowl, mix the flour, and spices

· Stir in flour mixture with butter and sugar mixture until well blended

· Separate into six parts

· Roll into a rope about ½ an inch in diameter

· Cut into ½ inch pieces

· Place on a cookie sheet and bake for ten minutes or until light brown

Glühmost

2011-11-22T18:46:00.001-06:00

So, I thought I had this posted somewhere on here, but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, this recipe was requested by one of my co-workers. She’s pretty awesome. This recipe is for Glühmost. Since it is getting cold this seems like a good time to want this recipe. For those who don’t know what Glühmost is, it’s a form of apple cider. This recipe calls for wine, if you don’t like wine you can substitute it for more apple cider. However, for the sake of being the good Prussian that I am, I will include the wine in the recipe.

Ingredients

· 4 cups of a dry white wine

· 4 cups of apple cider

· 1/8 of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, or three sticks broke in half

· 1 pinch of ground cloves

· 1 pinch of cardamom, this can be substituted for nutmeg

· Honey

Directions

· In a saucepan, combine the wine, apple cider, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom

· Bring to a simmer over medium heat, do not allow it to boil

· Add the honey and stir until well mixed

· Serve hot

There you have it. It’s that simple. Hope you enjoy!

Mattar Paneer

2011-11-11T12:44:00.001-06:00

As promised in my regular blog. I am posting my favorite Indian recipe. My friend Radha taught me how to make this when I visited her. It is quite tasty. It is easy to make, but make sure you do not burn the vegetables. Then it tastes kinda funky and not so good. Also, the cheese that one makes with the goat milk can be used in other recipes or by itself. Sometimes I eat it with coconut flakes in it. It is kinda like cottage cheese. Actually, that is basically what it is. Just like Tofu is nothing more than curdled soy milk. Mmmm...doesn't that make you want to go out and eat tofu dogs. Actually, I like tofu. Not so much cottage cheese from cow milk.

Ingredients

1 gallon of goat milk

1 lemon, juiced

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
1/2 cup of canned chickpeas

1/2 cup of peas

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions

In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil
Stir lemon juice
Cook for 15 minutes while stirring until curds have formed
Separate chees from the remaining liquid, using a cloth makes it easier to do this
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat
While stirring constently, cook the cumin seeds and onion until golden brown
Mix in the pepper, chickpeas, and peas
Season with garam masala, turmeric, and chili powder
Continue to cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender
Mix in the cheese and reduce heat to low
Cook for another 10 minutes
Remove from heat and sprinkle with cilantro

Klimp

2011-10-26T09:27:00.003-05:00

It's getting to be a bit more chilly in my part of the world. That means that it is stew weather. Stew is such a boring thing to eat though, you might say. Want to add a new piece of flair to your stew to make it unique and better than most other stews that the neighbors are eating, unless your neighbors are Swedes that is. Today's recipe is for Klimp. What is Klimp? That sounds gross, you might say. Well, Klimp is nothing more than dumplings made to be put into stew. It's a Swedish recipe and quite tasty. So, here you go.

Ingredients

1 egg beaten
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour

Directions

In a bowl whisk the egg, milk, and sugar.
Gradually add in the flour.
Mix until smooth.
Drop the mixutre by spoonfulls into the boiling stew.
They are finished when they float to the surface

That was easy. It's not really a hard recipe and it does not take that long to make. Hope you enjoy this! Until next time!

Scones

2011-10-20T03:30:00.000-05:00

So, I've been rereading the first book in my series of novels and the thought of cute boys eating scones makes me giggle. You probably don't get that reference since my novel hasn't come out yet, but when it does you should read it and you will understand. Anyways, scones. They are fairly simple to make and easy to customize. I present to you an easy recipe for scones. Feel free to customize it in whatever way you wish and have fun doing so!

Ingredients

3 cups of whole grain flour

1/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of dark brown sugar

5 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
3/4 cup of butter

1 egg beaten

1 cup of milk
Handful of berries, nuts, or whatever you want to put in it

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F
Grease a baking sheet lightly, Baker's Joy works great for this
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt

Add in the butter in parts

In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk
Slowly add egg and milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes

Roll dough so that it is 1/2 inch thick

Cut into wedges and place on baking sheet

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown

There you have it. Enjoy!

Russian Orange Cookies

2011-09-09T17:20:00.003-05:00

It has occurred to me that I have not posted a recipe from Russia. This makes me kind of sad because the Russians make really good food. Anyways, I shall be sharing a recipe for orange cookies. Hope you enjoy it. I find them tasty.

Ingredients

· 2/3 cup of shortening

· 2/4 cup of vanilla sugar

· 1 egg

· ½ cup of orange liquor

· 1 teaspoon of orange zest

· 2 cups of unbleached flour

· ½ teaspoon baking powder

· ½ teaspoon of baking soda

· ½ teaspoon of sea salt

· 2 cups of powdered sugar

· 2 tablespoons of butter

· 2 tablespoons of orange liquor

· 1 teaspoon orange zest

Directions

· Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease your cookie sheets

· Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

· Stir in ½ cup of liquor and 1 teaspoon of orange zest slowly

· In a separate bowl, cream the shortening and vanilla sugar together

· Mix the egg into sugar mixture until well mixed

· Slowly add mixture to the flour mixture

· Drop onto cookie sheet and flatten slightly

· Bake between 10-12 minutes

· Mix powdered sugar and butter together until smooth

· Pour in liquor and zest into the mixture

· Once the cookies have cooled ice the cookies

Tada! Just so you know, you can use orange juice instead of the orange liquor if you are not into baking with liquors. For the type of liquor to use, any orange liquor will work. However, keep in mind that as with mixing drinks the better the quality of the liquor, the better the taste of the finished product. Personally, I would use Cointreau. It’s a French liquor, in case you couldn’t tell by the name and in case you are wondering, yes, Cointreau is a triple sec liquor. So, if you make many Cosmopolitans you will probably have a suitable orange liquor for these cookies.

Until next time!

Byzantine Honey Cakes

2011-09-07T19:16:00.000-05:00

Γεια! So, today was the first meeting of our Medieval Society at school. Our “theme”, I guess is what you would call it, well, it’s more of a focus, but whatever, is the Byzantine Empire! I’m super excited about it. I <3 the Byzantine Empire. Turkey is such a pretty, pretty place and the Turks are really nice. The Turkish language is pretty too. Of course, Byzantium was more of a Greek empire than anything so, learning Greek might come in handy. Greece is pretty too. The Greeks are nice too. Anyways, to celebrate I figured that I would post an old recipe that dates back to the Byzantine Empire! Huzzah! Honey Cakes! Enjoy.

Ingredients

· 1 cup of flour, preferably whole grain. They didn’t bleach their flour in Byzantium, so why should you?

· 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder

· ¼ teaspoon of sea salt

· ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon

· ¾ cup of butter. Don’t use the fake stuff. It makes for nasty aftertastes.

· ½ teaspoon of orange zest

· ½ teaspoon of lemon zest

· ¾ cup of sugar

· 3 eggs

· ¼ cup of milk

· 1 cup of chopped walnuts

· 1 cup of sugar

· 1 cup of honey

· ¾ cup of water

· ½ teaspoon of orange juice

· ½ teaspoon of lemon juice

Directions

· Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F

· Grease and flour an 9 inch square pan. You can use Baker’s Joy if you don’t want to go through the trouble of greasing and flouring. I guess if you wanted a round cake you could do that too.

· Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and orange and lemon zest then set aside

· In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and ¾ cup of sugar until it is light and fluffy

· Add in the eggs one at a time while beating

· Beat in the flour mixture alternating with milk until incorporated

· Stir in walnuts

· Pour batter into pan

· Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean

· Cool for about 10-20 minutes

· While cooling, combine honey, 1 cup of sugar and water in a saucepan

· Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes

· Add in the orange and lemon juice and cook for another 2 minutes

· Cut into squares or diamonds. I prefer squares, but if you are going for traditional, diamonds are how they are usually served

· Pour the honey syrup on the top of the squares/diamonds

It isn’t too complicated, but some people don’t like them. I will tell you this now. They are really sweet, as are 90% of Turkish/Greek sweets. It’s sort of a European thing actually. All sweets in Europe are ridiculously sweet. Well, sweet by American standards. What do we know, we inherited our taste in food from the British. I do like British food, don’t get me wrong, it’s just slightly less “exotic” than the rest of European cooking…if you want to call Europe “exotic”.

Also, I have had numerous emails lately about why I insist on using unbleached/whole grain flour and real butter. I shall explain now, and hope this solves the numerous emails asking the same thing. If you have ever ground your own flour, which I have since I grew up in a farming area/Mennonite/we’re just ridiculously old fashioned household, you will notice that, wonder of wonders, flour is not white! Shocking, I know. Just like vanilla isn’t actually clear, it’s brown. Flour is anywhere from a light tan to a dark brown depending on the wheat or grain you use to make it. Bleaching the flour is just what it says it is, you are bleaching the flour. Do you really want that in your system? Not particularly. Most of the chemicals used to bleach flour are not permitted to be put into food products in Europe. And people wonder why the Europeans live longer; they don’t have all the extra shit in their food. Seriously, be smart about what you eat, look at the labels. Anyways, since most of my recipes are European recipes, to get the best possible taste, use unbleached/whole grain flours. They taste better and are better for you. As for the butter questions. The reason that I say to use real butter is because it tastes better and it actually comes from a cow. In fact, a good percentage of really butters will only have one to three ingredients. One other thing that I have gotten a few questions about is about using sea salt. You can use regular salt, but I prefer sea salt and use it in all of my recipes, if I even use it at all. All of these recipes can be made without salt if you can’t have a lot of salt in your diet.

Happy cooking and enjoy some Byzantine food. In fact, since the Greeks and the Turks will tell that any given food that both cultures have in common they will say that they came up with it first, I think I shall just call all Greek/Turkish food Byzantine food from now on. Let’s see how many people I can confuse.

Wiener Backhendl

2011-09-04T14:45:00.000-05:00

Happy day before Labor Day everyone! Today I am going to give you all a recipe for fried chicken. Now, I know what you are thinking. Everyone has a recipe for fried chicken. This is different than most though. This is a fried chicken that is breaded. It’s really good and, going along with what seems to be an international food theme of this blog, it is a recipe from Austria! Huzzah! I <3 Austria. It’s really pretty there. Anyways, I will give you the traditional way of making this recipe instead of the American version of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my country, but we royaly screw up 90% of international recipes when we try to “Americanize” them. Oh, and the dish is actually called Wiener Backhendl if you are wondering. It isn’t just breaded fried chicken.

Ingredients

· 1 skinless 3-pound chicken for frying cut into 4 pieces

· 1 tablespoon of sea salt

· ½ cup of flour, preferably non-bleached flour. (Seriously, why bleach flour? That’s retarded)

· 1 egg that has been lightly beaten

· 1 ½ cups of bread crumbs

· ½ pound of lard, you can use a lard substitute if you want to

· Lemon wedges

Directions

· Dry chicken

· Lightly salt each piece

· Dip the chicken in the flour

· Dip in the egg

· Roll each piece in the bread crumbs, making sure that it is coated thoroughly

· Preheat oven to 250 degrees F

· In a heavy skillet heat lard until it is slightly hazy

· Add the chicken

· When the chicken is dark golden brown, but not burnt, turn to the other side

· Put each piece of chicken into a baking dish and set in the oven

· Bake for 10 to 15 minutes

· Garnish with the lemon wedges

There you have it. A recipe from Austria-Hungary. Hope you enjoy it. Until next time!

Onigiri

2011-08-31T10:48:00.000-05:00

Ohayo gozaimasu! So, today I am not giving you all a European recipe. Oh my, what is wrong with me today? Nothing at all. It is back to school time for most people and the recipe that I will give you today is something that is fairly common not only in bento boxes, but all over Japan. For those of you who watch anime or read manga, you will know them as Onigiri. Those of you who do not might know them as rice balls. In all actuality they are not spherical at all. Either way, here is the recipe for you.

Ingredients

· 4 cups of uncooked white rice

· 4 ½ cups of water

· 1 cup of water

· ¼ teaspoon of sea salt

· ¼ cup of bonito shavings, salmon, tuna, beef, pork, turkey, chicken, vegetables, ect.

· 2 sheets of nori cut into ½ inch strips

· 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

· Umeboshi

Directions

· Wash the rice

· Pour the rice and 4 ½ cups of water into a pan

· Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure that it doesn’t stick to the pan

· Reduce heat and cover the pan

· Simmer the rice until all the water is absorbed

· Allow rice to cool

· In a separate bowl, combine water and salt

· Wet hands with salted water and divide rice into 8- 10 portions

· For each portion divide in two

· Create a small indention in one half to fill with a teaspoon of bonito flakes or other filling

· Cover with the half of rice

· Press into a triangular shape and sprinkle with sesame seeds

· Press a umeboshi into the back of the onigiri and wrap with a strip of nori

That’s how you do it. A quick and easy meal to make for lunch when you have school. Especially if you don’t have a lunch break like some college students. Enjoy!

Roman Cheesecake

2011-08-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

Hello again! I have been so busy these past couple of months. I had finals, graduation, working a lot, getting registered for the LSAT, studying for the LSAT, and starting school again. In honor of my new classes I present to you an old, old recipe. I mean that too. By old I mean Ancient Roman time old. So, here you go; Ancient Roman Cheesecake. It is quite tasty. For this you will need mini tart pans. It is not your regular cheesecake.

Ingredients

· Bay leaves

· 3 eggs

· 8 ounces of ricotta cheese

· ½ cup of honey

· 1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon zest

· 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

· ½ cup of whole grain flour

Directions

· Preheat the oven 425 degrees F

· Put a small, oven safe bowl into filled with water into the oven

· Spray pan with Baker’s Joy or other flour spray

· Place a bay leaf into each part of the mini tart pans

· Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl

· Add ricotta cheese, honey, orange/lemon zest, and the lemon juice

· Slowly add the flour until it is well mixed

· Pour an even amount into each part of the pan

· Bake until the top is browned, about 35 to 40 minutes

· Run a knife along the edge and flip the pan over onto a towel to cool

Tada! There you have it. Tasty and historical. I hope you enjoy this recipe. I shall try to post more often since school is back in session.

Fry Bread

2011-07-14T21:05:00.000-05:00

So, it is almost time for Encampment, Pow Wow for those who don't know what Encampment is. In other words, I am posting a traditional Native American recipe. I have been working my butt off. As such, I shall make a quick post to give you the recipe for fry bread. It's really easy to make. Here you go. Have fun and enjoy.

Ingredients

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup of hot water

Direction

Mix the ingredients together
Let dough set while heating oil to fry the bread in
Pinch off pieces of the dough and place in the hot oil
Fry until golden brown on one side
Turn bread and fry until golden brown

Kesäkeitto

2011-04-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

Wow, it seems that this blog is full of Finnish recipes. You can really tell what country's food I really love. Well, I love Finland in general, but their food is some of my favorite ever. :D So, today I am going to give you this early summer, late spring recipe. Kesäkeitto is a vegetable soup that you can add shrimp to for special occasions or if you just like shrimp in your soup. It is pretty tasty. So, here you go.

Ingredients

6 small potatoes
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
6 small onions cut in thin rounds
3 carrots cut into thin rounds
3/4 cup of peas
4 small radishes chunked
3/4 cup of green beans
1 small head of cauliflower
1 egg yolk
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of heavy cream
Optional 1/2 pound of medium sized cooked shrimp

Directions

Place all the vegetables into a large pot and fill with water and the salt. Boil uncovered until the vegetables tender
Remove from the pan from heat and strain water into a bowl and set aside with vegetables in a separate bowl
In the pan, melt the butter
Remove from heat and stir in the flour, slowly pouring in the vegetable stock beating vigorously with a whisk
Beat in the milk
In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk and cream
Whisk in 1 cup of the hot soup, a couple tablespoons at a time
Slowly whisk the warm egg yolk mixture into the soup
Add the vegetables back and bring to a simmer
Add shrimp if you want to and simmer uncovered until shrimp and vegetables are heated through
Add pepper

There you have it. It is pretty tasty even though it takes a bit of effort to make. It is definitely not something you can just whip up in a few minutes. Personally, I think it tastes better if it has been simmering on supper low heat all day when it is really cold outside. Of course then it sort of defeats the purpose of it being made with fresh vegetables. Hope you all enjoy this recipe! I will try to add more non-Finnish food recipes in.

Pulla

2011-04-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the sporadic updates. The semester is winding down here and I have a ton of work to do. Also, I am getting ready to submit another book for publication and work. As such, my time to get on here is hit and miss. I have a ton of recipes to upload and the one I am uploading today is probably one of my favorites. Pulla, for those of you who do not know, is a Finnish bread. Pulla is a sweet bread, so it is not good for making sandwiches on, but it is delicious for breakfast and tea snacks. An interesting thing is that cinnamon rolls, are actually a modified Pulla recipe. :P So, next time you eat a cinnamon roll, you are really eating a bit of a Finnish bread. Just remember that. So, on with the recipe!

Ingredients

2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of warm water (110 degrees F)
1 package of active dry yeast (.25 oz)
1 cup of white sugar (vanilla sugar is preferred, but not required)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom (cardamom is one of the most expensive spices you can buy. It is possible to substitute a mix of nutmeg and cloves to get a similar taste if you do not wish to spend $15-$20 for a small container of it)
4 eggs, beaten
9 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg beaten separate from the others
2 tablespoons of white sugar (vanilla sugar is preferred, but not required)

Directions

Warm the milk in a saucepan until it bubbles and then remove from heat
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water
Stir in the warm milk, 1 cup of sugar, salt, cardamom, 4 eggs, and approximately 2 cups of the flour
Beat until the dough is smooth and stretchy
Add 3 cups of flour and beat until the dough is glossy and smooth
Add melted butter and stir well until it looks glossy once again
Add remaining flour until the dough is stiff
Turn dough out of bowl onto a floured surface and cover with the bowl for 15 minutes
Knead the dough until it is smooth
Place in a lightly greased mixing bowl
Roll the dough over so that the top is greased as well
Cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled or about 1 hour
Punch it down and let rise until doubled again
Turn bread out onto a floured surface and divide into 3 parts
Divide each of these into 3 more parts
Roll out into 12 inch strips
Braid three strips into a loaf (This means you will end up with 3 loaves)
Place onto greased baking sheets and let rise for 20 minutes
Brush each loaf with the 1 beaten egg
Sprinkle with remaining sugar
Bake at 400 degrees F for 25- 30 minutes

Keep in mind that it is very easy to burn sweet breads. Since it is Easter time, I figured I would share this Easterish recipe with you. It is fairly simple, in terms of bread recipes. I can think of numerous others that are much more complicated. It is important that the water you put the yeast into is between 108-112 degrees F. If you get too far from it, it could mess up the recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe! Happy Baking!

Aebleskiver

2011-03-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

Ahh, the Danes. They make great food, or at least pastries. Aebleskiver is a pastry or sorts, but is more of a pancake. They are sort of spicy, not in a hot spicy way, rather a they have a variety of spices in them way. They are pretty tasty and you can add a filling or dip them in a jam or syrup or whatever you want to dip them in. So, on with the recipe! Also, it should be noted that an Aebleskiver pan is needed to make them round. They are not too expensive and some stores sell them as "pancake puff pans". Here are a few places you can buy them: Amazon, Target, Food Network, andKitchen Kapers.

Ingredients

1 cup of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar, vanilla sugar is prefered, but not required
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
A dash of ground nutmeg
A dash of ground cloves
1 egg, beaten until well mixed
3/4 of a cup of milk, soy milk works well too
2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions

Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and dry spices in a large bowl
Mix in the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla until well mixed
Heat an aebleskier pan over medium heat
Prepare with cooking spray
Pour batter into each cup until about 2/3 full, make sure you remember which one you poured first (that is very important)
Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until golden.
Use a skewer to lift one edge and turn it about 1/4 of the way so that the uncooked batter runs out to cook
Repeat until all sides are golden

How to Fill Aebleskiver

You do not have to fill the Aebleskiver, but it does taste better if you do. There are several ways to do this, I will tell you the two easiest ways that I know.

The first the one that many are most comfortable with; filling it after they are done. For this you will need a pastry bag or a pastry filler. Put your filling into the bag or filler and stick it into the pancake and fill. Tada! Filled pancake.

The second is the slightly harder and works best with dense fillings that clump together and does not melt quickly such as Nutella or fruit preserves. For this you will only need to fill the mold 1/3 of the way full of batter. After that you place your filling in the middle so that you cook the pancake around it.

There you have it. A good Danish recipe, one of my friends said they wanted me post one. Also, these taste good rolled in powdered sugar and if you use a pastry bag to fill the Aebleskiver the sugar clumps around the hole and seals it for you. Isn't that fun? I hope you enjoy making these and like the way they taste!

Raspberry Torte

2011-03-08T18:08:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been a super busy month since I posted last. I got publish, which is why I have not put anything new up for a bit. Huzzah! If you are all interested in knowing more about the book, please hop on over to my German language blog and translate the post about it there.

Anyways, this is a recipe for a Raspberry Torte that I was given a few years ago. It's pretty tasty. One of my friends made it on St. Valentine's Day and it turned out well for her. So, here is the recipe for you all! Hope you all enjoy it as much as everyone else has! Fair warning though, this cake takes a great deal of work to make and it is very touchy to humidity. If it is too humid the cake will have a greater chance of falling and if it is too dry it will crack and not go together right.

Ingredients for Cake

5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup of shortening
1/2 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of cake flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of buttermilk
1 cup of toasted pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup of flaked coconut
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Ingredients for Filling/Frosting

1 cup of raspberry preserves, warmed
11 ounces of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup of butter, softened
6 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Directions

Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in pecans and coconut.
In another mixing bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of egg whites into the batter, then fold in remaining whites.
Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or top springs back lightly when touched. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
Spread raspberry preserves over the top of two cake layers. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Place one raspberry topped cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with some of the frosting. Repeat with second raspberry topped cake layer. Top with plain cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with nuts.

Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoy! It is definitely worth the trouble. Also, if you replace the plain sugar in the cake with vanilla sugar it give the cake a bit more flavour. Also, you can put some frosting between the layers in additions to the preserves. If you choose to do that though keep in mind that you will need to frost the cake before putting the preserves on.

Finnish Sour Cream Cookies

2011-02-06T00:32:00.000-06:00

Since St. Valentine's Day is right around the corner I have had many requests from people for cookies, candies, ect... One of my friends asked me if I had any recipes that were Valentineish in nature so, here is an easy one. These can have food colouring added to them to make them pink, red, or any colour that you want them to be.

Ingredients

1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 cups of all-purpose flour
Food colouring of choosing

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl
In a separate bowl, cream together sour cream, salt, and vanilla
Add together
Add food colouring if desired
Chill for about 1 hour
Roll out and cut into various shapes with cookie cutters
Grease cookie sheets
Bake for 10 minutes

And that is it! They are easy and are fun to make. I like to frost mine like sugar cookies, but leaving them plain is fine too. If you have trouble rolling the dough out all you need to do is let it warm up just a bit and it will be fine.

Swedish Pancakes

2011-02-04T06:28:00.001-06:00

Well, one of my friends was asking me what my favorite food was the other day. Now for some this would be an easy question to answer, for me, not so much. However, I finally settled on Swedish Pancakes after much debate over various Scandinavian dishes. Since she has never had actual Swedish Pancakes, no those things they serve at IHOP don't count, I gave her my recipe that I acquired, from my part Swedish boyfriend who is from that part of the world, and she found them to be the best things in the world. So, I'm sharing it with you all. Here you go.

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of milk (If you use soy milk, use the unsweetened kind or only use 1 tablespoon of sugar)
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of sour cream
Olive oil

Directions

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until thick and smooth
In a separate bowl mix sifted flour, salt and sugar
Add the flour mixture and milk to the eggs incrementally
Whisk in sour cream
Heat small skillet and place a small amount of olive oil in the bottom
Pour enough batter into the skillet to just cover the bottom
Brown on one side
Flip the pancake over when bubbles appear on the surface and the edges start to dry
Brown on other side
Repeat with the rest of the batter

Traditionally, these pancakes are eaten rolled up with lingonsvlt, lingonberry jam. Lingonsylt is kind of hard to find in America unless you live in really big cities or want to spend a pretty penny getting it off of here. Personally, I get my lingonsvlt from IKEA in their Swedish Food Market. It's only $2.99 a jar plus tax which really isn't that bad for imported food. However, some, like myself, don't have and IKEA nearby and the closest one is five hours away so if you go stock up! If you must eat them like Americans, they taste pretty okay with maple syrup imported from Canada.

Enjoy!

Yesil Mercimek Corbasi

2011-01-30T09:02:00.000-06:00

Since I seem to be on a put up recipes from Europe instead of the country where I live run on this blog. I shall add to it by posting this recipe that I got from a Turkish friend of mine. Yesil Mercimek Corbasi is green lentil soup if you don't know any Turkish. It's cold and people tend to like warm soups during winter, so here you go.

Ingredients

2/3 of a cup of green lentils
1 cup of milk
6 cups of water
4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1/4 of a tea cup of rice
1 egg

Directions

Wash lentils and let them set overnight in 1 cup of water
Place lentils in a sauce pan with butter
Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally
Add flour and stir fry until slightly browned
Mix rice together with lentils and the remaining water in a soup pot
Bring to a boil and cook for 30-40 minutes
In a separate bowl, beat the egg with milk
Warm it by adding a few spoons of hot soup.
Add mixture to the soup and bring to a boil
Turn off heat when it comes to a boil

Vanilla Sugar

2011-01-27T01:18:00.001-06:00

Since a great deal of European sweets use Vanilla Sugar it is probably a good idea to let you all know what exactly it is as it is not found in American stores. Vanilla Sugar is sugar that has a slight vanillay taste to it. It isn't very expensive in Europe and can be found at almost every food store. However, it is incredibly hard to get outside of Europe and is very expensive in America. Thankfully it can be made at home if one has the need for it. Since Germanic and Scandinavian foods are an important part of my diet, a good number of my recipes do call for it. So, in order to save those of you who are not in Europe some money I am going to give you one of the simplest recipes ever; Vanilla Sugar!

Ingredients

4 cups of sugar
2 vanilla beans

Directions

Split the bean pods open and pour the beans them into a bowl with the sugar
Mix the beans with the sugar and then pour into an airtight container
Seal the container and let it set for at least two weeks

You can double or half this recipe quite easily. Also, if you want a stronger vanilla flavour you can leave it sealed for a longer period of time. Vanilla Sugar can be used just like regular sugar and gives your recipes a bit of an extra something. Enjoy!

Kropser

2011-01-12T16:23:00.000-06:00

Hei taas! This recipe is practically fail proof and if you can fail at it you are truly special. Traditionally it is served with powdered sugar and honey. For those of you who do not know what a Kropser is, it is a baked Finnish pancake. Little kids will love these and they are good served right out of the pan or as a snack when they've cooled.

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups milk
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
In a bowl mix together the sugar, flour, and sea salt
Add the eggs and milk
Beat until well blended, the batter will be thin like most pancake batter
Melt the butter in a 9"x13" glass baking pan
Make sure that the butter has coated all sides of the pan
Pour the leftover butter into the batter and mix in
Pour batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until it is all puffed up
Cool until the pancake has flattened enough to cut easily

Ta-da! I seem to be giving you all a lot of European foods to start with. All the better though! Americans should probably learn to eat things besides fast food all the time. Nauti!

German Streusel

2011-01-11T14:52:00.000-06:00

Hallo!So, I’ve been asked to translate this recipe from German and to convert the measurements. I made this when I was in my first year of college and it was delicious! Of course this is coming from someone of German decent and every “good German” loves their streusel. Anyways, this is a traditional type of streusel without fruit in it, so some may not like it. I will probably post a different streusel recipe that has fruit in it. This is more of a coffee cake so enjoy it with some good coffee.

Ingredients for the Topping

2 tablespoons of butter
½ cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/3 cup of chopped walnuts

Ingredients for the Batter

1 ½ cups of flour
2 teaspoon of baking powder
A dash of salt
¾ cup of sugar
¼ cup of shortening
½ cup of cream
1 egg
½ teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
Mix topping ingredients and set aside
For the batter; mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together
Add in the shortening, cream, egg, and vanilla
Beat mixture for 2 minutes
Grease and flour a 9”x13” pan
Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the topping over it.
Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Oh boy, that was quite a strange thing to translate. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it in English. Oh well, have fun and enjoy!

Salmiakki

2011-01-09T10:30:00.001-06:00

Moi Kaikille! So, one of my favorite candies in the whole wide world is Salmiakki. What is Salmiakki? Salmiakki is a salty black licorice that they make in Finland. Granted, most people do not like black licorice and even less people like salty licorice, but still. It's delicious once you get accustomed to the taste that seems strange to Americans. Now you can buy Salmiakki at candy stores and online, but what's the fun in going and buying it when you can make it yourself? So, here is a recipe that my Finnish friend gave to me and I translated and converted all the measurements for you all. Fair warning though, this is kind of hard to make in super humid climates or places where the weather changes without warning; like Oklahoma for example.

Ingredients

1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of salted water
1/4 cup of light corn syrup
1 tablespoon of black food colouring
1/4 teaspoon of anise extract
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

Directions

Pour sugar, brown sugar, water, and corn syrup into a pot and set over medium heat
Stir until the mixture begins to boil, making sure that no sugar crystals are on teh sides of the pan
Cook without stirring to the soft crack stage, 290 degrees F
Remove pot from heat
Add food colouring, anise extract, and sea salt and stir in gently
With a teaspoon, drop onto a lightly greased baking sheet
If the candy in the pot gets too firm to spoon out, reheat until it softens enough to spoon out
Cool the candies completely without putting in the refrigerator or freezer
Wrap the candies individually in wax paper

And that's how you make it. I've make this recipe a few times and each time it has turned out delicious! I hope you enjoy it the first time or acquire a taste for it if you do not already love it. From what I've experienced with my friends you either love Salmiakki or you hate it the first time you try it. So, try it and tell me what you think.
Moi Moi!

Swiss Chicken

2011-01-08T23:52:00.002-06:00

So, this is a delicious little recipe that one of my friends gave me during my first year of college. It isn't too hard to make and though when I first read the ingredients I thought it sounded strange, it is actually really good. So, here you go.

Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 slices of Swiss cheese
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup of milk
8 oz of dry herb stuffing
1/2 cup of melted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish
Place chicken breasts in the baking dish
Place one slice of Swiss cheese on top of each chicken breast
Combine cream of mushroom soup and milk in a medium bowl, and pour over chicken breasts
Sprinkle with stuffing
Pour melted butter over top, and cover with foil.
Bake 50 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear

There you go! Have fun and enjoy!

Lihapyorykoita

2011-01-06T20:17:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have no idea what Lihapyorykoita is or are not Finnish then let me explain what this is. Lihapyorykoita are Finnish meatballs. They sort of taste like Swedish meatballs, for something to compare them to that most Americans have had. Personally, I prefer Lihapyorykoita because they have a richer taste to them. If you love Swedish meatballs or just want to try some good Finnish food then this is the recipe for you!

Ingredients for the Meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 leek, minced
1 egg
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup butter
Ingredients for the Sauce
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions

Mix the beef, bread crumbs, leek, egg, cream, salt, and allspice in a bowl until evenly mixed
Roll the mixture into spheres about the size of a golf ball
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook about half the meatballs in the butter until evenly browned on all sides which should be about 5 to 7 minutes
Remove to a plate and repeat with the remaining meatballs, keeping the liquid in the skillet when finished to make the sauce with
Sift the flour into the skillet with the drippings and cook until brown or about 2 to 3 minutes
Slowly stream the milk into the skillet while whisking vigorously or it will clump
Pour the cream into the mixture and stir until smooth
Return all the meatballs to the skillet
Stir to coat the meatballs with the sauce
Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the meatballs are cooked through which should take 15 to 20 minutes

There you go! It should take between an hour to an hour and a half to make depending on how fast you can make the meatballs. It is a 4 person serving so if you need to cut it in half or quarter it, it shouldn't be too hard.

Enjoy!