Baking tool:

• greased non-stick springform pan,
• bottom inside 18 cm,
• raised edge 7 cm

 

Filling:

• white beans from a tin,
• net weight about 750 g
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 tsp dried savory
• or fresh herb to taste

 

Dough:

• 350 g white bread flour
• 150 ml cooking liquid from the beans
• 50 ml olive  oil
• about 50 ml lukewarm water
• 6 g salt
• oil for brushing  

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At a meeting in the Vredespaleis (Peace Palace) in The Hague I met Gazmend Barbullushi, ambassador of Albania. The cuisine of his country, during the regime of Hoxha for a long time isolated from the world, is regrettably almost unknown to the rest of Europe. This situation I presented to the ambassador. Not long after that he was so kind to send me 1000 Receta gatimi (Tiranë, 2008) written by Evgjeni Harizi with the announcement that I could always ask his help for the translation of a recipe from this authoritative cookbook.

When looking at the pictures and the names of the dishes you can see how joyful Albanians are cooking. You see Turkish as well as Italian or French influences, but when it comes to pastry they are choosy: Albanian. I chose Petanik me fasule from Korçe in South East Albania (Petanik means layered). People there are rightly proud of this sustainable vegetarian pie, a kind of pancake tart. I got the promised help, also from Mrs. Edlira Barbullushi, who told me that you can definitely not use filo pastry, because that will become mushy by the bean liquid.

Baking tool:

• a non-stick cake tin
• about 25x11x7,5 cm,
• greased with butter

 

Dough (makes one loaf):

• 250 g wholemeal rye flour
• 250 g strong white bread flour (protein about 13,3 %)
• 7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 75 ml black treacle
• 350 ml warm water
• 6 g salt dissolved in 50 ml warm water

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Everything is beautiful in the wooden kitchen-diner of my Swedish friend Solvi Mettinger. I admire the rail from which fine China teacups are hanging, the waving lace curtains, the gorgeous wall decoration made of cords and wooden beads. All her own work. But the showpiece is the substantial pair of antique scales, which she uses for the preparation of the rich pastry collection we are enjoying. “This is a present from my father-in-law Allan. He became a baker in Helsinborg when his farm had burnt down. My mother-in-law was a baker’s daughter and she had always kept the traditional recipes carefully. These were just what they needed. I still have one of his bread recipes.” And she walks to the cookbook shelf, where she keeps more handwritten than printed recipes, for Solvi is a real queen of the kitchen, just for fun. Her explanation is a piece of luck. Recipes for daily bread are rarely written out. They are passed on from generation to generation through manual demonstration, accompanied by oral comments. So it is my good fortune that Solvi is willing  to share Allan’s written recipe with me. A stunning bread that  does not need kneading.

Baking tools:

• 3 baking trays, 40x 35 cm,
• lined with non-stick baking paper

 

Dough, makes about 30 biscuits:

• 125 g plain flour
• 100 g quick cooking rolled oats
• 100 g fine granulated sugar
• 75 g desiccated grated coconut
• 125 g butter
• 2 full tbsp golden syrup
• 7 g bicarbonate of soda
• (baking soda)
• 2 tbsp boiling water

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These biscuits you can buy in any Australian and New Zealand super market. They are popular with backpackers travelling in the bush due to their lightweight and long storage life. This kind of biscuits is an English invention and probably not designed just for the taste but like hardtack for nourishment that keeps well.

Exactly for this reason the Anzac biscuits were devised around 1914. By worried mothers, wives and fiancées of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in Australia. Or was it New Zealand? There it is stated that they are ‘stolen’ from them. The fact of the matter is that these biscuits resemble very much the oatmeal cakes which are baked by the numerous immigrants from Scotland. Of course you find Scots in Australia too. All women made their cakes from ingredients which were always on hand: a  bale of flour and rolled oats for breakfast. They delivered them on board of the ships sailing to Gallipoli, where the Corps participated in the First World War. That took several months, because the ships made only 18,5 km an hour. Those biscuits could endure that easily.

The second half of April schoolchildren take the recipe home to bake the national cakes  for April 25, the Australian memorial day: ANZAC Day.

You have to taste them to realize that their long lasting popularity is definitely not only due to their shelf life.

Baking tool:

• dark loaf tin 30x10x8m,
• carefully greased with butter

 

Dough (makes one loaf):

 

Starter:

• 50 g extra strong wholemeal flour
• 7 g easy-blend/easy bake dried yeast
• 75 ml luke warm water

 

Dough:

• 500 g extra strong wholemeal flour
• (plus extra for dusting)
• 1 tablespoon dark brown muscovado sugar
• about 350 ml luke warm water
• 1 teaspoon barley malt syrup (health shop)
• 8 g salt

 

Filling:

• 50 ml liquid honey
• 50 g soft unsalted butter
• 200 g dried Turkish apricots,
• ‘ready to eat’, minced
• 1 level tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

On top:

• honey

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From the Far West of the United States: 100 % wholewheat apricot bread. Michael Pollan, the modern advocate of  ‘Real Food’, is by no means the first American who is concerned with food-ethics. A famous predecessor was pastor Syvester Graham. He lived convinced that food treated with chemical products, particularly white flour, led to unbridled sexual behaviour. He thought the same of meat and alcohol. He was succesful.  So much that demonstrating bakers and butchers stopped him when he wanted to give a lecture about his food reformation in Boston in 1837. That reformation did not succeed totally, but in America the special graham flour is for sale until this day and breads such as the apricot bread are still baked. It has to be said: this is the real taste of wheat!

Baking material:

• baking tray
• covered with baking parchment

 

Dough (makes two pieces):

• 500 g strong white flour
• 1 sachet easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 250-300 ml lukewarm water
• 50 ml olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt (4 g)

 

To finish:

• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 2 tbsp. sesame seeds

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During the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadineyad (2005-2013) book censorship increased enormously in Iran: no foreign novels, but educational theological titles and oddly enough: ‘How do I cook healthy for my family’. Theological and cookery books can have a lot in common! The Iranian philosopher al-Ghazzali, for example, wrote the Revival of the Religious Sciences (11th century) in ‘the Language of the Angels’ (= Arabic). That work contains a still popular part about table manners ‘because’, he wrote, ‘food belongs to the religious matters’. No wonder cookery books passed the Iranian censorship: according to the folk tale of Mulla Nasrudin they love recipes. He was on his way home with a piece of liver in one hand and in the other a recipe a friend had given him. Suddenly a crow flew off with the liver. “Fathead”, he shouted, “You may have the liver, but I still have the recipe”!

Nan-e barbari (from ‘barbarian’Afghans on the Eastern border) is eaten for breakfast with fresh cheese, sweet omelette, jam. In cold regions with roasted lamb or veal livers (Jigarak) with oil, pepper and parsley: a barbecue. This includes pickles and shabzi-khordan: radishes, watercress, tarragon, mint, yogurt, plus roasted Halloumi cheese on skewers with pieces of spring onion.

The Iraqi sesame bread Sammoen looks exactly like this Nan-e-barbari, as does the Turkish pideh, an oval flat bread with sesame seeds on top. You can find it in Lebanon and Jordan under the name choebz frensi (French bread). In fact, it is a practical version of the ordinary daily bread for people who have an oven, but do not much time. The shaping is done in an instant. A tasty alternative for baguettes. Even if not baked in a wood-fired oven.

Baking tool:

• ovenproof baking dish 30x22x3 cm,
• greased

 

Syrup:

• 450 ml water
• 450 g fine granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• thin zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

 

Batter:

• 300 g fine durum wheat semolina
• 1 tsp baking powder (4 g)
• pinch salt
• 100 g butter, softened
• 125 g fine granulated sugar
• 2 very fresh eggs
• 1 tsp grated unwaxed orange zest
• pinch vanilla seed
• 150 ml Greek yoghurt
• 24  blanched almond halves

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‘An Arab who does not love sweets is like a Muslim who does not believe in Paradise’. A bold assertion, but the fact is that the fondness for sweet things in the Arab world leaps to the eye everywhere. Sweet cakes and candies are offered at every festivity, religious or not, even at funerals. Already in the Middle Ages sugar was an ordinary ingredient in Arab countries and not as expensive as in Western world where it was called ‘the white gold’.

A nice example of the original processing of sugar is this Egyptian version of the semolina cake Basbusa: soaked with syrup without making it cloying.

As to ‘semolina’, this should be the smied from Middle Eastern shops, which gives a beautiful yellow pastry. Soft wheat semolina does not have that effect. Sometimes the cake is made even more yellow by adding a spoonful of turmeric or a pinch of saffron. Instead of with almonds it can be garnished with pine nuts. That is up to you. But keep this rule of thumb: the cold syrup has to be poured over the warm pastry.

Baking tool:

• greased round deep pie-dish,
• diameter top 22 cm,
• contents about 1 ½ l

 

Dough:

• 50 g butter, chilled
• 50 vegetable fat for deep-frying
• 200 g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• about 60 ml ice cold water

 

Fruit:

• 500 g apples (Bramley, Elstar),
• peeled and cored
• 250 g blackberries
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 tsp potato flour

 

On top:

• milk
• white castor sugar

 

To serve:

• whipped sweet cream

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We are picking blackberries from several meters high bushes in the hills above Nottingham with a view of Wollaton Park. For standing still we only have time when the bucket becomes too heavy to carry. A gentleman, also frantically busy, calls to us: ‘That will be Blackberry and apple pie tonight’. We had to look this up. For this  pie you need juicy blackberries, which can be picked only to the end of summer. It has an upper crust that seems to float above the fruit. That we learned from the famous gardener Christopher Lloyd in his book Gardener Cook. The recipe below is made following his instructions. It has to be baked in a real pie-dish with a flat rim. Such a vessel you cannot obtain everywhere. In that case you can use the trick mentioned in the recipe below.

Baking material:

• muffin-pan for 12 pieces, 38×27 cm,
• diameter muffin about 7 cm, contents 125 ml,
• lightly greased

 

Crust (for 12 pieces):

• 250 g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (2 g)
• 100 g cold butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 ml cold water
• extra flour for rolling out

Filling:

• 2 tablespoons (palm) oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 chopped green bell pepper
• 2 chopped hot red peppers (without seeds)
• 2 egg yolks
• 150 ml creamy coconut milk
• 400 g cooked and peeled large shrimps
• 100 g palm hearts in pieces (tin),
• patted dry
• 2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves
• about 5 tablespoons coconut flour
• coconut milk

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From a culinary point of view one can safely say that Brasil is for Latin America what France is for Europe. Eating is something very important there. It is said that a Brazilian foodie will swim the whole Bay of Rio when he hears that the empadas on the other side are better.

Here I offer a recipe for Empadas de camarão. These can be made smallish (empadinhas) and then are served as appetizers. The bigger ones are eaten seated at a table and served with a truly Brazilian salad.

Our filling originated in Cozinha Baiana, the kitchen of Bahía, the most famous of the six Brazilian culinary regions, with strong African influences. Most important ingredients: palm oil (dendê), coconut, fresh coriander, shrimps and hot peppers, ingredients all found here.

Baking tool:

• (flexible  silicon) form
• for 6 muffins (à 125 ml)

 

Muffins (makes 6):

• 200 ml milk
• 100 g buckwheat
• 2 g salt
• 2 eggs (L)
• 100 g cottage cheese
• 50 ml crème fraîche
• nutmeg, pepper

Garnishing salad:

• 1/2 thin cucumber
• 100 ml crème fraîche
• 1 spring onion
• ½  clove garlic
• 1/4  teaspoon caraway seed
• black pepper, salt
• cayenne pepper to taste
• dill branches

Mushrooms:

• 200 g chanterelles
• 2 tablepoons butter
• 1 minced onion
• pepper, salt
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley

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This is a combination from the North-Slovenian region Gorensjka, where mushrooms grow lavishly, you just have to pick them. But buckwheat is expensive nowadays. In contrast to the past, writes Professor Janez Bogataj in European Cookery (2004). He is an ethnologist and an authority on the cuisine of his country. Wheat was always scarse. And so legumes and cabbage were staple food until buckwheat was imported in the fifteenth century. That changed the food habits drastically. Then came the potato, which was welcomed with so much enthousiasm that the buckwheat had to make way for it in the seventeenth century. But what tastes nice endures the centuries. That is why we still see Peçena ajdove kaša z gobami (baked kasha with mushrooms). Here with cucumber salad from Prlekija (Prleške murke). Wine: a Slovenian rosé such as Vipava or else a Spanish Rioja rosé.

Equipment:

• a round electric waffle iron
• a biscuit cutter 8 cm diameter

 

Waffles (yield about 20 pieces):

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 75 g white castor sugar
• pinch of salt
• 7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
• 25 ml lukewarm milk, approx.
• 1 small egg, beaten
• 125 g melted butter, lukewarm

 

Filling:

• 225 g golden syrup
• 150 g butter
• 5 g ground cinnamon

 

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These split waffles with a layer of toffee in between are a speciality of the Dutch city of Gouda, but have been made popular all over the country by itinerant waffle bakers who sell them at markets and fairs. Now it is a big industry. You can buy stroopwafels in every supermarket, and the waffles are even exported to the United States.

It is generally agreed that the name wafel, wafer, wafele (Middle Dutch) must be derived from the Germanic verb weben (to weave). Those biscuits owed their name to their appearance as a coarse type of weaving resembling a honeycomb: German Wabe.

Information about the origin of those waffles you can find under the button ‘And furthermore’ entitled ‘Wafers and waffles’ on this website.