When I hear “banana bread”, what comes to mind is the bake-sale staple, a quick bread that is more like a cake, really. So when I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and thumbing through a Jamie Oliver cookbook while the kids selected their easy readers, I was intrigued by a recipe for a standard white bread made with banana puree.

Not, you understand, intrigued enough to actually check out the book (we were walking home and why are cookbooks always so HEAVY?) or even photocopy the page, but I did scribble down some notes. When I first made the dough, I was somewhat alarmed by the morbid purplish-gray color; maybe this is a recipe best enjoyed in low light. But you will enjoy it, because it’s wonderfully chewy, with a little extra sticky-sweet top from a brush with honey. The banana flavor asserts itself without being overpowering, and if you just happen to put a little pat of butter on one of the rolls that’s still warm from the oven? Well, no one would blame you for closing your eyes and just sighing happily.

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Banana bread rolls

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Since I halved the original recipe, I had to tinker with the measurements a bit. Don’t worry if you have a bit more or less banana puree, just add the flour gradually when you get to that stage and stop adding when the dough firms up and is just a bit sticky.

Ingredients

Makes 14 rolls

• 3 bananas
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
•  3 Tbs honey
• 2½ cups flour
• about 1 Tbs honey for the glaze

Method

• Peel and puree the bananas in a blender or with an immersion mixer. You should have about 1½ cups of goo.
• In a large bowl, stir together the bananas, yeast and one cup of flour. Let it sit for about 15 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble a bit (it may be hard to tell since the mixture is quite thick).
• Stir in the salt and honey, then begin to add the flour half a cup at a time until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Knead it for about 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until it becomes smooth and just a bit sticky – you may need to knead in more flour as you go, depending on how large your bananas were.
• Form the dough into a ball and put it in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm spot to rise for two hours or until doubled. You can also put it in the fridge overnight at this stage.
• Grease a baking pan (I used a 9″ round cake pan which wasn’t quite big enough).
• Form the  dough into about 14 balls of equal size and place them in the pan with enough space between them to expand a bit. Cover and set aside for the second rise, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rolls look a little puffy.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and in a small bowl, mix about a tablespoon of honey with a splash of hot water to thin it out.
• Once they’ve risen, brush the rolls with the honey glaze and bake for ten minutes; brush the tops with the glaze again and continue to bake for ten more minutes. Bake a total of about 20-22 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.

I sure am sorry I didn’t think to post this recipe for International Talk Like a Pirate Day – I just missed it, on September 19. Ajvar is pronounced aye-var, and it’s awfully fun to say it with a little nautical sneer and swagger. Arrrr!

This is still an apt time of year to talk about this recipe, when the last of the eggplants and tomatoes are ripening. Somewhere between a spread and a condiment, ajvar is a Balkan staple and was at least partly responsible for my substantial weight gain in the years we were living in the former Yugoslavia. You can buy ajvar at almost any grocery store there, and we discovered that the uglier the packaging, the better the product. My personal favorites generally came from Macedonia, but homemade is really the gold standard. It’s not hard to make, I discovered, but messy. The smell of peppers roasting (often just cooked directly on the stove burners) is for me one of the characteristic aromas of the Balkans, just a whiff and you’re there.

As for the eating, my personal favorite is to use it rather like ketchup, on sandwiches. When Valerian and I were first living together, we bought a little sandwich press, and I proceeded to toast up many, many grilled cheese sandwiches with ajvar, to the point where it was getting hard to button my pants. Oof. I recommend a little more moderation, but ajvar really does perk up a sandwich, makes a great topping for crackers, and could easily work as a pasta sauce rather like pesto if you’re so inclined. The sweet peppers contrast with the very slight bitterness of the eggplant, all playing against a smoky backdrop – it’s a savory trip to Southeastern Europe, right there.

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Ajvar

The usual red bell peppers in the US are not quite the same as the peppers you’ll get in Europe, but they work fine in this recipe; if you can find a more typical European pepper, like Pritamin or the others mentioned in Valerian’s pepper guide, use those. Ajvar is often made with hot peppers, too, if you like things a little spicy.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups of ajvar

• 4 large red peppers
• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt & pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 450° F (230° C) and line a large baking sheet with foil.
• Pierce the eggplants’ skins a few times with a fork or tip of a knife. Place them and the peppers on the baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until the skins are blackened in spots and starting to shrivel. Be bold and let them get well cooked, the smokey flavor will be your payoff.
• Put the peppers in a large bowl and cover with a plate, then set them aside.
• Allow the eggplants to cool, then peel back the skins and scoop out the flesh into a medium bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Try to leave out the seeds, although this is very messy and difficult.
• When the peppers have cooled, peel off the skins and discard. Also toss out the seeds, core and stem. Roughly chop the peppers and add them to the bowl with the eggplant.
• Grate or finely mince the garlic, and add about half to start – since it’s raw, go easy at first and taste to see how you like it.
• Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the mixture to a thick, still somewhat chunky consistency. Season to taste with more garlic and the salt and pepper, and stir it all together.
• Keeps in the fridge for at least a week; this is best a day or two after it’s made.

 

Being totally honest, I’ve never liked raw tomatoes all that much. I put them in salads and sandwiches but I often eat them without much enjoyment, more a sense of duty. Duty? To a fruit? Anyway. I always supposed that California is a perfect tomato-growing climate, but particularly after these past two cool summers, that’s clearly not the case. And it’s not just our shady backyard (where we have yet to get a flower on our little stunted tomato plants this year), all the local tomatoes leave something to be desired. I remember eating a tomato in Sarajevo in the summer of 1996; it was hardly the most auspicious place for fresh produce, what with the war just ended and all, but that tomato was a revelation, so sweet and juicy. And while we had hard times with the tomatoes in Slovakia, so many of which split and cracked and fell prey to Colorado beetles, I miss being able to gather a nice bowlful for supper on a hot summer evening.

On the other hand, the firm, bland little cherry tomatoes we’ve been getting at the store are perfect for pickling. It seems a shame to fuss about with a lovely ripe tomato (or peach, or plum), but when they’re this unremarkable, a shot of vinegar does wonders.

My mother taught me how to make these when I was a teenager, and I had forgotten about them for years before this summer. Now I can’t get enough – as soon as we eat through one batch, I am nicking the skins for the next round. It is a little tedious to peel cherry tomatoes, and in fact you can just as well just slice up a large tomato and let it soak in the oil and vinegar; the pulpy insides may spill out, but that’s only an aesthetic issue. I find it relaxing to slip the little ones from their skins, it’s the perfect thing to do while listening to the radio on a sultry afternoon.

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“Pickled” tomatoes

The quotation marks in the title here are because these aren’t true pickles (you need to follow proper canning procedures for those). I just keep them in the fridge, where they last about a week in the unlikely event they’re not gobbled up. I sometimes toss in halved artichoke hearts, which take up the vinegar nicely themselves.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (about ½ kilo) cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup Sherry vinegar
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 scallions, sliced

Method

• First, blanch the tomatoes to make them easier to peel. Bring a large pot half-full of water to a boil. In the meantime, make a small nick or x at the stem end of the tomatoes. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and a slotted spoon. When the pot of water boils, carefully add the tomatoes and let them cook for about one minute; if the skins start to split or peel, take them out with the slotted spoon, and drop them in the ice water. Drain them off and then peel each tomato, discarding the skins.
• Whisk together the vinegar, oil, and oregano in a small measuring cup.
• Put the tomatoes, scallions, and garlic in a sealable container, the smallest they’ll fit into. Pour the vinegar mixture over the top, and gently tip the container to mix.
• Tightly seal and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

How do you try out a new recipe? Do you follow it to the letter, or are you a tinkerer? For years, I didn’t cook often enough to feel confident deviating from the written word; the recipe was law unto the kitchen. But after being forced to improvise when I was living in a rented apartment in the Balkans without cookbooks or measuring cups, I got used to following my own instincts over the stovetop. It helps that I was mainly cooking for myself, and I kept the bar pretty low; Valerian or anyone else daring enough to join me generally wasn’t familiar with what I was trying to do, and didn’t know any better if something came out wrong.

And now? Now I can’t just follow a recipe – I have to tinker with it, either because I have to (lack of required ingredients/tools/skill) or because I want to (impulsive! Picky!).

I can’t remember how I came across this post about Isabelle’s braided hazelnut bread, but when I saw the photo, I immediately wanted to give it a try. So I did. Immediately. I barely looked at the actual recipe, because what really caught my eye was the beautiful effect with the layers of dough and filling. I threw together a slightly-sweet dough, easy-peasy, and we even had some leftover walnut and poppyseed fillings stashed in the freezer.

And then… problems. Getting the baking time right took a little experimentation – the first time I made it, the oven was too hot and the top got a lot browner than I wanted. Even baking at 350° seemed a little hot on the second time around. I got the best results with a cooler oven, then raising the temperature to get the top edges just nicely browned without drying out the center. I ran out of the frozen filling and had to make my own,even.  Oddly, no one complained about having a lot of not-quite-perfect pastry-ish bread to sample.

The technique for getting the fancy layers is simple, but you have to be careful as you twist the floppy, juicy strands. Once you’ve rolled up the dough into a nice compact log:

I recommend transferring it to the baking pan before cutting the center splice:

Then gently cross the two strands over each other to create the twist:

So, will you give this recipe a try? Or just improvise? Because you know, you’ve got to have a slice of this beauty.

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Brunch Twist
adapted from Our Kitchen

Any of the fillings we’ve posted earlier would be great in this bread, I think, but the walnut one I used here was luscious.

Ingredients

Makes one fairly large loaf

• ¾ cup milk
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3 tbs vegetable oil
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2¼ cups flour
• Filling of your choice: try one from here, or use jam, or cheese for a savory option. You’ll need about a cup of whatever you’re using.
• glaze: ¼ cup powdered sugar whisked together with the juice of one lemon

Method

• Make a sponge: warm the milk to just below boiling, then set aside to cool to lukewarm. In the meantime, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the yeast and half a cup of flour. Stir in the milk and leave until puffy, about 15 minutes.
• Stir in the salt, sugar, and oil, then begin adding the flour. You may not need the last quarter-cup; the dough should be rather soft, but not sticky. Using the bread hook attachment on your mixer, or with your hands, knead until silky and smooth.
• Place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours. You can also leave it in the fridge overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F/180° C, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured surface. With your hands, gently pat it into a rectangle – this will help it keep its shape as you roll it out. Roll the dough out as thin as you can, turning several times to be sure it isn’t sticking to the work surface; you should end up with a rectangle about 18×24″ (30×45 cm). If you’re having trouble getting it to an even thinness, let it rest for a minute or two then roll some more.
• Spread the dough with your choice of filling, leaving about a 1″ lip along the edge.
• Roll up the dough along the short edge, finishing with the seam on top. Press gently to seal, then move the roll to the baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut all the way through the roll lengthwise, leaving about 2″ (5 cm) at one end uncut.
• Handling the dough very gently,  and keeping the cut edge up, lay one strand of the bread over the other, alternating so you have a twist shape. Tuck the end under for a neater appearance.
• Bake for 20 minutes; raise the oven temperature to 375° (180°C) and bake for an additional 7-10 minutes or until the top begins to brown.
• Allow to cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes before brushing the glaze over the top. If you can, wait another few minutes before you slice and serve.

 

Last weekend I came across a competition on Chow for the best original muffin recipe. Now, I love muffins, quickbreads, that whole kind of snack/brunch category is right up my alley. (Remember pancakes, anyone?) But I don’t have a favorite recipe, I usually just throw together what’s at hand along the lines of a basic muffin recipe and enjoy the results, so I don’t know why I was seized with the competitive spirit and determined to enter the contest.

We buy a loaf of Struan bread almost every week – it’s just a prepacked sliced loaf made by Brother Juniper’s Bakery, perfect for morning toast or lunchbox sandwiches. A couple of times I’ve made my own, following Peter Reinhardt’s version in Artisan Breads Every Day, and it’s delicious, but it’s hard to make the timing work to end up with a nice fresh loaf at breakfast, which is when I would like it most. But muffins, those can be whipped up in a few minutes and out of the oven in just a few more, and aha! I had my original muffin recipe.

Granted, dashing off a new combination the day before the contest closed doesn’t quite live up to the “favorite muffin recipe” challenge, so maybe it’s no surprise it didn’t make the finals. I have to say, though, this is a sleeper. On its own, it’s basic without being plain: the texture from the oats, cornmeal and rice give it a fabulous crumb, and there’s something almost savory about it, past the sweetness of the honey and brown sugar. With a jam center, though, you have a surprise finale, and I think you wouldn’t go wrong tossing in some fruit or nuts as well. I may not have gotten to the second round of the contest, but a new and delicious recipe is no loss!

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Struan Muffins

Yes, this recipe calls for cooked brown rice. White rice is fine! Next time you make rice (or even get some with your takeout), just put a couple of spoonfuls in a bag and freeze it, then you’re ready to bake any time.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 1¼ cups flour
• cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons cooked brown rice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• ¼ cup jam (optional)

Method

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
• Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cornmeal, cooked rice, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• In a large measuring cup, beat together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and honey until well mixed. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and allow to sit for about 1 minute for ingredients to hydrate.
• Spoon into prepared muffin pan. For jam centers, spoon about 1 tablespoon of the batter into each muffin cup and drop a teaspoon of jam on top, then cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the tops with poppy seeds.
• Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

I have been reading about Kim Boyce’s cookbook Good to the Grain for a few months now, and lo and behold, I got my very own copy for my birthday this past week. The concept behind these recipes is baking with whole grain flours not (only) for health reasons, but to enjoy the specific flavors each grain brings. I’m sold!

The first recipe I aimed to try was the one for scones with a layer of jam in them — perfect Saturday breakfast fare. Alas, my stop at the grocery store yesterday didn’t yield barley flour, only flakes, but if there’s anything I learned from living outside the US, it’s not to let a pesky lack of ingredients stop me from making something delicious. I bought the flakes with the intention to process them to a flour at home.

I made a few other changes to the recipe as written, mainly because, well, frankly I am lazy. Boyce directs you to cut up cold butter into small cubes and work them into the dry ingredients with your fingers. I grated the butter straight from the fridge into the dry ingredients and then rubbed it into the flours. I didn’t feel like opening two sticks of butter, so I just used 6 tablespoons in the scone dough itself, and reserved two to melt for the topping. I was perfectly satisfied with the richness so I don’t think you’ll miss the tiny bit of extra butter.

However, the scones did spread rather more than would be ideal and ended up rather thin, and I suspect that the coarseness of the ground barley flakes was an issue. Pulsing the flakes in our little food processor didn’t make a uniform, fine flour, and probably I should have compensated by adding a little extra measure. The scones were light and tender in any case, and I really liked the little extra texture the uneven grind of the barley added. Boyce says the dough will be sticky, and it was; I struggled a bit to get the unbaked scones onto the baking sheet. However, with a sheet of baking parchment under them, after baking they lifted off without a crumb left behind, even where the jam oozed out and made some tempting caramelized puddles. With a cup of coffee, these really were the ideal weekend breakfast.

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Strawberry Barley Scones, adapted from Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain

I used low-sugar strawberry jam from (where else) Trader Joe’s; Boyce includes a recipe for making your own jam, but that’s for another time.

Ingredients

Makes 8 scones

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs/150 g barley flour (add an extra tablespoonful if you grind your own flour from barley flakes)
• 1 cup/100 g all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup/50 g brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1¼ tsp kosher salt
• 8 Tbs (113 grams) cold butter, divided
• ½ cup/235 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• ½ cup/8 Tbs strawberry jam
• 1 Tbs granulated sugar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/190° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt, breaking up any lumps.
• Grate about 6 tbs of butter into the dry ingredients; melt the remaining 2 tbs and set aside to cool.
• Working quickly with your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a mixture of small to medium lumps of butter well-coated with the flour. Do not overwork the mixture, you don’t want the butter to get too warm.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be sticky.
• Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Divide the dough in half, and pat one half into a circle about ¾” thick and 7″ across. Spread the jam across the top. Pat out the other half of the dough into a circle the same size (make sure there is plenty of flour on the work surface) and place it on top of the jam layer, pressing down slightly.
• Cut the dough into 8 wedges using a knife or bench scraper, and (very) carefully place them onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a good inch or so of space between them.
• Brush each wedge with the melted butter, and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are starting to brown.

First he developed an idea for an elaborate dessert featuring cupcakes and ice-cream cones (we have yet to give that one a try). His next project was a litle more straightforward, and we feature it here: popcorn with seaweed.

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Popcorn with seaweed

Our kids are not the kind that gobble up veggies without significant prompting, so it was a surprise to me that seaweed is one of the most popular snacks at the kindergarten. Well, if you taste the “roasted seaweed snack” from Trader Joe’s, you’ll see why, though; it’s salty and crispy and a lot like a green potato chip. If you don’t have a TJ’s near you, many stores carry a similar product, or if you can find nori sheets, toast them briefly in the oven to make them more brittle and shattery.

Ingredients

Makes about 5 cups of popcorn

• ⅓ C popcorn kernels or one package of unflavored microwave popcorn
• 5 pieces of “seaweed snack”, or one sheet of nori
• olive or vegetable oil (optional), if you have the kind in a spray can, that’s ideal
• salt to taste

Method

• Pop the popcorn.
• Place the popped corn in a large bowl. If desired, spray or drizzle the popcorn lightly with oil–this is only really necessary if you are using plain nori, the snack seaweed is already quite oily.
• Crumble the seaweed snack over the top, then toss with your hands.
• Salt to taste.
• Enjoy!

There are about as many different ways of making pogi as there are bakeries, and everyone has an opinion about where to find the very best. Some are rich and flaky, more like an American biscuit, while others are more solid, rather like a scone. They come in different sizes, too, from just an inch or so across to as big as a fist. You can get pogácsa made with cheese, with potato, with pumpkin seeds, with little bits of pork crackling, or any combination of all of that. Naturally, our favorite Budapest czukraszda, Daubner, makes some of the most tender, delicate and delicious pogácsa – they’re worth waiting in the long lines to get some hot from the oven.

Unlike some other bakery specialties, like Dobos Tort or Sacher Torte, though, you can make pogi at home easily and successfully. Valerian’s mother makes a version that is as much potato as flour, and every family seems to have its own treasured recipe. The ones we’re making here are both flaky and fluffy, studded with seeds and tangy with chèvre. Maybe you’d like to make some to bring to the office, as a change of pace. We took some to the preschool for Valentine’s Day, so instead of the traditional little rounds, we cut them in heart shapes. Whatever shape yours take, let us know how you like them!

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Pogácsa – Hungarian cheese biscuits

This is a yeast dough, so factor in a couple of hours to let it rise. If you prefer, leave the pumpkin seeds whole for a different texture.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 dozen small pogácsa

• 1⅓ cups flour
• 1 Tbs instant yeast
• 2 heaping Tbs salt
• 4 oz/113 g chèvre (soft goat cheese)
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• 4 Tbs olive oil or pumpkin seed oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sour cream
• yolk of one egg, for the wash

Method

• In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the pumpkin seeds until they begin to hiss and pop. When they have cooled a bit, pulse them a few times in a food processor, or roughly chop with a knife.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, yeast, and chèvre to form a soft dough. Stir in the whole egg, the sour cream, and the the pumpkin seeds. With a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer, knead the dough until it forms a shaggy, somewhat sticky ball.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F/190° C.
• Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Sprinkling more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking, roll it out to about ¼”/1 cm thick, then fold it in half, in half again, and one more time. Roll it out again to ¼” thick and repeat the folding twice more.
• Rolls out the dough to about half an inch thick, and cut out your pogi with a biscuit cutter or even a small glass. Reroll as necessary to use up all the dough. Put the cut shapes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Lightly beat the egg yolk and brush it over the tops of your pogácsa for a nice shine.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are nicely golden. Place on a wire rack to cool, and enjoy!

This is the kind of thing you throw together when your fruit trees are producing more than you can manage, or if you’ve gone a little crazy at the farmers’ market. Back in Slovakia we have an orchard of nearly 30 little fruit trees, but here in California we have just one rather bedraggled nectarine tree. It miraculously produced about 8 or 10 nectarines,

but then something took a single bite out of most of them, leaving only  a few untouched. Sigh. It’s  funny that here in the suburbs we have more trouble with wildlife than we did in the wide open spaces of Central Europe.

ANYWAY. Pair a not-too-sweet cake with your favorite fruit and you’ve got bublanina, a Czechoslovak summer classic (although I’ve been known to make it with canned fruit for a taste of sunshine any time). This is a very simple recipe, and infinitely flexible – try adding a little lemon zest, or a swirl of jam, or anything that takes your fancy.

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Bublanina – fruity snack cake

Almost any kind of soft fruit works here; we usually stick with stone fruit such as plums, peaches, or cherries; berries also work, although they will kind of melt into the cake. Apples and pears may not cook through in the short time it takes to bake the cake itself. I like to sprinkle a couple teaspoons of demerara or other coarse sugar over the top before baking for a little crunch.

Ingredients

Makes one 9×13″ rectangular cake, or two 8″ rounds

• 6 Tbs/85 g butter
• 1 rounded cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2½ C flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• About 1 cup fruit, cut into chunks

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180 C. Grease and flour a 9×13″ pan and set it aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until fluffly, about 2 minutes.
• Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing gently until just combined. Don’t overmix or the cake will be tough – the batter will be quite stiff and doughy.
• Gently spread the batter into the prepared pan, and then press the fruit into the surface. Be generous, the batter expands quite a lot so you can use more fruit than you think.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and the top springs back when touched. Slice and serve.

If you’re looking for a soft, yummy, eggy bread recipe, this is the one. I have to admit failure here, though: I just can’t seem to get the stacked braids to stay upright when I cook them. I finally resorted to my old standby six-strand braid, and the results are much more attractive.

This vianočka is pretty close to the version you can buy in the shops in Slovakia, and it’s easy enough to make the dough in the evening then bake in the morning. It’s sweet, lightly flavored with lemon, and makes great french toast if you don’t manage to eat the whole thing before it gets a little stale.

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Vianocka – modern version

This is a largeish recipe – I’ve taken to dividing it in two and leaving half the dough to sit in the fridge to bake a second loaf a day or two later. If you bake a half-sized loaf, it should be done in about 25 minutes. I often substitute about half a cup of oil for the butter when I’m in a hurry or low on butter.

Ingredients

Makes one loaf

• 4 cups/480 grams flour
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 1 cup/240 ml milk
• 3 oz/85 g butter
• 3 eggs, plus one yolk for the egg wash
• 1/3 cup/80 g sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• zest of one lemon (about 1½ tsp)
• 1/3 cup/40 g raisins (optional)
• ¼ cup/20 g sliced almonds for topping (optional)

Method

• Warm the milk and butter in a small saucepan until butter has melted; set aside to cool. Stir together 1 cup of the flour and the yeast in a large bowl. When milk mixture has cooled to lukewarm, stir it into the flour mixture until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until it is bubbly, about 15 minutes.
• Add the three eggs, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Mix in the flour gradually until you have a soft dough that is still a bit sticky. Stir in the raisins.
• Turn out the dough and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a large clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled, about two hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
• When dough has doubled, divide it into 6 portions, each weighing about 6oz/180 grams. Roll each portion into a rope, and braid the six ropes together, pinching each end to seal.
• Cover the braid with a cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f/190 C.
• Brush the braid with the egg yolk mixed with about a teaspoon of water; sprinkle almonds over the top if desired (the loaf expands quite a lot when baked, so you can be generous with the topping!).
• Bake for 50-55 minutes or until top is a dark golden brown.

With our respective families 6000 miles apart, one thing Valerian and I have done together a lot is travel. And with two kids added to the mix now, we arm ourselves seriously when we head out to the airport: books, toys, changes of clothes, and of course, snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. When your kids start to get squirrely, sometimes a treat that would normally be off-limits is just what you need to get through the last hours of a 14-hour flight.

Some of the other things we’ve stashed in our carry-ons to amuse the small fry have included a small notebook and the cheapest set of coloring pens I could find; a set of trading cards; a box of band-aids for peeling and sticking at will, as well as other stickers; sets of little animals, preferably packaged in a plastic tube (often putting things in the tube is the best part of these toys); finger puppets; a magnadoodle.

As far as snacks go, I do nod towards healthy stuff like mini carrots, crackers, string cheese, etc. But really, when you’re looking for distraction as much as nutrition, this might be the time to bust out the Dora the Explorer shaped fruit snax, or whatever. The following recipe is a bit of both – I put in plenty of dried fruit and even chocolate chips, but by making it yourself you can avoid the high-fructose corn syrup and artificial colors.

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On the go Bars

This recipe is pretty flexible – you could swap in ingredients like whole wheat flour, or add some soy flour for protein, use different fruit, nuts, other seeds, use maple syrup instead of honey, add a little cinnamon or ginger powder, and so on. The mixture needs to hold together when you press it into the pan, so chop larger pieces of fruit or nuts, and add a little more liquid if mixture seems very crumbly. Even pretty small kids can help make it, too – mixing with fingers and patting it into the pan can be a fun activity between rushing around getting your bags packed.

Ingredients

Makes about 36 bars

• 1¾ C/200 g rolled oats
• 1 C/150 g flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 C/155 g brown sugar
• 1/3 c/50 g pumpkin seeds
• 1 C/135 g dried fuit (I use apricots, prunes, dried cherries)
• ½ C/100 g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
• ½ C/118 ml vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs water or juice

Method

• Line the bottom of a 9×13″ pan with baking paper or foil to make it easier to remove the bars. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (170 C).
• In a large bowl, mix together the first 7 ingredients (the dry ones) with your fingers until everything is evenly distributed. Stir in the oil, honey, and water.
• Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and press it together firmly to form a layer about ½” (1 cm) thick. Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned, then allow to cool in the pan before slicing into bars.

All I want to say is that körözött is a staple food of Hungary. They are lucky, because they can go to the local Tesco Hypermarket, pick up a tub of the classic spread, or even try “impure” körözött and buy it together with a hearty dose of additives and preservatives. You, the unlucky ones have to make it yourself. The good news is, that it can be kept in the fridge for quite a time even without the pesky additives and preservatives.  Well, enjoy your Hungarian experience!

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Hungarian Spicy Cheese Spread – Körözött

This is the basic, the elemental soul of körözött. People tend to over-complicate this simple spread. Silly, when it is best enjoyed simply with bread or vegetables; tomatoes and peppers make a perfect companion. You might want to reduce the amount of onions, but remember that after chilling the spread will be milder. If you want to go fat free, go for it and use reduced fat or fat free cottage cheese and cream cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 small tub (8 oz) large curd cottage cheese
• 1 smaller or ½ a large onion
• small package (3 oz) cottage cheese
• 1 onion
• 3 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp caraway powder
• 1 cup red wine

Method

• Put all the ingredients except the onion into a big bowl.
• Grate the onions into the mixture. You can go either chunky or fine.
• Stir the mixture well and then process it with a stick/immersion blender or in a food processor.
• Put it back into the cottage cheese tub and chill it for few hours, best overnight. There will be a little bit leftover which will not fit into the tub. You go ahead and eat it.
• Enjoy with a great rustic bread.

Many of our recipes end with the sentence: “Enjoy with a good rustic bread”. Bread is the staple food of Central Europe. We eat bread with everything. One of the challenges of moving was to find an everyday bread -  frankly, supermarket “sandwich” bread here is pretty bad. Sorry my friends, it is the truth. It is full of preservatives, different crazy sounding items and of course, sugar (that is true about everything. Everything tastes sweet here. It is like non-stop candy time). On other hand there are artisan breads. Well, those are amazing! The only problem is they are not priced for everyday eating. A good bread, which our family polishes off in 30 seconds, is $4. If you eat it once in a while, yes, it is the right price for something “special/artisan”. But if you eat it as Europeans do, yikes!
So we make our own. Katy is a great baker and she has been making all kinds of amazing breads. The only thing I missed was the rustic Hungarian potato bread. So in order to surprise her one night I made the “no knead bread“, added a potato and adjusted it accordingly. I was amazed with the results – exactly what I was hoping for! Now I’ll share this Hungarian recipe with you.

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Hungarian Potato Bread

Use bread flour. I used King Arthur bread flour. Russet potatoes are ideal for this recipe, because they are nice and floury. The potato has a few roles in the bread making: it will keep the bread moist, adds a gentle potato flavor to the crumb and a light bitterness to the crust.

Ingredients

Makes 2 small loaves or 1 big one.

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 large russet potato
• 1½ cups water

Method

• Peel and dice the potato, then rinse off the starch in a colander. Cook it until soft enough to pierce with a fork. Once soft strain the water and let it cool.
• In a large bowl mix flour yeast and salt. Mash the potato (or put it through a ricer) and add it to the flour mixture.
• Add 1 cup of water and then more if necessary. The dough should be on the sticky side. Put it in a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
• Let it rise at room temperature for 12 hours. After 12 hours you should have a sticky goo, basically.
• Prepare a baking dish ( I used a small square stoneware baking dish) put it into the oven and preheat the oven to 500 F.
• Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and divide it in half; each blob will be a small loaf. Try to fold the dough over onto itself few times. Shape them and sprinkle with flour. Let the first one rest for 30 minutes.
• Dust the baking dish with flour and carefully put in the first loaf. Cover it with tinfoil and bake it for 25 minutes.
• After 25 minutes, uncover and bake another 35 minutes or until the bread gets dark and crusty. That is what we want!
• When the first loaf is ready you can bake the second one as above.
• Let it cool before you eat it.

My mum used to make these amazing Slovak potato pancakes. She would come home during her lunch break and make lunch for us, so it would be waiting for us when we came home from school. She made sure there was some soup and a main course. By the time we would get home, Mum was back at work, but she always left a note about what she cooked and how much we can have — with three hungry boys she left nothing to chance. I still remember that we could have 5 pancakes each.

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Potato Pancakes – Zemiakove placky

This traditional Slovak recipe is delicious as a snack or as a main course after a substantial soup.

Ingredients

Makes enough for 3-4 people

• 2 pounds/1 kg whole potatoes
• 1 egg
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp majoram – optional
• 1 cup/240 ml milk
• 6 tbs flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
  • Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water until you can just pierce them with a fork. Drain and let them cool for a minute or two.
  • Peel the potatoes and grate them on a fine grater.
  • Add egg, smashed garlic, pepper, salt, majoran, milk and the flour. Batter should be a thick liquid.
  • Preheat a crepe pan or a nonstick pan to medium low heat. Grease it and add about a ladle’s worth of batter. Fry 4 minutes on each side.
  • Enjoy

Method

Today we have a classic from Czech pubs. Utopenci is a jar of pickled hot dogs, onions and spices. It is a necessary addition to all czech pubs, usually to be found near the tap.

The name Utopenci has deep roots in the Czech soul and humor. Utopenci were invented 100 years ago by Mr.  Šamánek who owned a mill and a pub in Beroun. The pickled hot-dogs were very popular and his pub was famous throughout the country. As life has its irony, he drowned on day while fixing his mill’s wheel. Czechs love black humor and they named this classic Utopenci – Drowned men.

I decided to post this video, because it reflects the era of socialist pub culture, which spans the late 50′s until mid 90′s of the past century. This is the period when the pub was the gathering place of ordinary Czech men, and a very important institution where the men had to fight for social positions and made their most important life decisions. At 3:30 pm the men came home after a hard day’s work, and after a well-deserved lunch they would set off to the pub. They had to rush, because the pubs were open only until 9  pm. As soon as the last round was called (usually known by the fact that the smoke in the air could be cut by a dull knife)  they had a hard “orientational” walk home where they would be shouted at and beaten by pasta-roller wielding Czech women – the wives.  This song reflects the hardship of the Czech men. In this video you could see the hard fight for social acceptance, and of course the original beer tap which was in use in all pubs in Czechoslovakia for almost 50 years. As a sign of the sour future to come, the main character helps himself to utopenci. During this presentation you will be able to see how the air thickens as a sign that time is running out and slowly they have to start the journey home.

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Utopenci – Drowned Men

There are plenty of variations for utopenci. Originally, utopenci were not spciy so you can leave out the chili. The very basic recipe is the first 10 ingredients. After that you can use your imigination – some people add mustard or mustard seeds, horse radish, pickled cucumbers, Worcester sauce, olives etc. I have added tomatoes because Katy likes pickled tomatoes so why not?

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 cups 8% white vinegar
• 10 whole pepper corns
• 4pc allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds of thick hot-dogs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 5 cloves garlic
• 4-5 big onions
• 2 chilies
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 2 cups of sauerkraut

Method

• Mix the water, vinegar, salt, sugar and the spices and bring them to boil. Boil them for 2 minutes and then let the liquid cool.
• Peel the hot-dogs, chop the onions into circles. Peel the tomatoes. The trick with tomatoes is to put them into boiling water for 20 sec. After that it is very easy to pop them out of their skin.
• Prepare a 4.2 pint (2liter) jar. Start to layer onions, garlic, hot-dogs, sauerkraut, chilies. You can do few layers. On the top I have put the tomatoes.
• Once the vinegary liquid is lukewarm, pour it into the jar. Shake the jar in order to get rid of bubbles. Do not leave out the spices and put them into the jar. Seal the jar and put it into a cool place or fridge for 2 weeks. If you are going crazy you can eat them in one week, but two weeks is the etiquette. In the fridge they will take longer to mature.
• Serve with rustic bread and plenty of pilsner. Do not forget to invite me over.