Romania 2012

I have lots of other things I should probably be doing at the moment but I keep remembering that "The Village" magazine was sent to me the other day, so I thought I'd share my excitement with you!

During the summer I did an amazing two week journalism work placement in Romania thanks to my mum and dad and the fab people at Projects Abroad.

Whilst there I did some writing for the English section of Romanian magazine "Satul" and my copies of it have finally been sent to me! It's such a great sense of achievement seeing my writing printed in a magazine... and, me being me, I even managed to get a small article about food in there too! Very surprisingly none of the dishes me and the other girls on the placement wrote about involved cabbage; I think I must've eaten cabbage for dinner 98% of the time whilst I was there.

I've searched high and low for a digital copy of this edition but can't find one anywhere, might try and scan in the articles at some point so that those of you who aren't lucky enough to see me all the time can have a quick look!

Traditional Romanian dishes of stuffed tomatoes and aubergine "salad" that me and other volunteers helped to prepare!

Served with bread, bowls of soup and copious amounts of Iced tea - creating the perfect summer feast.

 

When we went to interview a family in a small village, Bod, we were welcomed with homemade doughnuts. I can confirm that fresh, homemade doughnuts are still amazing, even in 35 degree           

heat.                                                                 

   

Jenny, my host, making her  delicious jam in her kitchen!

Coconut Dhal

I love love love this recipe. We found it in an Olive magazine recipe booklet and I've had it at home quite a few times. I never realised quite how simple it was to make – perfect if you’re short on time and don’t want loads of washing up to do! It is just delicious, and as a lover of creamy, coconutty curries like Korma, this is perfect for me. You can adapt it to be as spicy as you like it. Enjoy it with some flat-breads or rice. 

If you’re only cooking for one, like me, then this recipe makes too much. You could halve it, but as the coconut milk I had was a 400ml tin, I didn't like to. So I've frozen it instead and now I have an instant meal for another day!

Ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes (chopped)
250g red lentils
400ml tin coconut milk
1 onion (chopped)
green chilli’s (as many or as few as you require)
1 teaspoon turmeric

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a pan with 300ml water and simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are tender.

There’s ONE step. How great is that?!
BEWARE: This has a habit of sticking to the pan, so regular stirring is a necessity.

To garnish:
(Optional) Fry one sliced onion in four tablespoons of oil until crisp. Add a handful of fresh curry leaves or coriander and two teaspoons of mustard seeds and sizzle together. Pour over lentils.

I left this out as it means using another pan, but if you can be bothered, go for it as it does add a great flavour and texture.

(Photo from BBC Good Food)

Bagels!

So now you know of my unhealthy obsession with The Great British Bake Off (so upset that Cathryn’s gone!) I feel obliged to share this recipe with you. I can’t even find the words to express what a brilliant idea it was to make these; not only are they delicious in every way, but they were so much fun to make. I used the recipe from The Great British Bake Off “How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers” book. Mum and I adapted the flavouring as we lacked some of the original ingredients.

Episode 2 in this series of the bake-off was bread week (I'm currently re-watching it as I write this), and they made some of my favourite things ever – flat breads and bagels. I've briefly tried my hand at flat breads before and have made some pretty decent chapatti’s, but for some reason, it had never occurred to me to make – or even find out how to make – bagels. You have to boil them first! Who knew?! That’s what gives them their chewy crust. 

The original Bake Off version of this recipe was fig, walnut and gruyere… The basic recipe is the same, we just changed the flavouring ingredients. These are amazing any time of the day but they do make for a particularly fab breakfast.

Apricot, Pumpkin Seed and Gruyere Bagels!

Ingredients:
500g strong white bread flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
75g dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon runny honey

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium egg
1 teaspoon yeast extract (e.g. Marmite)

beaten egg, for glazing
pumpkin seeds

70g thinly sliced gruyere

Method:
Combine flour, salt, yeast and chopped apricots in a mixing bowl. In a jug, mix together the water, honey, oil, egg and yeast extract. Pour into the bowl and mix to make a firm, but not dry, dough.

Turn the dough out and knead for ten minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide into 12 equal portions (half, half each again, then thirds – I found that easiest) and shape each into a ball. Spread well apart on a large, floured tray, cover and leave to rise for 25 minutes.

Push a spoon handle through each ball to make a hole and make it bigger with your fingers – they need to be a reasonable size so they don’t close up on the next rise. Cover and leave to rise for 35 minutes.

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Bring a large, wide pan of water to the boil. Add the bagels. “ADD THE BAGELS.” As if it’s as simple as that?! Well, maybe it will be for you, but not for us. Try picking them up. You’ll squish them. We scooped them up with fish slices, but most of them ended up a bit flat… let me know if you figure out how to get them in still in shape. Maybe we made them wrong…? ANYWAY, add the bagels, 2 at a time and poach for 75 seconds on each side. Remove and leave to dry on a wire rack.

Lightly brush the top of each bagel with beaten egg. Sprinkle on the pumpkin seeds. Set well apart on floured baking trays and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and quickly top with cheese, bake for a further 3-4 minutes. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

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EAT.