Albania

NR.10

 Brushtull (about 1h)

• 1 kilo of dark greens, such as spinach, leek, kale or chicory
• 2.5 cups polenta cornmeal (about 250 grams)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano and/or mint
• 1/2 glove garlic chopped fine
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• pepper by taste

 STEP 1

Prepare greens – fry them a little bit with the garlic

If using      spinach, do not steam. If using a firmer green like leek, kale and      chicory, saute in garlic first until just tender.

STEP 2

In a large mixing bowl, combine      polenta, milk and olive oil. Mix well with a wooden spoon. If too liquidy,      add another 1/2 cup of cornmeal.

Add greens and spices/parsley and other spices.

Mix well.

STEP 3

Preheat oven to 350degrees.

Pour into a non-stick baking pan and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until browned.

THE END

Eat it with natural yogurt and should be ate cold :)

Greece

NR.9

Pastitsio(TIME – 2 hours)

STEP  1

Meat sauce

• enough olive oil , to just coat the bottom of a large pot
• 2 onions , finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 500g lean ground meat
• 1 cans diced tomatoes with juice (concasse)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon

For the meat sauce, put some olive oil in a large pot; saute onion until lightly browned; add garlic; add meat and cook until brown, crumbling with a fork;

add remaining meat sauce ingredients to skillet; mix well;

cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until quite thick; let mixture cool; remove and discard cinnamon stick and bay leaf.

Pasta

• 250 g pasta
• 1.5 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cups whole milk
• 1 eggs , beaten
• 1/3 cup  cheese

Prepare pasta by boiling until al dente in plenty of boiling, salted water;

drain and place pasta in a large bowl;

add butter, milk, eggs and 1/2 cup cheese;

gently stir to coat;

set aside.

White Sauce

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 eggs
• cheese

melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan;

stir in flour until smooth, cook, whisking for 2 minutes;

gradually add milk, stirring, until thickened;

lower heat;

add salt, pepper and nutmeg;

remove from heat;

in medium-sized bowl, beat 3 eggs;

slowly add hot cream sauce to eggs;

STEP2

Preheat oven to 350°F and butter or oil (with olive oil) a large baking pan

Empty 1/2 of the penne mixture over bottom of pan;

cover evenly with all of meat sauce;

sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over meat sauce;

add remaining penne mixture, spreading evenly;

sprinkle another 1/3 of the cheese over top; pour bechamel sauce evenly over entire casserole;

top with remaining cheese.

THE END

Holland

NR. 8

Sauerkraut and Potatoes

(keep in mind that it should be eaten with meat, it is best to eat it with sausages)

Ingredients ( for 4-5)

3 cups Sauerkraut

6 big potatoes peeled

5 strips smoked bacon roughly chopped

2 medium onion small chop

1 cups milk

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

5 tbsp unsalted butter

salt to taste

STEP 1

Boil potatoes until it becomes soft

Smash them and the add some milk, salt and nutmeg

 

STEP 2

Chop pork and bake it the pan for a while

Chop onion and when pork is already a bit brown add them to the pan as well

STEP  3

Then add everything layer by layer

First some  Sauerkraut on the bottom

Then onions,  pork  and smashed potatoes on top

In the end cover it with breadcrumbs and some ( not a lot) butter

Put it in the preheated oven (250 degrees) until the top get brown, it took about half an hour for me :)

THE END

UK

NR.7

FISH and CHIPS

Ingrediants for 2

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of cornmeal

1 egg

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

Oil

Lemon

Potatoes (depends how much you like chips)

Salt

FISH (Any white fish also 1 kg is more then enough)

STEP 1

Mix flour and cormeal flour

Mix egg, water and milk

STEP 2

Prepare small peaces of clean fish

Then dip fish first into mixture of milk and then coat it with cornmeal mixture

STEP 3
Cook fish in heated oil until it get golden brown

And you know how to prepare French fries ;))

THE END

WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

My mother asked for the recipe ;D it is a very good sign :))

Georgia

GEORGIA

NR.6

CHACIAPURI

Ingredients (for 4)

Salt, pepper and yeast

150g of cheese and 150g of  curds

A glass of curdled milk

A cup and a half of flour

Fell free to add more of one or another ingredient ;))

STEP 1

First prepare the pastry, because you need to keep it after for about an hour

Add salt, pepper and curds to flour

Then slowly add curdled milk, but not all immediately. You have to make flour stick, but it does not have to be wet

Cover it and put in a worm and cozy place for an hour or less

STEP 2

To prepare stuffing mix cheese with curds

Add some salt to it

STEP 3

Form the pastry in the shape of pizza

Add the stuffing and close the pastry

Then form it again in the shape of pizza so it would perfectly fit the pan

Bake it on very small fire and keep an eye until it becomes a little bit brown from one side and then other side

THE END

You might add some butter on top

 

WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

They loved it

So many thanks to my friend Audre for sharing the recipe and also helping me prepare it xx

France

 FRANCE

NR.5

OEUF COCOTTE

PARIS EGGS

FOR ONE PERSON

1 egg

1 tablespoon of crème fraîche (alternatively sour cream, Boursin or any other fresh soft cheese)

salt, pepper, paprika

and then you add what you want

Optionally :

a small slice of ham, cut into strips (alternatively cooked bacon, tuna, tofu…)

a handful of diced vegetables (could be tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, onions…)

a handful of grated cheese

a sprinkle of fresh or dried herbs (parsley, chives, cilantro…)

1 STEP

Chop all the oppional ingredients: such as mushrooms, onions or ham and bake them

Add everything:

First all the vegetables and one tablespoon of cream

Secondly add break one egg on top

And in the end add pepper, salt and cheese

2STEP

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Put the ramequin in a gratin dish, and pour hot water in the dish to about half the height of the ramequin.

Put in the oven for 10 to 15 min.

THE END

 

You can eat it with toast ;)

WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

Add some more ham and cheese and it will be perfect ;)

Simple and delicious breakfast :)

Begium

BELGIUM

 

NR.4

HAM, CHEESE and CHICORY ROLLS

Ingredients (for 2):

2 big heads chicory

10 potatoes

1.5 cups of milk

2 knob of butter

1  tbsp coarse mustard

3 cheese slices

3 big ham slices or 6 small

pepper

nutmeg

salt

 

STEP 1

Boil some potatoes in salty water until they become tender

Put some salt, pepper, butter, muscat and some heated milk

Then smash the potatoes and taste to see if there is enough of everything

STEP 2

Cut ends and cut then in half

Remove the core, like a little triangle, which is a bitter part of this vegetable

And boil then in salty water for 5 min

STEP 3

Put smashed potatoes in the oven plate

Role chicories in ham and cheese

Put them on top of smashed potatoes

Then put them in pre-hated oven  of 200C for 25min

THE END

 

WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

They said it is an interesting taste as all of as never tried chicory before in our life

Anyway my family again liked it

I start to think that maybe I should cook for someone else, because it  might be that my audience is very polite :DDD

 

 

 

Lithuania

  LITHUANIA

So this time I am proud to present a very national dish from Lithuania

 

NR3

CEPELINAI

(Smashed potatoes with meat stuffing)

Ingredients (for 11 cepelinai units)

30 peeled potatoes

10 unpeeled and boiled potatoes

For stuffing:

400g minced pork-beef meat

1 onion

Salt and paper (might also add some other meat spices)

1 egg

Some flour

For sauce:

Cream

And then you can either make ‘fat sauce’ or ‘mushroom sauce’ check step 4

 

STEP 1

So first of all you take unpeeled potatoes and boil them and those peeled ones you shredder

 

Then those which once have been unpeeled, but been boiled, now have to be peeled and smashed

 

And those which where peeled and then shuddered, now have to be strained off ( I tried to do that by myself in the beginning, but I am a weak lady so I asked my father for some help, so if you are a weak lady as well keep in mind to have some manly person around you :D)

 

BUT do not throw away the liquid immediately, leave it for a while

On the bottom of the bowl should appear the starch, which we use later

So after a while you can throw away the liquid, but add the starch from the bottom, smashed and shredded potatoes all together and mix it very decently

 

STEP 2

Prepare the stuffing by adding spices, meat, egg and chopped onion and then mixing it

 

STEP3

Boil a big pot with one tablespoon of salt (taste the water it has to be salty)

POT DISCRIPTION: the biggest you can find, for me it was hard job to accommodate all of ‘cepelinai’ in one even the biggest pot

 

Meanwhile

When you already have prepared the stuffing and the potatoes’ mix

Then add the stuffing and make it in the form of zeppelin

 

Something that would look like this:

 

The potatoes will be sticky so keep in mind that you need some flour everywhere: on your hands, on the table, on the zeppelins itself

 

Here is an example of one lovely zeppelin in the flour

 

When the water is boiling and you have many lovely ‘zeppelins’ prepared add them in the water and keep it boiling for 20-25 min, at that time you can start doing step 4

After 20-25min take just one and try to see if it is already eatable

 

STEP4

You can eat it with only cream, but to experience the true taste you just have to eat with special sauce

 

I prepared two kinds of it:

THE FAT SAUCE

You need:

Pork rib, cream and onions

 

THE MUSHROOM SOUCE

The previous one is the ‘real’ thing, but this one is not that fat

For it you need:

Mushrooms

Cream

Spices: pepper, salt, soy

Dill

Some flour mixed with water

 

To prepare both of them just add everything and bake it in the pan, except the cream and spices have to be added in the end.

 

IN THE END

You can eat some very traditional Lithuania food which is very fat and very good ;)

I just love it!!! :))

 

 

PS: WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

My family like true Lithuanian’s loved it as well.

3 people – no ‘cepelinai’ left after a few hours :)))

Italy

      ITALY ( 2 hours for bouillon; ~40min Risotto) 

NR 2

Risotto

Ingredients (for 4 people)

1 l bouillon ( it is better to prepare it as well… or you can be lazy and just buy it ;))

But I am very hard-working so I decided to make it :D

For it you will also need : water, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, pepper, chicken not very good meat or bones or whatever, laurel and parsley

Butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 clove of garlic, finely chopped

½ a head of celery, finely chopped

250 g rice ( it is very important to buy the special kind: Arborio, Carnaroli or Vialone Nano)

100 ml dry white wine

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Parmesan cheese , but I used just any yellow one and it was okay ;D

STEP 1 -  Preparing bouillon

 

So again you will need:

    1 l of water

   1 carrot

   1 onion

   1 clove of garlic

   pepper

   chicken not very good meat or bones or whatever

   Laurel and parsley

So but everything (except laurel, parsley and pepper) in a pot and boil it  

                                                    

Then remove that whatever meat and add everything that is left (laurel, parsley and pepper)     

 

And then it should take about 2 hours of boiling, but it is okay as you do not need to keep an eye on it you can have a cup of coffee ;D or two and start preparing everything for second part….

STEP 2

Heat the pan and add olive oil..

Then add chopped garlic and onion bake it for 2-3 min until onion becomes transparent

also add 100ml water and  ½ a head of celery (finely chopped)

keep it stewing for 5-7 min with a cover

until no water is left

Then add the rice and keep steering it for 3- 5 min

Add some white wine and wait until it steams away

Later add about 3 ladles of bouillon ( it has to cover all the rice) steer every 2-3 min

When there is no bouillon left…… add more ;D

Keep doing it for 15 min and while doing that keep adding some pepper and salt by the taste ( my was a bit spicy :>>)

IN THE END

prepare plates with adding some parsley and 1 teaspoon of butter to every plate

and finally put the rice thing ( I used big tea-cup to form it) and on top but some gartered cheese

and then it look like….

this

THE END

PS: WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

I made it for two people and both of them liked it ( keep in mind that one of them was my :DD)

What is good about this recipe  that you do not use all the bottle of wine so you can finish it with the dish ;)

Also when I was eating it in Milan it was yellow :DDD and in the Internet you can find many different kinds of recipes – this one is the simplest of them, but still very good :)))

Denmark

NR 1

It is a dessert that Danish people eat during Christmas and I decided to share it with my Lithuanian family :)

Risalamande

Ingredients

Milk, ½ liter

Rice, 750 ml

Almonds, 25 grams

Sugar, 1 tbsp

Vanilla sugar

Cream, 1 cup

Jarred cherries

EXTRAS NEEDED

One day in advance to leave boiled rice to cool down

Music, because you need to keep steering rice with milk for 45 min and it is very boring

Chocolate it is my friend’s improvement and it is much better with it. In a normal recipe it should go with a cherry sauce

FIRST STEP

Boil milk and then add rice and keep boiling and steering for 45 min

It is the most difficult part again as it is drop dead boring :)))

After that you get something sticky and ugly that looks like this:

SECOND STEP – DAY 2

Add cream and chopped almonds to that sticky and ugly looking, but now cold mass

Then I decided not to stick to recipe anymore and follow my friend advice

I added some Chocolate, carries and sugar

THE END

 

And I was not sure about the taste but at least I tried to make it look like a proper dessert ;)

PS: WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT IT

There where 5 people, but I made it only for 4 – so that those who got it should have felt very exclusive. But in the end everybody shared it and there were even more than enough :DD

So my family was very polite and said that it was okay

Except my sister she said that it does not feel as a dessert and she would prefer an ice cream :D

BUT we have to keep in mind that I had tough and unequal fight with 2 cakes from store…