Khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread)

So this was nice.

Something popped up my social media feed the other day, and I thought I would give it a try. The results, while not perfect, were very pleasing. This is not exactly authentic khachapuri, as it's somewhat difficult to get sulguni in Strasbourg. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the meal.

The original recipe was very quick and simple, but after a little bit of research, I found a recipe on the New York Times' website that suggests using fresh goat's cheese as part of the cheese substitute. I reckon the fragrance and taste of the goat's cheese would work well, so I would include that next time. Full disclosure: I also used a bread machine for the kneading, and probably added in too much flour. As my grandmother once told me, when asking her for quantities: put in just enough, but not too much. I am beginning to understand what she meant...

Anyway, here's non-Georgian Georgian-style khachapuri with sulguni substitute. The quantities quoted here should make about 4 big loaves (?):

Dough:
1 pack yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
400–450 g flour
375 ml (1.5 cups) milk
3 tbsp olive oil or 100 g butter, left to soften and finely chopped

Filling and other stuff
2 x 100 g tubs cottage cheese, drained in a sieve
OR 1 x 100 g cottage cheese, drained, and 1 x 100 g goat's cheese, thinly chopped
1.5 x 125 g balls mozzarella, shredded or finely chopped
1.5 x 150 g slabs feta, crumbled
seasoning
1 egg per khachapuri (optional)
1 egg for the glaze, beaten, and mixed with 1 tsp water
Extra butter

Heat the milk to around 40 degrees C (lukewarm, maybe a bit more).

If using a bread machine, add the milk, salt, and sugar first, then oil, then flour (all 450 g of it), then yeast on top. Set to knead and let rise. When it has finished rising (at the end of the cycle), knock it back, then leave to rise for another 30 minutes or so.

If doing it by hand, add the yeast and half the sugar to half the warm milk, mix well, and leave for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the milk. Sift about 400 g flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre, then add in the yeast/milk mixture, remaining sugar, and the butter. Stir well until you have a firm ball of dough, then pour out onto a floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes. If needed, add some of the extra flour. When ready, put in a greased bowl, grease the dough by turning, copy with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for around 60–90 minutes, until doubled in size. Knock back and leave to rise again, another 30–40 minutes.

While the dough is proving, mix the cheeses. Put all the shredded cheese in a bowl and mix. Season to taste.

Preheat your oven to 230 degrees C. Take out your dough, divide it into 4 pieces, then roll out into circles approximately 20 cm in diameter. Roll opposite sides in towards the centre, forming a boat shape. Put the dough on a baking tray with baking paper, spoon in the cheese (don't be shy), then twist the ends. Brush with the egg glaze, then put in the oven for 15 minutes or so.

After 15 minutes, take out, make a well in the cheese, and crack an egg in the middle of each khachapuri (if desired), and add a bit of butter to the top of each khachapuri. Return to the oven and cook for another 5-8 minutes, depending on your oven. The white should be runny but cooked.

When ready, remove from the oven, gently mix the egg into the cheese, and serve immediately.

Estonian meat pies

This fantastic recipe is courtesy of my mother-in-law. Traditionally eaten at Christmas time, these are lovely and wonderful. The quantities quoted here make about 60–70 pies, depending on the size of your glasses, so you can freeze some and save them for later in the year.

500 g pork belly or other cut, must be somewhat fatty
500 ml–1l chicken stock
Onion to taste, diced
1/2 white rice (optional)
2 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and diced
500 ml milk
50 g or so butter
1–2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 kg flour
Yeast (ratio based on the liquid)
Raw egg to coat

Meat filling:
Cook the rice as per directions on the packaging. In a large pot, cook the meat at a low temperature for about 1-2 hours in the stock (depending on the size of the piece of meat and the pot, you may need extra stock). When ready, remove the meat from the pot, but don't throw out the juices. Put the meat and onions in a meat mincer and mince. Season with salt and pepper, and, if the mixture is too dry, add some of the juices from the pot. Mix in the egg and as much of the rice as needed. Leave to cool for a while, or overnight in the fridge.

Pastry:
Gently heat the milk (don't let it boil) and add the butter, salt and sugar. Mix the yeast in with a bit of the flour, then sieve the entire flour/yeast mixture, then the rest of the flour, into the milk mixture, until quite thick. Mix thoroughly, then leave to rise in a warm place for a while with a tea towel over the top. Once risen, knock it back and leave to rise once more.

To make the pies, roll out the pastry, take about 3/4 of a tablespoon's worth of the filling, and place it about 2/3 of a glass's width from the edge of the pastry. Place a row of the filling on the pastry, then fold the edge over and cut out the pies and place on a baking tray. Once you've filled a tray, paint with the egg for colour, then bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes or so. You may want to turn the tray halfway through.

Repeat as necessary. Add in your own ingredients as desired.

Banana Bread

I like banana-based desserts, for some reason. Here is a banana bread recipe I kind of patched together which worked wonderfully well. Enjoy.

You will need:

4 overripe bananas (should be about 400 ml when mashed) + 85 ml milk + 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
OR
5-6 overripe bananas (should be about 550 ml when mashed), no milk
285 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown/muscovado sugar
110 g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees. Grease a bread tin, about 20cm x 12.5 cm. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, in a smaller bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the sugar and butter, then mix in together with the eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and cinnamon (and milk mixture, if you're using it). Fold the flour mixture into the banana/egg/sugary mixture, then pour into the bread tin. Shove in the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through (poke with a toothpick or something thin - if it comes out clean, your loaf is ready). Take it out, put to one side to cool down for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the tin carefully and leave to cool on a rack. Serve buttered and delicious.

Enjoy.

Bobotie

For those of you who are not of Seffrican descent, bobotie is/was the official dish of South Africa, much as the croissant is of France and crappy everything is of the UK. This is a relatively easy dish to make, unlike anything from France, and tastes really good, unlike anything from the UK. If you can get your hands on it, it goes best with Mrs HS Balls's chutney. If you can't, make your own, or find some in a supermarket. Can't help you there yet, but when I do, I'll let you know.

2 slices white bread (save up your stale offcuts, they work much better than fresh bread)

2 onions, diced

25g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg packet lean minced beef

2 tbsp curry paste

3 cloves

1tsp mixed herbs

1 tbsp allspice (this I got from the original recipe I used. I didn't know what it was, and if you're as ignorant as I was, it's a very common spice in Caribbean cuisine)

2 tbsp peach or mango chutney

3 tbsp raisins

6 bay leaves

300ml (full cream if possible) milk

2 large eggs

Heat oven to 180C. Soak the bread in cold water while doing the other stuff.

Fry the onions in the butter. Add the garlic and beef and brown the beef. Stir in the curry paste, mixed herbs, spices, chutney, raisins and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper.

Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish - about 23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep. Press the mixture down well and smooth the top.

For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat. Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.

The topping is rather very important. If it ain't there, you're doing it wrong.

Serve it with yellow rice: shove 1 1/2 cups of rice into a pot with water according to directions, along with 1/2 a cinnamon stick, 5 tbsp of raisins and 1 tsp of turmeric. If you want to be fancy, put some cardamon in as well.


This is an adaptation of a BBC recipe - who would have known the Brits could make good Saffer food?

Quick and easy dough for pizza

This is off Fired Up Cooking SA, a website with a whole bunch of quick meal options. Lots of the options are South African specialties, such as pap and wors, but most of the recipes use ingredients commonly available everywhere. This is a quick dough recipe for pizza bases - not quite authentic pizza dough, but does the trick and is rather tasty.

Dough for a pizza base

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup milk

Shove it all in a bowl, mix it up, put it on a baking sheet.

Put your topping of choice on, then shove in the oven at 180 Celsius for an hour to cook through.