I write most easily when some pot simmers on the stove. And it's not just me, of course. A deceased author of historical novels, has described how she goes, when being into the lines and chapters of books, to stir the zucchini to not let them burn. A number of French actors spend time in the kitchen with more passion than on stage. Cooking tames the harsh realities, it somehow subdues the basic - but this is only how it seems and is not the whole truth. The name of that Englishman, who, after volumes of serious literature, devoted an inspired tractate to the potatoes and made research about their features to boil out or to stay solid, to be mealy or watery according to their designation, eludes me at the moment. Did Isabel Allende kept her book "For aphrodisiacs" to herself - which is a pure cooking notebook,associated with the code of the sexual thrill. Spices are the leading force in history and in human evolution, an incentive even for the conquerors. For all this, I cannot imagine a website for adventures and travelling without a clear and tasty recipes section. The only problem is that I do not like to arrange stuff, and recipes are listed hre at random and in all sorts of styles. But why not start with something simple: like a gypsy pie?
Top soup
Winter Stew
'Pisyur' stew
Crackers - just irreplaceable
Refined Belgian cream soup
Jelly Yogurt
Eggs in minced meat nests
'Chalbur'
Leeks - as a basis for fish
Lemon Pie
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Soft Maroccan dessert
Simply peel a couple of oranges, but with a knife, and cut them in slices.
Arrange them beautifully and sprinkle them ambly with cinnamon.
Much more than a diet so far!
Will you add some powdered sugar or a leaf of mint, or not, is a pure extra. The dessert is great if you have served some tough dishes and a plentiful menu.
Top soup
This easy soup claims to top the taste charts.
In a pot with no more than a litre and no less than a half of a liter of water, melt four triangles of processed cheese of a brand of your choice, it is important to be cream cheese that you have waved its foil. You can also use four rectangular pieces of paper with cheddar, Emmental, Gouda - whatever you want or whatever you have in the fridge.
While boiling, the water becomes a homogeneous liquid milk liquid, in which you put a potato, and a diced in cubes onion.
If you have an inspiration for something more, maybe a half of a leek will also work, but in small pieces, and also some celery leaves and parsnip - peeled and the size of a dice.
The soup simmers gently until vegetables soften - but that takes about 10-15 minutes.
Aside, in a little pan you melt butter as much as the size of an almond and it is heated with stirring for a minute or two altogether with a grated carrot.
Add it to the simmering pot and serve the Top soup - i.e. of processed cheese.
Winter Stew
A piece of pork, between half and a kilogram, is stabbed with a knife and the holes are stuffed with wedge pieces of garlic, carrots and sausage. For a piece of meat you need 2-3 cloves of garlic, half a carrot and 2-3 slices of sausage, it is best to be dry salami, maybe flat sausage. The wedges are cut under a sharp angle so as to fit the meat stabs.
The lard meat is salted, you can also sprinkle some red pepper, then put the meat in a tray with a coffee cup of water and is poured with no more than 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Next to it you can cut the other half of the carrot and put pepper or zucchini if you have any. Add a coffee-cupful of water and bake in the oven for half an hour, occasionally pouring the sauce over and turning sides so as to cover with an even crust.
Before serving, cut it in portions, the sauce served aside is used upon serving - it goes with white rice or mashed potatoes, and roasted red peppers.
'Pisyur' stew
I do not know what "pisyur" means but I'm sure it has nothing to do with the Manneken Pis in Brussels and I suspect that the word is Persian or Arabic and is to describe a stew. My experienced friend, who is a dentist, Dr. Snejka Chipilska, calls this way a main meal that is prepared relatively quickly and easily with conventional products, and has repeatedly proven to have influence over men.
Mince - from meat, in a quantity between a quarter and half a kilo is kneaded with a non-full coffee-cupful of rice, plus salt and savory. Mix it together, form it into meatballs the size of an egg, and roll them in flour.
In a saucepan on the stove stew 2-3 onions - with a little oil and water, at the right time, add a spoon of red pepper and a jar of peeled tomatoes. It is not a problem if they are freshly peeled or if they are canned. Add them a coffee cup of water, and when the mixture boils, put the meatballs in it. Then reduce the hot plate's temperature - it should barely simmer, and you put 3 bay leaves and 4-5 grains of allspice in. Stir occasionally, but no more than 15-20 minutes are necessary. Finally, it can be sprinkled with parsley or mint.
While simmering you may as well prepare 'tarator' (yoghurt with chopped cucumber, garlic and green spices) because the combination is worth it.
Crackers - just irreplaceable
A piece of cheese - a quarter or 300 grams is milled with a fork and mixed with a little packet of softened butter, 1 egg and 1 glair (we keep the second yolk for spreading above), a third teaspoon of baking soda sprinkled over 2 tablespoons of yogurt , 2 cups of flour, half a teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of caraway grains. This mixture is left for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator, even for a night long. Then you roll it slightly on some more flour to reach a thickness of half an centimeter. With trays, a cup or a cutter you cut the crackers. Smear them with egg yolk and a little caraway bear to put them on top. It is not necessary to put butter in the tray, which will be put in the oven, and may deploy them on special baking paper.
The roasting is even faster than expected - takes some ten minutes, and they smell in such a way that spoils every diet. Once I accidentally made them with white and rye flour - and they became even greater.
Any available vegetables - carrots, leeks, onion, potato, tomato, celery, zucchini, maybe a piece of peeled yellow squash 'violin' pumpkin, parsley sprigs, parsnips - together or separate, not all of them, but what you have - are cleared and stewed in oil. Before they burn out - but when because of the carrot they gain a slight caramel hue, pour hot water and boil well. Strain them and make sure you do not put a lot of salt. The soup is served with croutons, or 1-2 drops of liquid cream for decoration and beauty, or as it is - dietic and full of vitamins.
This is an elegant and economical dessert that is prepared in high transparent glass. Rinse them once again and put some fragrant fruit in them - raspberries, strawberries, peach, apricot, black currant, blueberry, tangerine, banana, peeled mango - what is available for you budget. A package of gelatine is dissolved according to the instructions in cold water until it swells. Meanwhile, a non-full cup of water boils and we pour the gelatine in it. Just stir it and put it away from the fire. While the gelatine swells, beat a jar of yogurt in a bowl with a non-full cup of sugar and a large packet of vanilla, you need at least two small packets, which cost three stotinki. It is important that the milk takes the sugar to get a fresh identical density. Add the gelatine to it as soon as the milk boils on the stove. With this white spray you cover the fruit and chill the glasses in the fridge. It is most delicious when served the next day. Pinning mint leaves adds beauty to the dessert. This recipe I got from my friend Ina Hadzhimincheva, or more like from the golden hands of her mother Mila Oreshkova.
Eggs in minced meat nests
Perfect for students!
Put a few oil drops in a hot pan on the stove and add 300 g mince to it. Before this you can stew an onion and put the mince over it. You may as well add some extra bits of green and/or red pepper, before the onion, till they become tender, and parsley - so nests become as beautiful as a mosaic. But you may do it without onion and peppers - depending on how hungry you are.
The minced meat is fried very quickly, with stirring for 2-3 minutes. With the wooden spoon that you stir it, you make small swallows and add an egg and salt in each. When it shrouds, i.e. after 2-3 more minutes, carefully transfer it in a plate. If you don't start enjoying it immediately, you may improvise and not just sprinkle it, but make a figure on the top of it using paprika and savory.