Olives and Baguettes

I’ve always liked the idea of home-made products and home-made  bread is so far the most interesting and challenging idea. Actually, one of my main goals after moving to Germany was to learn the tricks of good German bread. And where do I start my experiments? With a French one, of course. (Blame Uta, as she gave me a baguette pan.)

We have a very small kitchen with a tiny work surface. Since our new kitchen machine has arrived, I’ve tried many different recipes and we are very happy with this one so we want to share it with all the fresh bread lovers. I have to tell you in advance, you need quite some patience to make a bread that is as good, or even better than the one at your local bakery.

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 OLIVES&OREGANO BAGUETTE

Ingredients (Sourdough):

• 5 g fresh yeast
• 80 g wheat flour
• 45 ml water
• 1 tsp sugar
• a pinch of salt

Preparation time: 5 minutes / fermentation time: min. 24 hours

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until you have a wet dough. Put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic film. Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.

Ingredients (Baguette):

• 450 g wheat flour
• 250 ml warm water
• 10 g salt
• 2 tbsp of oil
• 8 g fresh yeast
• 1/2 cup of black olives (chopped)
• 1 tbsp of dried oregano

Preparation time: 4 hours

Mix the flour, salt, oregano, oil and water at medium speed until the dough doesn’t stick to the mixing bowl. Use a kitchen machine or knead it well. Let it rest for about 15 minutes in the bowl. Then add the yeast, olives and the sour dough. This time use a higher speed in the machine, knead it for 15 minutes until all the ingredients are well mixed and the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl. Put some oil in a larger bowl and let the baguette dough rise for 2 hours, until it doubles in size. After the fermentation time divide the dough depending of how big you want your baguettes, just remember that the dough will grow two times bigger. Let the dough rise for one hour more.

Pre-heat oven until 220ºC. Make 2 or 3 cuts on the surface of the dough with a sharp blade.

Secret tip: Put some water in a bowl when you pre-heat the oven, this will help to make your bread fluffy – crunchy from the outside and soft from the inside.

Final step: bake the baguette for about 15 minutes.

We usually eat it up when it’s freshly baked. But you might want to freeze some baguettes for another occasion. If you do so, no need to melt it, just bake them for another 5 minutes before serving!

Gluten free Easter

We’re wishing you a happy Easter with these gluten free chia bunnies!!

GF Pogácsa Bunnies

The dough is a traditional Hungarian pogácsa dough, a bit altered. It was our first experiment with gluten free flour. Actually quite okay, I would say. And here comes the secret tip:

The making of…

Layered Sauerkraut in Szekler style

Even though the above recipe might sound quite German, I can assure you that it has nothing to do with the boring Sauerkraut – Knödel combo. It is a recipe made up by my mum and inspired by a Transylvanian cabbage dish. I made it first when living in Madrid I got hold of a piece of Hungarian smoked cheese, some sour cream and Sauerkraut. It had its debut on my very first Cena a la Húngara, my friends from Spain, Venezuela, Guatemala, China and last but not least, Hungary – loved it!

This dish became so popular that I have to prepare it from time to time for my friends, and also to strengthen my Hungarian identity. :P

Hungarian Dinner in Madrid

On our pre-Christmas trip to Transylvania I fell in love with the beautiful artisan clay pots we found on every market. I wanted to have them all, but as I have my dear husband, who is good at pulling me back to the earth, we just returned with two of them.

Clay pots in Cluj

These pots, similarly to the Moroccan tagine or the Mexican olla de barro, are famous for a traditional slow way of cooking, thus preserving more aroma. If you have any clay pot’s, you probably now that it’s sensitive to sudden changes of temperature. You might also want to soak the pot into water before using, so that it doesn’t extract water from the food.

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 TRANSYLVANIAN PLEATED SAUERKRAUT

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg sauerkraut (choose one without vinegar)
• 1 cup of barley or rice
• 300g (smoked) tofu
• 300g (smoked) cheese (optional)
• 3 dl of sour cream
• 1 big onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tbsp of powdered paprika (or 3 tbsp piros arany)
• oil
• salt, pepper

Preparation time: 2 hours

Secret ingredients: paprika powder from my grandmother and Hungarian smoked cheese

I will tell you the truth. I was a bit lazy to investigate how much time and water it needs to cook the above dish in a clay pot. So I cheated! (Ups). I parboiled everything and then let it wobble for another hour in the oven.

This is the vegan version.

 

Cut the onions and saute it in oil. When it’s transparent, add the powdered paprika and some pepper. You might also use some chilli powder if you like it hot. Quickly add 1/2 cup of water as well, as the paprika turns bitter very fast. Then add the Sauerkraut and stew until it becomes soft. Watch out, as Sauerkraut is pretty salty in itself, you do not need to add a lot of salt. Add pressed garlic at the end.

Boil barley with some salt. You may also use rice. Chop or just tear tofu into smaller parts.

And now put it all together. I sometimes just mix it all and put it into a baking pan. Or one can layer it nicely: one thin layer barley, then one layer sauerkraut, and some smoked tofu, then again barley, sauerkraut… Put it into the oven and give it about an hour so that the flavours mix properly.

Finally, top it with some sour cream and/or smoked cheese and put it back to the oven for another 10 minutes, without the lid.

Pleated Sauerkraut with smoked cheese.

 

And voilá, ready it is, the perfect comfort food for the cold months! Serve with some bread and pickles. If it’s too much, don’t worry, it’s one of those dishes that are even better the following day.