S's Brezeln / Pretzels

S missed real German pretzels so much he decided to make his own. He's gotten really good at it now - he rolls them out all identical like a pro. He translated his recipe for the gardeners at JIC a while back, and I took note too.  We (he mostly) just made some for our friends' baby's first birthday party - her initials are LP so I tried to make Ls and Ps and 1s as well as regular pretzel shapes...

Dough
500 g white bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
250 ml lukewarm water
~ I use 2 tsp of dried yeast
20 g butter

salt crystals + seeds (sunflower/sesame/pumpkin) to sprinkle on top

For the basic dipping-solution:
3% NaOH solution (in water)

What you need to do:

Mix dough ingredients together until it is a smooth dough, then cover and let stand at a moderately warm place for ~ 20 min or so. The dough amount should increase up to twofold.

Then use a bit of dough (this recipe can give up to 15 Brezeln - sometimes 10) roll it out to a string that is a bit thicker in the middle. Form it to a Brezel like shape. In fact any other shape also works of course.

Put the formed Brezeln in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Dip them into the 3% NaOH solution (or bicarbonate of soda solution), wear gloves for that or avoid touching the NaOH covered dough by using metal tools.

Transfer the dipped Brezeln on a greased baking tray. Slice the thick brezel part open a little bit and widen it so that the underlying level gets exposed.

Sprinkle the Brezeln with salt, seed ...

Pre-heat oven to 200C and bake Brezeln for 15-25 minutes until nice and brown.

The NaOH solution can be re-used.

Speedy pizza

A lazy morning, and we suddenly got hungry.  Something with bread, using some of the spinach and the yellow peppers needing eating...  I remembered this post on hipsterfood - no-knead, no-wait pizza dough?  Too good to be true?  Worth testing out, for sure...

1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour (plus more for rolling out)

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 large yellow pepper, sliced
1 bag spinach
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
olive oil
salt+pepper

pesto (~4tbsp)

balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to ~400F.  Put the tomatoes, pepper and garlic into an oven tray with a little olive oil and seasoning.

Put the warm water in a medium sized bowl and mix in the yeast.  Let sit for ~5 min.  Then add salt, olive oil and flour and mix to a pliable dough.

Roll out dough on a baking sheet.  Rub all over with olive oil and put in the oven for 5 min.  Check on the tomato mix.

Wash and trim the spinach and put into a large pan.  Heat medium high until it is all wilted.  Transfer to a colander to allow liquid to drain.

When the crust is looking like it's started to firm up (5-10 min cooking), remove from the oven.  Spread on the pesto.  The tomato mix should be cooked by now - spread it over the pesto.  Add the spinach, spreading it out in clumps.  Put some salt and pepper over the top.  Return to the oven for another 5-10min.  Remove from the oven, sprinkle some balsamic vinegar on top and serve.


Definitely worth trying...  The crust was totally up to scratch - not perfect pizza, but let's face it we don't have a wood-fired oven here...  Might try splitting the dough and making 2 thinner ones another time.  Rolling out directly on the baking sheet was a good idea - much easier to avoid splitting.  Really surprisingly good - and how often do you feel like pizza and then feel like waiting for all the rising steps etc before you can eat it?

I am not a fan of fake cheese.  Real cheese or none at all.

Baking produce

I have this thing where if I have the oven on I need to try and use it for a bunch of stuff to justify heating it up in the first place.  Sometimes this works, and sometimes it leads to hours in the kitchen...

Last night it worked.  I wanted simple, summery food - veggies / fruits and herbs / spices.

Baked courgette with rosemary and lemon

2 courgettes (super fresh from the farmers market), sliced into thick (~1in) rounds
olive oil
~6 cloves garlic, peeled but not chopped
salt+pepper
rosemary
lemon juice

Heat oven to 375F.  Rub the base of an oven dish with olive oil, then lay out the courgettes, cut sides down/up.  Slip the garlic cloves into spaces between the courgettes.  Sprinkle with a little more olive oil, salt+pepper and roughly chopped rosemary (fresh would be better, but I only had dried).  Put in the oven for about 45min, turning the courgette pieces about halfway through.  Take out and squeeze a little lemon juice over the top then serve.



Baked tomatoes with onion and basil

1 small tub cherry plum tomatoes
~4 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1 onion, roughly sliced
handful fresh basil leaves, washed and roughly torn
salt and pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oven to 375F.  Put all the veggies and basil in an oven tray, add salt and pepper and olive oil to taste and shake to coat everything with olive oil.  Put in the oven for ~45min, shaking about halfway through to keep things cooking evenly.  Add a little balsamic vinegar when you take it out if you like - it complements the tastes pretty well.



Baked, spiced plum and blueberry compote

3 large black plums
handful blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 a star anise (optional)
sprinkling of sugar

Heat oven to 375F. Chop the plums into ~eighths and arrange in a baking tray.  Add the blueberries, a sprinkling of sugar and the cinnamon stick (and anise if using... a rosemary sprig also a good option).  Put in the oven for ~ 30min.  Careful to avoid eating the spice / herb bits.


Ate the veggies with some cous cous.  All tasty and simple, and pretty quick.  Wasn't that sure about the anise but S said he liked it.

Stuffed squash

These little round squashes were so cute I had to buy some...  I didn't really know what they were, but turns out they are a kind of spherical courgette.  They were so pretty I couldn't bring myself to cut them up and decided to bake them whole and stuff them instead.  I wanted to fill them with fresh, summery tastes - peas, mint - so decided to try preparing the filling separately so the peas etc didn't get overcooked during the oven baking process.

2 little round squashes ('8-ball' squash)
1 cup brown rice (I used brown sushi rice as that's what we had)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1 1/2 tbsp black olives, pitted and chopped
~30g frozen edamame (a good handful), defrosted
~30g frozen peas (a good handful), defrosted
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
olive oil

Put the rice in a small pan with 2 cups of water and boil for ~25 min until tender.

Cut little lids in the squashes  like you were making pumpkin lanterns.  Remove flesh from inside, leaving about 1cm thickness.  Put the lids back on, put the squashes on a baking tray and put in the oven at 400F for 20min.

Meanwhile, chop the innards.  Heat ~ 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and then add the onion and garlic.  Fry until softened (4-5 min).  Then add the courgette innards and fry over a moderate-high heat.  A lot of liquid will come out of the courgette, so keep frying pretty high until it is all evaporated and the stuff is golden and tasty.  Season to taste.

When the rice is ready, mix the rice and onion and courgette mixture in a large bowl.  Make sure it is cool enough not to discolour the herbs, but still warm.  Add the olives, defrosted peas and edamame, toasted sunflower seeds and herbs and mix well together.  Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

When the little squashes are tender to the point of a knife, remove them from the oven.  Take off the lid again, pour out any excess liquid, and fill them up with the rice mixture, so it's bulging out of the top.  Balance the lids back on top so they look cute, and eat before they get cold.




They worked out pretty good - fresh and tasty.  Lots of the inside mix is left - perhaps we can stuff some peppers with it in the same way tomorrow, or it'll work just as a sort-of risotto.

Baked quince with anise

Saw some quinces at the market so of course had to buy them... then figure out what to do with them.  They didn't ripen up very well and I had to cut off quite a lot of brown, but there was some good flesh there and Google led me to this Nigel Slater / Guardian recipe, full of sweetness and aromatics.

4 heaped tbsp sugar
500ml water
4 cloves
2 star anise
4 smallish quinces
½ a lemon
4 tbsp maple syrup

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cloves and star anise. Peel and halve the quinces and rub them with lemon to stop them browning.

Lower the quinces into the sugar syrup and let them simmer till tender. They may be ready in 25 minutes or perhaps take a little longer, depending on their size and ripeness.

Set the oven at 180C/350F/gas mark 5. When they are tender to the point of a knife, lift the quinces out and put them in a shallow baking dish or roasting tin. Take 150ml of the cooking liquid, add the maple syrup and, together with the aromatics, pour over the quinces.

Bake for 30 minute or so till very soft and tender. Serve with their cooking juices.

Lentil and bulghur wheat cakes

I thought I should try more different things with red lentils, and spent an evening poring over books and websites trying to figure out what.  I found this recipe in my New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook ('Soup and Beyond').  It's a wonderful book - it was a present from my eldest (step) sister years ago, and taught me how to make soup / inspired me to make interesting ones.  I have a few favourites in it - there are lots of exciting vegetarian / vegan soup and bean recipes I've made and more I haven't tried yet.  This is one I hadn't tried yet.

110g (4oz) red lentils
425ml (3/4 pint) water
1 tsp salt
110g (4oz) butter (used olive oil instead)
75g (3oz) bulghur wheat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 orange pepper, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
1 tsp paprika
salt+pepper
oil for frying

Put the lentils, water and salt in a pan and simmer for 20 min until lentils are tender.  Add more hot water if needed.  Stir in some olive oil and the bulghur wheat.  Simmer for 2 more minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil and fry the onion over a medium heat for about 10 min til golden.  In a large bowl, mix the onions and bulghur / lentil mixture.  Add the pepper, spring onion, parsley, mint and paprika and mix well.  Knead for ~2 min until well mixed, then season to taste.  Make the mixture into patties.

Heat some oil and fry the patties on both sides over a moderate heat til golden.


They tasted good, but rather falling-apart in the pan - they stuck together well enough until I started cooking them, but then went to pieces.  Was it because I skipped the butter?  I made a quick salad / fresh relish with chopped cherry tomatoes, coriander leaves, a few beansprouts, some salt+pepper and a dash of balsamic vinegar, which went very well.

Á Næstu Grösum

I just found some scraps of paper with notes from our trip to Iceland when we were moving to Boston.  I wanted to note down this place with more permanence.  We just had a few days in Midwinter, based in Reykjavik, on an Icelandair stop-off with all our belongings...  So we knew it'd be cold and we wouldn't be able to travel much.  I looked up some stuff to do before we went, and one thing I found was this vegetarian restaurant.  As far as I could tell it was the only veggie restaurant in the city if not the country, and considering this is a country with cuisine known for dried fish, whale meat and no vegetables, I thought the whereabouts of a veggie restaurant might be valuable information for us.

When we arrived to our hotel, struggling through the snow with our massive suitcases, I realised we seemed to be just around the corner from Á Næstu Grösum.  It took us a while to find it though - it is tucked away upstairs above the street, with a subtle entrance up the stairs from a side street.  We found it after a thorough hunt on our second day, and it was so good we kept going back!

It was a counter service set-up, serving generous plates of your choices of salads and hot meals, with interesting dressings too.  There were specials every day of hot food and soup, and everything was different each day, making it easy to eat with great variety.  Everything I tried was tasty and interesting, and since you could choose as much or as little of everything it never got dull or bad.  There was help-yourself water and an unpretentious ambience.  The best thing of all was the help-yourself bread (robust and seedy), hummus, date spread and toasted coconut.  Seriously, I could have eaten just that stuff and been happy as could be.  I wasn't vegan then, but I'm pretty sure we tried a vegan dessert and it was pretty good.

We hardly ever go to places more than once when on holiday - this place was such a veggie haven, everywhere else we looked with just one or two un-fresh sounding veggie options seemed so unappealing next to what we knew was waiting right by our hotel...

www.anaestugrosum.is