Pancakes Day!!!

BLYNAI, BLYNAI and once again BLYNAI...

 

Today is pancakes day in Lithuania, so lets shortly talk about it. The celebration/festival is called Užgavėnės. So in translation blynai means pancakes in Lithuanian language.

Užgavėnės is a Lithuanian festival that takes place during the seventh week before Easter (Ash Wednesday). Its name in English means "the time before Lent". The celebration corresponds to Roman Catholic holiday traditions in other parts of the world, such as Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, and Carnaval.

The way people dress up on Užgavėnės

Užgavėnės begins on the night before Ash Wednesday, when an effigy of winter (usually named Morė) is burnt. A major element of the holiday, meant to symbolize the defeat of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, is a staged battle between Lašininis ("porky") personifying winter and Kanapinis ("hempen man") personifying spring. Devils, witches, goats, the grim reaper, gypsies, and other joyful and frightening characters appear in costumes during the celebrations. The participants and masqueraders dance and eat the traditional dish of the holiday - pancakes with a variety of toppings.

 

Bonfire during the Užgavėnės

In Lithuania's capital Vilnius, the celebration takes place on Gediminas Avenue, as well as at many youth organizations. The festival is a major event at Rumšiškės open-air ethnographic museum.


Lithuanian pancakes, also known as blynai (BLEE-nigh) and sklindziai, is a popular treat for Shrove Tuesday (Uzgavenes) along with spurgos. This recipe is made with white wheat flour and beaten egg whites, which makes a very light pancake. They are silver-dollar size and usually accompanied by honey or fruit preserves. For apple blynai, add a peeled and grated tart apple to the batter. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

1. In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until light. Add flour, sour cream, milk, and salt and mix until smooth. In a separate medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the yolk-flour mixture, trying not to deflate the volume.
2. Add a small amount of butter to a nonstick skillet and portion onto it generous tablespoons of batter. Fry until golden, flip and fry until the other side is golden. 
3. Serve hot with honey, chocolate, preserves or whatever You want or like. 

Personally, I like hot pancakes, but it is also quite good to eat them cold. What is more, as it is possible to find numerous recipies of pancakes, next time I will writte about one more traditional Lithuanian dish - potatoe pancakes! 

And to sum up, although I have no proper conditions right now to cook in good conditions, Pancakes Day is Pancakes Day, I am not allowed to ruin this tradition so it is the must to make them. The photo below is my and my flatmates morning "piece of art" (flour pancakes with banana and chocolate ) ...

Skanaus!  ;)

(source of recipe: https://www.thespruce.com/lithuanian-pancake-recipe-blynai-sklindziai-1136764)

"PFP"

Still sweets, but.....

Passion Fruit Parfait

Recently I have been to a dinner where I most liked, ofcourse, desert :D... mh.. such a a surprise.. (((:

As the summer is comming or I just dream about it so much, that I have convinced myself about it, I already feel it on my skin, smell it and as well want to taste. For me personally, summer equals fruits, FRUITS and once again FRUITS!!! So something very fresh for today, just to prepare and be ready for the summer - Passion fruit parfait! 

Ingredients (for 4-6 persons):

• 8 passion fruit
• 6½oz/185g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 11fl oz/300ml cream

Instructions:

1. Halve the passion fruit, spoon out the pulp and give it a quick whizz in a food processor or with a hand blender.
2. Push the pulp through a small sieve to remove all the seeds, then return just a tablespoonful to the pulp.
3. Place the sugar in a small saucepan with 4fl oz/100ml water and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil steadily for 3 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt in an electric mixer on medium speed until frothy.
5. Slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg mixture and continue to beat for 2–3 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened.
6. Stir in the sieved passion fruit pulp.
7. Whip the cream until soft peaks form, then fold into the passion fruit mixture.
8. Pour the mixture into a lidded container and freeze until firm.
9. Half an hour before serving, put the box in the fridge to soften.
10. Serve in glasses with extra passion fruit pulp spooned over.

SKANAUS - thats how in Lithuania people are saying "Enjoy your meal!" and even though it is not Lithuanian desert, I hope You will like it ;)

Source of the recipe: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/5237599/Recipe-by-David-Herbert-Passion-fruit-parfait.html 

Fruit Parfait I have tried recently

Homemade KEFIR Ice Cream

Recently I was writting shortly how good and healthy is Kefir and promised to post some recipies with this great product. Maybe I am writting too much about sweets, but lets admit we can't live without them. Well at least I can't for sure ;)

So today healthy KEFIR ice cream recipe (recipe source: http://www.tammysrecipes.com).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of kefir;
• 2/3 cup of sugar;
• 1 cup of havy whipping cream;
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Instructions:

1. In a 4-cip measuring cup (or edium bowl) stir together the kefir and sugar, antil sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the cream and vanilla. Pour mixture int ice cream maker bowl and churn until thick and creamy! 
3. You can have it in "soft serve" consistency or freeze it for later, this is up to You ;) .

Additional tips... You can also add some fresh berries or smashed fruit to make it more colorful.

I hope You will enjoy this recipe and have a tasty and healthy desert!

A little bit of advertising...

As I am writting about food, I would like to introduce one great Facebook community. It is called Meet&Eat Barcelona.

Shortly, it is a group for people who would like to meet new friends, try some of national food from different countries and get know a little bit of cultural habits. So it is new startup for food lovers!

If You have some traditional recipe to share with all the world, write me or directly to Meet&Eat Barcelona community on Facebook and it will appear as a part of Meet&Eat Barcelona ;)

This is direct link to the Fan page:
@meet.and.eat.barcelona 
https://www.facebook.com/meet.and.eat.barcelona/
email: ivona.meetandeat@gmail.com

From the sweets to more healthy food!

Recently I have seen a KEFIR in one of the supermarkets in Spain.
To be clear, I am from Lithuania currently living in Spain, Barcelona and in my country Kefir is a very ordinary drink/type of food to buy in the supermarket. In Spain it was called new product... I am nor sure if it is popular between Spanish people, but in Lithuania we use it a lot, so today shortly about KEFIR.


So shortly, what is KEFIR?

"Kefir’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly ‘probiotic’ bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in kefir combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins.

For the lactose intolerant, kefir’s abundance of beneficial yeast and bacteria provide lactase, an enzyme which consumes most of the lactose left after the culturing process." (source: www.kefir.net)

Where it comes from?

"Kefir can be made from any type of milk, cow, goat or sheep, coconut, rice or soy. Although it is slightly mucous forming, the mucous has a “clean” quality to it that creates ideal conditions in the digestive tract for the colonization of friendly bacteria.

Kefir is made from gelatinous white or yellow particles called “grains.” This makes kefir unique, as no other milk culture forms grains. These grains contain the bacteria/yeast mixture clumped together with casein (milk proteins) and complex sugars. They look like pieces of coral or small clumps of cauliflower and range from the size of a grain of wheat to that of a hazelnut. Some of the grains have been known to grow in large flat sheets that can be big enough to cover your hand!. The grains ferment the milk, incorporating their friendly organisms to create the cultured product. The grains are then removed with a strainer before consumption of the kefir and added to a new batch of milk." (source: www.kefir.net)

Kefir, for me personally, is good when it is cold and without any additional food or preparation... but there are plenty ways to use it in Lithuanian cuisine, mainly with potato dishes or in the probably strangest Lithuanian dish/cold soup - PINK Soup ;) But about different Kefir recipies I will writte next time.

PS You can use it instead of milk to eat muesli in the morning ;)

Continuing Lithuanian sweets theme...

TREE CAKE

Lithuanians are very creative people for making food names, although it sounds more interesting after translating it to English language. 

"Lithuanian tree cake, known as raguolis (which means "spiked") or sakotis (which means "branched") is a treat that appears at every traditional Lithuanian wedding, and for special occasions like Christmas Eve and Easter. In Polish, this cake is known as sękacz or senkacz. In Hungary, it's known as kurtoskalacs or tepsiben, which means "little chimney cakes" or "stove cakes," and in German, they're called baumkuchen or "tree cakes."

Racine Bakery in Chicago makes this pastry in 16-inch and 24-inch sizes, but cakes as tall as 36 inches are not uncommon." (source:easteuropeanfood.about.com)

The baking process is quite complicated if You have no specific equipment. So making it at home is almost impossible... (unfortunatelly :(, see the video below)

Baking process:

A little bit more information about this amazing cake:

"An egg-rich batter is dripped in stages onto a stainless-steel rod or spit that rotates over a heat source. As the speed is increased, the batter forms spikes that resemble the branches of a tree. A cross-section of the cake also resembles the rings of a tree trunk, hence its name. The finished cake is often decorated with fresh flowers on top and at the base. Pieces of cake are sliced off and eaten as-is or with fresh fruit and melted chocolate. Along with a tiered wedding cake, a raguolis or sakotis takes center stage at wedding " (source:easteuropeanfood.about.com)

So if You are interested in trying it WELCOME to Lithuania. It is possible to find it in every bigger supermarket or bakery. Ofcourse in bakeries You will get more tasty and fresh one. What is more, You can ask bakeries to bake them for special occasions, events, aniversaries etc.

This is short video how Lithuanian TREE CAKE is being made: https://vimeo.com/79480881  (source: carlpengle.com) 

Small Tree cake...

What is the best way to start a new Blogg about food? 

Sweets ofcourse! 

Lets forget a spring diet for a while and have a look at one of  my favourite traditional Lithuanian sweets made from the greatest ingredient ever - chocolate. It is called "Lazy cake" or in Lithuanian "Tinginys" as the way of making it is extremelly easy and fast. 

For the beggining lets take a look on what is needed.
Ingredients:

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 6tbsp cocoa powder
• 100 grams of chocolate
• 100 grams butter
• 1/2 pack (about 50 g) of Rich Tea biscuits

Preparation:

1. Crush up the biscuits into small pieces like 0,5 cm and place it into a large mixing bowl.
2. On medium heat melt the butter, chocolate and afterwards add condensed milk and cocoa powder. Mix everything gently and put it still for 5 min.
3. Puor the chocolate, butter, condenced milk and cocoa mixture on biscuit and mix it.
4. Pour the mass onto a cling-film covered surface and form into sausage shape, making sure everything is pressed together well. 
5. Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. It would be better even for leaving it ovenight. What concerns shape -sausage shape- it is traditional way of making it, but You can do however You want. The MUST is to make it compressed as much as it is possible to have a shape at all.
6. Once it is a solid and holds - slice it and enjoy the gorgeous taste!!!

Hope You will enjoy one of the easiest and fastes sweets in making at home ;)

Photo source: neringa-blogas.com