How to make maple syrup

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Maple syrup is the best thing you will want to buy from a gift store when you come for a visit to North America. As one might expect, genuine maple syrup comes in small bottles and is quite expensive. As an alternative, you can buy the artificially flavored kind that most Americans use, which is found in just about any supermarket. Some people prefer the latter, since it is sweeter and has more flavor. 

I prefer to make my own homemade maple-flavored pancake syrup, since I use sugar (as opposed to corn syrup, which is the sweetener in most store bought ones). It is a simple, quick, and guaranteed recipe. Here it is what you need:

7 oz (200 g) brown sugar (dark or light)

7 oz (200 g ) granulated white sugar

1 cup ( 220 ml) water 

Imitation maple flavour

Place all the sugar and water in a small sauce pan and turn the heat on medium high. Stir continually until all the sugar is dissolved.

 

Let it boil for 5-6 minutes until the foam disappears. Take it off from the heat and let it cool for 1-2 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of maple flavour and stir it in. Have ready a 16.9 fluid oz (500 ml) bottle with a lid (ideally one like that in the picture, designed to be a syrup dispenser) and pour in the syrup hot. Put the lid on. It can be used immediately for pouring over pancakes, french toast, or even maple-glazed ham. The consistency is more like real maple syrup, as opposed to the kind made with corn syrup which is thicker. 

It can be stored it for a month or two in the kitchen cabinet - but it is so good that it is unlikely to ever last that long!

Yorkshire Puddings

There are people outside of the United Kingdom who have never tasted a Yorkshire Pudding. I was one of those people until I lived in Britain and first enjoyed eating them, and then learned how to make them. They are a real treat that deserves to spread to other parts of the world. 

They are traditionally accompanied with roast beef and vegetables. These are not sweet puddings, if that is what the word "pudding" means to you. These are more like american biscuits that get eaten with gravy, but they are hollow inside, light and fluffy but also crispy on the outside. They are best when eaten freshly-made. Even some people in England struggle to get them to turn out just right. This recipe, if followed precisely, should work every time. I was taught by an English friend, and then adapted the recipe for the tray that I have. You can use a standard non-stick muffin or cupcake tray to make them.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

A pinch of salt

Vegetable oil for baking

Preheat the oven to 450° F or 230 ° C (it makes sense to do this after you have roasted the beef). Put approximately a teaspoon of oil in each of the twelve spots in the tray and place the tray in the oven for at least 5-7 minutes at that temperature.

In the meantime, mix the eggs, milk, flour, and salt with a mixer until it is homogenized into a batter. 

Take the tray from the oven and very quickly (this is the key to them turning out perfectly!) pour batter in each spot in the tray, until it reaches almost to the top, as shown in this photo.

Return the tray to the oven and leave it in for 30-35 minutes. When they are done, they should look like this:

Take them out of the oven when the vegetables, gravy, and other items are ready to be served. My husband always makes a slit in the top of each one on his plate with his knife, so that the gravy goes inside when it is poured over them. 

24 years ago, on Valentine's Day

This is a blog for recipes, but hopefully you will enjoy this story that I am sharing, even though it has nothing to do with food, as "food for thought" on this occasion.

I still remember vividly the conversation I had with my husband (then my fiance) 24 years ago today, on Valentine's Day, a holiday we didn't really celebrate in Romania then, although it has since started to catch on. He still lived in the UK, where we had met as students, while I had since had to return to Romania. And so we spent a lot of time writing (letters back then, not e-mails) and talking on the phone as often as we could. When he called that day, he said "Happy Valentine's Day," and then thought that I was being sarcastic when I replied by saying "Thank you for the flowers." But I was being sincere. He then asked, with confusion in his voice, "Wait - you got flowers?" Then it was my turn to be confused, at his confusion. I think you will enjoy the story of our very different experiences, and the surprising way they fit together.

Romania did not at that time have good connections with the international companies that allow one to send flowers anywhere in the world. But apparently my fiance had managed to arrange something, because I got a phone call, telling me that a local florist in my town had been trying to deliver flowers to my apartment but had not found me home. They asked me to come to their shop and choose the flowers I wanted - a very large amount, since British currency went very far in Romania in those days, and what might have bought a nice bouquet with shipping in the UK would get you too many flowers to count in Romania, basically everything she had in the store that morning! Indeed, the woman at the store wondered if I was somebody famous and important, to be getting so many flowers. 

My then fiance had a different perspective on what had happened. He had placed an order for a bouquet of flowers to be sent to me, using a company in the UK which said they could deliver even to Romania. But to his great disappointment, they called him back the day before Valentine's Day, to let him know that they had not succeeded in getting through to their contact at the destination in Romania, and so would be unable to fulfil his order, and thus were refunding his money.

Apparently, somewhere they got their wires crossed, because the order did in fact get through. And so I had the lovely surprise of receiving more flowers than ever before or since in my life, while my then fiance had the experience of disappointment, followed by confusion, followed by surprise, and then delight that I had in fact received the flowers. And we were both happy when we realized that apparently neither of us had had to pay for them!

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day, filled with memories that you will recall happily for years and decades to come!

How To Make a PERFECT Apple Pie

This apple pie is simply delicious. There are obviously lots of different and yet perfectly good ways to make an apple pie. But the results of this recipe are particularly exquisite, and make the perfect culmination to a special meal. More than 20 years ago, when I lived in England, I learned an excellent pie recipe from a professional chef, which I then further developed and improved into the one I am sharing here. The key to a really good pie is the crust. It is made from milk, flour and butter (at least 80% fat). You can make this crust for any fruit pie. If the fruit in the pie is of a kind that is juicier than apples are, simply use more corn starch (see the recipe below).

For the crust you need:

1 stick butter (125 g)

8 oz all purpose flour (240 g)

2oz (50 ml) cold milk

a pinch of salt

Place the flour, butter, and salt in a bowl, and with your hand crumble the butter together with the flour until it is all like a sandy mixture. Add the cold milk and mix it for few minutes until the dough is sticking together. Divide it in two unequal parts (1/3 in one ball of dough and 2/3 in the other).

Leave the dough at the room temperature while you cook the apples.

You need 2 lb (1kg) apples (Granny Smith, Jonathan, or any hard and tart variety)

1 1/3  cups of sugar (300 g)

1 Tbsp of lemon juice

1 tsp of cinnamon powder

1 Tbs corn starch

Peel the apples and cut them into small pieces. Place them in a pan together with the sugar and lemon juice. Turn the heat on medium. Stir it until it leaves a little juice, then place the lid on and leave it to simmer for 3-5 minutes until the apples soften just slightly. 

Then add the cinnamon powder and stir it once or twice. You do not want the apples mushy, so try not to stir them too much. Now they are ready to be put into the pie crust.

Turn the oven on at 425° F (230°C). 

In the meantime, on a floured surface with a rolling pin stretch the bigger ball of dough into a round shape and put it on a 9 1/2 inches oven-proof glass dish. Put the corn starch onto the unbaked pie crust in the dish and spread it evenly over the bottom. Then gently pour in the apples. 

Stretch the second ball of dough and place it on the apples. If you have a pastry cutter you can make holes in it first, as I did, or you can just simply poke it with a fork so the steam can get out. With your fingers, stick together the bottom and the top sheet of dough. Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp of sugar on top of the pie.

Place the pie on the top rack of the oven at 425° F (230°C) and bake it for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350° F (150°C) and bake it for another 20 minutes. 

Turn off the oven and let it stay there for another half an hour. When it is ready it should look like this:

Serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Daily salad

This salad is simple, tasty, healthy, easy to make, and easy to pack for lunch. Also, it is relatively cheap, compared with the pre-packaged salads from the stores. Here is what you need to buy:

1 iceberg lettuce

1 green or red or yellow pepper 

1 small onion (optional)

1 pint grape (or cherry) tomatoes

1 avocado

Parsley, oregano, and/or basil (fresh if possible, but dried is fine) 

Salt and pepper

These quantities make 4 portions of salad. If you need one portion only, you can divide the vegetables in 4, cut only one portion and refrigerate the rest.

Note that you will make not just your salad but many other recipes better if, instead of buying a jar of basil or parsley flakes, you buy a small basil or parsley plant and plant it in your garden. It will taste so much better you will wonder how you settled for dried leaves before, and at the end of the season you can pick any remaining leaves, dry them, and put them in a jar, and they will still be more flavorful than what you can buy pre-packaged in the spice aisle at your local supermarket.

Iceberg lettuce keeps better if you tear the leaves, instead of using a knife. After you cut the avocado, wrap it with cellophane, put it in a plastic container or a jar, and refrigerate it. You can place the rest of the onion and any leftover pepper in a jar in the fridge as well, as long as it is tightly closed. 

Also, you can use any other tomatoes, if you do not mind the liquid they leave in the salad.

Be creative and add any other vegetable if you like, e.g. broccoli, green beans, radishes, etc. I buy vegetables which are on sale and in season. Peppers in particular tend to be more expensive when they are not on sale.

Salad dressing:

Mix together in a bottle:

1/4 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of water

1/2 cup of olive oil

If you want a more filling lunch, you can add 1-2 boiled eggs, 1-2 oz. (50 g)  Feta cheese, or bacon. Leftovers of ham or grilled chicken can also be added, as can olives, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Choose your own choice of protein!

Bhatura (Indian fried bread)

For quite some time I have tried to make bhaturas that were just like the ones I ate at an Indian restaurant, but they never turned out exactly like theirs. Bhatura (sometimes spelled bhatoora) is very similar to Romanian 'Placinte' but not quite the same. Today I tried another recipe (based on and adapted from one I found online), and I am very glad to say this is the right one. 

2 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbsp. semolina

4 Tbsp. yogurt

1/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder 

Vegetable oil for frying

Make a soft dough from the above ingredients and leave it to sit at room temperature for 3 hours. 

Divide the dough into three balls and stretch them with a rolling pin to circles 6-7 inches in diameter. Divide them in 4 as you see in the picture.

In the meantime, heat the oil in a pan to a medium-high temperature and fry the bhaturas 1 minute on each side. 

Place them on a dish with a paper towel in it, and serve them warm with Indian food. 

At the end of the meal, I simply powder one with sugar and eat it as dessert. 

Here is a photo of a bunch of them:

Tomato soup

On a cold wintry day, nothing can make a better choice for lunch than a nice hot tomato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches. 

For tomato soup you need 4 cups of of chicken and vegetable stock. (You can use store-bought chicken stock or simply make your own, as I do. I use a pressure cooker since it is a time saver and excellent for making soups. Together with 6 cups of water, add to the pot 1 pound of chicken on the bone [any part of the chicken may be used], 4 celery sticks, 1 medium carrot, and 1 medium onion cut in half. Add a teaspoon salt. Boil them for 20 minutes. Cool it off and strain the liquid. This is your stock. The boiled vegetables and chicken can be used for making salad - I will give you that recipe another day.)

1 can 6 oz (170 g) of tomato paste 

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of salt (more or less)

2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

Parsley

Pour the oil into a big frying pan and turn the heat on medium high. Put the flour and stir until all is mixed with olive oil. Add the tomato paste little by little and stir continually. When it looks like a thick paste, pour the stock in small portions until it reaches the thickness you like. When it is ready, turn off the heat. In the meantime, heat up another pan for making the grilled cheese sandwiches.

For every sandwich you need 1 oz of butter and 2 oz of cheddar cheese. Put the butter on the heated pan, and one piece of bread or half of a bread roll. Add the cheddar cheese slices and cover it with the other half of bread. Turn the sandwich over with the second half downward, to toast for 1-2 minutes. When ready, place it on a hot plate and keep it warm until you finish all the sandwiches you want to make.

Makes about 4 portions - although it is so good you can easily share it between three people and not have any leftovers!