CHRISTMAS IN KOSOVO

Even though the whole expat community of Pristina escapes the city for Holiday season, someone has to stay and keep things rolling. Motivation to stay in Kosovo raised on one grey November day when I was searching for flights home. Pristina-Rovaniemi-Pristina tickets were around 800 euros per person.

The man who shares home with me and I decided to stay in here. This of course meant that we were going to miss mother's feast and had to cook Christmas dinner ourselves. When cooking for two (or three when Christmas Eve dinner guest is counted) persons, it is important to remember the actual consumption of the food. Many times I have had to through non-eaten food items into rubbish and we all know that it is one of the original sins.

We decided to include turkey, carrot casserole, potato casserole, brusselsprouts, cheese and some green veggies into our Christmas menu. However, the unbelievably crappy selection of potatoes in Albimall forced us to change the potato casserole to normal boiled potatoes.

I did not have a particular recipe for carrot casserole so I simply peeled and chopped 500 g of carrots. Next step is to bring them to boil until soft and then crush. Mix the carrot mash with rice porridge, add couple spoonfuls of syrup and a hint of salt. In case you have white pepper, add that as well. Cook in 175 degrees for an hour or so.

I bought frozen turkey so the first step is to melt it. I left it to room temperature over night and that was enough to melt the 4 kilo bird. I am not specialized in turkey stuffing so I skipped it and instead chopped couple of oranges inside the turkey to add some aroma. Otherwise I simply spread some butter-garlic-herb thing over the turkey to ensure that the meat is juicy from inside and crispy on the outside.

I used the instructions of my hero chef Jamie Oliver to cook the turkey. 180 degrees and 40 minutes per kilo. To prevent the bird from drying, cover it with folio wrap and spread the juices from pan on the meat every now and then. Remove the folio about 30 minutes before the meat is done so the skin will get a golden, crispy coat.

Unfortunately blackout came just as we were starting to eat and the mere candlelight was not enough to shoot decent photos. However, the feast tasted good and the company was refined as well. One of the best delicacies was smoked cheese from Kuusamo, which my darling mother sent me in her Christmas parcel. As a test she had posted a pack of cheese with the normal liquirice and Donald Duck comics. At least during the winter months cheese can travel safely and stay delicious on the way from Posio to Kosovo.

CHRISTMAS STARS AND GINGERBREAD

The introduction of this recipe shouldn't even be translated. However, in order for you to understand the next part regarding Nazis, let me tell you a short story. 

You know that country called Sweden? Yes, it is next to Finland and Finns are not from there. Anyway, the story is that the mighty people of Sweden have claimed that Finnish Christmas star shaped pies look like Nazi symbols. This is not true. End of story.

Therefore, since we all know how wrong the Swedes can be, the Academic Karelian pie Association wish to emphasize that our Christmas stars doesn't have anything to do with Nazis and don’t ever believe anything Swedes say about Finland. We have made our stars with pure love and with honor to Christmas traditions.

Furthermore, when it comes to gingerbread, we wish to highlight that these delicious cookies have been made with cultural sensitivity. That is, we made dude cookies which represent all local ethnicities. However, we weren't able to reach gender sensitivity since we couldn't find female figure cutters in Kosovo. This is something that wouldn't naturally happen in Finland. In Kosovo, on the other hand, besides dude cutters, there were only traditional gingerbread shape cutters, hearts, some boring squares and stars. We find this a clear indication of the status of women in the whole society.

First things first; before you get yourself busy with baking,
take some red wine and enjoy it with chocolate!

CHRISTMAS STARS (12 piece)

• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 g butter
• 125 g sour cream

Filling: plum marmalade

Measure flours, baking powder and butter to a bowl. Mix them with hand. Add sour cream and mix. Let the dough rest in fridge for 30 min.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin to a plate that is ½ cm thick. Use a pie cutter to make square shape pieces. The cutter will form the points of the stars as well. In case you don’t have this kind of pie cutter you can make squares also with knife.

Turn the points of the stars to the center of the square. Spread egg on top of the pies. Add plum marmalade to the center of the star at the end.

Bake in 225 Celsius for 10 min.

No Nazi pies in this corner of the world!

GINGERBREADS (50 pieces)

• ¾ dl syrup
• 1 dl sugar
• 125 g butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp clove
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp soda
• 4 dl wheat flour

First, go to Finland and buy yourself spices like ginger powder and clove.

Come back to Kosovo and measure the butter, syrup, sugar and spices to a saucepan. Let the mixture boil. Stir all the time.

Whisk the mixture until it cools down. Add egg.

Lastly, add soda and flours and pour the mixture to a plastic wrap. Put the wrap to a fridge and wait a day.

On the next day, roll the dough to a thin plate and use the gingerbread cutters to make different shapes. In case you have a wild imagination, do whatever shapes you can think of!

Bake in 200 Celsius for 5 min.

Santa's little helpers at work!

Ready!

HOMEMADE DELICACIES OF KOSOVO

Many of the best delicacies in Kosovo are homemade, almost without exception. Whenever you get the chance to savour super delicious cheese, absolutely divine wine ... you can be sure it's homemade and no money can buy you that. They're made by your colleague's neighbour, an acquaintance of your friend - once again, it's all about the connections in Kosovo. As all is made for only the producer's own consumption (and for that of her/his friends') there is no commercial market for many of the delights that Kosovo offers.

The Friday market of Dragash is one target for any gourmet lover (and therefore on the to do -list of the Academic Karelian Pie Association), as there one can purchase proper Sharr cheese. Here's however a pic of home made rakija and Kosovar white wine - a suggestion very suitable for the festive season upon us. (Naturally the rakija is in a water bottle..) 

Doesn't look like much, does it - but mmmh... Delicious!

KARELIAN PIES

As some might guess based on the name of the blog, the writers have some sort of relationship to karelian pies. Since these traditional Finnish pastries are not in the selection of Kosovar supermarket nor bakery, there is not much left to do for a handy modern woman but to take a strong grip of her rolling pin and start to bake.

The process of making karelian pies is quite simple really: one cooks a rice porridge and mix rye flour with water and butter. The trickiest part is to roll the dough into pancake-like pieces that are thin enough. And of course the ruffling.

Together with Aino we decided to take up the challenge and on one certain Sunday rice porridge was cheerfully cooking in a kettle. For the pies we used the Valio's recipe (translation at the end of the text). According to tip from our karelian-pie-expert-of-a-friend, we substituted some of the milk with single cream. Not sure if it changed the composition of the porridge, to be honest, but had an impact on the taste.

The special rolling pins used for karelian pies (called pulikka) should one not look for in Kosovo. Furthermore, that is not the first thing on the list of things to be taken with when moving abroad. Empty and washed wine bottle can act as an emergency solution then. After a tiny moment of suspicious-ness, we followed the instruction very careful and were able to produce pies!

We were very happy with the results. However, for the Valio receipt we could give the feedback of not having enough salt in it. It turned out that our pies would have needed a dash of salt to bring out the flavor. But they were very delicious like this as well!

KARELIAN PIES

Dough
2dl of cold water
1 teaspoon of salt
2-3dl of wheat flour
3dl of rye flour
50g of melted butter

Filling

7dl of water

4dl of pudding rice (could not find in Kosovo but we used risotto rice instead, worked as well)

13dl of whole milk

1 teaspoon of salt

Cook a porridge preferably on the day before. Use a teflon kettle or steel one with thick bottom (please not that I used a normal enamel kettle without any problems, just needs a bit more stirring). First bring the water to boil and add the rice. Let it boil and gradually add the milk. Make sure to stir regularly. 

Prepare a dough by mixing the ingredients into water, butter as the last one. The dough should be firm and chewy. Divide the dough into 40 pieces. Roll the pieces into balls and pat the balls into  steak-shaped cakes. Pile and cover with plastic wrap to prevent from drying. Roll out these steak-shaped cakes with a rolling pin so that they are thin and circular shells. Pile, sprinkle a bit of flour in between and cover with the wrap again.

Take the shells one by one, remove the extra flours and fill with the porridge. Then you need to ruffle the edges in order to make them look like boat shaped pies (as in the picture). Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes in an oven preheated to 270-300 degrees.

Once the pies are baked, mix a bit of milk with melted butter and spread it over the pies to make them soft and juicy. Enjoy!

CINNAMON BUNS

Happiness is to have souvenirs from Finland. Same as with the mushroom risotto, souvenir is also a key element in this text: it is basically impossible to find cardamom in Kosovo and impossible to do cinnamon buns without it.

Therefore, the Academic Karelian pie Association gathered, however shorthanded, to bake because of the joy of cardamom. The order of who does what was clear: Yours truly handled everything that required “touching the dough” and Minni was in charge of melting the butter. This was done because Minni told earlier about her baking curse. According to her belief, if she touches the dough, all buns will turn into stones and will be more suitable, for example, to break a window in case of an emergency. 

I don’t know whether or not our success was defined by our clever work plan but our buns didn't turn into stones. They came out nice and soft and when we enjoyed them with glass of milk, all the problems were gone and we we able to reach the world peace!

It is very easy to find recipes for the cinnamon buns and there are also many different  ways to do them. This recipe is from the company Valio and the look of the buns here is very traditional in Finland.

Cinnamon bun and milk. Just perfect!

CINNAMON BUNS (17 piece)

The dough

• 25 g yeast
• 2,5 dl milk
• 1 egg
• 1 dl sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 0,5 tbls cardamom
• 500 g wheat flour
• 100 g butter

The filling

• 50 g butter
• 0,5 dl sugar
• 1 tbls cinnamon

Decoration

• crushed almond

Crumble the yeast into warm milk. Add egg, sugar, spices and some of the flour. Mix well.

Add bit by bit rest of the flour until the mixture turns into a dough and you can separate it easily from the bowl. Add the melted butter last.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and leave to prove until the dough is double of its size.   

Roll and separate the dough in to two 60 x 30 cm rectangles. If you want FATbulous buns like we did, make only one 60 x 30 cm rectangle.  

Spread the soft butter over the surface of the dough. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top of it as well.

Starting with a long side of the rectangle, roll the dough up into a sausage shape. Place the seam point facing the table. Cut the roll with sharp knife into triangles.

Arrange the pieces so that the narrow part of the triangle is upright. Press the triangle with your fingers until you touch the table. This is how you’ll get the shape of Finnish model of cinnamon bun. Prove under the kitchen towel again.

Grease the buns with egg and sprinkle some crushed almond on the top.

Bake the buns at 225 Celsius for approx. 10 min.

MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH FUNNEL CHANTERELLES

Happiness is to have souvenirs from Finland. My parents visited Kosovo couple of weeks ago and brought, of course, a bag full of souvenirs to their daughter. Among many things, the bag included rye flour, rye and unleavened barley bread, cardamom for buns and spices to make Christmas cookies.

In addition to breads and spices, I also received two bags of my favorite mushrooms, the funnel chanterelles. With their absolutely delicious taste it is very easy to make a tasty pasta sauce or use them for a mushroom pie. Or like I did now, make a risotto!

Before you do anything with the risotto, check the most important thing: is there enough white wine. Risotto is a food that should not be made or eaten without white wine. And, of course, you have to put some of the white wine also to the risotto during the cooking process.

Ingredients. As you can see I used spring onion.
It gives a nice color to the risotto!

 MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH FUNNEL CHANTARELLES

• 3 tbls olive oil
• 2 tbls butter
• 3 dl risotto rice
• 2 female handfuls of dried funnel chantarelles
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• 1 dl cream
• 3 dl white wine (half for you, half for the risotto)
• 1 dl grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

First, pour yourself a glass of white wine and enjoy.

Prepare the vegetable stock by, for example, putting a vegetable bouillon cube into boiling water.

Sauté the rice and minced onions with oil and one tbls of butter. Add one dl of vegetable stock. Stir until half of the liquid is gone. Add another dl of vegetable stock and one dl of white wine. Let the rice cook with mild heat. Stir all the time.

Add the rest of the vegetable stock and white wine. Crush the dried mushrooms in your hands and add to the risotto. Continue to poach the risotto with mild heat.

When all the liquid is absorbed, add cream and continue to poach again. Stir the grated parmesan, spices and 1 tbls of butter into the risotto and let it rest for a while. Your risotto is done!

If you have a possibility to find fresh thyme, add that to your risotto! It makes a good combination with mushrooms.

NB! In case you use fresh mushrooms, sauté them with the onions first. Then add the rice and continues as indicated at the instructions above.   

Ready to eat!

Q: WHERE TO SHOP INGREDIENTS FOR A FINNISH MEAL? A: IN SKOPJE

A shared friend of all the members of the Academic Karelian Pie Association visited Skopje, Macedonia, recently. Upon her arrival she shared the good news with us: There's a shopping center in Skopje where one can find all sorts of exciting ingredients for Finnish and international cooking. There's rye flour, malt, sea weed, ready-made Asian sauces and tahini on the shelves. Happiness is a supermarket with a good variety of products and friends who share the information having found such a place.

Dear reader in Prishtina or nearby. In case you happen to find yourself in a situation of being in need of Finnish or Asian (including Near Eastern) delicacies, go to Skopje. (And take us with you!) The address is Vero Market (Skopje Gradski Trgovinski Centr, at the basement). There's also an organic shop at the second floor, that sells organic rye flour (500g/0,80eur).

So, it seems one can buy almost anything in Kosovo what a Finn may need. However, a Finn needs to be prepared to take some time for searching for that special product or ingredient. Nothing comes easy and all takes a bit more work - you simply need to keep on asking around, triangulate the information received and not stop before the same reply keeps on reappearing from more than one source. You need to spend time small talking, discussing, searching for clues and information and all info that is worth of anything will come to you by word of mouth, whether it's about the location of a newly opened restaurant, shopping or travelling. A Finn who's grown up in a society that values silent efficiency needs to assimilate.

So - we owe big time to our friend sharing the details on her shopping spree in Skopje. She's certainly distinguished herself and will be later granted a special medal of honour of the Academic Karelian Pie Association.

MARINATED BELL PEPPERS

One of the biggest compliments I've received when down in Kosovo is the statement made by colleagues that "I'm getting more Balkan". Now it's time to get more Balkan in the kitchen.

The recipe is really simple, but what makes this dish all the more special for me is the fact that I got the recipe from a local friend. The taste.. is amazing. You can get this dish or something similar in most kebaptores and restaurants down here, too, but when your friend's mother has been the one marinating the bell peppers, the taste is something special. 

Step 1. Buy bell peppers. Green, red, yellow. Roast the bell peppers in oven, in ca. 200degrees C around 20 minutes - until they're getting soft and a bit brown here and there.

Step 2. Peel the bell peppers. Take some garlic, place the cloves and the peppers in a deep dish, and add some good quality olive oil. Be liberal with the oil. You can also add some pepper and salt.

Step 3. Put the peppers in the fridge. Wait and let them marinate a couple of days.


Step 4. Enjoy the marinated bell peppers with some cheese, bread, home made Kosovar wine or rakija. Remember that the best things are always very simple.

"DIDN'T GO AS I PLANNED"-APPLE TART

There is a saying in Finland “didn’t go as in Strömsö” which might not open up to you if you have never seen the TV-show Strömsö. Anyway, as you might guess, the meaning behind of this saying lies in failing. You see an interesting recipe, you try it, and you fail. Nice, isn’t it?

We had a great plan to make some tart, drink sparkling wine and enjoy the Saturday evening. The wine disappeared quite quickly; however, our apple tart was just confusing.  The failure in this baking-event was that we tried to make nice cupcake size apple tarts but the tart came out looking like small mushroom pie.

The visual output of any food, as well as the smell of them, is a major part of the experience. Therefore, if you see something that you associate immediately with mushrooms, it is quite confusing when the product itself tastes like apple tart.     

The taste of the tart was quite nice still and anything in a size of a cupcake is always cute. So if you want to try it yourself, and improve the visual output, here’s the recipe.

Cupcake apple tart (12 piece)

• 100 g butter
• 1 dl sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 dl wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

For the filling:

• 1 big apple
• cinnamon
• 250 g sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1-2 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Warm the butter till room temperature. Froth the butter and sugar. Add egg. 

Add the flour and baking powder and mix. Divide the dough 12 cupcake tins.

For the filling: Dice the apples for small pieces and marinade them in cinnamon. (However, the dices seems to be the main point of confusing the tart with mushrooms, so maybe you want to try something else) Put the apples on top of the dough.

Mix the sour cream (you can also use cream cheese), egg and sugars together and pour it on top of the apples.

Bake in 200 Celcius for 30 minutes.