Saucy Apple Peach & Plum No Onion Chutney

Chutney is my new favourite thing to make & eat & I enjoy the fact you can make your own recipes easily & they work! I always thought people who made chutneys were something special but that is rubbish, its so easy, its a shame I have wasted years not making them! Well now I have so much fresh produce to hand its great making all these lovely flavoursome jars of fruit & veg mixes. I just need the room now to store them!
This is a lovely fruity chutney its a bit runny but makes a beautiful sauce to have with meat or salads.  Especially nice with Banitza.
This recipe uses Garlic instead of onion as I am intolerant but you can use onions instead!

Peaches
Apples
Plums
Fruit to weigh total of 6lb
500ml Apple vinegar
1tbsp Ginger
2tsp Cinnamon
2tsp 5 Spice
1tsp Nutmeg
500gr Sugar
5 heads of Garlic,  if you are not intolerant use 1lb onions instead.
2tsp Salt
 Peel core & chop the apple, de stone the peaches & plums & chop these too. In a very large pan combine all the fruit spices garlic salt & vinegar, cook till fruit has softened, mashing the fruit on the sides of the pan so its smoother.

Add the sugar & stir till it has disolved bring to boil slowly then simmer till thickened & you can see the bottom of the pan when you run a spoon through it.

 Pour into sterilised bottles with plastic lids & seal for at least two months more if possible as chutneys get better with age. I always end up with a small jar of leftovers & have this if I cant wait for it to mature :-)

Plum & Apple Crumble or Sliven s Yabulka Sladkish

Normally a Bulgarian village meal does not end in a dessert unless its a special occasion then the cakes come out or it will be finished off with a cheese banitza. The funny thing is they have a very sweet tooth as you will find out when you buy a tray of tiny little cakes or biscuits! I have spent my time here introducing them to puddings they love them all & eat loads but never ever make them themselves. I have only had two desserts in two years & both were questionable & too sweet! One was bought to a meal & one was from next door as a thank you! I make desserts that can be easily made using everyday foodstuffs or using goods from the garden or small holding for instance there are lots of bees kept in the village so honey & the obvious fruit grown in all our orchards So here we are with our two most prolific crops this year, plums & apples………

This is a very popular dessert here & I hear lots of murmurings of mnogo hubovo mind you for the English it’s a bit like teaching your nana to suck eggs. Where did that saying come from my nana never sucked eggs or my mum, at least I don’t think so!

675gr Apples peeled cored & thickly sliced
12ish Plums lg purple like Victoria stoned & quartered
25g Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
2tbsp Water
Topping
280gr SR Flour
140gr Butter/margarine
140gr Sugar
70gr Oats
Pre heat your oven to 200c or fan 180c
Grease a baking dish
Put all the fruit in a pan with 25gr sugar, cinnamon & the water & heat gently till the fruit is soft & juicy.

Put the fruit in the greased dish

Mix flour butter & sugar together then stir in the oats. Make sure all the ingredients are combined well. Sprinkle crumble over the fruit & cook for 30 minuets.

Serve with custard or squirty cream (Bulgaria) If you are fortunate enough serve with single cream Mmmmm!

Traditional Bulgarian Banitza (Bahnitza) or Cheese Pie!

Banitza is one of the most eaten dishes here in Bulgaria. You can buy it everywhere, eat it hot or cold & it has many varieties of filling but most traditional is the cheese banitza. I have waited almost two years to make it because I didn't have a proper pan & didnt want to fudge it up. It is eaten as breakfast, main meal, dessert & a snack. I have had many, some have been dreadfull while others amazing. For dessert I have been given cheese banitza spinach banitza & pumpkin banitza.
I am pleased to say my recipe turned out to be amazing! If you like cheese you will love this. Why not use your favourite cheese instead of these & let me know how it turns out!

1 pk Filo pastry (you can also use the puff filo)
200gr Kashkaval or yellow cheese such as cheddar, chopped into small pieces
500gr Sirene cheese or Feta
7 eggs
100gr butter/margarine
1/2 cup Lemonade
1 cup Milk (you can also use yoghurt)
Preheat oven 200c or fan 180c

Mix 6 eggs blobs of butter/margerine, crumbled sirene & kashkaval cheeseswith the milk.

In a large buttered pan lay 3 leaves of filo greasing each piece before the next.

then spoon in a layer of the mixture. continue with this layering, doing three layers in all. Finishing with a layer of filo.

Lightly whisk the remaining egg  pour in the lemonade & pour the whole lot over the pastry making sure to get it all wet

Bake for 40 minuets or until golden

Ratatouille

Summer may officially be over, but the weather here is finally starting to feel summerish, and the garden is liking it.

I mentioned here that our most pleasant garden surprise this year was the eggplant.  Absolutely every recipe I tried with it was scrumptious. 

Who knew we even liked eggplant?

I tried another recipe today, with the last of our cute little eggplant.  It, too, was outstanding.

If you aren't sure you even like vegetables, you might want to give this one a taste.  Yowzer, it's good.

RATATOUILLE
2 1/2 c. diced eggplant (leave the peels on)
3/4 c. thinly sliced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. olive oil
3 green peppers, cored and thinly sliced
(recipe called for 3 c. zucchini, thinly sliced, but I didn't have any so omitted)
2 c. tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 t. fresh basil, chopped
salt, pepper to taste
plain yogurt (optional)

Put eggplant in colander (in sink) and salt lightly.  Leave for 30 minutes to drain.
Meanwhile, in large, deep-ish non-stick skillet (one that has a lid), over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until golden.  Add peppers, zucchini if you're using it (I didn't), and tomatoes.  Add drained eggplant and basil and simmer, covered, over low heat for 45 minutes.  Uncover and cook 15 minutes more to reduce liquid.  Add salt & pepper to taste; serve warm or cold with a dollop of plain yogurt, if desired.

The recipe claims this serves eight, but it really serves two.  Insert smiley face here.

Fudgy No-bake Drop Cookies

If you need a quick chocolate fix, here's a great recipe that stirs up in no time.  You dump most of the ingredients in a bowl, microwave for three minutes, add the last couple ingredients, then plop onto a greased cookie sheet and pop in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Voila.  Done.

You may want to use oven mitts as you take the bowl out of the microwave.  And next time I'll grease my cookie sheet a little better, or even use parchment paper, so the tasty little morsels will slide off the pan more easily.

Also, I cut this recipe in half to get the amount shown here. 

Because we all know that if cookies are just sitting on the counter, they are asking for it. 

Go visit Sandra at Keeping it Simple to get the recipe.

Now I have a question for you.  On a completely unrelated chocolate note,
How the heck do you get chocolate curls, not chocolate dust?  Any secrets?

Chocolate Chip Bread

While I could have posted aboutthese vegetables that I made today, which were good, honesty prevails upon me to admit that the chocolate chip bread, visible here thanks only to a cookbook photo seeing as we descended upon and devoured the actual product like a pack of famished wolves before a true-life photo could be taken, was better.

What can I say?  We like our treats around here.

The recipe came from this book, because I think it is entirely appropriate to start baking Christmas-y items once October rolls around.  I use my bread machine, so I'll alter the directions to reflect that.

CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

3/4 c. water

1/4 c. butter

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1/4 c. sugar

3 - 3 1/2 c. flour

3 T. cocoa

3/4 t. salt

1/8 t. ground cinnamon

1 package (about 2 1/4 t.) yeast

Place these ten ingredients in bread machine in order listed.  Make sure machine is on "dough" setting and press button to start :)  Once it starts mixing, check to see if it looks like the amount of flour you've added is enough.

When the dough is done, remove from pan and roll out with floured rolling pin on floured surface to an 18- x 10-inch rectangle.  Sprinkle with about 3/4 c. chocolate chips (the recipe in the book called for 1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chunks, but I had chips, not chunks, so that's what I used; I also decided 1/2 c. did not look like nearly enough -- a good decision).  Press chips lightly into dough, then roll up starting from shorter side.  Fold ends under and place, seam side down, in greased 9- x 5-inch loaf pan.  Cover, let rise in warm place for about an hour, until doubled.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.  Remove from pan immediately.  When cooled, drizzle over this glaze:

GLAZE

1 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 T. milk

1/2 t. vanilla

Mix all glaze ingredients together.

NOTE:  My loaf rose quite a bit while baking, so make sure you bake on a rack toward the bottom of the oven to give it plenty of room. 

So what's your favorite thing to bake this time of year?

Book Winners

Big congratulations to Confessions of a Closet Hoarder, Meg at Little Bit of Life blog, and Barbara at candy di ricette barbare blog  for winning the Goosberry Patch books.  May you have many happy hours of pumpkin and apple baking.  And thanks so much, everyone, for entering.