Blackberry Syrup

Our summer here in northern California has been cool, which makes for a paltry tomato crop but a very, very happy bunch of blackberries.

I've picked so many berries for the freezer this year that I've run out of containers. Which means I was enormously pleased to come across this recipe for berry syrup from Jenn at Pint-sized Pioneering.

If you have just three cups of berries, some sugar, and a bit of water, you can make a jar of delicious syrup. So far I've made three batches (that's two batches, above).

Now if only I can find more room in the freezer . . .

Anyone else finding interesting things to do with excess fruit this time of year?

Tikvenic Tikva Banitsa or Pumpkin Pie

TIKVENIC......

Or Tikva Banitsa. There are so many variations on Pumpkin pie but by far the tastiest for me has been the village Tikva Banitsa.
Pumpkins are another veggie grown in most village properties. Great big patches of green lilly pads (thats what they look like) in the summer crawling across the ground up & along fences & in the grape vines with little peeps of orange poking through then in the autumn as the leaves die down you are treated to their secrets with nobly crooked or perfect round bodies littering the mud floors. Beautiful orange green & yellows all shapes & sizes, all squash here are called by one name, not like us who have lots of names for different varieties. This year I have grown the orange round pumpkins as a trial I managed to get 12 decent size fruits lots were lost or came to nothing. Next year I plan on many more & different varieties too, all very exciting for a novice like me. I am particularly proud as I grew mine from seeds of the pumkins I cooked with last year. My favourite thing to cook with them is soup & scones but banitza is my next recipe to perfect! So much more to the humble pumpkin than a haloween lantern, just what have I been missing all these years! & please if you are in America stop buying the canned junk use fresh!!!!

I have been given two recipes. One a scrap of paper where I have scribbled ingredients & a get on with it attitude which I was about to do. The other a new friend has sent me a recipe from a Bulgarian cook book with the oven times & temps on, so I am combining the two & this is my Tikva Banitsa!
I dare say this will be changed & variated over the years & there are many Banitsa's out there including a no pastry Banitsa I am determined to make but I need the round Banitsa tin as it's a well runny affair!

Filo Pastry
Sunflower oil or melted butter
Pumpkin chopped into small chunks
8 - 10 oz Sugar to taste Brown if you have it, if you do use less of it.
5 oz Walnuts chopped
1 tbsp Cinnamon
Honey optional drizzle it over each layer

Oil pie tin well

Cook the pumpkin in a little water or steam till soft, drain it well push out some of the excess water

Mash the pumpkin then add the sugar & cinnamon & cook together over a very low heat stirring till all the water has gone.
Cool.

Add the walnuts to pumpkin & mix it through well.

Layer the filo pastry & mixture oiling the filo on each layer don’t forget to drizzle with honey if you are using it!

end with a layer of filo & oil the top.

Cook in a pre heated oven 220c 425f till slightly brown then
180c 350f for 40-50 mins
Fan oven 200c then 160c

I cooked this today & got the thumbs up from my neighbours in fact they wolfed it down, so it must compare very well :D

Potato & Vermicelli soup or Kartofi e Fide Soupa

This simple soup is a firm favorite with the our friends in the village if you have any leftover Goat or Chicken you can bung that in too!
A very rustic simple dish that is delicious I love it & will be making loads this winter but without the oil as it will be a frequent visitor to my table.

It's actually one of my favorites & very filling so if your having it as a starter you may want to dish up just a little. As with most village recipes there are no fixed weights & measures its mainly done on knowing or if like me, pure guess work!!! It always comes out perfect. I would have this as a main or a light lunch with crusty rolls from Kaufland Mmmm If I have friends from the village for dinner it will be the second course after the salade then would be followed by a meat dish. I serve it hot but most Bulgarians don't eat hot food,  so you would be very fortunate to get it barely warm, serve it with Limontus although i have it with fresh ground black pepper :D

1 kg potatoes, Peeled & cut into small cubes
4 x Spring onions ( if like me you can't eat onions use Garlic instead)
3 x Eggs
Fide/Vermicelli
Handful Chubritsa/Savoury or Oregano
Salt
Oil For Bulgarian taste use Sunflower oil but you can use olive etc or if you want a healthier option it won't hurt to leave it out!
2 x Chicken stock cubes (if your using Bulgarian stock cubes leave out the salt)
3/4 tsp Limontus
Parsley, fresh if you have it

In a large pan of water bring to the boil salt, oil, & onions or garlic. When boiling add the potato boil until soft, then add the fide/vermicelli. In a separate large bowl whisk 3 eggs with the limontus (if you can get it) & add the chubritsa/oregano & whisk.

When the soup is ready add the stock cubes.

Take the soup of the heat & ladle some liquid slowly into the egg mixture stirring all the time,

 then tip back into soup & whisk.

Serve with limontus, black pepper & crusty bread!

Can use this recipe as a base for chicken or other meat soup just add precooked meat & bones to the mixture but I would recommend as is!!!

Simple Summertime Tomatoes

Some of us need recipes in order to cook, while others can take a handful of mushrooms, some leftover sweetened condensed milk, a wad of wilted lettuce and somehow magically transform them into dinner.

My sister's one of the latter.

This is her summertime dish, a delightful combination of garden tomatoes, onions, and basil. There are not many specific measurements here as, alas, she does not need them. So just do your best; add ingredients until it looks and tastes right. It's hard to go wrong with this, especially if you're starting with garden fresh tomatoes and basil. Bon appetit.

MATERS
Cut tomatoes into bite-sized chunks. Slice an onion into rings. Cut basil with scissors. Combine all, and add 1 T. sugar. Cover with balsamic vinegar and some olive oil (optional). Let stand a few hours on the counter so tastes blend and onion loses its acidity.

So how about you? Are you a recipe cook? Or do you have the gift?

Bourkanche krastavitsa e Otset or Pickled Gherkins

 Gherkins & peppers are a staple part of the Bulgarian diet always on the food table while the borkans are in the cellars & the shops are always full of the processed variety. Part of village life grow them then pickle them & put them on the table whenever anyone visits, these make up a messe with fresh laid hard boiled eggs sprinkled with paprika pepper. Mmmm I tell you we have a good life here! 
This is my village way of pickling & very nice they are too, you can add more sugar for a sweeter pickle, these are quite tart but go down lovely with a chasha of Rakia & a nice shopska salade

You will need.... per jar
Gherkins
5 cloves of garlic
fennel head
5 pepper corns 1 dsp sugar
1 dsp salt
5 dsp vinegar
1 asprin... optional

Fill jars with gherkins Add all ingredients & fill to top with water.
Seal jar & turn to mix all ingredients together. Stand jars in sun for 5 days & rotate the jars every day.
If you do not add the aspirin...... Place a cloth in the bottom of a large pan place the jars of pickles on & fill till jars covered bring to the boil & boil for 10 mins.
These pickles keep for at least a year longer actually, I am still eating the ones I canned last year & they are delicious!

Malko Godishninata Keyk or Anniversary Muffins

Its my Anniversary today so in the absence of my husband (who's working away in UK) & no outing to celebrate I developed this recipe & hope its nice!!!
The fruit is from my Garden

Malko Godishninata Keyk/Anniversary Muffins

230g Apples peeled & chopped
130g Plums large purple chopped
225g Plain flour
100g Caster Sugar
75g Butter or Margerine
3tsp Baking powder
Pinch Salt
2 tsp Vanilla sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence
225g Milk with dash of lemon juice or Buttermilk (I have never used Buttermilk)

Makes 10 muffins Preheat oven 200c

Toss chopped fruit in vanilla sugar.
Cream together Butter & sugar.
Lightly mix in flour, baking powder & salt.
Make a well & add milk mixture with vanilla essence, only moisten do not beat as you want the floury bits to make the muffin fluffy.
Fold the fruit into the mix lightly.
Spoon into Muffin cases
bake in preheated fan oven for 20 mins otherwise 25 mins
These muffins are best baked the day before eating as this enables the muffin to soften & the fruit to develop its flavour.
Enjoy xxx

Mocha Frappuccino

I post this recipe as a public service to all those former frapppuccino lovers who have been suffering severe withdrawal these last months after Starbucks changed its formula from icy, chocolatey, coffee perfection to a drink that, alas, while still icy, no longer tastes like either chocolate or coffee.

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth -- and yes, a few beseeching phone calls to Starbucks headquarters -- we, here at the castle, have moved on.

Ok, by we, I mean me.

Ongoing experimentation, aided by other bereft, recovering SB addicts (thank you, LJ), has yielded this recipe, which I happen to love. I hope you will love it, too.

MOCHA FRAPPUCCINOS
This recipe starts with a "base" mixture you stir together and keep in the fridge. When you're ready for your drink, you simply pop 3/4 c. of the mix into the blender, add a dollop of chocolate sauce (about 1 T.), and about 10 frozen coffee cubes, and you're all set.

FRAP BASE
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk (about 1 1/4 c.)
2 1/2 c. double-strength coffee (for this, I use instant espresso powder mixed with water, according to the package directions -- about 2 heaping tablespoons in 2 1/2 c. water)
2 1/2 c. milk

Mix the base together and keep in the fridge until you're ready for your yummy drink.
Handy hint: My blender doesn't do a great job at grinding up ice. If yours doesn't, either, use your meat tenderizer hammer-thingie to smash up the coffee ice cubes before putting them in the blender. I don't do this on my tile countertops because I wish to crack the ice, not the tile.

Another handy hint: Any extra hot coffee Kahuna leaves in the pot in the morning gets immediately whisked away and frozen into cubes. If you want to lighten the coffee flavor, you can use 5 coffee cubes in your drink and 5 regular ice cubes.

Cheers.