Five Stars for Luxembourg

Luxembourg has always been one of those countries I wonder, “How did that get there?” It’s less than a thousand square miles and stuck right between Germany and France, I would have thought that this little territory would have been taken over at some point in history. I mean it has been fought over in the past and one of the reasons why it’s so small is because its size was reduced to at least half to Belgium, not to mention it was invaded and occupied by Germany during WWII. So how on earth did they manage to hold on to the 998 square miles it is today? Somehow it managed to maintain independence throughout the war, despite being occupied, and was one the six founding countries of the European Union. I have to give Luxembourg props for its history.

The cuisine in Luxembourg is not surprisingly a mesh between German and French cuisines with many delicate pastries and smoked meats. Their national dish is smoked pork collar with beans. I did find that it’s currently reported to have the highest alcohol consumption, averaging three beers a day per person (including children). Apparently alcohol is also super cheap here with French wines and German and Belgium beers along with its own array of breweries. So it’s no surprise that the majority of the dishes I found contained some sort of alcohol, mostly wine. So of course I went with one of those, I had to choose something that was very Luxembourgian (actual word). I decided on Hong am Reisleck, which I’m sure you might guess is chicken in Riesling wine.

So equipped with a couple pounds of chicken and a bottle of wine, I made my way to my dorm kitchen where I managed to make the whole first floor smell like a winery. Now I’ll be the first to admit, this dish isn’t exactly a looker. However, like many things in life, and here I’m going to use the overly cliché phrase, it’s important not to judge a book by its cover. We’re all adults here right? We can look past a not so beautiful presentation and see deeper than that. However, what it lacks in aesthetic beauty, it makes up for in smell and taste. If there was a way I could insert what this smells like into this post I would because this stuff is simply mouth watering! Even with a cheapie $5 bottle of Riesling, it’s delicious. Did I mention how tender the chicken was?

I am glad I had leftovers for this one and I know this will wind up in my cookbook. Luxembourg, you have officially wowed me with not only your history, but your food as well. This dish actually reminds me of beef stroganoff, that is if you take away the beef and add wine and chicken. I’m betting if you go to Paris you’ll be overcharged for something similar to this and I am proud that I made it on the cheap, but still got five star results. If you like wine but veer away from French dishes because of all the butter, you should give this one a try. For anyone wondering, I used Campanelle pasta which soaks the sauce right up and adds some frill to this, boy did I feel fancy eating that when the girls around me were munching on taco bell or campus union food! Yes, you can make five star meals in your college dorm.

Crazy Bread

The Czechs and the Slovaks have always interested me and I know that has a lot to do with my last name, which is Tajc. In fact just having a four letter last name that is so impossible for so many people to pronounce has made me feel more than unique than all the other thousands of people with European relatives. I also feel like I am more out of touch with my Czech roots than say my Italian or German roots so I figured cooking something so uniquely Czechoslovakian would allow me to embrace them a little better.

Czechoslovakia officially became the Czech Republic and Slovakia January of 1993, the split being pretty neutral on both sides. Therefore the cuisine is pretty identical for both countries and only varies slightly from region to region. Due to limited trade in exports and imports, a lot of Slovakian food relies heavily on what is available and what could withstand hot summers and cold winters. Staples include wheat, potatoes, some milk products, sauerkraut, onions and pork. Spices were harder to come by and instead fats and lards used during the cooking process to add flavor. Like most Europeans, lunch is the main meal here and often the "hot" meal of the day. I encountered this similar eating habit when in Germany.

Breads and other wheat products are heavily depended upon, even now with increased importing of other foods, so I decided to make a very popular street pastry known as trdelnik. This pastry is wrapped around a wooden or metal pole and cooked on an open flame. Now if I were any self respecting Czech or Slovak I would own a trdlo, which is the name of the “stick” used to make this popular pastry and the reason why it is often called a trdlo. I even asked dad if he has some sort of clean metal pipe to use, no luck there. I thought about using a very large test tube, but seeing as I got it from the stockroom, not the wisest of ideas since I have no idea what it was used for. So like all good bakers, I decided to just wing it. I also had to go the non-traditional route and find a recipe that could be baked in an oven since my dorm doesn't exactly embrace "open flames" or fire pits in the courtyard. Still, this was such a traditional and praised Czech and Slovak bread, I really wanted to try it.

Now the name trdlo comes from the term crazy, and crazy was just about how I felt attempting this recipe. I felt crazy trying to roll out the dough which is quite stiff and I felt crazy coiling my dough around air, I even felt crazy trying to get it to stand upright. In the end, the crazy won and man did my final product look crazy! Now I’ve included a photo of what the pastry “should” look like and then I’ve included my own version. What can I say? My Czech roots did not help me out on this one at all. Despite the difficulties, I did like the pastry overall and had it for breakfast a couple times this week. It’s not very sweet, more like bread, but the dough is pretty dense. Of course that is most likely my doing since I think it’s supposed to be much thinner, but due to technical difficulties, well you can probably imagine judging by my photo what kind of troubles I ran into. Weirdly shaped or not, it’s still good and someday I will have to find a suitable replacement for a trdlo so maybe I could make this right.

What it should look like...

Then there is my version... okay so it's not quite the same....

A Taste of Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina recieved their independence fairly recently as far as countries are concerned. In fact it hasn't even been twenty years since they officially became independent from Yugoslavia. I actually knew someone from Bosnia when I went to middle school and because of the Bosnian wars in the 90s his parents had immigrated to the states to escape the horrors that were going on. Because many of the people in Bosnia are Muslim, they primarily eat beef and lamb along with plenty of vegetables. Traditional Bosnian dishes do not exclude meat and of course everyone has heard of Baklava, which is a very traditional desert. In fact the guy I know once brought Baklava his grandmother had made and I definitely have a long way to go before my Baklava is as good as hers was. Meat is typically grilled, although sometimes raw smoked meat is served. I went with one of the most tradtional Bosnian recipes I could find, a type of kebab called Ćevapi.

Ćevapi is a small sausage that is made from a mix of two types of minced meat, often beef and lamb. These little sausages are then grilled and served on a type of flatbread called Lepinja. Typically one serving of Ćevapi is four to six sausages and toppings may include onions, tomatoes, and a cream called pavlaka, which is a bit like sour cream. Both the sausages and bread are best served hot right from the grill or oven, but that's nothing new since we all know food is best when fresh.

To mince my lamb meat I stuck it in a food processor for no more than a couple "pulses" and I can say you definitely don't want it to be ground any more than needed or it might become dense sawdust while cooking. Something you never want. I mixed it with ground beef and added a little bit of onion, garlic, and mild chili. You can actually make these little guys as hot or mild as you want. Lacking a grill, I used a griddle and then broiled them for about 2 minutes to brown them. I also made my very own Lepinja (I know, I went all out for this meal! Two recipes in one dish!) I found the flatbread very easy to work with and boy did it come out delicious! I ate half a piece while waiting for my Ćevapi to finish.

The German in me was very happy with this meal, the sausages were very flavorful and I loved the addition of the mild pepper and served on steaming Lepinja with onions, yum. This is definitely what I think of when I hear the word "street food." I ended up eating the rest of my Lepinja for breakfast after warming it up a little and slathering it with butter and jam, delicious. Don't expect the flatbread to last more than a day, mine was definitely on its way to becoming stale. The sausages tasted almost as good for an afternoon snack, but are also much better fresh. Overall, my Ćevapi meal was a success and I definitely want to try them on a grill in the future.

Blenderizing Fish

The first thing to note about Denmark, they are much like the rest of Northern Europe and they love their fish. Now we have a lot to thank Denmark for, one of the most important, the lego. Now I know it may seem inconsequential, but where would we be without the lego? There would be no Legoland and we would probably still be playing with Lincoln logs and erector sets. Okay, so maybe we would be doing okay, but when I recall my childhood the lego definitely plays a pretty big role, especially when it came to fighting over the cool helmet with my brothers. Okay, so maybe the world would actually be a better place without the lego causing squabbling only to end up buried somewhere in the yard. Now enough about toys, this is about cooking! Out of the hundreds of Danish recipes out there, some were a little out there. Lots involved pickling and strange ways to prepare fish. I went with a traditional one – the frikadeller.

Frikadeller refers to the Danish version of a meatball, however, along with the typical beef and pork, there’s that of the fish variety. Frikadeller are typically served with potatoes and red cabbage, but I went a non-traditional route and ate mine with leftover peas from the nauratan I made last week. Call me frugal and tired of trips to the grocery store. I can say one thing, before this recipe I had never ever had any reason to blenderize fish. In fact I had no desire to blenderize fish. Is blenderize even a verb? So it was with great sadness that I stuck a wonderfully flaky cod fillet in my blender and pushed “on.” I don’t think I have ever received such strange looks from the other girls in my dorm, which is saying a lot since I’ve cooked some strange things in the past. Once I explained that I was making a Danish recipe for the sake of a blogging contest, they at least gave me a brief “ooooh” before continuing to look on curiously.

I can’t blame them really. I mean I was curious too. After mixing all my ingredients together I had my very own fish paste. Or something like that which is quite repulsive in both looks and smell. The paste is supposed to be formed into “egg shapes” but mine came out a little more like flattened eggs, but that’s okay, I looked at some photos and they looked just like mine so I was reassured. Then I fried them (without setting off the smoke alarm!) and that was that. I was told they smelt good after having cooked them so that was a redeeming quality. All the other girls know I can cook so at least I don’t have to prove myself to be handy in the kitchen, even if the things I do cook result in strange looks.

Now aside from the blenderizing, this recipe was pretty decent. I’m still more of a fan of fish that actually flakes, whereas these little fish eggs lack that texture, but dipped in tartar sauce it was kind of like a denser version of fish and chips sans the chips and the breading. I’m not sure I’d go with this exact version again since I’m betting there are better ways to fry fish, but I did like the little addition of the curry powder. I suppose I’ll use this recipe for inspiration if I ever feel like mutilating a perfectly good fillet in the future.