Irish Dundee Whiskey Cake

Happy St Patrick's Day

How interesting to reconnect with a blogger that was my very first blog to follow! Alanna's blog is very interesting as she shares some of her personal history along with a recipe.

The latest being a story on one of her  Grandfather's English-born cousins and her cousin's Irish Spiced Cake that she made every ten days for her husband.

As I was making the cake, I recognized a step my Grandmother Anna used when she made her boiled Raisin Cake.. In this cake, the milk is brought to boil then reduced to simmer with the spices, raisins and nuts along with baking soda!

In researching the Irish Dundee Cake, most of the recipes had little liquid other than a tablespoon of Whiskey.  In my version, I added a tablespoon of plum jam, lemon zest and lemon juice plus 1/4 cup of Jameson Irish Whiskey. With the extra amount of Liquid, I added a 1/4 cup more of flour!  The cake is full of plump raisins and cranberries, that I imagine if wrapped up and left for a couple of days would mellow!  Unfortunately the cake disappeared quickly even when still warm.

Birthday greeting Blog -Saukerkraut Pizza

Another Blogger who happens to be my cousin also did a blog for my birthday!
She writes about her family and growing up in the prairies. With each blog she features pictures and recipes! Her site is called UkrainiYum, Take a look !

UkrainiYum!

FRIDAY, 18 JANUARY 2013

MARILYN, try this . . . SAUERKRAUT PIZZA!!!

For Christmas, 2012, Marilyn pickled grapes and jalapeno.  How did that go, Cousin?

I love Marilyn’s sense of humour – at least I hope she was kidding when she wrote, “I am seriously eyeing the leaves on this plant to also pickle.”

                                                    And what about this?

                                                 Candied Tomatoes

                                           Marilyn is definitely an adventurous cook. 

 Marilyn also really enjoys telling us cute stories about her grandchildren.  Like when Natalie (aged 5) met Sophia 

and asked her mom, “Where can we buy one?  I want one.”

Marilyn has boundless energy.  Following all those food blogs and decorating blogs . . .  My goodness, Cousin, where do you find the time?

Marilyn, you used to write a blog.  How about putting some of that zest to work and starting it up again?   Now, that would be a winner!

                                                              *******************

 PIZZA DOUGH and PIZZA METHOD:       

PIZZA DOUGH 

1 tsp sugar

1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

1 envelope (2 ½ teaspoons) yeast

Flour:  2 ¾ cups and just enough more to make a non-sticky dough (one or 2 tbsps)

1.       Stir to dissolve sugar in lukewarm water.

2.       Sprinkle the yeast onto the swirling water.  Do not stir.  Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy.

3.       Put 2 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl.

4.       Measure another cup of flour and set it to the side.

5.       Stir the yeast and water into the mixing bowl.

6.       Sprinkle some of the extra flour onto a working surface.

7.       Drop another ¼ cup flour onto the dough in the bowl.  Now turn the contents of the mixing bowl out onto the working surface and start kneading.

8.       Sprinkle additional flour from the cup onto the dough as needed to make a smooth, non-sticky, but still tender dough.

9.       Sprinkle more flour onto the working surface.  Set the dough on this and cover with the mixing bowl.  Leave to rise for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the pan and the toppings.

******************

Brush the pan with 1 tsp of vegetable oil

Place oven rack at lowest level.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Prepare the toppings:

  

SAUERKRAUT PIZZA -- toppings:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Sauerkraut-Pizza

1 pound pork sausage

1 cup chopped onion

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 garlic clove

8 ounces mozzarella cheese

213 ml can of tomato sauce  

1 cup well-drained stewed tomatoes

1 cup well-drained sauerkraut

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Cook sausage and onion together with spices and garlic until sausage is cooked.
**************

When you lift the bowl over the dough, you will find the dough will be in a soft, round shape.  With floured hands, gently lift it and place in centre of oiled pan.  Press and push the dough to fill the pan.  

Bake dough without any toppings for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Reduce oven temperature to 450.

Cover with toppings.  

Place toppings on pizza dough in this order:

-          spread about half of the can of tomato sauce over the crust

-          sausage mixture 

-          drained, chopped tomatoes

-          sauerkraut

-          shredded mozzarella

-          Parmesan

Return to oven and bake the pizza for 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown.

 I was really doubtful about trying this recipe but it turned out a winner, too!

HAPPY, BIRTHDAY, MARILYN! 

Ukrainian Christmas Eve in Rural Manitoba

Here is a blog written of my experiences in rural Manitoba this Jan, especially on Ukrainian Christmas Eve by another blogger.. do take a look!

Ukrainian Christmas – Canadian Style

12JAN

Posted by Suburban Grandma in Culture, Life

2

Ukrainian community in Canada is spread out throughout the country, yet very united and organized.

Ukrainian traditions are well preserved and passed down from generation to generation, which is a very fortunate thing for any nationality in Diaspora, but well cherished by Ukrainians.

One of my blog followers from Manitoba, Canada, was kind enough to take the time to share some pictures of their celebration of Ukrainian Christmas Eve with her family, and their 90 years young aunt.

They all worked together to prepare a very elaborate Christmas Eve meal, which consists of at least 12 course meatless dishes.

In the picture above,  you can see the teamwork going on in the kitchen, under a watchful eye of the “senior chef”, who is a well seasoned cook, with well earned seniority in traditional food preparation experience.

The finished product in the lower section of the display, looks very professionally done, and delicious.

Table is set with all the delicious food, and everyone is ready to partake in this beautiful traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper.

What fond memories this creates, which is what holidays should be all about.

She also captured the beauty of the Ukrainian church they attended that evening, and reminisced a little about the past.  Please take a listen.

I truly appreciate her thoughtfulness and effort.  Duzhe Dyakuyu (Thank you very much).

After the traditional Christmas Eve meal we drove in a ground blizzard to a wooden country church which is surrounded by farms with only a country hall across the road.

This hall was popular on long weekends with midnight dances  I never attended as probably not allowed to as it did have quite the reputation.

The church is still used once a month.  In fact the parishioners still go Christmas caroling on the 7th.

Note the candle lite chandelier.

When we left the church, the night sky was spectacular as we identified the different constellation!

Something surreal about spending
Ukrainian Christmas in the country!

I would love to hear from others who would like to share their unique stories.

Ukrainians are still in the Christmas season, and awaiting to celebrate New Year on January 14th.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

12 dishes of Ukrainian Christmas Eve

"Khrystos Rodyvsya" (Christ is born). The reply is "SlavimYeho" (Praise him). 

 Christmas meal starts with the first star, believed to be the star of Bethlehem

After the singing of Boh Predvichnyi ( God Eternal) the meal begins.

The Twelve Traditional Dishes starts with Kutya, a wheat berry dish with poppyseeds that has been simmering in a saucepan all day, flavored with honey..

The next dish served is a soup.  My Grandmother always served Lenten Borscht or Pisnyy Borscht with tiny dumplings called 'Vushka" or small ears. However, my Mom served Cream of Wild Mushroom soup.

Appetizers such as Pickled Herring, Pickled Mushroom and Marinated Salmon(Gravlax) is served next. 

The main Meatless Entrees served are Pyrohy or dumplings with  two different filling; Sauerkraut and potato with cottage cheese.  A wild mushroom sauce is also served to be a topping for the pyrohy 

Meatless Holubtchi or cabbage rolls, Cabbage rolls, 2016, Nalysnyky or crepes with cottage cheese filling, Mushroom sauce and pan seared Haddock or Salmon.  Fish Balls are delicious and popular with the young children.

A sweet Pyrohy are delicious with a fruit filling like, Prunes, Plums or Cranberry!

For dessert, assortment of Christmas baking with fruitcake and pampushky are served.

I am posting my recipes as I prepare the dishes for this year's Christmas Eve meal.

Here is another beautiful site to check out on 12 Ukrainian dishes for Christmas Eve 

Peroghies,Pyrohy, dumplings by any other name!

 My Mom's dumplings have become legendary as everyone remembers how tender, pump and delicious they were.  As a young kid, I could never understand why anyone would want to eat potatoes and dough!  Even the homemade cottage cheese that was part of the filling with the potatoes was not to my liking! Pyrohy were a common dish especially at holidays and during lent.

Everyone in my family especially my Irish husband loved them the first time he tasted them at my Mom's house!   My Mom kept my deep freeze filled with these dumplings! Until that one Christmas, I no longer had any and mixed up my first dough!  Yes, only water, flour and oil are the three ingredients in the basic recipe! I realized I was in trouble.. I had never really paid any attention to how they was made.  My aunties and Mom's friend came to my rescue! However, everyone had different recipes from adding an egg, adding sour cream, adding Baking powder,  lukewarm to cold water, the list goes on!!

For a couple of years, my sister has been visiting in November and it become a pyrohy bake off using different dough recipes.. All the different recipes of dough seemed the same, difficult to roll out,  yet the results tasted the same!

This year after reading the article about Baba's Beauties from the Edmonton Journal and how the ladies had to adjust the basic recipe and going by feel, I decided to increase the amount of water used in the recipe and also to use hot water almost boiling water!  To my surprise the dough was tender, especially easy to roll out and work with! Although the dough was a little sticky, a little flour corrects this.

 Here is my Mom's basic recipe, that has been tweaked.

6 cups of flour
2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
pinch of salt
1/4 cup of oil

 I increased the amount of water to 3 cups and used very hot water. I also increased the amount of oil to 1/3 cups

In my head as I rolled out the dough, I kept hearing "By George I think she's got! from my Fair Lady in "The rain in Spain"

Yesterday I ran into an elderly woman who was widowed last summer and was telling me of her preparation for the traditional Christmas Eve Dinner and how difficult it will be without her husband.  I mentioned to her that I had finally had success in making the dough for the dumplings.. Without even batting an eye, she asked if I had used hot water! Interesting!

Home made Pasta Noodles

Searching for the perfect pasta recipe! One that that is tasty and  tender and doesn't take forever to cook! Delicious homemade noodles are a favourite memory of my childhood.. My husband follows recipes precisely as he did with Michael Smith's homemade pasta recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour 
• 6 eggs
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

After many tries, we found the dough was too difficult to work as not very soft or tender to roll out or work through the pasta maker.. The noodles took for ever to cook and certainly with 6 eggs in the mix, not the tastiest!

Michael Smith did comment "Cook until the pasta floats to the top, 3 minutes or so. It should be al dente, cooked through but still chewy." 

I grew up with home made noodles. Homemade chicken soup with tender, plump, yellowish, perfectly hand cut noodles floating on the broth with a garnish of green parsley was my favourite!

I never saw my mom making noodles as she made this during the day when we where in school.. We would come home from school to see sheets of thinly rolled out dough draped on clean tablecloths hanging on doors to dry. The next day we would see the dining room table covered with floured cut noodles on a tablecloth to dry!

Sadly, when I used up the last package  of my Mom's homemade noodles frozen in my deep freeze, I cried! I never did have her recipe, just knew when there was an extra supply of eggs from the farm, she made  noodles to freeze!

I was determined to make great tasting noodles.. 

I convinced my husband to use my Aunt Mary's recipe 
5 extra large eggs
5 cup flour
1 cup hot water 

 

The dough was easy to handle, making a soft ball! It rolled out well in the pasta maker, but bunched and did not go through the blades to make noodles. Since everyone was hungry, some of the dough was rolled out, cut into strips, dusted with flour and then cut into small julienne pieces.  The rest of the dough was refrigerated. The noodles cooked quickly in the boiling water.

The youngest food critic loved the noodles with a little butter and parmesan cheese!

The birthday boy said "It was Freaking awesome!"

The next day, the rest of the dough was placed through the pasta maker armed with tons of flour which was used to dust the sheets of pasta and flour was sprinkled on the blades to make Fettucini!

Success with extra dusting of flour!

Last picture is nostalgic with memories of mom making noodles!

Pickled Grapes

My brother had an abundance of Concord grapes at the front of his house this fall.  I made him concentrate  juice for jelly from some of the grapes.  I decided to pickle a few bunches of the grapes and leave them on the stems.  

 I used the recipe with ginger and jalapeño peppers. The jalapeño peppers were from his garden. I picked up what I thought was crystallized ginger, only to find out it was pineapple!  

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 10 whole cloves
• 1/4 cup crystallized ginger
• 2 medium jalapenos, diced
• 1 bunch green or red seedless grapes, 

Having seen the above pictures, my daughter requested some jars to give as Christmas gifts for her friends, I used the following recipe with peppercorns and to one of the jars included crystallized ginger.. I also added 2 dried chilies to the brine! I also left the grapes on the stems and it was difficult to pack tightly, therefore didn't to mix up 2 batches of brine

1 pound red or black grapes, preferably seedless
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 (2 1/2-inch) cinnamon stick, cut in half
1/4 teaspoon salt