Messages

1

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Tulumba

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:57:39 AM »

Tulumba


(Fried pastry with syrup)


2 tablespoons melted margarine
1 glass flour
3 tablespoons water
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 glasses olive oil
Syrup: 2 glasses sugar
1 3/4 glasses water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
SYRUP:
Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan, and after melting the sugar by stirring, allow it to boil until moderately thick. Set aside to cool.

PASTRY:
Heat the margarine in a saucepan, add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and add the flour at once. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spool and continue until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. This should take 6 minutes, then remove pan from heat and set aside to cool.

When cool, add the eggs and knead for approximately 10 minutes, using a pastry bag with a large nozzle, put 7-8 pastries in a pan containing the heated olive oil. Start frying the pastry over low heat, increase heat when pastry puffs up a bit and fry until golden. Remove fried pastry with a perforated spoon, draining away the oil, then put into the syrup. Strain off the syrup, place tulumba on serving plate and serve cool.

 

2

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Gjellë me Arra të Ellit

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:55:42 AM »

Gjellë me Arra të Ellit

( Veal or Chicken with Walnuts)
Serves 4 people
 

2 tablespoons flour

15 finely crushed shelled walnuts

2 beaten egg yokes

1 minced garlic clove

1/4 lb. stick butter

2-3 lbs of Veal or Chicken meat, cut up in 1" cubes

 Place the meat or chicken in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until tender. Then remove the meat setting it aside in a dish while leaving the remaining juices in the saucepan. In another saucepan, add the flour and stir over heat until it becomes light brown in color (do not overcook!) and add the half a stick of butter. Then, add the finely crushed walnuts, minced garlic clove, and the two egg yokes, stirring constantly. Add the juices from the other saucepan and stir until all the ingredients thicken. Immediately remove from the heat to avoid solidifying the egg yolks. Then fold in either the meat or chicken. Pan fry the remaining half stick of butter until brown and pour over the four servings.

3

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Cracknel with Sesame

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:54:08 AM »

Cracknel with Sesame


1/4 kg (about 9 ounces) of pork fat or butter
1/4 kg of powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
2 packs of vanilla
150 g (about 5 ounces) of sesame
Melt the butter or pork fat, combine with the sugar, add the previously beaten eggs, the baking soda and the lemon juice. Mix everything well then add flour to obtain a dough with average solidity. Spread the dough to a piece of a height of 1 cm (less than half an inch). Use a cup to cut circle shaped pieces of cracknel. Dip the pieces of cracknel in milk, spread sesame on them and place them on a baking pan. Cook in a hot oven. Cracknels with sesame do not lose their freshness for a long time.

4

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Byrek me Spinaq

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:51:43 AM »

Byrek me Spinaq

(Spinach Pie)

1 cup oil, preferably olive oil
1 1/2 packets (or about 30) pastry leaves (Filo dough)
1 1/2 pounds spinach, chopped
1 cup diced feta cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 eggs
salt, half teaspoon


( NOTE: A medium-sized, round baking pan is recommended because it's more authentic but any medium-sized baking pan will do).

Brush the baking pan with some of the oil, and start laying the pastry leaves inside. First, lay two leaves, sprinkle or brush with oil, then lay two other leaves, and repeat the procedure until half of the leaves are laid. Make sure that they cover the pan by hanging them about one inch over the edges of the pan.

Sprinkle spinach with salt, then mix well by hand. Add the feta cheese, oil, onions, eggs and salt, and spread this mixture over the already laid pastry leaves. Finish by covering the spinach with the rest of the pastry leaves repeating the first-half procedure and then roll the hanging edges of the bottom leaves over the pie (think of a pizza crust), sprinkle top with oil and bake moderately at 3501_F for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanied with buttermilk, or beaten yogurt, thinned down in cold water or with chilled stewed prunes. Sometimes a green salad adds to the meal!

5

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Cookies (Albanian name: Kurabie)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:49:34 AM »

Cookies (Albanian name: Kurabie)

Ingredients:

1 cup of yogurt
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 packs of vanilla or the peel of half of a lemon
1 kg (about 35 ounces) of flour.

Cooking Instructions:

Mix the baking soda in the yogurt, add the above mentioned products one by one and prepare the dough. With hands covered with melted butter take pieces of the dough and shape into ovals about the size of a walnut, then place them on a butter covered baking pan and leave spaces in between each piece of dough. From above cover the pieces of dough with beat eggs, sprinkle sugar and cook in a medium-heat oven.

6

Kuzhina Shqiptare / BAKLLAVA (Albanian name: Bakllava)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:48:14 AM »

BAKLLAVA (Albanian name: Bakllava)

Ingredients:

1/2 kg (about 18 ounces) of ready made rolled dough
200 g (about 7 ounces) of pressed walnuts
3 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Cooking Instructions:
Spread the rolled dough, and sprinkle the walnuts with the cinnamon, then cover it with another layer of dough. Cut the baklava in equal squares or diamond shapes. Cover the baklava with melted butter and leave it to bake in a hot oven. Afterwards, leave it to cool. Prepare the syrup with the water and the sugar, using the amounts given above. Let the syrup boil for 5 minutes. Before removing the syrup from the heat, add the juice of half a lemon. Let the syrup cool for about 5 minutes, and then spread it on the baklava.

7

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Fried Eggplants, Zucchini and Green Peppers with Plain Yogurt (Albanian Name: Ta

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:47:48 AM »

Fried Eggplants, Zucchini and Green Peppers with Plain Yogurt (Albanian Name: Tarator)

Ingredients:

1250 gr. eggplants
1500 gr. zucchini
salt
a piece of cucumber finely chopped
250 gr. yogurt
2 tablespoons salt
4 cloves of garlic
salt

Cooking Instructions:

Peel the eggplants in lengthwise strips at 1 1/2 cm intervals, then cut either in circles or in long slices. Sprinkle salt over and place the eggplants in salted water for half an hour to drain off their bitter juices. Squeeze each eggplant before putting into hot oil. Fry both sides, drain away excess oil and place on a serving plate.
Scrape the skin of the zucchinis until their green parts can be seen, sprinkle with salt and leave aside for 1.5 hours. Put flour and water into a bowl and blend together. First place the zucchini in flour-water mixture and then into the hot oil. Fry until both sides are golden. Place them with the eggplants and peppers.
Mix cucumber and yogurt, pour over the fried vegetables (if desired, crushed garlic can be added to the yogurt).

8

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Tirana Furghes with Peppers (Albanian Name: Fergesë e Tiranës me speca)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:47:07 AM »

Tirana Furghes with Peppers (Albanian Name: Fergesë e Tiranës me speca)

Servings: 4
Ingredients:
Green or Red Peppers, half- pound
Red Tomatoes, one pound
Salted Cottage Cheese or Greek Feta Cheese, half-pound
Flour, one tablespoon
Butter, one quarter-pound stick
Virgin Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons
Add Salt, Black Pepper, and Chili Pepper to your taste

Cooking Instructions:

Peel the skin off the tomatoes and peppers. Sauté them in a saucepan for 5-7 minutes only in the olive oil and then set them aside to cool down for 15 minutes. Dice them the way you like. In another saucepan, melt the butter. Add flour, cottage or Feta cheese, and black pepper, salt and chili pepper to taste. Mix all the ingredients together and place them in saucepan. Put saucepan in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes. Take out and serve immediately.

9

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Fried Meatballs (Albanian Name: Qofte të fërguara)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:46:02 AM »

Fried Meatballs (Albanian Name: Qofte të fërguara)

Servings: 4
Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat
1 slice stale bread
1 small onion, finely-grated
2 tablespoons chopped Feta cheese
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper
Mint
Oregano
1 cup flour
1 cup oil (olive oil recommended)

Cooking Instructions:

Soak bread in water and squeeze hard to drain. Add ground meat, bread crumbs, oil or melted butter, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and mint. Mix thoroughly, and form into 1-inch thick patties, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oregano. Roll in flour and fry in hot oil. Serve hot with French Fries or mashed potatoes.

10

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Bean Yahni Soup (Albanian Name: Jani me Fasule)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:45:31 AM »

Bean Yahni Soup (Albanian Name: Jani me Fasule)

Servings: 4
Ingredients:

2 cups of dry white beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
salt, chili powder

Cooking Instructions:

Boil beans in hot water in an uncovered pot for 5 minutes. Rinse and boil for another 15 minutes in a covered stock pot in 3 cups hot water. Sauté onion in olive oil until it turns yellow. Add 2 tablespoons bean stock from the pot along with tomato sauce, parsley, salt and chili powder for taste. Cook for 10 minutes or until a thick sauce is formed, then pour everything into the pot. Add chopped mint, cover tightly and cool for 2 hours over low heat, or for 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. This should produce a thick juice, covering beans by _ inch. Serve hot.

11

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Albanian Vegetable Pies (Albanian Name: Byrek shqiptar me perime)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:44:42 AM »

Albanian Vegetable Pies (Albanian Name: Byrek shqiptar me perime)

Servings: 4-6.
Albanian pies are generally made of thin pastry leaves which can be rolled out at home or bought as FILO dough at a supermarket. Most of the pies prepared by Albanian cooks are not sweet; instead, pie fillings are almost always salty. Thus, a piece of such a pie may well serve as the main dish of a meal.

Spinach Pie (Albanian Name: Byrek me spinaq)

Ingredients:

1 cup oil, preferably olive oil
1 1/2 packets (or about 30) pastry leaves (Filo Dough)
1 1/2 pounds spinach, chopped
1 cup diced feta cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 eggs
salt, half teaspoon
(NOTE: A medium-sized, round baking pan is recommended because it's more authentic but any medium-sized baking pan will do).

Cooking Instructions:

Brush the baking pan with some of the oil, and start laying the pastry leaves inside. First, lay two leaves, sprinkle or brush with oil, then lay two other leaves, and repeat the procedure until half of the leaves are laid. Make sure that they cover the pan by hanging them about one inch over the edges of the pan.
Sprinkle spinach with salt, then mix well by hand. Add the feta cheese, oil, onions, eggs and salt, and spread this mixture over the already laid pastry leaves. Finish by covering the spinach with the rest of the pastry leaves repeating the first-half procedure and then roll the hanging edges of the bottom leaves over the pie (think of a pizza crust), sprinkle top with oil and bake moderately at 3501_F for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanied with buttermilk, or beaten yogurt, thinned down in cold water or with chilled stewed prunes. Enjoy it.

12

Kuzhina Shqiptare / Baked Lamb and Yogurt (Albanian Name: Tavë Kosi)

« on: March 30, 2008, 09:43:55 AM »

Baked Lamb and Yogurt (Albanian Name: Tavë Kosi)

Servings: 4
Ingredients:

1-1/2 lbs lamb
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons rice
Salt, pepper

For Yogurt sauce:

1 tablespoon flour
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
2 lbs. yogurt
5 eggs
Salt, pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Cut meat in 4 serving pieces, sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper, and bake in a moderately-heated oven with half the butter, sprinkling the meat with its gravy now and then. When meat is half-baked, add rice; remove the baking pan from the oven and leave it aside while you prepare the yogurt sauce:
Sauté flour in butter until mixed thoroughly. Mix yogurt with salt, pepper and eggs until a uniform mixture is obtained, and finally stir in the flour. Put the sauce mixture in the baking pan; sauté it with the meat pieces and bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes.
Serve hot.

13

Bota e madhe e Internetit / HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL APPROPRIATELY

« on: January 20, 2008, 04:25:23 AM »

 IMPORTANT!! HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL APPROPRIATELY
 
 
  A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a
  system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message
  that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the
  short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper
  procedures.
 
  Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% do; 50% DO NOT.
 
  Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
 
  Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the
  people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses &
  names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds,
  and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a
  virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address
  that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those
  addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you
  will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's
  right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!
 
  How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
 
  (1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that
  appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them.
  Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is
  you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the
  'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities
  against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on
  'Forward' first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.
 
  (2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the
  To: or cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind
  carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the
  people you send to will only see their own e- mail address. If you don't
  see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will
  appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that
  easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say
  'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it.
 
  (3) *****Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line. You can re-name the
  subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
 
  (4) ALWAYS hit your FORWARD button from the actual e-mail you are
  reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read
  the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual
  page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many
  e-mails just to see what you sent.
 
  (5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a
  position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10
  or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on
  and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT:
  The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a
  professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email
  addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it
  as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may
  carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and
  email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's
  supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don't
  believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't
  so!)
 
  (6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something
  like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run
  across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying
  something really cute will happen. IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me,
  I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I
  don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be
  why I haven't won the lottery??)
 
  (7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the
  other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward
  them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS!
  J ust about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be
  checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/
 
  Its really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please
  don't pass it on.
 
  So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
 
  Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip
  my address off first, please) And send them using the Blind Carbon Copy.
  This is something that SHOULD be forwarded