Vegetariantastic pie-age

Allo! This is the recipe for a vegetariantastic pie what we invented ourselves because we are very smart. Some of the measurements may be a bit off because I tend to estimate a bit - but the beauty of it is - that probably won't matter!

VEGETARIAN PIE-AGE

Ingredients:

Pastry:
~2 cup flour
~1/3 - 1/2 cup butter/margarine
~1/2 tsp salt
~2-3 tablespoons water (or more)
oil for greasing tray

Filling:
oil for frying
1 medium onion
1-2 chillis
2 cloves garlic
~2 tspn ground cumin
~2 tspn ground paprika
~1 tablespoon chopped oregano
any other herbs and spices you like, or not those ones if you don't like them
~2 tspn salt (or according to taste/heart conditions)
300g-500g mushrooms
1 cube vegetable stock dissolved in 1/6 cup boiling water
2 cups reconsituted dried soy meat
2/3 cup grated cheese

Side dishes:
Some vegetables?

Recipe:

Pastry:
Know how to make pastry right?
- Got an electric eggbeater? "Crumb" some butter and flour (if ye vegan, remember you can use margarine for this - I used some nice olive-oil based butter/marge combo). If no beater then you'll have to do it manually by rubbing but that is a painful process. How much? I used maybe half a cup of butter and maybe 2 cups of flour (estimate). Just make it look like nice fine crumbs. Half a teaspoon of salt is also a good addition but I often forget and it doesn't matter.
- Add some water (use as little as possible, usually a few tablespoons is sufficient - just mix it in a bit at a time) and mix to make a nice dough (just mix untill its consistent. it should hold together nicely, like putty). If you put a little bit of flour on it or your hands after you've mixed it, it can be easier to handle.
- Smooth much of it (3/4?) over a greased (with oil) pie dish where it'll receive the filling. This will need to go into the oven for 10 mins at maybe gas mark 6 (~200 centigrade) before the filling goes in to make it a bit less squishy and to stop it from absorbing the filling.
- The rest of the pastry will go in a very thin or partial (i.e. in bits) layer over the top after the filling is put in. I use my hands to flatten the pastry but if you've got a rolling pin that'd be ideal.
- The pie (with filling) will be in the oven for about half an hour (untill the top goes a bit golden with brown tinges probably optimal) on gas mark 6 (~200 centigrade).

Filling:
- Fry an onion and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic and two chopped chilis (if they're hot chilis put one) in some oil in a saucepan (your choice of the kind of oil you use, depending on how fancy you are).
- After the onions change colour nicely you can throw in some mushrooms (I usually just chop them very chunkily) and maybe 1/5 cup of very strong vegetable stock (I use one stock cube in the cup). Use as many mushrooms as you want as they gonna shrink anyway, maybe 300g or more? Put some salt in too - don't be shy - a few shakes - maybe a 1-2 teaspoons.
- While these are cooking you'll want to put in some spices - I use mainly oregano and cumin and paprika. Maybe a couple teaspoons of ground cumin seed and a couple tablespoons green oregano. I also put in a "barbecue mix" which is mainly paprika and some mixed spices. But what herbs and spices you use is completely down to you. The cumin can taste different if you put it in when you're frying the onions too.
- After it's nearly cooked (which will take about another 10-15 minutes) it'll all be shrunk down nicely. If it's still really liquid then put some flour (maybe a couple of tablespoons) in there and mix and cook a bit longer on a hot heat - it'll make it gravy-like.
- That mushroom mixture will be the first layer of the filling. Put it in the
- The second layer of the filling is soy meat - you might want to prepare this while the other stuff is frying. This stuff is awesomely cheap, you buy it dried in supermarkets for bugger all. To reconstitute it just soak it under some boiled water for a minute. After reconstitution I mixed some grated cheese with it (maybe 2 cups of soy meat in reconstituted form and 2/3 cup cheese). If you're a vegan maybe you'll have to do without the cheese.
- This second layer should be spread over top the first layer of filling and over top of this goes the remaining thin pastry. You can stick it in the oven and have it later.

Side dishes:
I like some steamed/microwaved vegetables with it - e.g. carrots & beans. Stick them on 10mins before the pie is to come out of the oven.

Afiyet Olsun!

Swedish Chocolate Balls

Our Lovely Swedish friend Isabella made this for us. I couldn't remember the recipe she gave me but I found a recipe online. It tastes great! So easy and delicious!

Afiyet Olsun!

Cook Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 24
Ingredients
8 dL (3 1/4 cups) oats
3 dL (1 1/4 cups) sugar (I used half icing sugar, half white sugar)
6 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract, added with the coffee)
150 g (2/3 cup) butter or margarine
6 Tbsp cold coffee
flaked coconut or pearl sugar
Directions
1.Mix oats, sugar, vanilla sugar, and cocoa in a large bowl.
2.Using your hands or a potato masher, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until the dough has an even consistency.
3.Add the coffee and mix until incorporated.
4.Fill a small bowl with flaked coconut or pearl sugar.
5.With your hands, roll the dough into 3 cm (1 inch) diameter balls.
6.Roll each ball in the coconut or pearl sugar and place on a tray.
7.Chill chocolate balls for at least one hour before serving.
Source : Swedish Chocolate Balls from the Wikibooks Cookbook -- original source of recipe, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Kalburabasti --a traditional Turkish dessert that I used to help my mom make it when i was a little girl:)

Recipe:

1 cup of milk

1.5 cups of vegetable oil

Baking Powder

Vanilla

1/2 cup of semolina

1 cup of Walnut

Plain flour (as much as you need to get a rollable soft dough)

*Give shape (i use the surface of a grater to give the shape--and don't forget putting walnut inside the rolled dough ) Bake them in oven gas mark 6 until it smells nice and you feel like it is ready :))

for the syrup

3 cups of sugar

2cups of water

* Stir sugar and water together, then after baking the dessert, let them stay in the syrup for a while :)

Afiyet Olsun!