shain

A blueberry muffin I had frozen for a while. Crisped in the oven. Chai masala.

A little late for hanukkah, but still I wanted to make sufganiyot (doughnuts). They are yeast risen, the dough is sweetened and lightly enriched with butter and eggs. Untraditionally, I steam them before filling and shallow frying . This makes the frying quicker, the doughnuts crisper; and you don't need to wait for them to chill in order to fill them. I made quite a few (the photos are from the first of three batches). Some went to the freezer for later use. "Classic" with a strawberry jam (home made) and powdered sugar. Dulce de leche and coconut. Mini doughnuts with cinnamon and brown-sugar for dipping (it didn't stick :P).

@Nicolai A beautiful cuisine it is, and looks well executed. The ouzi pie is new to me - what is it wrapped with?

Filo cups with mushrooms, feta cheese and nigella.

Cornmeal, sour cream and rosemary biscuits. Beans and corn salad with tomato, avocado, onion, coconut cream, chili, coriander seeds and leaves.

Galaktoboureko (filo pie filled with milk and semolina custard). With orange caramel syrup (caramel, orange zest, orange water. No butter/cream). Also added a hint of cinnamon and rosemary between the filo sheets. Some adjustment needed, the bottom wasn't as crispy as I'd like and the filling not custardy enough (needs more eggs, less semolina). But I don't think that It's be easy to solve one issue without making the other worse (water filling = soggier crust). So I might bake the filling and crust separately next time.

Wheat berry pilaf, with mushrooms, chestnuts, chickpeas. Plenty of thyme, butter, also cumin and garlic. A hint of cinnamon and mace. Spicy tomato salad.

Corn and egg drop soup. Some of the corn blended for creaminess, the rest intact. Flavored with shiitake mushrooms, light soy sauce, light miso, chili, pepper.

In Israel those cookies (in a more subtly spiced version) are quite popular (or once were, less so today). We call them דובשניות (lit. Little honeyed things). The coating here is always like in yours not very thick, and therefore not uniform. It gives them a snowy/icy look. IMO, the version in the recipe has an overly thick coating to it. I can assume it will also be too sugary.

Potato latkes. As every year, served with brown sugar and sour cream. No love for applesauce in my family.

Last evening in Georgia. A plate of herbs. Garlicky roasted eggplant. Meaty and slightly oily. The garlic spiciness comes through. Mchadi - a corn bread. This version also contained chopped cheese. It is very crisp, tender and flavorfull. Kharcho - beef stewed in a rich walnut sauce, with garlic, tomato and coriander. Various mushrooms with onion, herbs garlic and butter.

Bulgarian pasta salad with sirene cheese, roasted peppers, olives, oregano, basil, sun dried tomatoes, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Rich mashed potatoes. Gigante beans with mace.

They are pre cooked. Placed at the bottom, they capture the sauce droppings that otherwise just pool there. They also add protein and makes this dish (plus some chopped salad) a full meal.

Cauliflower gratin with mornay, thyme, garlic, nutmeg, black lentils (they are there under the cauliflower). A nice rye ale.

Filo cups with ricotta and strawberries. Mint and pistachio.

Khoresh bademjan. Khoresh sabzi. Crispy rice.

After a visit at the park, we decided to have khachapuri for lunch. Grape "lemonade" - i.e. grape soda. Flavored with local wine grapes, it was tasty, if very sweet. Lobiani - filled with beans paste. The dough was thin and crisp, but the filling too dry. Adjaruli khachapuri - made from the same dough, but being thicker due to how it's shaped, results in a very different quality. The dough is airy and soft, with notable yogurt flavor and very low on salt. We removed the pat of butter, as the filling seemed rich enough. It had a tart, yogurt flavor as well as a light sheep cheese flavor. It is consumed by removing pieces of the crust and sipping into the cheese. We also find it works well to dip the lobiani into the cheese.

Yes those are meat grinder parts. Your market seems massive!

"Dry bridge market" - where you can probably find any second-hand item you could imagine.

It seems tasty for sure, but not exactly like what we had there. The dough seems too lean. Other recpies I saw use milk or yogurt, those that do use only water include some butter. The inclusion of rice seems strange to me, but I haven't had the the meat filled version, so I can't say for sure. I'll suggest skipping it so you get a more consentrated filling, and make the pastries smaller to compensate (part of their charm was being small enough to be eaten out of hand if desired). Adding some coriander seeds and parsley to the filling can be nice as well.

I haven't had a Lebanese fatayer in ages (however the Palestinian flat fatayer is a favorite of mine). I won't consider them very similar to this Georgian pastry, this dough was much more tender and rich, I think some potato might have been mixed into the dough.

That's the Ghvezeli - it's made a a tender dough (I'm not sure if it's yeast raisen or perhaps made with yogurt), filled with either ground meat, potatoes, or in this case mashed beans.

Last breakfast in Georgia, at the hotel. A Russian style layered salad of sorts. Very flavorful potatoes as basae, mayo, sweet crisp shredded beets, crunchy shredded carrot, boiled eggs and dill. Tomatoes with walnut paste and parsley. Ghvezeli filled with flavorfull mashed beans. This is a crispy pan fried pastry, with soft dough. There were also bread and cheese, as before.

I'm way behind posting on this thread! It's been quite a while since we returned and life is being busy as ever. I'm glad I took notes during the trip or I wouldn't remember a thing by now

Puffing occurs whenever a dough with sufficient air bubbles is heated rapidly. In this regard, a pita in not different than any other hearth bread baked at high temperatures. Letting the dough raise after rolling lets new air bubbles be created as an insurance against access degassing at the rolling stage. The thinner the pita is rolled, the more distinct the pocket will be. Roti is on the extreme of this spectrom - rolled very thin so that after puffing it collapses into two thin layers. A good pita (of the kind I associate with the word the most) should not be rolled too thin. This allowes the pita to have fluffy and bready "walls" rather than papery ones. Hand pressing it as thick as one whould shape a pizza crust is the way to go.