Diaspora

Since I posted the recipe for Turkish koftas (below:)) I've come to an interesting chapter of the book I'm currently reading: "People without land" - "Folk uten land" by Jan Brøgger. Brøgger is an anthropologist, and he is writing about the minorities of Europe (and to some extent Africa); the Greek minority in Southern-Italy, the Rom, the German minorities of Romania and Russia, the Sephardic jews in Turkey, the Ethiopian jews. To my surprise, there is also a Turkish minority in Lithuania, the Karaites, of some claimed to be Jewish, but in the Lithuanian group however, some deny the Karaites have anything to do with judaism. Appearently, when the book was written, the Lithuanian embassador in Turkey was Karaite, choosen because she could speak perfect turkish. The language has been kept quite intact, it seems.

"The Lithuanian Karaites originated in Crimea. In 1392, the Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Tatars and relocated 330 Crimean Karaite families to Lithuania. They settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, maintaining their Turkic language; there has been further minor settlement in Birzai, Pasvalys, Naujamiestis and Upyte.Despite a history through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that included disease, famine, and pogroms, Lithuania was somewhat less affected by such turmoil than surrounding areas. As a result, Lithuanian Karaim had a relative sense of stability over those years, and maintained their isolation as a group, keeping their Turkic language rather than abandoning it for the local languages."

It made me think of Liepaja, and the Turkish "minority" that excisted there, during my stay:) The four Erasmus students from Istanbul! Why on earth they went to Liepaja? It was, the only option for exchange... I'm glad they were there with us. Meral and Hikmet invited us to dinner one night in december, they made Imam bayildi ("the imam fainted") for us, eggplant stuffed with minced beef, garlic, onion and tomatoes. And some delicious yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and olive oil mix......

For Hannah!

Oh, dear, I've been to busy with school and my bachelor's thesis too update the blog! Shame on me, hello, what about all the millions of disappointed readers (worldwide) of my blog, sitting now, trembling, with abstinences, barely holding on to life, knowing that Jelena don't post on her blog anymore??? Haha. Well to all my fanatic readers: a new update. Especially for Hannah though! It's the turkish meatballs I made for our fellow-student-tapas-night some weeks ago. Big success. I ate more or less for 5 hours. And had to take a taxi home (truth!). :)

Turkish koftas (supposed to be grilled in the oven, but my oven is from the stone-age and hence, do not have such fancy things, so I just fried them)

Makes 16 meatballs

400 g of minced meat, or minced meat from lamb

1 tbls chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 ts salt

And now, for the spices:

I went all around town to get hold of fresh coriander and dried mint, but oh no, Bergen could not supply me with this. So I bought a packet of "Shish kebab"-mix (dear God...) and put some more dry coriander and cummin in it.

BUT: suddenly I realized that there wasn't enough meatballs for a hungry gang of students. So I made a second batch, and put some home-made spice mix I had laying around in it:

Kazakh spice mix

1 tbls cinnamon

1 tbls nellik (i don't know what it is in english..)

2 tbls cummin

1/2 tbls cardamon

1/2 tbls muskat

Mix spice mix and rest together with your hands, make meatballs and fry! Put on wooden sticks afterwars:)

Yoghurt sauce:

Since there, as written, was no dried mint to be found, I used flatleaf-parsley instead:

200 g yoghurt naturell

flatleaf parsley, chopped, I don't know, maybe 2 tbls?

1 clove of garlic, chopped

salt and pepper

some lemon juice

Mix and let stand for a while! Serve everything with some lemon, nicely slice into.."boats".:)

At home

I'm at home, with my family. And the cat, Tutu:) So I wanted to make something...A challenge though, considering my parents are not particularly fond of making food (but love eating it:)). But; found some blueberries in the freezer, and a lemon(not in the freezer) and flour is always available...

So it became a Blueberry-pudding. It's  simple, just take some berries (blackberries and raspberries works also) mix with sugar&lemon juice in a ovenproof tin, make a paste from flour, baking soda, sugar, one egg, some cinnamon and melted butter, and add it on top, then bake for 30 min or so. Anyway, not so very exciting in itself, but, I made a genius choice, by adding some brown cheese (Fløtemysost, not the one with goats milk in it) on top of the warm pudding.
D e l i c i o u s.... I could also imagine it to be even better with some creme fraiche by it's side in addition, or kesam. We just had some vanilla sauce with it. 

And then, off course me and my Mentor; Besta (Granny) made something, as we always do. It was potetkaker (potato cakes) she thought me this time. Of course made on her "takke". (oh, the takke, what joys it has served me! What comfort! What increasing body mass index at the age of ten!) Potato cakes is popular across Norway, and is frequently served as a wrap to a common boiled saussage. On the national day. Hurrah!

This however, is for your afternoon coffee. It's quite straight forward. You just need some good sort of potatoes,boiled, salt and flour. Mash and mix together, then bake out thin.

The thing is what's inside these little devils. Butter and sugar is always good. Then you could have syrup to go further, or even, maplesyrup to take a walk on the wild (international) side. Jam. Marmelade. Prim. And why not honey? Nugatti? Peanutbutter and Sjokade? Orangeblossomwater?? The clue is to make the insides sweet, since the cakes are not. For festive events my grandmother would fill them with a buttery cream, made of butter, double cream (lukewarm) in equal amounts, and then sugar, sugar, sugar, and maybe some cinnamon. Mix with great pleasure, I imagine. 

Besta by the way, master of understatements: "I'm really no expert at this, I've just been making this kind of food, for, well... about 40 years."

Helene wants to show off her hat!

So, in the spirit of facebook-updates, I give you...The Hat...:

Nice, huh? (Nice= the only positive adjective in the english language that is known to me, hence, I use it for every occasion.)

In the spirit of the past days and weeks events in Norway, regarding the debate about allowing the hijab as a part of the police-uniform or not, here is something totally non-religious, non-cultural and non-supressing, though head-embracing. Or?

I still can't agree with myself upon this case actually, knowing how some women are so emotionally attached to their hijab, that it would be like walking down the street naked without it. So how can we demand them to remove it?
But also realizing that the police-uniform is supposed to be something neautral, and represent the enforcement of Norwegian law, without any religious or cultural signs attached to it.

Well. I think this debate cannot agree with itself either. Because the hijab can be so many, and are so many things in one, and what it represents is individual from woman to woman, the debate in itself is almost pointless. One minute it's about cultur, then about religion, then about the emancipation of women...Then about norwegian politicians going on holiday, leaving all head accessories and the trouble that follows with them behind.
Although, I heard he went on a ski vacation... I'm sure he could use a blue hat with a golden ribbon to keep warm.

And: would recommend everybody to come to Studentersamfunnets lecture next Wednesday at Logen about "Imperialistic feminism": http://samfunnet.uib.no/index.php?vm=program&id=572

Baklava part 3: Oh, sweet sin...

I am from now on known as the master of baklavas! First attempt, and successss:)
It tasted however differently from the baklava I ate last time I was in Oslo, my recipe has much more nuts in it. But it was good, so good. And behold, I will give you the instructions (yes, instructions, you follow them word by word to make it perfect!)

- Baklava -

- serves... 50...possibly

First of all, you make the syrup.
It contains of 500 g sugar, mixed with 3,75 dl water, and 1,5 ts lemon zest. Bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Turn down the heat, and let simmer for 5 min more. It says in the recipe that it should thicken, but it did not, so I was quite worried, remembering last time I was suppose to make something that was suppose to thicken eventually, but didn't. Suffering from Post-traumatic stressyndrom, my pulse rose, but concluded that it would thicken after cooling. So, I added 0,5 dl honey (used some expensive turkish one), 0,5 dl lemon juice, and 2 tbls OrangeBlossomWater. Smells divine, by the way. Cook for another 2 min and set to cool. (VERY IMPORTANT: has to be all cold when it hits the cake itself.)

And the cake.

Chop 200 g walnuts, 200 g almonds and 200 g unsalted pistachios finely. Allow at least one hour if you do this manually, or use some kitchen aid that students don't have. Try not to cut your fingers into it. Mix this with 2 tbls sugar and 2 (I used 3) ts of cinnamon. Melt 200 g of unsalted butter (the only type available in Norway: 250 g package of Tine Usalta Smør). Brush a rectangular form (30x27 cm) with the butter (I just used a big oven form, and made it smaller with a bread pan) I also used some baking sheet in the bottom. Put one layer of filo-dough in it, brush with butter and continue doing so with 10 layers. Put half the nuts on it, press down. Continue with 5 more layers. Then add the rest of the nuts. Put the rest of the filo dough on top (Used about 400-450 g of it), press down and cut into squares. Pour the rest of the butter on top. Press down again with your hands. Put in the middle of the oven on 170 C, for 30 min, turn down to 150 for another 30 min. (I put baking sheet on top to prevent it from getting burned).

AH, the smell!!

Then, make sure your syrup is absolutely cold...And when the cake comes out of the oven; cut it again, and poor the syrup over. The sound that makes...It's like hearing your first born say "Mamma". ;D This is IMPORTANT, to get the right consistence. Then leave to cool. We ate it the same day, put then the taste of the butter and cinnamon was too dominant I thought, this morning however, it was like eating litte pieces of heaven with gold on top. Haha. I'm turning overly poetic here. Over the top sweet and way to sticky. Just like...

...Baklava...mother of cakes!

Something finished

So, I finished the cute blue hat. It is very cute, and will be even more nice when I buy one beautiful ribbon to put in it. This has to be done after I've finished the assignment I'm currently writing. The deadline is today, but all I want to do is go to town and buy ribbons. Maybe I'll throw this social worker-career of mine out of the window (from the 20th floor with some sement attached to it) and become a full time knitter. Or maybe I will just try to knit people's problems away:D

So. I will post pictures of the hat when I've gotten hold of this ribbon: to be continued on the hat then!

And. Found a very very adorable pattern for baby Selbu-mittens (traditional Norwegian mittens, picture of them to the right). I want to make this for my good friend Sveta, in Moscow, she's having a baby in june! (of course I realize that the baby won't need mittens in june, but winter comes fast and strikes hard over there in Rossija, so the baby should be prepared I figure.) She doesn't know the sex of the baby yet, but I have some red yarn, and I think I want to make them red with a white pattern. Is that ok for a Russian boy you think, or will he be teased in kindergarten for his feminine accessories??

Baklava part 2

I FOUND IT!!! The happiness I felt when I laid my eyes on that small bottle of what is mentioned in my book to be "destilled juice from the bitter Sevilla orange" (where the flower idea comes from, puzzles me a bit) is impossible to describe!! Ah.

Agua de Flor L'aranja it says. Beauty on a bottle.