Apple Strudel from Austria

Apple strudel is a delicious dessert which is very easy to make if you are prepared to cheat a bit.  While you can make your own pastry, I go the easy route and use shop-bought puff pastry.  However, I do use fresh apples instead of canned ones.  You can make one large strudel or several small ones.  While many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have the strudel as their main dessert, it supposedly originated in Vienna in Austria.

1 packet frozen puff pastry
4-5 apples peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup raisins
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Grease a baking pan.  Lay out the puff pastry sheet on the baking pan.  Place the apple slices down the centre of the puff pastry sheet.  Sprinkle the lemon juice, cinnamon and ginger over the apple slices.  Cover the apples with the raisins.  Fold the two sides over the apple mixture and turn the roll over so that the fold is on the underside.  Cut slits in the side facing up.  Alternatively you can cut the slits on the side pieces and fold it over in a criss-cross pattern.  Mix the milk with the egg and use this as an egg wash on the pastry.  Bake in the middle part of the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the strudel is golden brown.
Let it cool and then dust the top with icing sugar.  Serve with cream or vanilla ice-cream.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Ukraine.  She is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari and several novels.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.

Pita Bread from the Middle East

Like hummus, many Middle Eastern and North African countries lay claim to pita bread.  Therefore I am just giving the region it comes from rather than a specific country.
Pita bread is very easy to make, homemade is much tastier than the shop-bought varieties, and it freezes very well.  You can eat it with hummus or fill the pita pocket with whatever you like to eat.

1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
Mix the water and yeast and let it stand for about 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves.  Add the liquid to 2 and a half cups of the flour.  Add in the salt and olive oil.  Mix until you have a soft dough that does not stick to your fingers when you knead it.  Add a little more of the flour if it is too soft.  The dough needs to be kneaded until it is smooth and elastic.  Put it in a warm place to let it rise for about an hour or two.  Preheat the oven at 220 degrees Celsius.  Knead the dough again and divide it into 8 balls.  Flatten the ball with the palm of your hand on a floured surface.  Then roll out the flattened ball to make a thin circular shape about the size of a large saucer or side plate.  Bake the pitas for about 3 minutes until they start to puff up.  Although pitas are best eaten immediately, they do keep well in an airtight bag or container that is refrigerated.  Alternatively, cover the baked pitas individually in clingwrap and freeze them.
Cindy Vine lives and works in Ukraine and is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari and Survival Tips for the Suddenly Single.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.  She is currently working on a cookbook called Around the World on 80 Plates.

Pizza from Italy

There is absolutely no reason why you should be ordering in pizza.  It's easy to make pizza and your own tastes a lot better and you can put on your own topping combinations to suit your palate.  So no excuses.  From now on you can make your own.  Pizza parties are good fun.  You can prepare the bases beforehand and your guests choose their own toppings.
This is a thin crust pizza.
Crust
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt

You can add Italian herbs into the dough
Preheat the over to about 270 degrees Celsius.  In a mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients with the exception of the yeast.  Add the yeast to the lukewarm water.  Make a well in the centre of the flour and slowly pour in the yeast/water mixture, combining everything together.  Add in the olive oil.  Knead until it it not sticky and forms a ball.  Let your dough rest for about 10-20 minutes.  You can wrap it up in clingfilm and keep it in the fridge until you need to use it.  I've kept mine in the fridge for up to a week before using it.  Decide on the size of the pizzas you are making, and divide the dough up into balls.  This recipe make two large pizzas or 4 medium pizzas or 12 mini pizzas.  I pre-bake the bases for a couple of minutes until they are firm.  This stops the bases from getting soggy if you load them with toppings.  Brushing the pre-baked bases with olive oil before putting on the topping also stops them from getting soggy.
Toppings
This is entirely up to you.  I cheat and buy tomato-based pasta sauce and spoon that onto the base.  I add in some finely chopped garlic.  Then I sprinkle on a combination of grated cheddar and grated mozzarella cheese so that the tomato pasta sauce is covered.  Sprinkle on a little black pepper and Italian herb mix.  Add on the other toppings of your choice.
Pop it into the oven and bake until the cheese melts.
Cindy Vine is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari and Hush Baby.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.

Pork Curry from Northern Thailand

Sometimes cooking Thai food can be a challenge when you can't always get the ingredients you need when you want to make something from scratch.  That's when we reach for the ready-made sauces on the supermarket shelf.  But there is no need for that, sometimes we can substitute or add in other ingredients which will create similar flavours to the original you loved on a visit to Thailand or a Thai Restaurant.
In the traditional recipe I needed tamarind paste, fish sauce, bean paste, turmeric and lemongrass.  I can't find any of those where I stay so this recipe is my take on this classic Northern Thailand dish using ingredients I can find easily.  For those who don't eat pork you can use chicken instead.

4 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 onion sliced thinly
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons cooking oil
500g pork cut into thin slices
1/3 red chili seeded and sliced
1/3 green chili seeded and sliced
2 eggplant cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 handful chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons chopped kaffir lime leaves
2 teaspoons chutney
1/4 each of a green, red and yellow capsicum
1 can coconut milk.
salt and pepper to taste
Put the cooking oil in the pot or wok.  Add in the onion, garlic, ginger and chili and cook until soft.  Add the pork and brown it a little.  Add all the ingredients except the coconut milk.  Once it starts to boil let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add the coconut milk and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Season to taste.  Serve with rice.
Cindy Vine is a South African teacher currently living in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U @ 8, Not Telling and The Colorful Art of Pain.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback format.

Why this blog?

Besides writing I like cooking and traveling the world.  This past week I was visiting the beautiful old city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.  The many cafes, restaurants and themed bars make this city a gastronomic delight.  While there relaxing in cafes with some friends, drinking delicious Lviv spiced coffee, I got the idea to combine my love of writing, traveling, cooking, eating and photography into one book.  The title, Around the World on 80 Plates, came into my mind and I quite like it.
What I propose to do is find food I have encountered on my travels around the world that appeals to me, experiment with different recipes and create my version of that meal.  Once I have cooked it I'll take photographs and voila - an internationally-minded global cook book.
Of course I am going to have to do a lot of tasting.
My goal is to make the recipes as simple as possible.  Too often we balk at trying to cook something new and exotic as we think it will be too difficult.  We'll have to follow the KISS method.  Keep It Simple and Stupid.
The more I think about this the more excited I get.
Let's get cooking!
Cindy
xxx

Cindy Vine is the author of both fiction and non-fiction including The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby, Defective, C U @ 8, and The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari.  All her books are available on Amazon in both kindle and print format.  http://cindyvine.com