How to make CINNAMON BUNS like a Norwegian

Chunky Tomato Soup from Spain

This is a quick and easy and very tasty homemade tomato soup to make.  The flavour combinations give it that extra depth and you can be forgiven for picturing yourself sitting in a cafe in Spain when eating this.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 cans chopped tomato
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons mixed herbs
2 tablespoons Worcester sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 handfuls fresh herbs finely chopped (like thyme, coriander, oregano)
Put the olive oil in a pot and saute the onion and garlic until soft.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.  And then it's done!  I did say it was quick and easy!  Serve with toast or fresh bread.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv in Ukraine. She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U@ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B. All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. http://cindyvine.com

Pear Clafouti from France

With pears in the fridge needing to be eaten, I researched different recipes which used pears as their core ingredient.  Eventually I was attracted to a clafouti which is supposed to be the national dessert of France.  Granted it is usually made with black cherries.  This recipe is unbelievably easy to make.  I was actually shocked that something so delicious could be so simple.  I served it with a thin pouring custard, but it could just as easily be served with whipped cream or ice-cream.

3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 pears peeled, cored and sliced
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.  Grease a pie dish.  Lay the pear slices on the bottom of the pie dish.  In a mixing bowl mix together the remaining ingredients to form a thin batter.  Pour the batter over the pear slices.  Pop the pie dish into the hot oven and bake for 40 minutes until the batter has set and is golden brown.  Serve hot with pouring custard, cream or ice-cream and be prepared for your dinner guests to be wowed.  They will not believe how something with such a grand sounding name could be so quick and easy this was to make.
Cindy Vine is the author of Hush Baby, Not Telling, Defective and C U @ 8.  All her books are available on Amazon in both kindle and paperback formats.  Cindy is currently working on a recipe book.

Chicken Tinola from Philippines

An easy one pot dish that leaves your mouth feeling fresh, Chicken Tinola is a classic Filipino dish.  This is my take on the dish as some of the traditional Filipino ingredients aren't easily obtainable so I've substituted them with similar.  The traditional recipe uses papaya.  This is enough to feed 2 people and you have have it with rice or without.

2 chicken breast fillets
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 chili finely chopped
1/2 cup sherry
1 onion thinly sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger cut into thin sticks
6 kale or spinach leaves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups water
1 mango cubed
2 tablespoons oil
Put the oil in a pot, add the onions, garlic, chili and ginger and cook until the onion gets translucent.  Add in the chicken breasts cut into cubes and cook them until a little browned.  Pour in the soy sauce and sherry along with the water.  Let it cook until about half of the liquid is reduced.  Add in the chopped kale leaves and mango cubes and let it simmer until the kale leaves are soft.  Serve in a bowl as a delicious chicken stew.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living in Ukraine.  She's the author of Hush Baby, Not Telling, Defective, The Case of Billy B and C U @ 8.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print formats.

Custard Tarts from Portugal

These custard tarts are one of my favourites.  If you get unexpected guests for afternoon tea you can knock them up in no time.  You can find them in all the places in the world where the Portuguese had colonies.  The Portuguese might have left there but their custard tarts remained.  In Portugal these are called Pasteis de Nata.

1 cup milk
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup white sugar
3 egg yolks
1 roll of puff pastry
Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius.  Unroll the puff pastry and use an upside down  glass to cut circles out of the pastry.  Lightly grease a muffin pan and place the puff pastry circles inside the muffin pan.  In a small pot combine the milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla.  Use a soup ladle to remove some of the milk mixture and add it to the beaten egg yolks.  Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the pot stirring continuously as it will start to thicken quite quickly and you don't want any lumps.  Let it simmer while you keep stirring, for another 5 minutes.  Fill the pastry-lined muffin cups with the mixture and pop into the oven.  Allow it to bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the pastry cases are golden brown and the filling is lightly brown on the top.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby and Defective.  All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.  http://cindyvine.com

Meatballs from Sweden

For those of you who have an Ikea close-by, Swedish meatballs will be a dish you are familiar with.  Alas no Ikea where I am, so that means I have to make my own Swedish meatballs.  They are easy to make.  You can make the meatballs in advance and the gravy just before you are ready to serve.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 eggs
500g pork mince
500g beef mince
1 onion finely diced
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
4 cups water
1 beef stock cube
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley for garnish
Combine onion, mince, eggs, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Mix until well-combined.  Roll the mixture into small meatballs.  Put the olive oil in a pan and fry the meatballs until all the sides have browned.  This should take about 4-5 minutes.  Drain on a plate lined with kitchen towel.  These can be made the day before and kept in the fridge.
To make the rich, creamy gravy melt the butter in a pot.  Add the flour and mix well.  Slowly add in the water with the beef stock cube, stirring all the while as it starts to thicken.  Let it cook for a few minutes then stir in the sour cream.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add in the meatballs and allow to simmer for another 8-10 minutes.  Serve as an appetiser or with rice or pasta as a main.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby and Defective.  All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.  http://cindyvine.com

Ceviche from Peru

This dish is my son's favourite.  When I told him I was going to try out recipes from around the world to make a cookbook, he said that I had to include ceviche.  So here it is!  Ceviche in different forms is made all over Central and Southern America.  Fresh and healthy!  A great starter.

10 coarsely chopped garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablsepoons fresh cilantro/coriander chopped
3 green chilies finely chopped
1 red onion thinly sliced
1 kg white fish fillets cubed
5 large limes freshly squeezed
1 stick celery finely chopped
1 cucumber cubed
1/2 red capsicum cubed
1/2 yellow capsicum cubed
1/2 carrot cubed
1 sweet potato
1 handful of corn kernels
Cut the fish into small chunks.  Place them in a bowl with the juice from the limes and a sprinkle of salt.  Add in the onion, chopped coriander, garlic and chilies.  Mix well.  Cover the bowl with clingwrap and place in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.  Cut the sweet potato into cubes and put them on to boil.  When they are cooked but not so soft they fall apart, put them aside to cool.  Get a salad bowl and put in the celery, cucumber, capsicum and carrot.  Sprinkle with the salt and pepper and use your hands to mix it all together.  Add in the corn kernels and cooked sweet potato cubes.  Take the fish out the fridge and drain off the lime juice.  You'll see that the fish has changed colour and become white.  It has cooked in the lime juice.  Add the fish, chili, onion, garlic mixture to the salad.  You have now made Peruvian ceviche!
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby and Defective.  All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.  http://cindyvine.com

Garlic Bread from Italy

Garlic bread goes with so many different dishes and is so easy to make yourself.  There is no reason to buy shop-bought garlic bread.  You can make up quite a few garlic breads and keep them in your freezer until you need them as they freeze really well.  You can pile on the garlic, add in more herbs, personalise it.  When you make your own, you have the power.

1 large baguette
100g butter softened
10 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
tin foil
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Divide the baguette into 20cm pieces if very long.  I used a large baguette that I made into three garlic breads.  Add the softened butter, finely chopped garlic, thyme, salt and pepper together.  Using a butter knife, mix it all together so that you have a spreadable paste.  Make 2.5cm slices into the bread but don't go all the way through.  Put a generous dollop of the butter mixture between each slice.  Spread a little of the butter mixture on the top of your garlic bread.  Wrap the bread in the tin foil and heat in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Serve hot and crispy on the outside, soft and buttery inside.  This is a perfect accompaniment to soups, pastas and barbecues.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby and Defective.  All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.  http://cindyvine.com

Cornish Pasties from England

Traditional English Cornish pasties have beef, onions, potatoes and swedes in them.  The Cornish say peas and carrots in a pasty is a crime.  Perfect comfort food for a cold, drizzly climate.  However we don't have to be so traditional.  There is no reason why you can't add in vegetables that are currently in season just so long everything you put in is chopped to the same size.  The meat and vegetables traditionally go in raw and cook inside the pastry.  But there is no reason why you can't use leftover lamb roast and veggies from the night before.  For my Cornish pasties I am using leftover rabbit from my Lapin a la Cocotte.
Make the dough several hours before and keep in the refrigerator.
Shortcrust Pastry
3 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter into small blocks
1/2 cup iced water
egg wash consisting of 1 egg and 2 tablespoons milk
Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add in the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingers until you have a mixture resembling coarse breadcrumbs.  Pour in a little iced water, a tablespoon at a time and cut it into the butter and flour mixture with a knife.  As soon as the dough holds together and forms a large ball it is done.  Put it on a piece of clingwrap, flatten it into a large rectangle, cover with the clingwrap and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
When you are ready to make the pasties, heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Divide your pastry into about 6-8 pieces.  On a floured board roll out each piece until you have a side plate-sized circle.

You will place the filling on one side of the circle, and then brush some egg wash around the edge and fold over the other part of the circle so that you now have a perfect semi-circle.  Seal the edges of the pastry together by decoratively crimping the edge with a fork.
Brush the tops of the pasties with egg wash and bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until golden brown.
Filling
2 cups cubed meat
2 cups cubed potatoes
2 cups cubed veggies
2 cups sliced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
healthy sprinkle of olive oil
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon rosemary
Mix all filling ingredients into a large bowl and spoon onto the pastry.  Remember you can use leftovers and add in other vegetables in season.  Just make sure that, besides the seasonings, the filling ingredients are all cubed into the same size.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She's the author of Hush Baby, Defective, Not Telling, C U @ 8 and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.  http://cindyvine.com

Koosa from Lebanon

An old school friend of mine, Jeannette Ferriera Mostert, shared her favourite recipe with me and I decided to do a little research and then do my own take on it.  The traditional koosa dish consists of a large marrow stuffed with a mince and rice mixture and boiled in a tomato based sauce.  Where I live I can't find those large marrows so this take on the traditional recipe is a little different.  Just think of it as a deconstructed koosa.

2 large courgettes (baby marrows) or a punnet of small ones
400g mince
1/2 cup long-grained rice
salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup water or chicken stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Bulgarian yoghurt
Mix the mince, seasonings, rice, garlic, chili and onion together in a bowl.  Form into meatballs and place on the bottom of a large pot.  Slice the courgettes into rings and some of it into about 3cm long thin slices.  Lay the sliced courgettes on top of the meatballs.  Pour over the can of whole peeled tomatoes and the small can of tomato paste.  Add the water and lemon juice so that the food is covered.  Cook on medium heat for about 45 minutes until the rice inside the meatballs is cooked.  Add extra water if need be to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.  When serving you can pour Bulgarian yoghurt over the meatballs.
Cindy Vine is a South Africa currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Not Telling, Defective, Hush Baby and C U @ 8.  All her novels are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.

Irish Stew from Ireland

A hearty, tasty, flavoursome dish with a rich gravy heavily laced with alcohol.  Just the aroma of it cooking should send you to Seventh Heaven.

The stew has quite a bit of liquid and is best served with freshly baked soda bread which you can use to mop up the gravy.  Serve in bowls rather than on plates.  This is Irish cooking at its best!

Irish Stew

2 large onions chopped

6 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1.5kg beef chuck cubed

1 x 440ml can Guiness

1 cup red wine

½ cup whiskey

6 cups water

1 stock cube

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon Worcester sauce (soy sauce)

3 carrots diced

6 potatoes diced

2 sticks celery chopped

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

Put the cooking oil into the pot and saute the onions and garlic.  Add the meat cubes and brown the meat so that it is just sealed.  Pour in the alcohol and water.  Add the stock cube, tomato paste, thyme, sugar, Worcester sauce, black pepper and chili powder.  Bring to the boil then reduce to medium heat.  Let it cook for an hour.  Add in the carrots, potatoes and celery,  Continue to let it simmer for another hour.  Serve with freshly-baked.soda bread.

Cindy Vine is the author of Not Telling, Defective and Hush Baby.  She currently lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.  Her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format.

Hummus from the Middle East

I am not allocating hummus to a country but rather to a region.  Israelis and Arabs both claim it as their own and it's best not to argue with either of them.  So we'll just say that hummus is a classic dip from the Middle East and will be found on menus all over the region and in North Africa.
Homemade hummus is far tastier than the shop-bought ones and is surprisingly easy to make.  Whereas I put in curry powder in this recipe you can leave it out and add in pumpkin or roasted capsicum, or whatever takes your fancy.  This is a tahini-less recipe as one can't get tahini where I live.  I bought dried chickpeas, soaked them overnight and then cooked them until soft.  You can cheat and buy a can of ready-cooked chickpeas.  We won't hold that against you!

Hummus
2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon chili powder
Gather all your ingredients and throw them into a blender.  Blend until smooth.  The end.  As easy as that.
I sprinkle a little paprika on mine after I've spooned it into a bowl, and then dribble a little olive oil onto it. Just to pretty it up.

Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Ukraine.  She is the author of The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari, The Colorful Art of Pain, Hush Baby and The Case of Billy B, all available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.

Bread and Butter Pudding from England

This is my family specialty. My Granny used to make it. Even my brothers can make it and that is saying a lot as they don't make anything else in the kitchen, except maybe a mess. This tasty pudding is easy to conjure up quickly if you have uninvited guests dropping by for dinner and you want to impress them with your culinary skills. This is what you have to scrounge in the kitchen:

2 cans condensed milk
10 slices bread
butter or marge for spreading
handful of raisins (optional)
2 cans boiling water (just pour the water into the empty condensed milk cans)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or some orange essence if you want a citrussy flavour
If you thought the ingredients were easy then you'll be even more impressed with the method. It doesn't get much easier than this.
• lightly butter both sides of the slices of bread
• cut off the crusts and dice the slices into small

squares
• grease a baking dish and put the oven onto about 180 degrees Celsius
• throw the bread squares into the greased dish so it covers the dish quite evenly
• mix together in another bowl the condensed milk, boiling water, eggs and essence
• pour the liquid mixture over the bread squares
• you can sprinkle a little cinnamon on if you want
• put into the oven for about 45 minutes or until golden brown
• serve just like that or with cream or ice cream or custard
Cindy Vine is a South African living in Ukraine and is the author of Hush Baby, Defective and C U @ 8. All her books are available on Amazon in print and on Kindle.