Grandma's Apple Taart

In the Netherlands, you don't have yiayias, you have omas. "Oma" is the Dutch word for grandma and the Oma's appel taart is a true Dutch delicacy. As I currently live away from my home country, I thought it appropriate to take a peek at what the Dutch have for us in terms of the traditional recipes, made famous by a generation of grandmothers whose lessons are sadly being forgotten. 


You will be hard pressed to find a dutch cafe that doesn't offer you koffee en gebak and it will always be a tempting looking apple tart. At every birthday party I attend here in the Netherlands, there is always a slice waiting for you. 


So, it's a real crowd pleaser and definitely one for the winter months. Thus, I urge you to make it and invite your friends and family over for koffie en gebak. 


Ingredients:


For the dough:
300g self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
175g (salted) butter
1/2 egg (save the rest for brushing the pastry)


For the filling:
1 kilogram apples (hard, sour ones), halved and sliced thinly or in sticks
75g raisins (soaked in water)
75g granulated sugar
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon (mmmmm)
juice of half a lemon


And some toasted bread crumbs to make sure the cake does not stick


Instructions:


Butter a round cake tin and sprinkle the bread-crumbs to line the tin. 


Combine all of the ingredients for the dough and work until smoothly combined. Wrap in cling-film and leave in the fridge. 

Now combine the ingredients for the filling in a bowl. 

Retrieve the pastry from fridge and roll it out to form the sides and bottom (for this I usually use the bottom of the cake tin as a guide. Then spoon the filling into the tin. Now roll out the rest of the pastry and make a thatch pattern on top, or alternatively a pattern of your choice. 

Brush with the remaining egg half and then pop it in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 175°C.

Serve with whipped or pouring cream and a sprinkling of icing sugar for decoration.

Yiayia's Yiouvarlakia (Γιουβαρλάκια Γιαγιάς)

It has taken me a while to really get the right inspiration for this blog, yet I think I have finally cracked it! I realised that living abroad makes you miss the really homely things in life. One of these things for me is my yiayia's cooking. Yet in many ways, being away has brought me closer to my culture than ever before. Me and my yiayia speak regularly now on the phone about recipes, and I am always calling her for inspiration when I can't decide what to cook. After all, she is the expert on feeding people well! 

Now, everyone probably thinks that their yiayia is the finest cook in the world and I am no exception. Somehow yiayia's manage to pack in a special ingredient (for scientific purposes I'll call it the 'yiayia factor'), which I believe is only available to you when you yourself become a yiayia. Even if you copy their instructions step-by-step, theirs will always taste better.

I want to keep these recipes alive, share them; their taste, their tradition, their ability to bring family together.

For me, my favourite food is an easy choice; Avgolemoni (Egg and Lemon soup). This soup is always different depending on whose family makes it and I have experience the good, the bad and even the ugly. So you should by now know what I am going to say...yes my yiayia's one is the most delicious. However, this recipe is not for Avgolemoni. This recipe is for Yiouvarlakia (Egg and Lemon soup with meatballs). It so reminds me of being in Cyprus, in a little traditional restaurant during the old days when Nicosia was not yet home to swish bars, starbucks and sushi. The recipe originally comes from Greece and my dad swears that his yiayia (my great grandmother) made the nicest one (what a surprise!) 

Ingredients: 

250g lamb mince

1 onion grated

100g rice 
hanful chopped parsley

2 eggs (yellows and whites separated) 

juice of 2 and a half lemons 

3 litres chicken stock 

Mix the onion, parsley, rice and lamb mince with some salt and pepper in a bowl until well combined. 

Roll into small balls, then fry them for in some olive oil until they are browned.

Add the chicken stock and simmer for about 30 minutes, then leave aside to cool a little. 


In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites a little (you can use an electric whisk) and then add the yellows. Keep whisking all the time and then add the lemon juice. Now add half a cup of water and (as I said before) don't stop whisking. Now add a ladle at a time of the stock from the pan into the bowl whilst whisking. When the bowl becomes warm you can stop whisking. 


Now slowly, whilst stirring, pour the contents of the bowl back into the pan. Stir well and leave. You can warm the soup a little when you are ready to eat but do not boil it again as the egg may curdle. 

Enjoy!