Sayat Nova or Synesthetic Cinematography

Sofiko Chiaureli in Sayat Nova - The Colour of the Pomegranates (1968)

Almost impossible to describe is the nostalgic and aethereal feeling of the works of the Soviet Armenian cinematographer Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990). Archetypes of the collective memory of the Caucasus between Byzantine Icons, Persian poetry and early 20th century décadence, put together in dream-like sequences of exceptional beauty. The extremely slow movements of the characters are meticulously choregraphed into a almost mute dance, imbued in the deep sorrow of purple drops of pomegranate juice on ancient cloth. 

Watch the entire movie in its full beauty here.
With these magic pictures in mind I am working when I prepare some Georgian dishes...
Eggplants in Nut Sauce
Cut 1 kg of eggplants into slices, leave them with some salt on the surface for 40 min in order to let them loose some water, fry in vegetable oil, put aside.
Cut in a mixer 1/2 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 200g of walnuts, 1 cup of fresh coriander leaves, 1/2 cup of flat-leaved parsley, 2 tablespoons of fresh dill, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt, pepper and turmeric powder, eventually adding some water.
Coat the eggplant slices from both sides, fold in half, decortate with pomegranate seeds, serve with white bread.
Enjoy.

A Fall Taste of Pears

Pears are my beloved fruits. I could eat them endlessly. But I am reluctant to buy fresh goods from oversea just to eat fruits outside their season. So I found my solution in preserving all kind of fruits I get my hands on. Mixing them. Spicing them up.

Preserves are so easy to make. Clean & cut 1kg of fruits. Add 500g 1+2 preserving sugar, cook like described on the sugar package. Add spices if you like. With pears I like vanillia or cardamom :-)

Garden Pleasures: Green "Involtini"

In these last days of august we start thinking of fall... And befor everything will change colours to yellow, orange and red I wanted to use as much as possible of the wonderful green herbs from my tiny garden.
So today not a really "oriental" recipe, it became more a "symphony in green"!


Basically it modified the famous "saltimbocca" using only green stuff!
And now everything step-by-step.

Ingredients:
sage, rosemary, thyme
2 chicken breasts
1 zucchini
pitted green olives (you can also cut the pits out as I did)
toothpicks
1-2 garlic cloves
olive oil
flour
crème fraiche

Slice zucchini with a potato peeler and chicken breasts into slim stripes. Put the meat on a zucchini slice, add above one olive and the herbs.


Curls everythin to a small roll, fix it with a tootpick. Heat oil in a pan, fry with chopped garlic and a little bit of flour to thicken the sauce. Add crème fraiche on the end.
Voilà!

Thursday

An ordinary morning. An everyday bliss.
Coffee and homemade cantuccini in the winter garden.


500g flour
500g sugar
4 eggs
200g whole almonds
1 sachet baking powder
2 sachets vanillia sugar
1 tablespoon aniseed
1 pich sea salt

Beat egg whites. Mix everything (sticky procedure). Mould rolls of ca. 3cm diameter and display on a baking tray using parchment paper. Bake at 180°C until the dough becomes solid. Take the tray out of the oven, cut rolls diagonally into 1-2cm thin slices, bake again until the cantuccini are completely dry.

Serve with coffee or dessert wine.

Mind your teeth!

One Last Winter Recipe: Sicilian Orange Salad

Everyone is talking about spring now, me too, but before we totally forget the passed season I wanted to share one of my favourite (end of) winter recipies: Sicilian Orange Salad.

A large part of my familiy used to live in Sicily before most of them moved north for studies or a better employment. But the memories of extraordinary holidays on this island literally between Italy and Africa are still very present in my mind and sometimes I celebrate them with special dishes.

For this unusual salad you should try to find blood oranges, either Moro or Tarocco, that are harvested in february. Unfortunately spanish Navel have taken over almost the whole market here in Germany and I have always trouble to snatch a few. Blood oranges are less sweet than Navels and their slightly bitter note matches best for this recipe, but you can use other oranges as well.

The basic ingredients are: 2-3 oranges, 1-2 cloves of garlic (yes!), olive oil "extra vergine", a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. My favorite variation which I used for the picture adds some thin slices of fennel and "Balsamico" vinegar from Modena, a sweet-sour vinegar riped in oak barrels.

But possibilities are endless! Try with some black "Kalamata" olives for a hearty dish, or add a sweet scent with a sour apple and walnuts. If you prefer a more traditional fruit salad for a dessert add sugar, orange blossom water and arabic mint (nana).

Buon appetito!

Sooo Healthy and Delicious! Georgian Beetroot Salad

Sometimes I'm still quite childish and just the idea to eat something just because it's said to be "sooo good for your health" makes me shiver. So when my beloved husband brought me a couple of beetroots from the market I immediately thought of something insipid and muddy - what should I do with this!?!
But I tried my best and chose a recipe from Georgia - thinking of walnuts and coriander made me forget the rest... and, it turned out delicious! Unbelievable.
So I learned my lesson not to judge beets without trying ;-)
Interested?
Take 3 medium beetroots, 1/2 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 200g of walnuts, 1 cup of fresh coriander leaves, 1/2 cup of flat-leaved parsley, 2 tablespoons of fresh dill, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt and pepper.
Boil the beetroots for 40 min. In the mean time cut all the other ingredients in a mixer, eventually adding some water. Rasp the boiled beets and mix it with the sauce.

Kataif Homemade

I seldom eat ready made food, and so does my family ... Just to know exactly what is in there makes me enjoy my creations even more. One of our favourite sweets is kataif - you should try it it's so easy!

You need 1 packet of kataif, 250 grs butter, 200 grs hazelnuts/walnuts/almonds (depending on your taste), 200 grs sugar, cinnamon, cloves and rose water.
Unpack the dough and leave it for some minutes. Pick it gently with your fingers to separate the strands.

Add melted butter and go on working the dough until it feels soft and the butter is evenly dispersed.

Arrange nuts with half of the sugar, ground cinnamon and a tablespoon of rosewater on a first layer of the kataif, then add second layer. Bake at 180°C for 40 min.

Meanwhile prepare the syrup with the rest of the sugar, spices and a generous portion of rose water; stir and boil it up. Filter the syrup and pour it completely on the kataif while it's still hot.

Serve with vanillia icecream, whipped cream or just like it is!

More sweets, please!

Sweets are extremely important in Algerian life; they are not only small treats you allow yourself now and then. Sweets are produced and consumed in enormeous amounts during family celebrations, mostly weddings, because they are considered to be auspicious for the young couple, the newborn, etc. Usually women start working on them a week before the celebration starts - consider that an average family consists of at least 200 members that have to be invited - and there have to be enough sweets for all also to take back home for the ones that could not participate. Sweets - homemade or not - are also favoured gift and some nourishments like honey or dates are used in popular medicine.

Store specialized in dates and date products

At big family occasions in Algeria people usually offer "patisserie orientale", which is based on almonds and nicely decorated. You can find somehow "classical" sweets of turkish origin like baklawa, and also typical north african style sweets with more sugar and less honey syrup, where the french influence is visible. Here are exmples of the two styles, baklawa on the left, knidlat on the right:


These two plates were made exspecially for us to take home by Khalti (aunt) Hurriya. She contributes to the small family budget by preparing sweets like these on order for big occasions. She works at home and can offer better prices than the pastry shops - think of the amounts needed for a wedding and you can imagine why she has always lots of work! Here are some of her prototypes:


All these candies are made on a base of almonds and sugar.

But sweets are not only consumed at weddings - they are a part of the daily menue, exspecially at breakfast and - even more - at the afternoon coffee. As a health-oriented westerner I always shiver when I see the amounts of suger consumed by an average person there! If you stay for a longer period it is impossible not to put on weight.
Here are some khfifas my sister-in-law Lamia made for the first tooth of her son:


Last not least I should mention that in Algeria you can of course also find a huge variety of "patisserie occidentale" which is of french origin. Here you can find all kinds of tartes and petit fours *yummie* ;-)
For me the sweets in Algeria are my most beloved object of study ;-)
Unlike the other food you find outside (mostly horrible fast-food) in the candies lies all the creativity of the producer. Just try!

Pancakes of my mother-in-law for breakfast

Persian delight - Fesenjoon

I fell in love with a beautyful pomegranate whilest passing by the supermarket ;-) .... and asked myself at home then, what to make out of it?
Suddenly I remebered a persian recipe I had not cooked for years, it is called fesenjoon and is basically chicken with pomegranate and walnut sauce. I love this combination because it reminds me of Caucasian cuisine which is very fond of walnuts... Taste it once and never forget it ever!
For this lovely dish you need 1 portioned chicken, or 900 g of chicken breast, cut into pieces.
Prepare the sauce crushing the walnuts with 1/2 l of pomegranate juice in a mixer. To save time use diluted pomegranate molasse. Chop 3 onions and stir-fry them in 2-3 spoons of butter oil or butter. Add the chicken and roast gently everything for some minutes. Now add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper and kurkuma, 1 tablespoon of sugar and salt, then the walnuts and simmer gently it for 45 min. Stir from time to time, because the molasse and the sugar stick easily. Decorate the dish with pomegranate seeds and serve hot with basmati rice ;-)