Kopiaste... to Greek Hospitality

Koupepia me lahana and not lahanodolmades

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:15:00 +0000

Those of you reading my blog know that I am from Cyprus, which although it is an independent state, our culture, language, religion, customs, food, music, national anthem etc., are Greek.

The immigration of settlers from Greece, which had begun at least by 1200 b.c., led to the foundation of Greek kingdoms covering most of the island, and, since the start of the 1st millennium bc, the Greek language has been predominant in Cyprus; the fact that the dialectal form in which it first appears is known as Arcado-Cypriot confirms traditions of the Peloponnesian origin—and specifically of the Arcadian origin—of the immigrants.

By courtesy of Encylopaedia Brittanica, about Cyprus

My husband is from Arcadia and we have found a lot of common words, which are not used in other parts of Greece. For instance my mother-in-law uses words such as, μπατανία (mbatania) for blanket and σίκλα (sikla) for bucket, and many other words which we also use in Cyprus. Our dialect still has a lot of ancient words in it. For instance we say Κραμπί (krambi) from the ancient κράμβη kramvi. In Greece this is called lahano or mapa (λάχανο ή μάπα) which in English is cabbage. In Greece they make lahanodolmades which of course are dolmades made with cabbage but in Cyprus what we call lahano in Greece they call it seskoulo, meaning silver beat, so hence the title of the post.

Koupepia which is the Cypriot version of dolmades, as you all know are stuffed vine leaves. Before the refrigerator, they used to preserve the vine leaves by threading them and hanging them in a shady place to dehydrate and when they wanted to make koupepia they would boil them in water for a few minutes until they became soft again. When the preserved vine leaves finished they had alternative ways of making them and one way was using silver beat leaves.

I remember my mother threading the vine leaves and hanging them in a store room we had, to dry but when the vine leaves finished, she used to make them with silver beat which I wasn't really fond of when I was a child but growing up our tastes do change and now I love them. Contrary to dolmades, which are in an avgolemono sauce (egg and lemon sauce, you may see recipe in dolmades), koupepia are with tomato and cinnamon and are great for finger food during buffet dinners.

Before giving the recipe today is a blackletter day for us Cypriots and Greeks, as thirty four years ago, the Turks invaded Cyprus and half of our beautiful country is still under Turkish occupation. The capital of Cyprus, Nicosia is the only divided capital in Europe. Thirty four years later, half it's population are still refugees and 1619 persons are still missing. Please take a minute of your time and read the links I have placed on this subject.

The badge with Cyprus reads "I do NOT forget"

I am submitting this recipe to Jeena, of Jeena's Kitchen, for her event It's all about Memories. Sweet Memories about my mother but bitter memories about my country.

Koupepeia me Lahana (stuffed silver beat leaves)

Makes: 60 dolmades

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

60 silverbeat leaves
1 kilo ground beef or pork
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of blended ripe tomato
1/2 cup of rice glace or carolina
Salt, pepper, cinnamon, dried mint,
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup of parsley finely chopped
The juice of 1 - 2 lemons (1/2 cup)

Directions

Wash the vine leaves, remove stems and boil them for 5 minutes. Cool in cold water and strain.

In a big bowl mix all the ingredients, except the lemon and tomato.

Stuff the silverbeat leaves, after removing even the smalles stem and place a spoonful of the mixture in the middle.

Fold one side, then the other and roll the leaf.

Place in a sauce pan arranging each piece next to each other as close as possible. Place a second layer on top and a third if your sauce pan is small.

Add the lemon juice and tomato and cover with a plate which fits exactly in the sauce pan, so that when boiling the leaves will not open. Add water to cover the plate and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

(Note: if some leaves are small to stuff, join two or three next to each other and fold).

Serve warm but the next day they are even better. In the picture I served them with tomato, cucumber and a halloumi pesto.

If you liked this recipe, you will also like:

Koupepia

Dolmades

Dolmadakia Gialantzi with potatoes (vegetarian version)

How to preserve and store vine leaves

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Greek Baklavas

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:05:00 +0000

My mom used to love baklava, and this is her recipe, although I added nutmeg, and substituted the almonds with pecans and walnuts. I learnt about pecans recently and have been using them often since then and they have become a killer combination in the flaky, sticky pastry. Although I love baklavas I rarely make it, as I avoid using butter, even for breakfast. The only other desserts with butter are kourabiedes and Galaktompoureko, and these as well I make only once a year and that's why it took me such a long time to post about baklavas. I avoid them, especially galaktomboureko, which is my favourite, and as I can eat the whole tin for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I do, I make a healthier version using olive oil, which is equally tasty and healthier. However, in order to record this recipe, I made it with sweet butter.

My son was nugging that I haven’t made it for a very long time and when I saw two events in the blogosphere, I decided to make it, just for the purpose of recording this lovely recipe. The quantity was huge but every Tuesday we have our Tupperware meetings, so half of the tin was consumed there. The only change that I made was to change the nuts. I used 2/3 pecans and because they are quite expensive 1/3 walnuts. Although my mum used to make it only with Almonds and cinnamon, I made it with pecans and walnuts and added some nutmeg in the filling as well. It was perfect and I am not saying this from what my family said but from what I heard from my Tupperware friends and I was really pleased to see them taking a second piece. Wherever I have eaten baklava, I find that they use too much syrup and too much butter, which is not the case here.

I am not going to explain how we can prove that Baklavas is Greek and not Turkish but, if you like, you may read this article from the Food History. Wikipedia, in my opinion, is not a reliable source (although I refer to it often, as I do not find other sources to refer to) as anyone can go and write whatever they want and there is a lot of paid propaganda going on. See Turkish coffee, Turkish delight, moussaka, Turkish baths etc. It seems that the country which had hot tubs more than 3000 years ago, see Knossos, and has spread its civilization throughout the world, used to feed on raw meat and the Nomads would feed on gastronomical food.

You may also see the Ancient Version of Baklavas, called Gastrin here.

Greek Baklavas

Preparation time: 1/2 hour
Baking time: 1 hour and five minute

Yields: 32 pieces

Ingredients:

1 packet of thin phyllo dough (500 grams)
½ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
150 grams of roasted pecans
75 grams of roasted walnuts
8 spoonfuls of sweet cream butter

For the syrup

½ cup of thyme honey
¾ cup of sugar
11/2 cup of water
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
3 spoonfuls of lemon juice

Directions for Syrup:

Combine sugar, honey, water, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add lemon juice, stir and set aside.

Begin with pastry but as soon as baklava is in the oven make the syrup, so until it is baked it will still remain lukewarm.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade, melt butter and grease a baking tin 33 x 40 cm.

Combine nuts, spices and sugar.

Layer 6 sheets of phyllo pastry in the baking tin, brushing in between each layer with butter.

Sprinkle with the nut mixture and repeat four times, each time brushing phyllo with butter.

Top with the remaining phyllo sheets, brushing each phyllo with butter but do not butter the last one.

With a very sharp knife cut pastry but not all the way through beginning with a cross, making 4 squares. Each square, cut diagonally making an X and again cut into a cross shape. In each quarter you will get 8 pieces.

Bake for 45 minutes, lower heat at 150 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.

When baklava is golden brown, remove from the oven and pour syrup spoon by spoon making sure that it has penetrated through all pieces. Allow to stand at room temperature until completely cooled and then cut it all the way through.

Do not store baklava in the refrigerator as the phyllo will loose its crunchiness and will become soggy. It’s better to leave it in the baking tin, if it’s stainless steel or remove to another vessel and cover with a napkin.

I am submitting this recipe to Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, who is hosting the event Think Spice, Think Nutmeg, in Greek Moschokarydo, which means the nut which smells wonderful, originally created by Sunita, of Sunita's World.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

A Music Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14:00 +0000

My friend Deeba, who is Passionate about Baking, has tagged me with a music meme. Deeba who is my very first Indian friend, is an ex airline employee and now a domestic engineer, cooking and baking or rather making art out of her food for her husband and two sons. If you haven't visited her yet, please do and you will not only be amazed by her recipes but also with her beautiful pictures. Deeba, I found your songs and listened to them and some of them are among my preferences but a couple of them were not familiar to me.

The rules for the meme is:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring (or whatever season). Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

Whenever I’m at the computer I have the Greek internet radio station on, all day, even if I am not at the computer. The Radio Station I listen to is called Angel FM 88,9 and plays mostly English songs and occasionally some Greek ones.

To be frank, I listen to the music but do not pay any attention when they comment, so although I was familiar with the songs, I did not know the title of some of the songs nor the names of the singers, so from the day Deeba tagged me I've been listening more carefully trying to find out the titles. When I missed the title I had to google search the internet to find the song.

1. My most favourite at this moment is: Why can't you just hold me, be Edel and Starck.

2. The second one is: You're beautiful, by James Blunt. James was not very lucky because this month he had a concert in Greece, which was canceled but as it proved out it wasn't absolutely necessary and it could wait until after summer... Our loss was a gain to the Cypriots, who grabbed the opportunity for a concert in Cyprus, which had a huge success. I apologize to him on behalf of all the Greeks.

3. I keep falling in love, by Alicia Keys, although this is not a recent song I love it.

4. Touch my body, by Mariah Carey, you might have heard this song when I had the slide show with my recipes.

5. Wherever you go, unfortunately I have found various versions but not the one I like. Definitely not by Ashlee Simpson or Leona Lewis or Carola. Does anybody know?

6. White flag, by Dido, and last but not least

7. Un' altra te, by my favourite Italian singer, Eros Ramazotti. I love all his songs.

I am now curious to see my friends' music preferences. I know that you are all so busy but hope that you will post when you feel like it. I am tagging:

a. Val, from More than Burnt Toast. Val sorry for using your blog's title!
b. Nuria, from Spanish recipes. Nuria, we have seen lots of songs along with your recipes but give us your favourite seven.
c. Elly, of Elly says Opa!
d. Cakelaw, of Laws of the Kitchen.
e. Corinne, of A Gourmet Love Affair
f. Emiline, of Sugar Plum
h. Swati, of Sugarcraft India.

You won't believe what happened.

I had some leftover tortillas and wanted to make a quick snack. I brushed the tin with olive oil and on one tortilla I drizzled some paprika and garam massala and on the other one some garlic powder and oregano and some sea salt on both.

Unfortunately I will have to wait to make them again, to know if they turned out good, because I returned to my computer to continue the post and I got carried away.

Here is the result!

About Copyright

After nearly a year of blogging I have began making some of my own recipes and when you see these recipes posted somewhere else, it is a bit annoying seeing others getting credit of your knowledge, efforts and/or creativity.

Although I resented seeing a note about copyright at the end of posts, I have to add this to my posts as well in order to protect my work.

As I have added this paragraph in the settings of the blog post, it will appear automatically on all my posts, even if it is about a burnt tortilla. Sorry about that.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Fruit, fuel for our body

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:46:00 +0000

If your luxury car needed high octane fuel, would you fill the tank with alternative cheaper fuel? I am sure the answer is no, even if fuel prices are rising day by day.

God created us and gave us a mouth where we should put high quality fuel in it so that we can live a healthy life and instead of eating healthy we fill our body with junk and then have to ran to the doctors to see what is wrong with us. We get diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol and with other substance it can form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can clog those arteries. This condition is known as atherosclerosis. A clot (thrombus) that forms near this plaque can block the blood flow to part of the heart muscle and cause a hear attack. If a clog blocks the blood flow to part of the brain, a stroke will result.

I don't want to scare you but eating fruit and vegetables is absolutely necessary and as my children are not really fans of fruit, I try at least with a certain disguise to trick them into eating some.

When I saw this month's challenge in the Great Cooks Community I was thrilled that I discovered a new way to make fruit recipes. The challenge was grilled fruit and as I had never thought of grilling fruit before I was more than happy to give it a try. The only cooked fruit I made up to now is apples, pears or quince, baked in the microwave for a few minutes with sugar and cinnamon and many kinds of preserved fruit, which we call spoon sweets in Greece and fruit compote.

When Jill McKeever announced this event I thought I would give it a try and although I avoided grilling them on charcoal, as it's a bit fuzzy, I decided to grill them on the electric griller and the result was very good.

I used the fruit I had at home that particular day and served them with Watermelon Jelly with whipped cream and Ice Cream.

In the days that followed the grilled fruit, I prepared a fruit salad with sweet dessert wine and a fruit salad compote which will also be included in this posts.

Grilled Fruit

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Grilling time: 20 minutes

Makes 10 skewers

Ingredients

2 peaches
2 apples
1 banana
2 spoonfuls of brown sugar
½ teaspoon of cinnamon

Directions

Wash and peel fruit. Cut into bite sizes and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Thread fruit onto metal skewers, alternating types of fruit for a colorful presentation; fill the skewer just enough to fit in your griller.

Place skewers in the hot grill pan and grill each side for 10 minutes. Turn only once and let them cool a little before serving.

*********

Last Tuesday I went to the farmers' market and as usual I bought a lot of fruit.

Cherries, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines and melons. Imagine all this fruit had to be consumed quickly as not all of them can last for many days. The cherries, apart from a handful I used for the salad, the rest two kilos were made into a spoon sweet, which I will post soon. Perfect on top of desserts. The pears and the melons will be the last to be consumed as they can be kept for a week in the refrigerator.

Healthy Fruit Salad

A handful of pitted cherries
2 - 3 slices of melon, depending on the size of the melon, cut into bite sizes
2 nectarines
2 peaches
2 bananas
6 apricots
2 - 3 spoonfuls of Greek Thyme Honey
1/2 cup of Commandaria Wine or red sweet dessert wine of your preference
cinnamon to sprinkle on top if they are served without the yoghurt (optional)
Greek strained yoghurt

Directions

Before peeling and cutting fruit make sure that they are cold and cut them into bite sizes. Mix all ingredients, and serve with Greek low fat strained Yoghurt.

*********

Fruit Compote

Although I bought the fruit on Tuesday and today is only Thursday I needed to used these fruit immediately as they would not last any longer.

Last week I made watermelon spoon sweet and there was more syrup that I needed to fill in the jars, so I stored it in the refrigerator thinking that I could wet my sponge cakes with it. I also had some leftover syrup from sour cherries spoon sweet, so I emptied two jars (about 2 - 3 glasses) of the syrup in a sauce pan and put it on the heat.

Simultaneously I peeled the fruit and cut it into sized bites.

When the syrup started to boil, I lowered the heat and crashed the seeds of 6 cardamom pods and added them to the syrup as well as 1 piece of a cinnamon stick about an inch long.

I added the fruit to the syrup and simmered them for twenty minutes.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

7 apricots
3 pears
2 peaches
2 nectarines

Additional ingredients for serving

1 whipping cream 35%
2 spoonfuls of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 low fat yoghurt with tropical fruit

Directions

Whip the cream until stiff. In a separate bowl empty the low fat yoghurt and add 3 spoonfuls of whipped cream and whip them together.

The amount of whipping cream added is up to you.

Serve with a scoop of ice cream, compote with syrup (at room temperature) and some yoghurt.

Watermelon: A Natural Viagra? Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:45:00 +0000

I heard on T.V. that watermelon may be a natural viagra. Searching the internet I found out that this is because this popular summer fruit is richer than experts believed in an amino acid called citrulline, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels much like Viagra and other drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction.

Are you still reading my post? Go and buy some watermelon, now that it is in season.

So let's see how many things I can make out of this 5 kilo watermelon?

To begin with I removed the rind which I set aside for later use.

I removed all the seeds and cut the watermelon into small pieces.

After that I put the pieces in a food processor and after pulsifying I put it in a colander and strained all the juice.

I had about 2 litres of watermelon juice, 2 cups of watermelon flesh and lots of peels.

FIRST RECIPE:

KARPOUZOPITA (WATERMELON PIE)

A traditional Greek recipe coming from the Cyclades and having its roots in the antiquity.

Ingredients:

2 cups mashed watermelon
1 cup of self raising flour
1 spoonful olive oil
½ cup of brown sugar
4 spoonfuls of thyme honey
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup of sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

After pulsifying the watermelon, put it in a colander and strained all the juice.

In a large bowl, combine the watermelon, flour, honey, sugar, olive oil, ground cloves and cinnamon and mix with a spoon.

Next sprinkle half of the sesame seeds over the bottom of a greased 26 cm baking and then pour the mixture over top, sprinkling the remaining sesame seeds over the top of this and sprinkle some more cinnamon and cloves on top.

Place in the oven to bake for about forty to fifty minutes and then remove to cool. Once completely cooled cut into rectangles.

A crust will form on top and below and in the middle it will have a pudding type of consistency to it.

I am submitting this recipe to Sia, of Monsoon Spice, who is hosting Weekend Breakfast Blogging - WBB Summer Feast, our challenge to cook anything with summer fruit or vegetables.

SECOND RECIPE

I still had the two litres of water melon juice.

You remember how I have been trying lots of recipes with gelatin this past month? Well here I am again what else? Jelly.

WATERMELON JELLY

Ingredients

12 gelatin sheets
3 glasses of watermelon juice
1 glass of water
2 - 4 teaspoons of honey (depending on how sweet the juice is)

For garnishing

1 whipping cream (35%)
3 spoonfuls of icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions

Whip the cream, add sugar and vanilla and set aside.

Place gelatin sheets in a bowl and wet with half the water until soft. Boil the remaining water and dissolve the gelatin. Add watermelon juice and honey and mix.

Place in a mold and refrigerate for a few hours until it sets. Unmold and decorate with whipping cream.

Serve with fresh grilled fruit. (The recipe for grilling fruit will be given in a different post)

I am submitting this recipe to Zorra, of Kochtopf, who is hosting the event Red, White or Swiss, to celebrate Swiss National Day.

Even after making the jelly there was lots of watermelon juice left to drink.

PART TWO FOLLOWS

Water Melon - A Natural Viagra? Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:51:00 +0000

THIRD RECIPE

Karpouzi Glyko - Watermelon spoon sweet

Spoon sweets are sweet preserves, served in a spoon (occasionally with a small fork) as a gesture of hospitality.

They can be made from almost any fruit, though sour and bitter fruits are especially prized. There are even spoon sweets made from vegetables.

Whole fruit preserves can be found in most Greek and Cypriot homes. They are made by slowly simmering fruit in water and sugar over several hours or days, until the syrup sets. A small quantity of lemon juice is often added to preserve the fruit's original colour, as well as to prevent sugar from crystallizing. The method of preparation is essentially similar to that of marmalade, except that fruit pieces remain whole.

Some of the fruits that are used include citrus (bitter oranges), grapes, mulberries, bergamot, apricots, cherries, oranges, sour cherries, lemons, pomegranates, quinces, strawberries, apples, dates, figs, prunes, and tangerines. Other varieties include vegetables, pistachios, hazelnuts, green (immature) walnuts and other nuts, and flower petals like rose or citrus flower blossoms. Many fruits or parts of fruits that are normally inedible, such as citrus peel and water melon rind, can be made into sweet, flavourful preserves, as can unripe nuts and vegetables such as eggplant and carrots.

Some years back they used to add food colour like grenadine etc., to red spoon sweets. but nowadays they have been forbidden as they are considered dangerous to health and usually retain the original shape, colour, aroma and taste of the fruit.

The method used to make the spoon sweets crunchier was to soak the fruit in solution of quicklime dissolved in water. They let it rest for two or more hours and then washed the fruit very well and proceeded to make the sweet.

Spoon sweets are usually offered to guests served by the teaspoon in a small china or crystal dish, with coffee or tea and cold water. Originally they used to serve them in a big bowl where everybody would take a piece from there in order to prove that there was no poison in it.

I remember them served in bowls made of pure silver, sort of basket shaped which had places for the silver spoons to stand round the basket, which was filled with the spoon sweets.

Karpouzi Glyko - Watermelon spoon sweet

Makes 2 jars

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1.30 hours

Ingredients

The rind of a watermelon
1 1/2 kilo of sugar per 1 kilo of rind
3 glasses of water
4 - 5 spoonfuls of lemon juice
a few leaves of fragrant geranium (αρμπαρόριζα) or apple geranium, or if you don't have any 1 spoonful of vanilla essence
2- 3 spoonfuls of lemon juice for the final stage

Directions

In order to make this spoon sweet the rind should be at least two centimetres thick. Cut slices about 6 - 8 cm. and remove the outer green skin and as much red flesh as you can. (The watermelon I bought was not so thick so some pink flesh is visible but try not to leave any).

Cut each slice into smaller pieces about 5 - 6 centimetres long.

Put the peel pieces into a large bowl and cover with cold water and the lemon juice and leave it for an hour. (At this stage if you have quicklime (asvesti) dissolve 1 cup in 2 litres of water and soak the rind for an hour.

Rinse thoroughly before proceeding to next step). Drain the peel into a large colander and rinse under cold water. Return to the bowl, cover with fresh cold water and leave to soak for a further 30 minutes, then drain thoroughly. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a large saucepan, then bring to a gentle simmer. Add the drained peel, cover and slowly simmer for about 1.30 hours until the syrup is dense. When ready, the 'glyko' turns a shade of transparent yellow.

Remove from the heat and add the geranium leaves (or vanilla) and lemon juice and toss saucepan.

Transfer to sterilised jars and store in the fridge. Spoon sweets are always served with a cold glass of iced water.

You might also like other spoon sweets I have made:

Bitter oranges
Bergamot
Sour cherries
Apples
Karydaki (green (immature) walnuts)
Cherries (being prepared)

I am submitting this recipe to Archana, from Archana's Kitchen, hosting this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Kalyn, of Kalyn's Kitchen

Olives and Carrot Bread Sticks and rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:41:00 +0000

My friend Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen is hosting the Bread Baking Day #12 - Small breads.

What Aparna wants from us is to make anything like buns, rolls, biscuits, bagels, waffles, beignets, doughnuts, croissants, bread sticks, pretzels, etc. and we can make them sweet or savory, plain or stuffed, or add fruit/ vegetable/ nuts/ seeds/ herbs/ spices, etc. You can get creative and shape your bread decoratively. The sky’s the limit for possibilities. The only two things to keep in mind are that the bread should be “small” and should be made with a leavening agent.

It’s not easy to bake with 40 degrees Centigrade but I began early in the morning with the air conditioning on, and then left straight to the Lake.

Olives and Carrot Bread Sticks and rolls

Ingredients

½ kilo bread flour
1 sachet dried yeast
Lukewarm water
½ cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

For olive filling

1 cup of kalamata olives, pitted
½ teaspoon rosemary
½ teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

For carrot filling

1 cup of grated carrots
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of crashed coriander seeds
Salt and pepper

Place flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix. Add olive oil and rub the oil to be absorbed by the flour and then gradually add water until the dough does not stick on the bowl or your fingers. If it is sticky keep adding flour until it is ready.

Cover bowl with its lid and leave it for about ½ an hour to rise. When it is winter and it is cold add hot water in a baking tin and place the bowl covered with its lid, in the tin.

Meantime, pit the olives and cut into small pieces and peel and grate the carrots.

When the dough has risen knead it again a few times and divide the dough into two pieces. In the first one knead in the olives, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper and in the other the carrot, coriander, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Make one roll out of each kind and twist them together. Cut each roll into slices of 2 cm.

Line your baking tin with parchment paper and preheat oven at 180 degrees. Place the rolls in the tin and let them rise again. Bake for about 30 minutes. These turn out like little breads.

One batch of the rolls I did not cut them into pieces but I dipped them in sesame seeds and baked them like usual bread. Then I cut them into slices and put them in the oven again and lowered the heat at 100 degrees and baked them for another half an hour. I turned the oven off and left them in the oven to cool down. These were like savoury rusks.

I played around with the remaining dough and made various shapes.

This is perfect for a snack after our swimming is over.