Muzemandeln

Muzemandeln is a deepfried pastry coated with confectioners sugar, which is traditionally served during the carnival season.
The carnival season starts on 11.11. at 11:11 and ends on ash wednesday. The pastry is named after almonds becuase they look like them ("Mandel" is almond in german).
Here's the recipe:

Muzemandeln

375 g of wheat flour

150 g of magarine

3 generous tablespoons of chickpea flour

aprox. 3/4 cup of firm tofu, mashed with a fork

3 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoons of neutral tasting vinegar

2 tespoons of baking powder

falvour of your choice (vanilla, rum or else, i didn't use a falvour because you know 1910...)

canola oil for deepfrying

about 1/2 of confetioners sugar for coating

1. Knead a firm dough out of the irgendients for the dough.

2. Let it rest in the fridge for about one hour.

3. Roll it out as thick as a finger and take a tablespoon to could out almond shaped pastries.

4. Heat some canola oil inside of a falt pot or a pan and deepfry each side of the muzemandeln until it is golden brown. (This might take just a few seconds so be careful not to burn them.)

5.Coat with confectioners sugar when they are still warm and let them cool before eating.(Ok, they are great when piping hot and I know you're inpatient but to much of warm pastry will cause stomach pain.)

Sigara Böregi

Sigara Böregi is a turkish snack made of a pastry called Yufka, which is traditional filled with a special kind of feta cheese, paprika powder, dill or parsley or both. I created a vegan version with a tofu based filling and I like it even more, than I liked the non vegan version.



Sigara Böregi


Ingredients:

24 leaves of pizza-slice shaped yufka pastry (this might be hard to get, if you can't find a turkish grocery store, but you can also use phyllo-pastry which is quiet similar to yufka)

1 block of firm tofu, pressed

3 tsp of salt

1 hand of dill, finely chopped

3 tbs of paprika powder

1/3 cup of tahina

5 small cubes of fermented tofu

1 tsp of garilc powder

1/2 of nutritional yeast

some canola oil for deepfrying



1. In a bowl, mash the fresh and the fermented tofu with a fork.

2. Add all the other ingredients eccept the yufka and oil and mix well.

3. Place aprox. 2 teaspoons of filling on top of a yufka leave.

4. This is called CIGAR-böregi so you will need you cigarette rolling skills now. Try to roll the yufka around the filling like you would roll a cigarrette. If you want the version shown at a first picture or if you just have phyllo, than you roll it like you whould do with a springroll.

5. Deepfry inside of a pan with a lot of canolaoil until crisp.

Kaab El Ghazal

These little dudes are called gazelle's horns even if my version looks like clams.
The pastry and the filling are full of delightfull rosewater and for the total heavenliy rosewater flavour they are brush with more rosewater after baking.




Kaab El Ghazal

Ingredients for aprox. 40 little pastries:

The pastry:

250-300 g flour

2 tbs canola oil

a tiny little bit of salt

100 ml rosewater

25-50 ml water


The almondpaste:

200 g almonds, without the skins

200 g confectioners sugar

2-3 tbs chickpeaflour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

100 ml rosewater

after baking:

a little bowl of rosewater for brushing

some confectioners sugar for dusting

1. Mix the ingredients for the pastry with a spoon and knead them after you've got a firm dough that's a bit like a pasta

2. Put all the fillings ingredients into a food processor and blend until it looks like a thick paste.

3. Roll out the pastry as thin as possible. Take a glass or round cookie cutter to cut out circles.

4. Put one teaspoon of the filling on top of evry circle and folt over.

5. Press the edges together with a fork.

6. Put the pastries on top of a baking sheet, that's covered with baking paper and bake at 180°C for aprox. 20-30 minutes until the surface of the pastries have browned a bit.

7. Brush the warm pastries with rosewater and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

8. Let cool and enjoy.

Gyoza

Gyoza are japanese, panfried and steamed dumplings. I filled them with TVP and cabbage and they are just delicious.


Gyoza

Ingredients:

1 package gyoza dumpling skins

Filling:

ca. 1/2 chinese cabbage, cut into thin strips

1 hand of TVP, soaked in boilng water for 5 minutes and drained

1 big onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

3 tbs soysauce

2 tbs mirin

2 tbs canola oil

pepper for seasoning


dipping sauce:

6 tbs soysauce

3 tbs rice vinegar

1 tbs mirin

1 tsp sesameoil flaouvered with chili

1 clove of garlic, diced

1 piece of fresh, ground ginger, as big as a thumbnail

ground peel of one lemon

pepper for seasoning


1. Heat the oil in a non-stick-pan and fry the cabbage, the oinions, the garilc and the TVP until it looks quiet roasted. Season with the remaining filling-ingredients and the filling is ready.

2. Put one teaspoon of the filling on top of a dumpling skin and brush the frame of the skin with a little water. Fold the edges over the middle. It should now look like half a circle.

5. Press the buttom of the gyoza down on your cutting board and try to shape the edge to make it look more authentic and to seal it.

6. Fry the buttoms of the gyoza in a non-stick-pan until they look golden brown. Pour in half a cup of water and cover with a lit. Let them steam for 5 minutes. After this time has passed the liquid should have gone and the buttoms of the gyoza should be even more crispy than before.

7. Combine the irgendients for the dipping sauce in a little bowln and have fun.