Yesterday (December 17th) was St Barbara, a very important celebration in Georgia. Lobiani is the staple dish.

What is lobiani? It is a pie filled with beans. (I loved it when I tried it in Tbilisi.)
Marcel had the idea to make our version at home, so here's the recipe—

For the dough (makes 2):

80ml water

2g fresh yeast

1 teaspoon of sugar

125g flour

2g salt

Let the yeast and the sugar sit in the water for 5 minutes. Add the flour and the salt. Knead. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

For the filling (makes 2):

250g boiled beans

4 garlic cloves

salt

Mash the beans and garlic cloves. Add the salt.

Method:

Split the dough in two equal parts. Roll each half out. Spread the beans and garlic mixture over each of them. Make a crescent moon by sticking the ends of the dough. Bake in a pan on low heat until brown. Munch.

It was delicious and filling!

• Spring version

Dough:

200g flour

5g fresh yeast

100ml buttermilk

salt

Filling:

2 orach bunches

salt

butter

1 green garlic

+1 small egg

Variant: Add ewe cheese on top of the filling if you wish.

• Fall version

Dough:

240g flour

5g fresh yeast

160g sour cream

salt

Filling:

300g orach

salt

butter

1 pestled garlic clove

+2 tbsp of milk

Baking pan: 20x20 cm

Orach was the ingredient of this year for me! I fell in love! I felt lucky to be able to bake this orach pie in spring and fall!

The recipes are almost similar. To make the dough, mix the yeast with the buttermilk or the sour cream, adding the required amount of flour. You’ll get a non-sticky dough, slightly hard. Let it rise for 1 hour. 

Then (a kind man named Marcel helped me), wash the orach leaves. Be careful, that pink liquid stains (I used red orach). Let the orach leaves simmer in butter; add the salt, the green garlic or the garlic clove, depending on the season.

Roll out half of the dough in a buttered and floured baking pan. Add the filling and the ewe cheese if you wish. Then, add the other half of the rolled-out dough and stick the two pieces together.

Brush the egg or milk on top of the pie, then bake it in the preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. 

I’ve wanted to post this recipe since New Year’s Eve. It was inspired by a delicious carrot and ginger soup served in Kenya. Marcel prepared it, to give me something vegetarian to eat at the passing between the years.

He used:

150g butternut squash

salt

10g ginger

a clove of garlic

100ml water

Is it easy to make? Very easy! Clean the butternut squash, cut it into slices, and let it sit in the oven for one hour in a baking pan lined with baking parchment at 180-200⁰C.

Then, while they’re still hot, blend them with the salt, ginger, garlic, and water. Serve it after 1-2 minutes.

Mmm... This is how I entered 2024. J

P.S. If you let the butternut squash cool, pour hot water into the blender.

 

And I didn’t use all the classic ingredients; I adapted them—

30g basil

2 garlic cloves

20g walnuts

3 tbsp of olive oil

2g sea salt

a drop of lemon juice

Blend them. Then, store the pesto in a small jar in the fridge.

It’s not only great with pasta, but with some fresh or crunchy slices of bread, too! 

P.S. For this year’s pesto jar (I am trying to make one each year), I used

45g basil

2 garlic cloves

30g pine nuts (I still had some bought in Tunisia)

4 tbsp of olive oil

3g salt.

It turned out very creamy, with a rich, fresh flavour.

baking pan diametre: 20cm

Filling:

500g spinach

100g (Feta) cheese

1 egg

2 garlic cloves

50g butter

Pie sheets:

250g flour

10g salt

30ml olive oil

100ml water

1 tbsp vinegar

+olive oil, flour -> baking pan

+butter -> brush on the pie

While travelling through Greece and in the Greek restaurants and stores in Romania, I’ve had my fair share of spinach pie (Spanakopita). I’m crazy about it. So, why not bake my version of Spanakopita at home?

Place baking parchment on the bottom of a baking pan with a detachable bottom, cutting out the excess paper. Oil the side with olive oil and flour it.  

First, make the dough for the pie sheets, mixing the flour, salt, olive oil, water, and vinegar. Knead and split the dough into four equal parts.

Then, make the filling (Marcel helped out). Wash and clean the spinach. Sauté in butter until it softens. Spill out the excess liquid and add the crumbled cheese, the beaten egg, and the crushed garlic. Leave for three more minutes to cook on low heat.

Roll out the pie sheets, one by one, adding the filling and folding the edges of the sheets. You’ll have three such double layers, with one last sheet covering them all (butter it before it goes into the oven).

Bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for 25 minutes.

P.S. Pies entirely baked at home are wonderful!

My weeks are tough. I work so much that I cannot stick to my daily chores (the recipe should have been published yesterday). To top it all, today’s my name day (which nobody knows about), but I made a cake and a pizza, to keep things festive. J 

And I recall Iran. I miss Iran, I miss my friends there, I miss the taste of this mirza ghasemi... I miss wandering around – I have travelled through Romania this year, but I wish to do it worldwide, without restrictions. I wish to be able to hug anybody without asking if he(she) allows me to.

Each trip to Iran had a certain warmth about it. I haven’t found this warmth anywhere else but at home.

This dish from northern Iran (around the Caspian Sea) saved me on many days, while I was trying to navigate through the labyrinth of non-vegetarian lunches and dinners.

I liked it so much the first time that I tried it (I was in Masuleh) that I congratulated the chef and I asked for an extra portion. Our waiter told us how to prepare it and I wrote down the recipe knowing that I’d surely use it someday.

Mirza ghasemi is not hard at all to make.

For 4 portions, you’ll need

4 eggplants

3-4 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes

(Marcel insisted to add 1 onion to the mix)

1 large egg

salt

+olive oil for frying

Smoke the eggplants. Let them cool and clean them.

Start frying the garlic (cleaned and cut into pieces), then add the tomatoes (cut into pieces) and the thinly-cut onion (and fry everything on medium heat for about 5 minutes). Add the cut eggplants and a pinch of salt (and fry for 5 minutes more).

When the ingredients are well done, break the egg and mix well.

Serve warm.

This is an appetizer, but I also served it with rice or fries. You could also spread it on a slice of bread or a flatbread.

The flavour is fantastic! At least from a culinary perspective, we do travel.

My last memory connected to mirza ghasemi is its cooking by a dear friend met on Qeshm Island – he was from the north, I was craving mirza, he knew that I wasn’t going to find it anywhere, so he cooked it... and Marcel happily helped him. 

P.S. The eggplants were from a close friend of mine. J