This weekend we went to see the exhibition ‘A day in Pompei’ at the Melbourne Museum. Suzy was very impressed with the whole exhibition and I enjoyed parts of it. The casts of the people who died are surely the most powerful part of the exhibition, they really take you back to the very moment when the blast hit the city and people were engulfed by the ash. It is very moving to see the people in the very position they were in when it all happened. The other parts of the exhibit showed items from the city of Pompei recovered by archaeologists. It struck me how their implements are much like ours. I should have found that amazing but I just found it boring; 2000 year old household items that look just like what you see at any old market today. Suzy was a bit more sensible though and enjoyed how the exhibition brought live in the city right before your very eyes. The exhibition also depicted the story and timeline of the actual event but there were such a huge crowd that we could not really be bothered discovering more than we already knew about the event. The 3D animation was probably pretty good though.

Já, ég komst að því hérna úti að Hollendingar búa ekki til Íslenskar pönnukökur, þeir búa til Hollenskar pönnukökur, og þær eru allt öðruvísi en okkar pönnukökur. Í gær varð ég mér úti um pönnu til að gera þessar pönnukökur og prófaði að gera þær sjálfur í fyrsta sinn. Þær eru ekki sætar en í staðin þá geturðu valið um að hella yfir sætindum, eins og á þessari mynd, eða setja ost og annað meðlæti sem er meira eins og máltíð. Allavega, þá mæli ég með þessum pönnukökum, þó ekkert komi náttla í stað þeirra Íslensku. Upphafið að þessu var reyndar að ég ákvað loksins að kaupa almennilega pönnukökupönnu að Íslenskum sið, eftir að hafa notast við matar pönnuna í mörg ár. Úti í hinum stóra heimi heita þær þó ekki pönnukökupönnur, útlendingar standa víst í þeirri meiningu að pönnukökur séu Franskar að uppruna og kalla þær Crepes. Ég fann þó Danska Crepes pönnu sem mér leist vel á og fyrst það hafa að öllum líkindum verið Danir sem komu með þennan sið heim til Íslands þá verður það að duga fyrst enginn selur alvöru Íslenskar pönnukökupönnur hér hinumegin á hnettinum. Scanpan Ceramic Titanium Classic Crepes Pan verður að duga fyrst Alpan Icelandic Classic Pancake Pan er ekki til.

This comming monday Icelandic kids get to wake their parents by spanking them. In return for each spank they achieve before the parents wake up and stop them the children get creamy, chocolaty buns. It’s Bun Day! Unfortunately as we dont have any kids and Suzy is not your typical Icelandic housewife I dont expect to get any buns at home. However the bakeries will be full of them so that is where I’ll be headed.

This Icelandic custom has it’s origins in christianity and was brought here through Danish and Norwegian bakers in the 19th century. Bolludagur (e. Bun Day) is the second day before ash wedensday. In the past the last two days before the long fast that starts on ash wedensday were used to get used to not having any meet in your diet. How buns came into it I dont know! The spanking however is believed to have it’s roots in the symbolic self beatings from christianity in the middle ages.

The day after bun day is Sprengidagur (e. explotion day) where you eat salted meat untill your completely full and then the wedensday is Öskudagur (e. ash wedensday). Out of the three Bolludagur is defenately my favourite

In case you would like to make some of those buns your self here is a recipe for vatnsdeigsbollur:

1,2 cups water
75 grams butter/margarine
175 grams flour
4-5 eggs

Boil water and butter together in a pot. Then add the flour and stir until the dough shines and loosens from the pot. Cool the dough (I put it into the fridge to save time). When the dough is cool, add the eggs, one by one. Use a spoon to make little buns (they can be of any sizes) and put on oiled oven plate. Bake on 200°C (400°F) for 25-40 minutes (based on how big you made the buns). Remember DO NOT open the oven the first 15 minutes, otherwise the buns will fall.

I have just realized that my beloved recipe program, RegiDean does not have a distributed database. Meaning that I have to copy every recipe between computers and even if I do there will always be an inconsistency between different versions, and also I cant run it on the handheld computer that I use in the kitchen. So eigther I have to find a website that helps you organize your recipes or, I can just blog all my recipes and put them into categories that make them easy to find. Since the blogsite is on my own hosted space I think I´ll just blog it, and thereby share it with everyone.

This recipe I am sharing with you today I wrote down into my camel-skin notebook that I got at the market in Camden town 7 years ago. Every time I make pizza dough I have to find this book before I can start. So far I never had any problems finding it but I also realize I might loose it one day and then I would not have this recipe any more.

The recipe is quite simple, as with any basic bread recipe. What makes it special is that it uses only the most basic ingredients and yet it can be what ever you want it to be. Depending on how you make it and subtle changes in the quantities of ingredients you can get anything from really thin crusty pizza base to the most thick fluffy PizzaHut style base. You can use my adoption of this recipe or you can read the source of my dough here (provided the page still exists). However, my source is not the original as the page mentions at the top. See references at the bottom.

Ingredients 1

• Yeast – 2 tsp
• Water – 1/4 cup (60 mill)
• Flour – 3/4 cup (100gr / 2 dl)

Ingredients 2

• Water – 7/8 cup (200 mill) or 1 1/4 cups (300 mill / 3 dl)
• Flour – 2 1/2 cup (300 gr / 6 dl)
• Salt – 1 tsp

Instructions
Dissolve the yeast in water no1, make sure the water is luke warm but not hot. Too much heat will kill the yeast and too little will suppress it. Let it dissolve thouroughly for at least 5 minutes. Then add flour no1 and mix thouroughly. The level of mixing and the elasticity of the dough at this point is important for how it will turn out. Now let this mixture rise for 1 hour.

After the hour is up add the rest of the water into the mix and completely dissolve the mixture. Add the salt and dissolve. Now finally add the rest of the flour. Begin with small amounts and once the dough is thick enough move it to your workbench and start kneading. You should end up with a dough that is smooth and elastic. Split into 3 parts and let rise for 1,5 – 2 hours.

If you manage to stretch the final product into shape without rolling it with a pin you will end up with a more fluffy base. If you roll it out with a pin the base will be thinner and crustier. To get the thinnest base possible, knead the final dough and then roll it out thinly with a pin. If the dough is too elastic it will retract and thicken when you try to stretch it out so for a thin base make sure your dough is not too thick.

Bake your pizza at maximum temp, or at least 250°C.

References
Pizza dough and a few basics [1] at “The artisan” [2]
Pizza, English edition [3]
Originally published in Italian by Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Milan 1982

Recently I got the urge to make my own Bagels. As bizarre as that sounds I just really wanted to see if I could make them my self and get them fresh from my own oven using only good healthy ingredients. Needless to say I trawled the internet until I found a good source and gave it a go. The result was surprisingly good. On the website The Fresh Loaf I found a good article on the subject and followed the recipe and instructions. Here follows my version of the recipe (be sure to check out the original too though):

Ingredients

• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 7 & 3/4 cups bread flour
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon malt syrup or honey

Instructions
Dissolve 1tsp yeast in 2,5 cups of lukewarm water. Add 4 cups flower and mix well. Leave to rise for 2 hours and then add the rest of the ingredients (1/2 tsp yeast, 3,75 cup flower, salt and syrup). Knead the dough for 10 minutes and then cut it into 12 pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Rest the balls under a towel for 20 minutes and then poke a hole in the middle with your thumb to form donut shaped forms. Rest it for another 20 minutes preferably on a baking plate wrapped in a plastic bag. Then boil the dough in water for a minute on eigther side, put on some topping and whack it into your oven at 260°C. Leave it there for 5 minutes, then rotate the pan and leave it there for another 5 minutes. Your bagels are now ready.

I thouroughly recommend this recipe, unless you are trying to loose weight. The bagels turned out really nice.

• Head of read cabbage
• Butter
• Sugar (I use Agave syrup)
• 1 tbsp Redwine vinegar (optional)
• The juice of one lemon

First cut the cabbage into small pices. Heat up a pan or a big pot on medium high to high and put in the butter. Once the butter starts to turn brownish then add the sugar and let it simmer till the mix starts to mildly caramelize. Add the cabbage and simmer in the mixture untill soft. Add the vinegar and lemon juice. Let this simmer at medium heat for 20-40 minutes.