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The 4A-Team

Starter

SALMON CROUTONS

Ingredients

1 baguette

100g of smoked salmon

200g of spreadable cheese

1 spring of parsley

Lemon juice (to taste)

Salt and pepper (to taste)


Preparation

Cut the baguette into slices, place them on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven at 200°for 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the spreadable cheese in a bowl with a few drops of lemon and a pinch of salt. Separately cut the smoked salmon into pieces and chop the parsley. When the bread becomes crispy, spread on each slice a spoonful of spreadable cheese and a few pieces of salmon. Serve your salmon croutons with a spring of parsley and a pinch of pepper.

Entrées

DJEI MHAMMER

Ingredients for chicken

1 whole cleaned chicken

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon ginger powder

½ tablespoon curcuma

1 glove of garlic

1 strand of olive oil

enough water

Ingredients for sauce

1 strand of olive oil

1 tablespoon ginger powder

½ tablespoon curcuma

1 tablespoon salt

some filaments of saffron

4 onions

1 handful of coriander

1 lemon wedge

1 bowl of olives

2.5 l of water

Preparation

To start: put in a small bowl the spiles for the marinade (salt; ginger and turmeric).

Add on top a peeled and grated clove of garlic .

Then add water and mix. Brush all the chiken with this marinade sauce and let the sauce rest.

For the sauce: peel the onions and slice them finely. In a casserole, put the olive oil and onions. Add ginger, turmeric, saffron and water and mix.

Add the chiken on top and a small bunch of parsley and coriander strings. The idea is just to give a little taste, it will be removed at the end of cooking.

Once the water is boiling, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, collect the lemon peels and cut them into small pieces. When the chiken is ready, remove it from the sauce and put it in a baking dish and let it brown for 20 minutes at 200°c. In the sauce put the grated candied lemon peels and the olives and mix. Simmer a few minutes until the sauce reduces. Once the chiken is golden brown, place it into a dish and put over the reduced sauce. Decorate with a few slices of candied lemon.

TIKKI CHAAT

INGREDIENTS

3 boiled potatoes, peeled and mashed
0,75 tsp khasmiri red chilli powder
0,38 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp corn flour
0,75 tsp garam masala(mixed spices)
0,75 tsp dried mango powder
6 tsp sunflower oil
0,38 tsp chaat masala salt to taste







FOR CHAAT (1 serving)

3 tbsp yogurt
1,5 tbsp green chutney
1,5 tamarind chutney
pinch of red chilli powder
pinch of salt
1,5 tbsp finely chopped onion
1,5 tbsp finely chopped tomato
handful of sev
pinch of cumin powder
pinch of chaat masala
few coriander leaves




Instructions
Firstly, in a large mixing bowl take 2 boiled and mashed potatoes. Add chilli powder, turmeric, mix spices, dried mango powder, chaat masala and salt. Also add corn flour and combine all. Form a soft dough adding more corn flour if required than grease your hands with oil and prepare small round patties, roast them with oil on low-medium flame till they turn crisp and golden.
Now place the tikki/patties in a plate top with 2/3 tbsp of yogurt also put on all the topping ingredients. In the end put on sev and some coriander leaves. Serve it.

Dessert

LEMON CAKE

BASIC INGREDIENT (FOR SIX PEOPLE)

4 eggs

200gr of sugar

200gr of fine – ground flour (00)

½ of little envelope of yeast for sweets

1 lemon (peel and juice around 50gr)

INGREDIENT WHIPPED CREAM

200ml of whip cream

1 spoon of powdered sugar

1 spoon of honey

MAKING PROCESS

First prepare the base of the cake: with the electric beater whip the eggs with the sugar, for at least 5 minutes, until you get a clear and soft mixture.
Then add the juice and the peel of the lemon.
Keep on whipping adding little by little the sieved flour and yeast mix well and pour the mixture in a rectangular cake pan with oven paper.
Cook the cake pun in warm static oven at 160° for 15-20 minutes.

Once the base is ready take it out of warm static oven and let it cool down.
Next prepare the cream: with the electric beater whip the refrigerated whipped cream with the powdered sugar until it forms stiff peaks and then add the honey.

Keep on whipping for a few minutes until you get a firm mixture.
Cut the cake in two layers and smear the whipped cream layer, cover with food transparent film and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before cutting it in small squared pieces.
Serve then with a topping of powdered sugar.

In the end...

DELICIOUS CAKE

Delicious Food

I remember that summer day spent with my friends

in the mountain. Once we got to the mountains, we were a bit tired and so
 we decided to rest for a while and to have lunch.
After eating, we had a football match. After the match, we went down the mountain and we reached  to Marco's house to have a snack. His mum prepared a strawberry cheesecake.
We really liked the cake and for this reason we asked his mum the recipe.
We chosen this topic because we really like the strawberry cheesecake and we were curious to know the method of preparation of this dessert.

RECIPE

400 gm cow ricotta
250 gm philadelphia
250 gm dry biscuits
150 gm butter
150 gm sugar
3 spoons 00 flour
50 ml dairy liquid cream
4 eggs
400 g strawberries
1 vanilla bean
250 gm strawberry jam

PREPARATION
1) Break The biscuits into small pieces.
2) Melt The butter and pour it over the biscuits.
3) Cover the bottom of a cake pan with some paper baking and pour the biscuit dough into it.
4) With a spoon compact it until you form a uniform layer of 1,5 cm.
5) put the cake pan in the fridge.
6) Remove the seeds from the vanilla bean and put them into a small bowl with dairy liquid cream.
7) Put in a bowl philadelphia,  ricotta,  flour and sugar.
8) From the small bowl with the dairy liquid cream remove the vanilla bean and mix it with eggs.
9) Pour the cream in to the cake pan and put it into the oven at 160° for an hour.
10) Cut the strawberries into pieces and heat them up with a couple of sugar.
11) Caramelize over a slow flame for a few minutes.

GLOSSARY
To rest= To relax or do nothing after a period of activity. 
Match= A sports event where people or teams compete against each other. 
Recipe= A set of instructions that tells you how to cook. 
Mountain= A very high hill,  often with rocks near the top. 
Curious= Interested in learning about people or things around you. 
Choose= To decide what you want from two or more things or possibilities. 
Dessert= Sweet food eaten at the end of a meal. 
Spend= To use time doing something or being somewhere. 
Ask= To put a question to  someone,  or to request an answer from someone. 
Reason= The cause of an event or situation or something that provides an excuse or explation.

Kosovan Pite

Moonlight

When I woke up in the morning I opened the window with a big smile on my face: the sun was rising. I went downstairs and I gave my mum a kiss on her cheek. As usually, I went to brush my teeth and she prepared my breakfast. When I was checking my backpack for school and I was about to go out, she suddenly told me that that evening we would cook “pite”! I screamed of joy. I really love preparing Pite!!!
I went to school and the lessons seemed endless: I wanted those five hours to become five minutes. When I turned back home I threw my backpack on the floor, I washed my hands and I was ready to put them in the dough.

Pastry dishes are very popular in Kosovo and the most consumed is “Pite”: that’s a pie filled with beef, spinach or cheese.

If you want to prepare a special Pite here is the recipe for 6 people

 For making pite with cheese you need only few ingredients: cheese, cream, salt, oil, yeast and flour.

For the dough: take a bowl and start putting your flour in it, begin to pour some warm water, put some salt and a bit of yeast. Mix then all the ingredients together then let it rest for approximately 30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven at 200 °C and take the dough and roll it up into balls in order to obtain 10/12 balls.

Take the balls and roll them one by one using a rolling pin: you will get the phyllo dough. Then put the cheese and the cream in order to have ropes: put all those ropes next to each other and put some oil and cream on top to make them crispy. 

Put your pite in the oven for 45 minutes and don’t forget to have a look at it from time to time or it will get burnt! Once out of the oven let it rest and cut it in some slices: the dish is now ready! You can taste it with peppers, pickles or tomatoes salad. But remember... drink a lot of water because it’s a very salted dish!!!

Glossary

Rising: (to rise) something going from a low position to a higher (in our case the sun was going to a higher position)
Downstairs: the lower floor of a house
Scream of joy: when someone screams because he’s/she’s happy

Dough: it is a thick mixture of flour and other ingredients that can be kneaded, baked and eaten
Bowl: a round container that is open on the top and is deep enough to hold fruit, sugar, etc.
Pastry dishes: some dishes (such as pies) are made of pastry casing that covers or completely contains a filling of a variety of sweet or savory ingredients
Pie: a baked dish with fruit/meat/vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry. You can have sweet pies or salted pies
Few: a small/ non- specific number
Yeast: bakers use yeast to turn flat, sticky, dough into tall, fluffy bread
Pour: to make a substance flow from a container into another container
Rolling pin: a cylinder used to roll out dough to make it flatten
Phyllo dough: it is a very thin part of dough used for making pastries such as baklava or borek (pite) in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine
Pickles: vegetables that have been preserved in a vinegar sauce or salty water.

ALBANIAN BAKLLAVA

Albanian Team

Bakllava is the Middle Eastern dessert par excellence, but it’s also part of Balkan traditions.
We chose this sweet because it is good, it is often cooked for religious parties.One day, a Ramadam’s day, my friends Abdyl, Adrian and I went to have lunch at an Albanian’s post which makes pizzas, kebabs and other traditional things from Albania. After eating, we decided to take a slice of bakllava, and we really liked it, for this reason we decided to choose this sweet, also because it is a traditional dessert in Albania.
The Baklava is a layered sweet of thin phyllo dough, just like leaves or sheets of paper, grated and leaned in a pan: chopped nuts
together with pistachios, are scattered over the various layers, which are then rolled and baked in the oven before being soaked with a solution of sugar and lemon juice or honey and spices with water.

Ingredients

- 500 gr phyllo dough
- 200 gr chopped nuts
- 150 gr crushed pistachios

- cinnamon powder
- 180 gr melted butter

Ingredients for the syrup
- 50 gr honey
- 450 gr sugar
- 300 ml water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation
1-Prepare the syrup making it melt on the fire with water, honey and lemon juice. After a few minutes of cooking you will see that it becomes dense: take it out of the fire and cool it in the fridge.

2-Divide the dough into at least 12 parts and roll with the help of a rolling pin so that you get 12 thin sheets that you will lay in a rectangular.

3-Paint the first pie with melted butter and lay on top of another 5 sheets that will squeeze each with butter. On these first 6 layers sprinkle the crushed nuts and pistachios not too big; finish with powdered cinnamon powder. Cover everything with the other 6 sheets that will be scrubbed each, including the surface of the last, with the remaining butter.

4-Take a knife and cut the dough until it touches the bottom of the pan, diagonally in both directions to get rhombuses.

5-Bake at 180º for about 40 minutes until the dough is cooked well and is golden.

6-Take the baklava from the oven and pour over it the hot syrup.

GLOSSARY
phyllo dough: pasta of Greek origin made from flour, water, corn starch and sale, made of thin layers, of a consistency similar to that of a leaf, used in the kitchen for sweet and salty preparations.
syrup: a solution of sugar dissolved in water and often flavoured with fruit juice. It is used for sweetening fruit, etc.
cinnamon powder: a sweet-smelling spice made from the inner bark of Asian trees.

Mattoncini cake

Why the name “Mattoncini”? The cake we propose is made of various icing layers and biscuits: looking at this cake makes you think of the bricks that build a house and when you cuts a slice…well, the similarity stands out!
The last days of summer are over and you can see new autumn colours. It’s the best time to say goodbye to a beautiful season. We are going to propose you a great way to say goodbye to the best time of the year and to our favourite season: let’s prepare a tasty cake! You could enjoy this dessert with your friends and family. It is hard to resist the temptation of a sweet, especially if it is homemade! In fact I remember that when I came to come over my grandparents, the first thing at once I've seen at once was this beautiful cake that reminded me of my childhood.

Preparation time: 30/35 minutes

Recipe for 6 people

- a pack of biscuits.
- 125g whipping cream
- 125g cream.
- 50g cocoa powder.
- half a cup of milk.
- chocolate bar.


Step 1
For the icing, mix the whipping cream and a half cup of milk in a pan and fry so that it becomes creamy, follow the same procedure in another container by adding half a cup of cocoa powder.

Step 2
Place the biscuits in the cooking tray then spread on them one of the glaze to your liking. For the second layer of cake, dunk the cookies in the milk, then put them in the baking tray together with the glaze.

Step 3
Continue until you reach enough layers, then finish decorating the cake with some bars of chocolate.

Glossary
Among: within, amidst (eg. Their music’s popular among college students)
Clear: eg. He poured water into a clear glass
Layers: overlay, tier, coating, encrustation (eg. The chef layered the chocolate frosting of the cake)
Baking tray: tin, container for biscuits, etc.
Icing: frost, frosting, ice, icing the puck, etc (eg. to pipe icing onto a cake)
Dunk: to dip, to plunge (eg. I dunk the cookies in the milk)

THE PASUL

 The Strangers

The pasul has Turkish origins, and its ingredients are beans, water, meat, vegetables and various spices. It's a typical Turkish-Kosovan dish that was born more than three centuries ago, and it’s still adored by all Turks and Kosovans. 

This dish was used during war time because it is easy to prepare. We chose the pasul because it’s very tasty and everybody adores it. After preparing, the pasul takes a day to rest, so that the next day the dish is ready to be eaten. 

The pasul takes from four to six hours only for cooking and boiling. The only flaw of this dish is that it causes farts. The pasul is usually matched with salad and homemade cheese, and it can be served without meat, but it’s mostly consumed with homemade dried beef.
When I think about the pasul, it occurs to me when I was a kid and it was time to have dinner with all my cousins: we ate together laughing and joking after a day full of games. It also reminds me some winter days spent out with my grandfather to help him and in the evening we ate the hot pasul, that warmed us all over the body, exposed to the cold of those days.


INGREDIENTS
Paprika
Onions
Black pepper
Spices
Pepper
Water
Beans
Dried meat


PREPARATION
It takes from four to six hours of cooking and boiling; and it’s usually matched with salad and homemade cheese. To prepare the pasul, you have to fill a pot of water and put it to boil, when the water bubbles, add the beans and let the beans cook together with the meat; then take a frying pan and fry the onions cut into tiny pieces and add black pepper, cut peppers, salt. After 2/3 hours of boiling, when the beans and the meat are ready, put the spices and cuttings in the pot and let it boil slowly for about 3 hours.

At last the pasul is served hot with homemade cheese or homemade cucumber peppers under homemade vinegar.



GLOSSARY
Dish: the dish is a particular type of food
Centuries: a century is a period of 100 years
Tasty: the word tasty it’s used to describe a dish; and it means that the dish has a good taste
Boiling: boiling is when a liquid reaches the temperature and turns into a gas
Fart: a fart is a flatus expelled through the anus
Homemade: it means that it’s prepared at home
Dried: it means that it’s characterized by absence of natural wetness
Laughing: when a person laughs it means that he is amused, pleased, happy
Warmed: it means having moderate heat
Exposed: it means vulnerable

The Margherita Cake

Cooking Rockers

We are the Rockers, in our group there are 4 components: Marko, Luca, Giuseppe and Federico! Marko is the Chef who cooked The Margherita Cake, Luca is the Recorder who recorded all the video, Giuseppe is Marko’s helper and Federico is the boss and we decided to make The Margherita Cake as our topic! The Margherita Cake is soft, tasty and easy to do in little time! It was our first cake that we cooked successfully, after making that cake, cooking has become our hobby! We discovered this cake on a Saturday afternoon in summer, we were at Marko's home playing video games and after a few hours of gaming we were hungry, so Luca searched on the internet easy recipes and from a site we discovered the Margherita Cake! Marko already had all the ingredients, so we got started to make it! During the making process we had very funny moments, for example when we divided the egg white from the yolks and Luca threw it onto Federico’s head. Once finished, we tasted it and it was very very good! We were very happy and after that day, every Saturday we meet and cook together tastier and more fantastic food!

To make this cake you need the following ingredients:

- 5 eggs
- 150 g. flour
- 180 g. sugar
- 16 g. baking powder
- 150 g. potato starch
- 90 g. butter
- 1 lemon zest
- 130 ml. milk
- Icing sugar to taste


How to make this cake:
First, separate the egg whites from yolks, then add the sugar with the yolks and finally mix with the mixer for some minutes. After add the butter and amalgamate, sift the flour, the potato starch and the baking powder and slowly add during the mixing. If the mixture results dry add slowly the milk and continue to mixing. Grate the lemon zest in the mixture and stop. Then mix with a silicon shovel the egg white and add it to the mixture delicately. Flour and butter a baking tray and put it inside the mixture and level. Then cook it in a oven at 150°C for 70 minutes, after add the icing sugar to taste.
Then the cake is finished and you can enjoy it!

GLOSSARY
Tasty : a tasty food has a strong and very pleasant flavour
Successfully: having a great result
Hobby: a pleasant activity
Discover: to find information
Flour: finely ground meal derived from wheat, used in baking and cooking
Baking powder: a mixture of powders used to make cakes rise and become light when they are baked
Lemon zest: lemon peel
Icing sugar: it is a type of sugar that is used to make a cake better and good
Yolk: it is the internal part of an egg
Recipe: it is a text where it is written how to make a food and what the necessary ingredients are

Easy Apple Pie

The first time I ate the apple cake I was a child.
My mum used to prepare this cake for breakfast (in particular in autumn) and I’ve always loved it because it is tasty and a simple sweet with poor ingredients (almost just apples!).
She prepares it very well and this is her secret recipe…

INGREDIENTS 

• ½ cup butter, softened 

• 1 cup sugar 

• 2 eggs 

• ¼ cups all-purpose flour 

• 1 teaspoon baking soda 

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

• ¼ teaspoon salt 

• 1 ½ cups shredded peeled apples (about 2 medium apples) 

• 1 Cup chopped walnuts

• Cinnamon ice cream


STEPS
Heat the oven to 175°.
Then, in a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with the electric mixer (on medium speed) until it becomes light and fluffy.
After that, beat the eggs one at the time.
Cut the apples and put them in a large bowl.
Stir in vanilla, flour, baking, soda, cinnamon, salt, apples and walnuts.

Mix the dough and put it in a bowl.
Then, bake the cake for 40/45 minutes or until the thoothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Finally, cool 10 minutes longer the cake and serve warm with ice cream.
I suggest you vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.

GLOSSARY
Recipe: a set of instructions for making or preparing something.
Teaspoon: a small spoon used to stir tea and coffee, eat dessert, etc.
Cinnamon: a sweet-smelling spice made from the inner bark of various Asian trees of the laurel family.
Walnut: an edible meaty nut with a hard, wrinkled shell.
Stir in: o mix.
Toothpick: A small, pointed piece of wood, for removing food particles from between the teeth.

BURRITO ON THE ROAD

The burrito is a kind of food that belongs to the tex-mex cuisine. It's a popular street food, especially in the USA. Over the years this food has met the taste and the lifestyle of each person, for example the vegans and the vegetarians.
Initially the street food was created for the lower society class’ demand.
Nowadays it has updated and focused on different cultures, following the tradition and the quality of products. Street food also permits the people to taste food during a simple stroll around the city.

The burrito consists of a large wheat flour tortilla, generally filled up with bovine meat, chicken or pig then closed to obtain a thin roll.
Every city has a different interpretation of the classic recipe. The filling includes also other ingredients like rice, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole and cheese. In the USA there are principally four popular versions: the classic tex-mex, the San Francisco's, the San Diego's, and the Los Angeles' one.
We want to propose you the authentic Mexican recipe.

Preparation:
In this recipe, we will use beef loin, which you will slice into thin slices.

Cook separately meat slices in a bit of olive oil and a pressed garlic clove. Add salt and black pepper to the meat slices and cook until medium-done; store for later.

In the same frying pan add the diced tomato to the hot oil. Once the tomato has started to melt down, drop in the previously diced onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes and add the rice (which has already been cooked), the beans and the meat.

Now sprinkle your mix with cumin and coriander, and stir well. Taste seasoning, add salt and pepper if you wish.

Chop the lettuce into thin slices. Then place a wheat flour tortilla on a plate and spread two tablespoons of the meat, rice and beans mixture we previously did, then place some lettuce over and then sprinkle some cheese on top. Fold the tortilla into the typical cylinder shape, then cut the burrito in two. Serve with guacamole and some hot sauce.

We hope you will enjoy our article… let us know through your comments.

Glossary
Beef loin: it's a part in of the back of the bovine
Filling: all the ingredients that fill sweet and salty preparations
Guacamole: it is a Mexican sauce made with avocado, lime and salt
Lower society class: poor people
Roll: thin material rolled on itself to obtain a cylinder shape
Seasoning: the ingredients like salt, pepper and spices used for add flavour to the food
Slices: part of something, generally food, cut in thin stripes
Sprinkle: to put a bit of an ingredient on a dish, for example, to sprinkle spices on the burrito
Stir: mix one or more substances, for example, to stir the sugar in the coffee
Stroll: to walk in the outdoors
Taste: to eat a little quantity of a dish to check the flavour
Tex-mex: it is a fusion of Texan cuisine and Mexican cuisine
Melt down: transition from the solid state to the liquid state, for example, the ice melts down at 0°C and becomes water
Wheat flour: a type of flour made with a cereal; you can use it to make bread, pizza and pasta