This recipe was given to me and translated by my dear Limburg-ian(?) friend, Lena ♥️ from the book Limburgs op de Kaart, Wil en Netty Geurts

Proemevlaai (plum pie):

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 100ml of milk
• 250g of flour
• 15g of yeast
• 20g of butter
• half an egg
• 15g of sugar
• a pinch of salt

Pudding: -18g of custard

• 18g of sugar

• 200ml of milk

• 1 kg of plums

• (sugar)

Finish:

• egg
• milk

Dough

Heat up the milk until it's lukewarm. Put the flour in a bowl. Stir the yeast with a bit of lukewarm milk until smooth. Make a dimple in the flour, and pour the yeast, butter, egg, and sugar into it. Sprinkle the salt along the edge of the flour. Pour the rest of the lukewarm milk into the dimple with the yeast. Knead the dough until it's supple. Cover the dough and let it rise until it's become twice its original size.

Pudding

Don't use an aluminium pan or whisk, this can cause discolouration in the mixture. Put the custard into a bowl, together with the sugar. Add 50ml of cold milk and stir until smooth. Boil the rest of the milk. Pour the custard into the boiling milk while stirring. Keep boiling it for a while, and keep stirring. Pour the pudding into a bowl and let it cool off. Stir occasionally, so that the pudding stays smooth.

Sprinkle the worktop/counter with flour, and roll it flat and round, so that it can cover the bottom and walls of a pie form. Apply fat to the pie form and cover it with the dough, and trim the excess. Poke small holes into the bottom and let the dough rise until thick. Preheat the oven to 220C

Plums

Cut the plums lengthwise and remove the seed. Spread the cooled-off pudding onto the bottom of the pie. Add the plums with the skin down, and pack them very tightly. The plums will shrink as they're baked, so otherwise you'll have open/empty spots. Sprinkle some sugar over the plums.

Finish

Mix an egg with milk, and glaze the edge of the dough. Bake the pie at 220C for 25 minutes in the centre of the oven. The dough should have a nice brown colour. Take the pie out of its form and let it cool off. Sprinkle some extra sugar to taste.

Carob is a highly underrated wild legume that is mainly cultivated and native to the Mediterranean and West/Southwest Asia that looks like this:

I first became aware of its baking potential when my mother started using carob flour to make me and my sibling poundcake for school when we were kids. It may have a distinct taste but there was an inherent richness and taste profile that made it so enjoyable even as a main ingredient.

That being said, I also decided to share this recipe - besides with the goal of introducing you to this awesome legume - due to the current fate of the cocoa agricultural industry. The cocoa industry has been infamous many years now, mainly for their colourful crimes against humanity and the concept of labour, human rights and sustainable development.

Recently as many people including myself have noticed from the significant rise in chocolate prices around the world, something has befallen the cocoa industry once more. A swollen shoot viral disease is plaguing farms across West Africa and the supply of our beloved chocolate has taken a significant hit^[1 https://gna.org.gh/2024/02/ghana-loses-over-500000-hectares-of-cocoa-farms-to-swollen-shoot-viral-disease/]^[2 https://www.esmmagazine.com/supply-chain/ivory-coast-cocoa-output-seen-lower-as-swollen-shoot-disease-spreads-255915].

With that in mind, it is important to be mindful of what we consume and how much of it we consume. For both economic and environmental reasons broadening our palettes can do us a lot of good. This recipe besides being very delicious and nutricious can be a great way to introduce new flavour profiles into your life without sacrificing the small pleasures of desserts containing cocoa.^___^

I really want to try this one... I tried linking a source from a person of Maori ancestry and not just washed out entertainment chefs

This isn't like the usual baklava one would think of when they hear the word "baklava", but that's how we refer to it locally. Similar to diples, this is a pastry(?)/dessert for any occasion all year round!

Ingredients:

[For the syrup]

• 1 kg sugar
• 500 ml water
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 5 or 6 grains of mastic

[For the baklava]

• 1 kg all purpose flour
• 1 cup oil
• Dried cloves (1-2 per baklava)
• 1 tsp of salt
• Water
• Roasted almonds for serving/toppings

1. In a bowl, put the oil, salt, and a glass and a half of water. Knead by hand. If you see that the dough "goggles", add more water until it becomes a smooth and tight dough. Let the dough rest

2. Divide the dough into pieces depending on how big you want your baklavas, and shape it giving a long narrow and thick shape

3. You pass each piece through a pasta machine, first from position 1, then from position 3 and then from position 5

4. Spread the strips on a surface and cut them into thinner strips (around 2 cm) with a special roller or a blade

5. Take one strip and wrap it thinly around your finger 4.5 times. At the end, pin it with a clove. Repeat with all the baklavas

6. Put enough oil in a deep frying pan and fry the baklavas

7. For the syrup, put a kilo of sugar and half a liter of water in a saucepan. Let it boil until it thickens. To flavor the syrup, dip a tulle/strainer bag in chios mastic, half a lemon peel and juice from half a lemon. Let the syrup boil until it thickens

8. Turn off the heat and with a slotted spoon and drop the baklavas into the syrup. Remove with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with coarsely chopped roasted almonds or walnuts

I got some sumac today and I'll likely be trying out this recipe I've been eyeing for a while 👀 For those interested, there are variants of this recipe using dried sumac as well

A traditional dish of my locality :)

[ 4 servings ]

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg whole wheat flour (alternatively all purpose)
• 600 ml water
• 60 gr butter or oil (or half-half of both for optimal flavour) (you can also use plant-based butter)
• 2 large white onions, finely chopped
• 180 gr grated mizithra

(Note: Mizithra is a whey cheese made with goat milk, sheep milk, or a combination of both. It's white in colour and the variety used in this recipe is salt-dried and a bit harder, ideal for grating. Make substitutions if unavailable using this info 👍 You can also find recipes to make mizithra at home!)

• coarse salt
• freshly ground pepper

EXECUTION

1. In a bowl, mix the flour with the water and knead the mixture until the dough is soft

2. Cut it into pieces and shape them into a shape that looks like thick string

3. Cut each string into smaller pieces and press it with an edge so that it takes this shape:

4. Put the makarounes in a pan that you have previously floured and leave them for 1 hour to dry

5. Fill a pot with salted water and boil them

6. As soon as you see them rise to the surface, take them out and strain them

7. Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions (if planning to use both butter and oil, add the butter after the onions are done sauteing)

8. As soon as the onions reach a deep brown colour, remove them from the pan

9. Serve the makarounes with grated cheese, pepper, a few spoonfuls of the sauteed onion and enjoy!