Fragrant feta, parsley and dill bread

Yesterday my 89 year old tough, sweet, wonderful, opinionated grandma passed away.  My last grandparent, my mothers mother and my kids oh so beloved nanna. We have been very lucky to have had her around for so long, but her passing hurts none the less. But because weirdly enough the world moves on while you are grieving, baking bread was on the agenda for today. I decided to do some therapy baking and try something new, while contemplating my grandma and her love for food. Or better said, her not existing love for cooking and so on. My grandma has never loved cooking, she ate because it kept her alive & kicking. Of course there were things she loved to eat, but cooking never was her favorite task. Where my mom and I get our love for cooking and baking from we don't know. Not my gran, that's for sure. Her oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts or Dutchies in English) and her (mostly collapsed and thus wonderfully sticky and gooey) cake on the other hand were legendary. My gran came from a family of 11 (and only one brother now remains, so sad) and every New Years Eve my gran would bake buckets full of oliebollen. Even when her huge family decreased over the years with brothers and sisters falling away, she kept baking them in buckets. We ate tons of them, even if they looked dreadful, they tasted marvellous. I don't think she ever wrote down her recipe, and I can never ask her now. Her "oliebollen" will stay a legend from now on. 

While kneading my dough I also contemplated the possibility of my grandma being a celiac without knowing. Because my gran has had tummy troubles her whole life, but never had herself checked out. My hubs and I have so often thought: what if I baked glutenfree bread for her too, would that have helped her somewhat? But she was so old and stuck in her ways and attached to her basic wheatbread that we never pressed on. She would've been so sad as to know she made her oldest puppy (that is how she always referred to my boys) so sick, so maybe it's better that we will never know. And that she will never know for sure, because I know the thought has crossed her mind too. 

As I was thinking of my wonderful gran, my hands worked seperately and created this soft, fragrant bread, made with Turkish yoghurt, feta, dill, parsley and paprika. It would be something my gran would never eat (way too exotic for her) but that she would be very proud of me for making it. Love you gran!

This bread is very fragrant, you'll smell it through your whole house when baking

Ingredients: 

• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of butter
• 75 ml (2.75 fl oz) of milk
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of yeast
• 175 grams (6 oz) of Turkish yoghurt
• 75 ml (2.75 fl oz) of olive oil
• 1 egg
• A teaspoon of iodized salt
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons of fiber husk
• 450 grams (1 lb) of glutenfree flour
• 200 grams (7 oz) of feta
• 3 tablespoons of dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons of dried dill
• 1 teaspoon of paprika powder
• 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and put a bowl of water in the oven. 
2. Melt the butter and put it in a bowl to let it cool a bit. heat it the milk, just a bit so it's warm, do not let it boil, stir in the yeast and mix in the olive oil and the yoghurt. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Set the egg yolk aside and mix in the egg white in with the butter and the milk, yeast olive oil mixture as well. Add the sugar, iodized salt, xanthan gum and fiber husk and mix in. 
3. Add the flour and gradually work it through. When it's well combined, add the crumbled feta and the herbs and spices. Knead those through as well and then transfer the dough to a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Form a loaf and carve on the top a couple of times. 
4. Put the baking tray in the preheated oven and let the dough proof for about 30-40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit).
5. Mix the left over egg yolk with two tablespoons of water and brush it on top of the loaf. Leave it to rest another 10 minutes while your oven preheats. Then put it into the oven for about 35-40 minutes till it's golden. 
6. Let it cool a bit before carving it, this bread is very soft and crumbles easily. 

Enjoy!

Greek moussaka made from scratch

I sometimes wonder why food producing companies make my life (and that of others suffering from allergies or intolerances) so incredibly difficult, especially on days when time seems scarce and you would like to produce an easy meal just like that. You know, when you can run through the supermarket grab anything box with a meal on it you fancy and get the extra ingredients to toss into a ready made sauce and so on and so forth. But you can't, because those ready to cook kinda meals are filled with those buggers of gluten. I can't count the times anymore that I sighed and said: Why for heaven's sake can't they use maize starch instead of wheat starch or flour???? 
But I know exactly why, because this glutenfreemomma once worked for a milling plant, and flour is much more inexpensive than any starch. Yes, I've worked for a company specialized in the products that make my kids sick. Stay close to the hazard and you learn so much!! Which products are made with flour for example, but also about the nutrients my kids miss because they can't eat normal bread etc. It was a great experience and I can also tell you, flour and wholemeal is not a unhealthy product, it only is if it makes you sick. So to those thinking glutenfree is healthier. It's not! I can't stress this enough. If you are not in some way sensitive, allergic or intolerant to gluten or wheat, don't do this diet! 

But I'm drifting off. Where was i? Oh right: actually, I should thank the food producing industry, because they force me to make many things from scratch, sparing me and my family from extra added sugars, preservatives and other stuff you basically don't need. I get to taste food the way it was meant to taste, even though I sometimes "cheat" by grabbing a tin of chopped tomatoes instead of the fresh ones. Hey, I'm only human and a busy, working mom and wife so I am allowed to cheat like that. Well, one day i got so frustrated by staring at those ready made meals, that I grabbed the packet of Greek Moussaka (which I loved, but didn't know how to make from scratch in a way that it tasted like actual Moussaka) and walked through the supermarket grabbing everything from the back listed and decided to buy it. At home I googled for a decent recipe and adapted that with the extra ingredients (mainly herbs, the secret is in the herbs!!!) I saw listed on the back of that "Moussaka ready in half an hour' box. Here's the recipe for it. The moral of this tale? You can make anything glutenfree if you want to invest time and effort! In this case, you invest the time, I've invested the effort for you! ;-)

Glutenfree, vegetarian (if you eat dairy & eggs) Greek Moussaka in the making Ingredients: 450 grams (1 lb) of minced meat (optional, I don't use the meat, my kids love it better without) 1-2 eggplant (I mostly use two as I love to make a big tray of moussaka and then freeze the left overs for an easy meal on a busy day). 450 grams (1 lb) of precooked sliced potatoes (you can also peel potatoes, cook them in salted water for about 10-15 minutes and let them cool before you slice them, they fully cook in the oven) 3  tins of 400 grams (14 oz) of chopped tomatoes (or an equal amount of fresh ones that you chop off, but i can't be bothered. ;-)) 0.5 a jar of sundried tomato tapenade a glove of garlic (two if you like the taste of the Mediterranean ;-)) pinch of salt pinch of pepper two teaspoons of oregano two teaspoons of tarragon one teaspoon of thyme two teaspoons of dried basil  (if you want to use fresh herbs, put in a bit more because the dried versions are often more powerful, but fresh herbs are even better!) 250 grams (9 oz) of thick greek yoghurt 2 eggs 100-200 grams (3.5 to 7 oz) of grated parmesan cheese  1 packet of feta cheese (about 7 oz?) Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit). Slice the eggplant and sprinkle them with a bit of salt. This will help release the excess water in the product. Leave for 10 minutes while you preheat a grillpan. Pat off the excess salt and water with some paper towel. Grill the slices in the grillpan until they have those beautiful black grill stripes. Set aside.  If you make the moussaka with minced meat, put this in the pan bake it while loosening it.  Add the tins of chopped tomatoes and press in the clove(s) of garlic. Add the sundried tomato tapenade and  add the spices. Taste. If you feel it needs a bit m³ore of something, just add it!  Mix the yoghurt with 1/4th of the grated parmesan and 1/4th of the feta (crumbled) and two eggs. Add some salt and pepper to finish it. Set aside.   Grease a pyrex oven tray/bowl. Put half of the tomatoe/minced meat sauce in it. Spread half of the potatoe slices on top of it. Crumble half of the feta that is left on it. Add half of the eggplant on top of it. Now repeat all the layers and finish with the yoghurt mix on top of the second layer of eggplant.  Put in the oven for about 35 minutes. Serve with a Greek salad.  Bon appetit!