US-American buckwheat cookies

Polish: ciasteczko
Kawésqar: kilíta
Mapunzugun: kochüke kofke
Quechua: qhapukillu
Guarani: mbujapemi
Aymara: misk'i t'ant'alla
Cheyenne: vé'keekóhkonôheo'o
Maliseet: sukolopanis
Naskapi: kwaaihkunaas
Ojibwe: pakwezhigaans

For language fans, cookie in Polish and some native American languages :) For cookie fans, a great cookies recipe, but a special one, with buckwheat flour. I love buckwheat so I couldn't resist, when I saw Alice Medrich's buckwheat recipe from her "Pure Dessert" book. This recipe was circulating in the web between American culinary bloggers. I changed it a little but and I promise, buckwheat flour gives those American cookies a tasty, surprising, nutty twist!

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
225 gr soft butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder + 1/3 cup chopped peanuts (unsalted)
(originally: 1/3 cup cocoa nibs)
a pinch of salt
few drops vanilla extract

1. Sift both flours with cocoa powder. Beat soft butter with sugar and salt until creamy and fluffy. Mix all the ingredients together and work the dough the way it stays homogeneous.

2. Wrap the dough into a plactic bag and roll it as thin as you want it to have. Or, form a long roll - you will cut slices of it like salami :) After 2-3 hours (or after night) cut cookes using a cookie cutter or knife. Bake 15 minutes in 180C oven.

US-American stuffed butternut

Polish: dynia piżmowa
English: butternut squash
Spanish: zapallo anco
Swedish: bisampumpa
French: courge musquée
Quechua: lakawiti
Tamil: கல்யாணப் பூசணி
Hebrew: דלורית
Dutch: muskaatpompoen

A great recipe for American stuffed butternut squash:

1 medium butternut squash (1 kg)
100 gr blue cheese (I took Bavarian Blue)
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1 onion, 1 garlic clove
a handful of breadcrumbs
optionally: salt, pepper

1. Cut cleaned squash lengthways in two halves, scoop out the seeds. Put some butter and mashed garlic in each cavity, brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 1 hour in the oven (200 C). The flesh has to be tender.

2. Scoop the flesh, leaving about 1 cm of flesh attached to the skin. Put it into a bowl with the butter-garlic juice. Mash it with blue cheese, chopped onion and nuts. You can add your favourite herbs (thyme, basil, oregano). Spoon back into squash halves and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake about 15 minutes more.

US-American autumn vegetable soup

Polish: jesień
Armenian: աջռւն
Uzbek: kuz
Erzya: cёксь
Pashto: منۍ
Võro: süküs
Chuvash: Кĕркунне
Tigrinya: tzödia
Abkhasian: хкаарачан
Somail: dayr

Autumn slowly appears in central Europe again. Autumn is for me always more than welcome. There are not many things in this world better than floundering in colourful leaves, buying lovely orange pumpkins at the local markt and cooking and eating one of the most delicious soups of the world, US-American apple-rutabaga soup .

(makes 4 portions)
about 100 gr buter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup grated rutabaga
1 cup grated apples (unpeeled)
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated sweet potato
1 cup grated squash or pumpkin
1l stock (vegetable / chicken)
1 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin (optionally: mashed garlic clove)
1/4 maple syrup (I added Turkish mulberry molasses)

1. Fry onions in butter until goldeb brown. Add the rest of the vegetables, stir constantly, fry them all together for about 10 minutes more on a low heat

2. Add sock, increase heat, bring to boil and cook about 20 minutes or until vegetables are soft.

3. Puree the soup or press through a sieve (I pureed only a half of my soup cause I like to bite little vegetable chunks). Add the rest of the ingredients and season to taste, reheat and serve!

ps.
I am sorry, but you have to use your imagination while looking at this picture. Its colour is much mre intensive but due to my poor camara it is impossible :(



ps2.
Top this soup with chopped dill or parsley. Pumpkin or sunflower seeds would be a great idea too!