Having a go and letting you know; sorry Finland, I really deserve a bit of a thick ear for this…
06 Dec 2020
Dear LPG,
After my 4th attempt at following a national recipe I feel that I have learned a few things and the first of them is to start looking for the ingredients nice and early, because every now and then, unusual ingredients can be hard to get. But for all that, the day after my cooking adventure I worked out that Sainsbury’s is the place to go. In fact, there were two details I had not managed to cover on the day.
I found myself in many shops looking for Cardamom without success and finally found that Sainsbury’s do it, albeit the day after my cooking experiment. I never actually managed to make a trip there until it was too late and, in the end I made an executive decision to leave it out.
Apart from that, yesterday was the day, and the missing ingredient aside the preparation went well until it came to the shaping of the buns. I would suggest that you watch the video to learn that secret if you are going to try this recipe. The hands that I watched on the television were versed in the art of the poking of the dough after the shaping and the cutting, in a way that it takes ages to learn. I think I poked a bit too hard with my unpractised hands and, of course, there was the missing pearl sugar which I have yet to find anywhere.
I again only made half the quantity, but there were a lot of buns and I put them too close together on the baking tray so mine came out of the oven fused together somewhat, but my ignorance of what they really are supposed to taste like aside, they were really quite good and my friends acting as guinea pigs thought they were not too sweet. So my version of the finished article was in want of a recognisable shape. Apparently the name of this dish, Korvapuusti, translates into English as “boxed ears”. and I think I deserve a thick ear for my presentation this time. Sorry Finland, but happy Independence Day anyway.
The January stop on my culinary trip around the world will leave those who have a go nice and warm on any average English January day, which is why I thought that I should salute a place where the food will warm us up a bit, and just in case you did not know Myanmar celebrate their independence day on January the 4th. With that in mind I am going to try not to make too much of an accident of their national dish which is Nan Gyi Thoke. For those who appreciate hot and spicy food it should be good, although if you are going to try it I suggest you look at the video as well as the written versions of the recipe.
CB prepares readers for what is to come next…
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