Welcome to my life

Hi there,

I want to share the wonderful world of fairy tales and recipes with you!

Bulgarian Fairy Tale Recipes

Brother Grimm's Fairy Tale Recipes

Fairy Tale Recipes from Around the World

A Fairy Tale Recipe - 1001 Nights

Fairy Tale Recipe Website

Hi everyone,

So after having my book published on Amazon I finally sat down to create my own website. I am happy to inform you that my new website is available here:

www.fairytalerecipe.com

I will continuously update my website, but keep on writing this blog as well, as I feel the blog can be updated on a daily basis.

Today I was dancing around my living room as my website is finally done. It took a lot of time and effort, but has been worth it.

If you have any comments, please do give me some feedback. I would really appreciate it!

Photos from our cooking

Bulgarian fairy tale recipe

Apparently you can find dragons in a lot of the Bulgarian fairy tales. There are many stories about the zmey, or dragon, a complex being, combining elements from Thracian, Slavic and Proto Bulgarian mythologies. It is sometimes portrayed as a bad character, but often it is seen as benign and has an important place in Bulgarian myth and folklore. 

Part snake, part bird, part human, zmeys are associated with both fire and water. They live in caves, lakes or mountain palaces and glow as they fly. They can summon whirlwinds or become invisible at will. They are immensely strong, and a human who eats a dragon's heart gains some of that power.

They are shape shifters and can take on an alluring human form but they can also change into dogs, flower garlands, or even necklaces. Zmeys often fall in love with humans, who then may grow pale and lovesick. They may pine away, for dragon love can be deadly. The only cure is to take a potion made with herbs such as gentian, tansy and wormwood to repulse the dragon.

The fairy tale recipe I have embraced is 

The Emperor' Golden Apples Banitzi

- adapted from the fairy tale "The Emperor's Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples."

Once upon a time, the great emperor of Bulgaria's golden apple tree was robbed every night, so his sons set themselves to watch it. The older two slept, but the youngest stayed awake. Nine peahens arrived. Eight riffled the tree, while the ninth came down beside him and became a beautiful maiden. She talked with him. He begged her to leave one apple, and she left two. This went on for two nights, until his brothers spied on him and saw how it happened. They made a bargain with a witch, and the next night she leapt up and cut off a lock of the maiden's hair. The prince caught the witch and had her executed, but the peahens did not return.

Grieving, the prince set out in search. He found a castle with an aging empress, who had one daughter. On hearing that nine peahens bathed in the lake outside, he set out, despite her efforts to have him stay. The empress bribed his servant to blow a whistle when the nine peahens approached. This threw him into an enchanted sleep. The ninth tried to wake him, but to no avail. She told the servant they would come on the next day and never again. The next day, the servant put him to sleep again, and the maiden told him that if the prince wanted to find her, he should roll the under peg on the upper. The servant repeated this to the prince. The prince cut off his head and went on alone.

A hermit directed him to a castle, he found the ninth peahen, and they were married at once. One day his wife, the empress, had to go on journey, and forbade him to go into the twelfth cellar. When he went in, a cask with iron bands about it asked him for water. He gave it three cups. It burst, and a dragon sprang out to fly off and capture the empress.

He set out in search of her. He saw a fish on the bank, helped it into the water, and received a scale to call it; a fox in a trap, and received a couple of hairs; and a wolf in another trap, and received a couple of hairs. He found where the empress was held captive, and they tried to escape. The dragon saw them, his horse told him there was plenty of time to eat and drink before setting in pursuit, and after he ate and drank, the dragon captured them. He let the prince go because of the drinks of water, but promised it would be the only clemency.

The prince returned to the castle and had the empress ask the dragon where he got the horse. The dragon told how a witch had a mare and foal, and whoever watched them for three days would get his pick of her horses, and whoever failed would lose his life. The prince set out, and found she had poles about her house, every one of which except one had a skull on it. She hired him to look after the horse. He watched all day, but in the night, he fell asleep, and they escaped into the water. He asked the fish, who told him the charm to get them out. When he went back for dinner, the witch scolded the horse, heard its reason, and told it to go among the foxes; he used the fox hairs and got it back, and then, the next day, the wolf hairs.

He asked for the ugly horse in the corner and would not be dissuaded. Then he returned to the castle and carried off the empress. When the dragon saw them, he asked whether he could eat or drink first, but the horse said he would not catch whether he ate first or pursued at once. Still, the dragon rode after, and the horse complained to the prince's of the effort of catching him. 

Afterwards, when he mounted it and gave it its head, it flew, flew like a bird, and in a jiffy arrived at the dragon's palace. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he bade the empress to get ready for flight. She was not long in getting ready they both mounted the horse and set off. They had not long started in flight when the dragon arrived--looked about. No empress. Then he said to his horse: Shall we eat and drink, or shall we pursue?' 'Eat or not, drink or not, pursue or not, you won't catch him.' When the dragon heard this, he immediately mounted his horse, and started to pursue them. When the prince and empress perceived that he was pursuing them, they were terrified, and urged their horse to go quickly, but the horse answered them: 'Never fear; there's no need to hurry.' The dragon came trot, trot, and the horse he rode called to that which bore the prince and the empress: 'Bless you, brother, wait! for I shall break my wind from pursuing you.' The other replied: 'Whose fault is it, if you're such a fool as to carry that spectre on your back? Buck, and throw him on the ground, and then follow me.' When the dragon's horse heard this, up with his head, a jump with his hind-quarters, and bang went the dragon against a stone. The dragon was smashed to pieces, and his horse followed the prince and empress. Then the empress caught and mounted it, and they arrived safe and sound in the empress's dominions, and fast went home where they all celebrated with a Emperor' 

Golden Apples Banitzi.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 3 tablespoons bread crumbs

• 18 sheets filo dough, thawed

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, melted

• 4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and grated

The prince heated the oven to 400 degrees, whilst the empress mixed walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and bread crumbs.

The prince placed one sheet filo dough on a tea towel, brushed it lightly with butter and repeated this 2 more times so there were 3 layers of filo.

The empress made sure to portion out 1/5th of the walnut mixture on the entire surface of the filo. Then, placed 1/5th of the apples in a 1/2-inch-wide strip along the short edge and 1/2 inch away from the sides. She folded up the bottom edge first, then sides, and then roll away from herself, using the towel to help, until she had a tight cylinder. She repeated this with remaining filo dough. 

Finally, the prince placed the banitzi on a parchment-lined pan and baked for 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy. 

The empress served warm, they both enjoyed it and live happily ever after.

African fairy tale recipes

Today I was thinking about my own childhood in Africa. As I have told you before, my father was working in various African countries when I was a child.It was made me think of the fairy tales that I was told in Zambia. 

Zambia was one of my favourite places to live. There are about 72 tribes living in 9 provinces in Zambia. While English is the official language of Zambia, many tribal languages are still spoken. The main tribal groups are Bemba, Nyanja, Lozi and Tonga with Bemba being the most widely spoken native language. My sister and I learnt to speak Nyanja.

We obviously also loved to eat two lovely Zambian recipes: nshima and ifisashi.

Nshima is the staple food eaten by not only Zambians but many other African neighbours. Almost all indigenous African languages in Zambia probably call nshima by a different name according to the specific area language and dialect variation. The Chewa, Tumbuka, andNgoni of Eastern Zambia and Malawi call itsima or nsima, the Bemba of Northern Zambia call it ubwali, the Tonga of Southern Zambia call it Insima and Lozi of Western Zambia call itBuhobe. A similar staple meal is called Sadzain Zimbabwe, Milli Pap in South Africa, Ugali is eaten in East Africa including in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. A similar staple meal called Fufu is eaten in West Africa particularly in Nigeria.

In traditional Zambian fairy tales, Kalulu the hare is the celebrated trickster. In many fairy tales, Kalulu the hare will visit lion who will cook him nshima with delicious chicken. 

The Lion and the Nshima

The Lion had a reputation all over the earth that he was a good doctor. The Lion had all kinds of medicines to treat all kinds of illness.
One day, the Lion received word that the Leopard was stabbed and injured by a wild pig while hunting it. When he heard this word, the Lion called the Zebra and said: 

"Friend, the Leopard is sick. Would you like to come with me and visit him?" 

The Zebra agreed and said: 

"Yes king, I will come with you." 

So, the Zebra carried the Lion's baggage. 

Before they could walk very far, the Lion stopped and said to the Zebra: 

"Look here my friend. You should remember this wild ndiwo green vegetable for our nshima when we arrive at the Leopard's home. When the Leopard gives us meat, you should come here and get this relish." 

The Lion pointed out the type of wild vegetable to the Zebra. After they had walked for some distance, the Lion stopped again and said. 

"Look here friend, when the Leopard cooks us any food, come here and collect that ndiwo vegetable over there." The Lion again showed the Zebra the type of ndiwo. 

When they arrived at the Leopard's house, the Lion rubbed his medicine on the Leopard's body. Soon afterwards the Leopard was healed. 

The Leopard then gave wild pig meat to the Lion and said:

"King, this is yours. Eat it." The Lion then told the Zebra:
"Look, friend, we cannot eat this meat unless we have some extra ndiwo. Would you go and get some of that ndiwo vegetable I showed you on the way when we were coming." 

Without delay, the Zebra ran to go and fetch the ndiwo. 

When the Zebra returned, he found that the Lion had already eaten all the meat. The Zebra slept hungry. The following morning, the Leopard cooked them a nice nshima meal again. The Lion played his trick again. He sent the Zebra to go and collect the same vegetable from the bush. While the Zebra was away, the Lion again ate all the food. When they both returned home, the Lion was very fat from eating all the good food while the Zebra was very thin because of hunger. 

After several days, the Elephant fell sick. So he summoned the Lion for help. The Zebra refused to go. Therefore the Lion had no one to carry the baggage for him. When the Lion saw Kalulu the Rabbit walking along the road, the called him and said:

"Kalulu, come here! You walk around all day stealing other people's things. Come on! Let's go. You can carry my baggage." 

Kalulu the Rabbit quickly agreed and said: 

"King, put the baggage on my head. Laziness is really a bad thing." 

The Lion and Kalulu walked away together. On the way, the Lion stopped and said:

"Look Kalulu, when the elephant gives us food, you should come here and get this ndiwo vegetable." 

Kalulu the Rabbit replied: "That's alright King. I understand what you say. But I have never seen ndiwo of this kind before!" 

After walking for a distance, Kalulu the Rabbit stopped and said: 

"I am sorry chief. I think you should be the one in front to lead the way. I forgot my knife where we stopped a while back." 

Quickly, Kalulu ran back and collected the vegetable and put it in his pocket. 

When they arrived at the Elephant's house, they were warmly received. The Elephant cooked food and served it to his two guests. The Lion sent Kalulu the Rabbit to go and fetch the ndiwo vegetable from the bush. 

Kalulu took out the green vegetables and said: 

"Here King! I got the ndiwo already so that there would be no delays when we eat food." 

In this way the Lion's trick failed this time because Kalulu the Rabbit also ate the food and was satisfied.

When it was dark in the evening, the Elephant showed the Lion and Kalulu a place where they could sleep. The Lion got a nice mat where he could sleep. But Kalulu only slept on hard tree fibers. At dawn, Kalulu began to sing a song. 

"Those who sleep on hard tree fibers are tough; yea! yea!
Those who sleep on a nice mat become tired; yea! yea!" 

When he heard Kalulu's song, the Lion woke up and said: 

"What are you singing about Kalulu? Would you stop it because I am trying to sleep!" 

But Kalulu the Rabbit said:
"Forgive me King, my grandfather taught me this song. He said if you are on a journey and you want to sleep comfortably, you should sleep on tree fibers." 

In this way the Lion was attracted to Kalulu's idea. and said: 

"Please Kalulu let me try to lay down on the tree fibers." 

The Lion fell asleep very deeply. Kalulu the Rabbit woke up and used the tree fiber to tie up the lion. After tying up the Lion in this way, Kalulu got some fire and set the fibers alight. When the Lion felt the heat and the pain from the fire, he tried to free himself but could not. 

The Lion began to shout: "Oh! My! Oh! My! I am dying. Kalulu please untie me!"
But Kalulu the Rabbit ran away out of sight as fast as he could. 

Nshima recipe

6 Cups Water
3 Cups plain corn meal 
Method: Pour 6 cups of water into a medium size cooking pot. Heat the water for minutes or until luke warm. Using one tablespoonful at a time, slowly sprinkle 3/4 cup of the corn meal into the pot while stirring continuosly with a cooking stick. Keep stirring slowly until the mixture begins to thicken and boil. Turn the heat to medium, cover the pot, and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. 

Cautiously remove the top. Slowly, a little at a time, pour into the pot 1 and a quarter cups of corn meal and briskly stir with the cooking stick until smooth and thick. Stir vigorosly. Sprinkle a little more corn meal and stir if you desire the nshima to be thicker or less if you want softer nshima. Cover, turn the heat off and let nshima sit on the stove for another 2 to 3 minutes. Serves 5 people 

Nshima hould be served hot with a vegetable, bean, meat or fish dish on the side.

Thinking of fairy tales

I first started making my own fairy tales when I was a young boy in Africa. My father worked as a medical doctor in Zambia and Tanzania, so we moved around a lot as children.

I have a little sister who easily got bored, so I used to make up stories for her. Her favourite doll was a cabbage pad kid called Carlos. I used to make stories about the doll and sing little songs on his behalf.

Today I am a father of two small boys who also like fairy tales. I love spending time with them, telling them stories that make them wonder about all the beautiful small things in life.

We all grow up too fast, leaving behind all the magic and mystery of fairy tales.

    My lovely little son

Baking Fairy Tale Cakes for Big Bad Trolls

Trolls, fairies and princesses was a great speciality of the illustrator Bauer, as you can see from the painting below:

I want to make a nice cup cake recipe, which can well with a fairy tale about trolls and fairies.

I am thinking about forrest strawberries as an element to the cup cake perhaps? These are obviously difficult to get hold off, but you can also just use normal strawberries.

• 
  
• 2 cups white flour.

• 1 cup butter

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 3/4 cups sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla 

• 1 1/4 cups milk

• 15 strawberries.

• 
  

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

• 
  

• Into a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

• 
  

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then beat in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined after each addition. Fold in strawberries.

Line 12-cup cup cake pans with paper liners

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups so that each is about two-thirds full. 

Bake until the cup cakes are golden brown for about 21 minutes. 

Transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cup cakes from the pan and cool completely on wire racks.

Now its time to make something for the top of the cup cakes.

Ingredients: 

• 3 egg whites

• 1 cups sugar

• 1 butter, room temperature,

• 1 teaspoon vanilla 

• 1 strawberry jam

• 
  

• In a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine egg whites and sugar. Cook, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch.

• 
  

• Add butter, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and stir in strawberry jam  until frosting is smooth.

Pipe about 1/2 cup frosting on top of each cupcake. Garnish with strawberries.

And now it is time for the little fairy and my little ones to eat some lovely cup cakes.

And time for us to think of a fairy tale that goes well with these cup cakes.....

The Tin Soldier Recipe

Good news!

Today I got My Fairy Tale Recipes published, so you should be able to already now, find and buy a copy on Amazon.

This is very exciting - I cannot wait to show my two children a copy of it, it is after all them that inspired this cookbook. I am a strong believer that by integrating recipes into fairy tales you make cooking more fun and enjoyable for children. Not all learning has to be hard work, learning to cook should be fun and it is fun if you become engaged into a world of fairy tales.

I hope that my children enjoy this beautiful world of fairy tales. Sometimes I worry that the stresses of every day life and all the changes that they go through might affect them in a bad way.

Enough! Enough about the sad thought and on to the hopeful dreams. I am planning to publish a cook book that is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, and though of the below front page. What do you think? Does it look to primitive and unprofessional? I have a feeling it does, but I just really like these fairy tale stamps and would love to have them somewhere in my fairy tale cookbook.

Rapunzel Rampion Salad

Cooking with my children is the highlight of my day. Especially, if the recipe is mentioned or relevant to a fairy tale that I have told them. Then they cannot wait to first help me with preparing and cooking the dish, and later eating all of it.

When I was little, I remember that my mother read me the Rapunzel fairy tale, and I was craving the rampion that the story referred to, and I continuously wondered my entire life what exactly it was. So now I am happy to be able to both tell my children the story of Rapunzel, but also to cook Rapunzel's salad with them.

Rapunzel Rampion Salad

Once upon a time, a lovely couple, lived next to a walled garden belonging to a witch.  The wife, experiencing cravings associated with the arrival of her long-awaited pregnancy, one day noticed rampions in the garden of the witch. She  so longed for this, desperate to the point of death.  So one night, the husband breaks into the garden to gather some for his wife. The husband returns to his wife and prepares a lovely salad for his wife.

The ingredients of the salad are: 

2 anchovy fillets
1 hard-cooked egg
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon French mustard
1 pickled gherkin
3 springs chervil
2 teaspoon soy sauce
4 to 5 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 cooked beetroot
1 cold cooked potato
1 small celeriac
1 cooked rampion
Lettuce leaves

The husband first made a paste by mashing tuna and anchovies. Subsequently, he worked the egg yolk smooth with oil and mustard and mixed in the fish paste.  Afterward he mixed egg white, pickle, and chervil and mix all these together with soy and vinegar. Subsequently, he arrange the lettuce leaves in bowl, sliced the vegetables and put them in a bowl with lettuce, Finally, he poured the mixture over it all and tossed lightly the salad lightly.

The husband gave the salad to his wife, and the wife loved it. As a result, the wife asked her husband the day after again, to run over to the garden and get more rampion. On the third night of collecting rampion in the witches garden, the witch catches him and accuses him of being a thief. He begs for mercy, and the old woman agrees to be lenient, on condition that their unborn child should be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agrees.

When the baby girl is born, the witch takes the child to raise as her own, and names her Rapunzel.  Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair.

When Rapunzel reaches her twelfth year, the enchantress shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window. When the witch visits Rapunzel, she stands beneath the tower and calls out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair. Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long hair around a hook beside the window, dropping it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room. 

One day, a prince rides through the forest and hears Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he searches for the girl and discovers the tower, but is naturally unable to enter, since there are big dangerous dragons in front of the tower. However, the prince is brave, so he kills all the dragons, so he can sit and listen to her beautiful singing, 

One day he sees the witch visit, and thus learns how to gain access to Rapunzel. When the witch is gone, he bids Rapunzel let her hair down. When she does so, he climbs up, makes her acquaintance, and eventually asks her to marry him. Rapunzel agrees. Together they plan a means of escape, wherein he will come each night and bring her silk that Rapunzel can weave into a ladder. However, unfortunately Rapunzel foolishly one day gives the prince away, as she asks the witch why it is easier for her to draw up the prince than her. In anger, the witch cuts short Rapunzel's braided hair and casts her out into the wilderness to fend for herself.

When the prince calls that night, the enchantress lets the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he finds himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who is nowhere to be found. When the witch tells him in anger that he will never see Rapunzel again, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.

For months he wanders through the wastelands of the country. One day, as Rapunzel sings while she fetches water, the prince hears Rapunzel's voice again, and they are reunited. When they fall into each others' arms, her tears immediately restore his sight and he can see his two baby boys that she has given birth to. The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they live happily ever after.