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Happiness is homemade

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Traditional

ballokume

Ballokume

March 12, 2018 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

Ballokume are traditional Albanian cookies, that have become the symbol of Spring Day. The ingredients are very simple, but the technique is a bit challenging. Ballokume homeland is Elbasan, an old city in Central Albania, that’s why this recipe and tips come from my friends from Elbasani, Xhulia, and Ivlin. I would prefer them less…

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Filed Under: Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: albanian cuisine, ballokume, ballokume english recipe, ballokume recipe, gluten free cookies, how to make ballokume

Kumquat Jam

Preserved kumquats made at home

January 30, 2018 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

Do you like kumquats? They’re tasty and cute and have a nice bittersweet taste.      I don’t know why they rarely sell them in the farmers’ market, so whenever I manage to find some, I make this delicious and super easy kumquat preserve. I love enjoying it on a toast with butter or cheese,…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: easy jam, edible gifts, homemade jam, how to make preserved kumquats at home, kumquat and chocolate, kumquat jam, kumquat recipe, preserved kumquats

Cocoa & vanilla bundt cake

November 7, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

Remember double layer cake, where cocoa and vanilla flavours mixed so perfectly with each other? My mom used to make it very often, and I would always have a piece warm, because couldn’t wait for it to cool. This is a recreation of my family recipe for the double layer cake, slightly dense and not…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: cake for breakafast, Chocolate and vanilla bundt cake, Cocoa and vanilla bundt cake, double layer bundt cake, double layer cake, easy cake recipe

My family recipe of rice pudding

August 31, 2017 By Mandarina 2 Comments

They say easy as a pie, I would say, easy as a rice pudding. This simple dish has many variation and names between continents and countries: Arroz con leche in Spanish, Budino di riso in Italian, Risogallo in Greek, Sütlaç in Turkish, Syltjash or Tameloriz in Albanian, Duadhapak in Indian and many many more. The beauty of the rice…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: albanian cuisine, easy pudding easy, family recipe, how to make rice pudding at home, rice pudding, sultjash recipe, traditional rice pudding recipe

whole wheat cherry galette

Wholesome cherry galette

July 18, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

I’ve always loved the simplicity of galettes. They require few ingredients and the end result is so rewarding. This time I’m sharing with you a whole wheat cherry galette recipe, which is a summer favorite of mine. Choose the sweetest cherries you could find, get bored pitting them, make a sweet mess around and treat…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: cherry, cherry pie, easy dessert, galette, how to make galette at home, pate brisee, pie crust, summer dessert, summer galette, wholesome, wholewheat galette

Jufka

Homemade Jufka with dried porcini mushrooms

July 10, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

One of the perks of being a food blogger is that all your friends share their thoughts and experiences on food and special food products with you. The latest wonderful gift I got, were homemade Jufka. Jufka are Albanian traditional pasta, cooked especially on Diber, made with fresh eggs, milk and wheat flour. Dried Jufka keep…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Savory, Super healthy, Traditional Tagged With: albanian cuisine, homemade pasta, jufka, jufka english recipe, traditional recipe, vegetarian jufka

japrak

Japrak – a traditional dish that brings on so many memories

May 9, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

One of my favourite traditional dishes is japrak (dolma). It is prepared in spring when nature is so generous with greens. Japraks (dolmas) are cooked in all Balkan countries, Middle East and Central Asia. They’re basically vine leaves stuffed with greens and rice. Many recipes call for meat, but I prefer them without. I’m pretty…

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Filed Under: Recipes, Savory, Super healthy, Traditional Tagged With: albanian cuisine, delicious, dolmas, easy, how to make dolmas at home, how to make japrak at home, japrak, japrak english recipe, middle eastern recipes, stuffed vine leaves, tasty, traditional recipes, turkish cuisine, vegan, vegetarian recipe

Asure

Asure aka Noah’s pudding – the easiest recipe you can find

March 21, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

Asure is a special dessert with an eastern origin that is traditionally cooked also in Albania. The dish has a fascinating story behind. When Noah and his animals were running out of food, he mixed whatever was left and cooked them together to feed his companions. The result was asure, a beautiful and so adaptable…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: albanian recipe, asure, asure with only 3 ingredients, corn starch pudding, how to make Noah's pudding at home, noah's pudding, the easiest way to cook asure, turkish recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Orange & chocolate Bundt cake

March 13, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

Sometimes I get nostalgic about moms cooking and try to recreate her recipes. I end up calling her to check if I missed something, which for sure always happens. Mom starts explaining in her way, without mentioning concrete measures or amounts at all, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, even when…

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Filed Under: Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: best bundt cake recipe, bundt, cake, chocolate, easy cake, how to make bundt cake at home, orange

Red Wine Liquor

Red wine liquor – tradition at its best

February 23, 2017 By Mandarina Leave a Comment

I love learning about traditional recipes and experimenting with them.  They are paths to the past and make me understand and love Albanian culture and culinary even more. Red wine liquor is one of the recipes I’ve had so much fun with, because, you know, it includes wine. It’s practically wine, cooked with sugar and cloves…

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Filed Under: Drinks, Fast & Easy, Recipes, Sweet, Traditional Tagged With: cloves, homemade, how to make, liquor, recipe, red wine, Red Wine Liquor, sweet, wine

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Welcome to Mandarina Yum!

mmMy name is Ejona Varangu and I am a full time researcher in the telecommunication industry, and part time food blogger. I blog from a small apartment in Tirana, Albania, where I live with my better half and our two cats Weirdo and Pixel.

I started cooking in late 2013, when I decided to live alone, and I missed the great homemade dishes that my mum prepared, before that, I couldn’t even boil an egg by myself. Little by little I started experimenting with new ingredients and techniques and I loved every single minute of it. Find out more…

My Favorites

Simple almond cake

Almond cake

Walnut and chocolate chips cookies

Chocolate and walnut cookies – recipe for the classic little bites of heaven from Double Tree Hotel

Petulla - Albanian Donuts

Petulla – Albanian donuts

Spinach casserole

Spinach casserole

Chocolate Baklava

Chocolate & walnuts baklava

Rye bread

Homemade rye bread

Ciabatta

Classic ciabatta

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