Love... to cooking ! - “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Featured

Aubergine Rolls with Walnuts !

May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Aubergine stripes ingredients:
– 2 aubergines
– olive oil for baking aubergines
– chopped parsley for serving

Filling ingredients:
– 150g (baked) walnuts
– 2-3 garlic cloves
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper
– 1 bunch dill
– 1/4 cup warm water

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)
2 Slice aubergines lengthways into 4mm thick stripes, put on the baking paper and brush well with olive oil
3 Add walnuts halves over the aubergines: bake them together for 25min at 200C (400F)
4 Combine and blend the filling ingredients (including baked walnuts) until smooth: put 1tsp of the filling on each aubergine stripe and roll the stripes up
5 Serve cold with chopped parsley !

Featured

Simple and Healthy Soup with Broccoli and Meatballs !

Courage is found in unlikely places.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Vegetables etc. ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 12 small (8 medium) potatoes
– 10 carrots
– 1 broccoli head
– 1 tsp salt
– chopped parsley for serving

Meatballs ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4-6 tbsp millet powder
– 2 tbsp floor for dipping meatballs

Method:
1 Peel and cut vegetables and put aside
2 Mix meatballs ingredients and form meatballs with hands, dip each meatball in flour and put on the plate
3 Boil 1.5-2l water, add 1 tsp salt and meatballs: cook for 20min, medium heat
4 Add vegetables to the soup and cook for another 20min, medium heat
5 Serve with chopped parsley !

Featured

Spinach and Feta Fatayer: amazing with coffee !

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I love spinach fatayer: they are simple to make, amazing in taste. They serve great as an appetizer or as a snack with coffee or with soup!

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/4 cup water
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 90g fresh chopped baby spinach
– 90g Feta cheese
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Filling: combine all filling ingredients and mix well with the hands
3 Dough: combine all dough ingredients in a bowl: knead the dough
4 Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and form a ball out of each of them
5 Roll out each ball into a 8-10cm diameter circle: put 1 tsp filling in the centre of each circle
6 Lift up ends of each circle to the centre to form Fatayers with your fingers
7 Put the Fatayers on the baking paper (sprinkle with Provence herbs or pepper or a little of olive oil): bake for 18 minutes at 220C
8 Serve with a cup of black coffee or black tea !

Featured

Spinach Pancakes for lunch !

Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Pancakes batter ingredients (7-8 pancakes):
– 115g fresh spinach
– 2 eggs
– 300ml milk
– 200g all purpose flour
– 2 tsp sugar
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 150g smoked salmon
– 100g cream cheese
– fresh dill

Method:
1 Wash and dry spinach leaves
2 Put in blender all pancakes batter ingredients: mash until smooth
3 Preheat a skillet, add 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil (needed only in the beginning)
4 For each pancake pour 1 ladle of batter on the skillet – fry at medium heat until bubbling, turn the pancake over and cook until golden
5 Serve pancakes with soft cheese, smoked salmon and fresh dill ! Enjoy !

Featured

Veggie chips with blue cheese sauce !

You must remain. I must depart.
Two autumns falling in the heart
Yosa Buson

Veggie chips ingredients (for 2-3 servings):
– 6-8 medium potatoes
– 4 large carrots
– 2 beetroots
– 1 tbsp sunflower oil
– Herbes de Provence to taste
– salt to taste

Blue Sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 125g blue cheese (Saint Agur blue)
– chopped dill and parsley

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Pill and cut veggies into thin strips
3 Mix veggie strips with Herbes de Provence, salt and sunflower oil: transfer to the baking paper
4 Bake for 50-60 min at 190C
5 Blue cheese sauce: combine sour cream, blue cheese, chopped dill & parsley: mix until smooth. Put the sauce in the fridge until the chips are ready
6 Serve veggie chips with a blue cheese sauce !

Featured

Salmon-Kohlrabi soup: simple and healthy

When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him. Having missed thinking about him for a while, I take him out and read him again. That’s how it works.
László Krasznahorkai

Ingredients:
– 200g salmon
– 1 Kohlrabi
– 4 medium potatoes
– 4 medium carrots
– 1 red onion
– dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Pill vegetables, chop vegetables and salmon into 1-2 cm cubes
2 Put vegetables and salmon in a pan, add water to cover + 1cm more, add salt: cook at medium heat 18 minutes after boiling
3 Serve with chopped dill !

Featured

Healthy Banana-Oatmeal Pancakes: quick and delicious breakfast !

Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients:
– 180ml Kefir
– 1 large ripe banana
– 1 cup (200ml) oatmeal
– 1 egg
– dash of salt
– 1/3 tsp cinnamon
– sunflower oil for frying

Method:
1 Preheat a skillet, add some sunflower oil
2 Combine grated banana with Kefir, oatmeal, an egg, salt and cinnamon: mix well until smooth
3 Pour 1 tbsp of batter for 1 pancake, fry until golden both sides, medium heat
4 Serve with fresh fruits and enjoy !

Featured

Fresh Corn Pancakes with Basil-Mayonnaise sauce !

We must go on, because we can’t turn back.
R.L.S.

Pancakes ingredients:
– 4 fresh corn cobs
– 2 eggs
– 3-4 tbsp all-purpose flour
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper
– sunflower oil for frying

Basil sauce ingredients:
– 1/2 bunch fresh basil chopped
– 4 tsp mayonnaise
– 1-2 cloves garlic chopped

Method:
1 Wash corn cobs, cut corn kernels off cobs with a knife
2 Combine corn kernels with eggs, flour, salt, black pepper, mix well until smooth
3 Preheat 2 skillets, add sunflower oil, keep medium heat
4 Add 1 full tbsp of corn-batter for 1 corn-pancake: fry 2-3 minutes each side until golden
5 Transfer ready pancakes on the paper towels to absorb extra oil
6 Basil sauce: combine chopped basil, mayonnaise and chopped garlic and mix
7 Serve warm corn pancakes with the basil sauce and enjoy !

Featured

Creamy Spinach-Gorgonzola Tagliatelle !

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g Tagliatelle
– 100ml 33% cream
– 125g baby spinach
– 2 small red onions
– 180g Gorgonzola
– sunflower oil for frying onion
– black pepper for serving

Method:
1 Tagliatelle: cook Al Dente
2 Spinach-Gorgonzola sauce:
2.1 Chop onions
2.2 Chop spinach
2.3 Fry onion on sunflower oil until soft, add spinach and cook at medium heat for 2-4 min
2.4 Add cream and Gorgonzola – cook at medium heat until Gorgonzola melted
3 Serving: put Tagliatelle in the plates, pour sauce on the Tagliatelle, sprinkle with black pepper and enjoy!

Featured

Homemade Flatbread with Potato, Feta and Dried Tomatoes !

To wisely live your life, you don’t need to know much
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve, than eat whatever
And better be alone, than with whoever.
Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat

Dough ingredients:
– 300g all-purpose flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 20g fresh yeast
– 150ml warm water
– 1 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 250g potatoes (weighed boiled)
– 150g Feta cheese
– 4-8 dried tomatoes
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1 tbsp olive oil for brushing the flatbreads before baking
– sesame seeds

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Crush yeast into ~35C water, add 1 tbsp sugar: mix well and leave the mixture for 15 min
1.2 Add flour and salt: knead the dough and leave it under cloth for 30 min
2 Filling
2.1 Peel potatoes and boil until ready: drain extra water
2.2 Combine potatoes, feta, chopped dried tomatoes and black pepper: mash until smooth
3 Flatbread
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts: roll out each part into 16-20cm round
3.3 Put 2tbsp filling in the middle of each round
3.4 Lift up ends of each round to the centre and seal them tight with the fingers. Then accurately flatten into 15cm round.
3.5 Brush each flatbread both sides with olive oil and put on the baking paper
3.6 Sprinkle each flatbread with sesame seeds
3.7 Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C until golden and serve warm!
4 Enjoy with a cup of black tea 🙂

Featured

Warm Tuna Toast with Carrot !

For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away,
And the shadows eaten the moon.
W. B. Yeats

This is a quick and healthy snack – just what one needs for a working break along with a cup of strong black coffee and inspiring thoughts! But what I am talking about – Love is all we need! 🙂

Ingredients (4 toasts):
– 4 slices of wholegrain bread
– 2 boiled carrots
– 140g canned tuna
– 3 eggs
– 2-3 tsp mayonnaise
– chopped dill
– 2 tsp butter

Directions:
1 Boil carrots and eggs until ready
2 Tuna salad: combine grated boiled carrot & eggs, canned tuna, mayonnaise, chopped dill: mix well
3 Put the tun salad on the bread slices
4 Melt butter in the frying pan and toast bread slices one-side for 2-3 minutes
5 Serve warm with a cup of black coffee and enjoy your day !

Featured

Les éclairs !

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl

My mom once made very tasty éclairs when I was a child. For some time I am searching for a recipe to reproduce that taste, but in vain… Yet hope is not lost 🙂

Dough ingredients:
– 80g all-purpose flour
– 2 eggs
– 70g butter
– 140g water
– 10g sugar
– pinch of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 240g milk
– 2 eggs
– 70g sugar
– 20g corn starch
– 20g butter

Directions:
1 Filling
1.1 Combine milk, eggs, sugar, corn starch: mix well until smooth
1.2 Pour the mixture in a non-sticking pan, medium heat: cook until thickened constantly stirring
1.3 Add butter and mix until butter is melted, set the filling aside and let it cool down
1.4 Move the filling in the fridge while making dough
2 Dough
2.1 Combine butter, sugar, water and salt in a pan, put on medium heat: keep until butter is melted constantly stirring
2.2 Add flour: continue mixing until smooth, then remove from the heat
2.3 Add whisked eggs, mix well
3 Eclairs
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Form 1.5cm width x 5cm length stripes out of the dough (I used decorating tube for that) and make stripes with a fork on the surface
3.3 Bake 40 minutes at 180C and let them cool down
3.4 Fill the eclairs making a small hole on the side and using a decorating tube
3.5 Enjoy with a cup of coffee !

Featured

Christmas Walnuts Cookies !

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Dough ingredients (for 18 cookies):
– 200g all-purpose flour
– 110g butter
– 75g cane sugar
– 5g vanilla sugar
– 90g sour cream
– 1 egg
– lemon zest of half a lemon
– pinch of salt
– 100g grated walnuts

Method:
1 Preheat oven to 200C
2 Bake walnuts for 10 minutes at 200C to make them easy to chop, set aside
3 Combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, salt and grate butter to dry ingredients, mix well
4 Add sour cream, egg and chopped walnuts: knead a dough
5 Form with hands 2cm diameter balls out of dough, dipping them in flour
6 Bake the cookies at 190C for 25-30 minutes
7 Enjoy the cookies with Christmas fruits punch and Merry Christmas !

Featured

Sweet potato chips – quick and healthy snack !

Ah, Nothing is too late, till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sweet potato chips ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 3 large sweet potatoes
– 0.5 tbsp olive oil
– dash of salt

Sauce ingredients:
– 100g sour cream
– 80g blue cheese
– chopped dill

Method:
1 Sweet potato chips
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Pill and cut sweet potatoes into strips
1.3 Mix potato strips with salt and olive oil and transfer on the baking paper
1.4 Bake for 30 minutes at 190C
2 Sauce: combine sour cream, blue cheese and chopped dill – mix until smooth and put the sauce in the fridge until the chips are ready
3 Serve hot sweet potato chips with a sauce from the fridge !

Featured

Quarkkäulchen – Potato and Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Homemade Cherry Compote !

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.
Hermann Hesse

Quarkkäulchen ingredients (for 10 Quarkkäulchen):
– 300g boiled potatoes
– 300g cottage cheese
– 1 small egg
– 100g all purpose flour
– 2-3 tbsp flour for forming Quarkkäulchen
– 1 tbsp olive oil for frying

Cherry compote ingredients:
– 300g frozen cherries without stones
– 50ml water
– 1 tbsp cornstarch
– 1 tbsp brown sugar

Method:
1 Quarkkäulchen
1.1 Mix boiled potatoes, cottage cheese, egg and flour until smooth
1.2 Put some flour on a separate bowl
1.3 Form 1cm width 6-7cm diameter Quarkkäulchen with your hands using the flour from the plate
1.4 Preheat olive oil in the skillet
1.5 Fry each Quarkkäulchen until golden each side for 3-4 minutes at medium heat
2 Cherry compote: transfer in the skillet washed cherries, water, cornstarch and sugar: mix well and cook for 7-10 minutes at medium heat
3 Serve Quarkkäulchen with warm cherry compote !

Featured

Healthy Breakfast – Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote !

The centuries will roll by, and schoolboys will yawn over the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a street lamp, in the cautious bend of stone steps that descend into the canal’s black waters, in the smiles of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.
Vladimir Nabokov, Selected Letters

Zapekanka ingredients (4 servings):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp semolina
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar in the same teaspoon

Cherry compote ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g frozen cherries without stone
– 1 tbsp cornstarch
– 50-70ml water

Serving ingredients (4 servings):
– 200g sour cream
– fresh mint leaves

Method:
1 Zapekanka
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Batter: combine cottage cheese, eggs, flour, semolina, sugar, baking soda and vinegar: mix well with a fork until smooth
1.3 Transfer batter to the buttered baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden at 190C
2 Cherry compote
2.1 Transfer in the skillet washed cherries, water and cornstarch: mix well and cook for 5-7 minutes at medium heat
3 Serve Zapekanka with warm cherry compote and cold sour cream ! Enjoy ! 🙂

Featured

My first Chepalgash – flatbread with cottage cheese and scallion !

A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came a loud knock
J.R.R. Tolkien

Dough ingredients (for 4 flatbreads 25cm diameter):
– 300g flour
– 250ml Kefir
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 3/4 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 50g scallion
– 250g cottage cheese

Method:
1 Dough:
1.1 Combine kefir with baking soda and salt: mix and leave for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour to kefir and knead a gentle dough: leave under the cloth for 15 minutes
2 Filling: combine cottage cheese with chopped scallion and mix well
3 Chepalgash:
3.1 Separate dough into 4 equal parts and form a 10cm diameter disk with hands out of each piece
3.2 Put 1/4 filling in the middle of each disk
3.3 Gather the sides up sealing the edges with the fingers in the center altogether
3.4 Turn over the disk with filling and gently roll into a ~25 cm diameter disk
3.5 Preheat butter in the skillet
3.6 Fry each flatbread for 3-4 minutes each side until golden
4 Serve with a cup of sweet black tea with lemon !

Featured

Cottage-cheese Pancakes (Syrniki) with chocolate filling – perfect breakfast !

The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats

Syrniki ingredients (2 servings or 10 small pancakes):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 1 egg
– 4 tbsp flour for dough + 2 tbsp flour for forming
– 1 tbsp semolina (to make them more gentle!)
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1/2 tbsp cane sugar (put 1-2 tbsp sugar if you like it sweet)
– 30-40g dark chocolate
– 1tbsp sunflower oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– fresh mint leaves

Method:
1 Combine cottage cheese, egg, flour, semolina, Vanilla and cane sugar: mix until smooth and leave to rest for 10 minutes to let semolina increase in size
2 Prepare 2 tbsp flour on the plate: form in hands each pancake with 1 tbsp dough putting inside 1 piece of chocolate and rolling in the flour to form round shapes.
3 After all pancakes are formed, preheat a bit of sunflower oil in 2 skillets for 3-4 minutes
4 Fry pancakes 3-4 minutes each side at medium heat
5 Serve pancakes hot with sour cream, fresh mint leaves and a cup of black tea with a piece of lemon!

Notes: Syrniki are very popular in my hometown, I made them today with chocolate filling – it’s a delicious combination of gentle cottage-cheese taste with a bit of dark chocolate reminding me my childhood 🙂

Featured

Sunday Cinnamon Rolls !

‘There you are! It only needed a little more energy,’ said Karlson. ‘Now just put on the coffee, and set a nice little tray and get out a few little buns…’
Astrid Lindgren, Karlson flies again

Dough ingredients (for 8 cinnamon rolls):
– 190ml milk
– 430g (+ 10-20g for rolling) flour
– 60g butter
– 21g fresh yeast
– 40g brown sugar
– 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 60g butter
– 60g brown sugar
– 1tbsp cinnamon

Beautifying ingredients:
– 10ml milk
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Filling
1.1 mix sugar & cinnamon
1.2 grate butter and keep it in a bowl at room temperature while the dough is being prepared
2 Dough
2.1 Warm up milk to 35C and add crushed fresh yeast and 20g sugar: whisk until smooth and leave in a warm place for 15 min
2.2 Add grated butter, 2 egg whites, 1 egg yolk, remaining 20g sugar, salt: whisk well
2.3 Add flour constantly mixing: mix until smooth and leave in a warm place for 30 min
3 Cinnamon rolls
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Knead dough with a stretch and fold technique for 4-5 min and roll it out to ~40×40 cm
3.3 Butter the dough with grated butter from the bowl
3.4 Distribute evenly sugar & cinnamon mixture
3.5 Roll the dough up and cut in 5cm width buns
3.6 Put the buns on the baking paper 3-4cm aside from each other
3.7 Brush the buns with milk-yolk mixture
3.8 Bake the buns for 25-30min at 180C until golden!
3.9 They are wonderful for breakfast 😉

Featured

Cannelloni baked with Chanterelles and Leek !

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu

Notes: inspired by Jamie Oliver Mushroom Cannelloni

Cannelloni & filling ingredients (4 servings):
– 200g cannelloni
– 250g leek
– 250g chanterelles
– 1 onion
– 1 tbsp butter
– 3/4 tsp salt

White sauce:
– 500ml milk
– 100g cheese
– 3tbsp flour
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Filling:
1.1 Wash, peel and chop chanterelles, onion and leek
1.2 Pre-heat the skillet with butter and fry onion 3-4 min, add chanterelles and cook for 10 min
1.3 Add chopped leek, salt and cook for another 10 min
2 White sauce:
2.1 preheat olive oil in the skillet, add 3 tbsp flour: mix well
2.2 Pour milk to flour & oil: cook 2-3 min until smooth constantly stirring, add grated cheese and cook for another 2-3 min: sauce is ready!
3 Cannelloni:
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Fill cannelloni with filling (I used chopsticks for that)
3.3 Transfer filled cannelloni in the baking form and pour the white sauce over them
3.4 Bake cannelloni for 30-35 min at 190C until golden & serve with fresh greens!

Featured

Baked Meatballs with Italian Herbs served with Red & White Sauces !

Easy, take it easy! Is there anything to eat? A few meatballs, perhaps? Or a little cream cake?
Astrid Lindgren, Karlson Flies Again

Meatballs ingredients (4 servings or 24 meatballs):
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 4 tbsps flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tsp Italian herbs

Red sauce:
– 100g cranberry jam

White sauce:
– 200g 10% sour cream
– 3 grated garlic cloves

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Combine minced beef with salt, eggs, Italian herbs and flour: mix well until smooth
3 Form meatballs with your hands and put them in the baking form (no oil needed!)
4 Bake meatballs for 40-45 minutes at 190-200C
5 White sauce: mix grated garlic with sour cream
6 Serve meatballs with red & white sauces and enjoy ! 🙂

Featured

Quick and Simple Fresh Corn-Potato Soup !

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
Lewis Carroll

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 3 fresh corn cobs
– 9 middle (~6cm length) potatoes
– 1 tsp salt
– 400-500 ml water
– bunch of green onions for serving

Method:
1 Wash corn cobs and wash & peel potatoes
2 Cut corn kernels off cobs with a knife
3 Cut potatoes in 2-3cm pieces
4 Cook potatoes & corn kernels for 15-20 minutes in salted water
5 Evacuate 3-4 tbsp corn kernels for serving on a separate plate
6 Mash the rest of soup with an immersive blender
7 Serve the soup with chopped green onions and boiled corn kernels!

Featured

Simple Morning Scones inspiring a wonderful day !

A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came a loud knock
J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients:
– 225g flour
– 50g butter
– 1 egg
– 100ml milk
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 17g cane sugar
– 1 dash of salt
– 1/2tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Bowl1: whisk well an egg with milk, sugar, Vanilla sugar: pour in a Bowl2 1tbsp of mixture for brushing the scones
3 Bowl3: grate butter into the flour, add salt
4 In Bowl1 join ingredients from Bowl1 & Bowl3, add baking soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix everything well until smooth
5 Roll out the dough to 1cm height
6 Cut the scones-to-be with your favourite cookie cutter
7 Transfer the scones-to-be on the baking paper and brush with the mixture from Bowl2
8 Bake the scones for 15 minutes at 220C or until golden
9 Enjoy with a cup of black tea or coffee if you, like me, don’t trade your morning coffee for anything. Serve with blackcurrant jam! 🙂

Featured

Turkey with Apricots, Tomatoes and Cinnamon in Moldovan Style !

O, soare balcanic, revărsat peste văile şi dealurile moldave, o, acele iubiriscurte, scînteietoare, istovitoare, cît de mult aduceţi voi în scurta noastră trecere pe acest pămînt, şi cît de mult luaţi cu voi pentru a nu le mai întoarce niciodată…
Ion Druță, Frunze de dor

Turkey with Apricots, Tomato and Cinnamon in Moldovan Style

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 750g turkey breast
– 12 apricots
– 6 tomatoes
– 2 red onions
– 1 tsp paprika
– 0.5 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1 tsp vinegar
– 0.5 cup water
– 2 tbsp water
– 250g golden millet

Method:
1 Cut turkey in 1-2cm cubes
2 Peel and chop onion
3 Wash and slice tomatoes and apricots
3 Preheat two skillets and melt 1 tbsp butter in each: put turkey cubes on one skillet and chopped onion on another, cook for 5 minutes
4 Add to onion: chopped tomatoes, sugar, paprika and cinnamon – stew for 5 minutes at medium heat slightly stirring
5 Add to turkey: onion-tomatoes-spices mixture – stew for 10 minutes at medium heat
6 Add to turkey & Co: apricot slices, vinegar, water and salt: stew for 10 minutes at medium heat – done!
7 Serve turkey with cooked golden millet and enjoy!

Featured

Tagliatelle with Gorgonzola sauce for a quick and delicious working lunch !

It is not down on any map; true places never are.
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale

Tagliatelle with Gorgonzola sauce and cherry tomatoes

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g Tagliatelle
– 200ml 33% cream
– 200g Gorgonzola
– 250g cherry tomatoes

Method:
1 Boil Tagliatelle in salted water Al Dente and drain the water
2 Cut Gorgonzola in 2cm cubes
3 Pour 33% cream in the skillet and add gorgonzola cubes
4 Cook at medium heat gorgonzola in cream until it is melted
5 Add Tagliatelle and halved cherry tomatoes to gorgonzola sauce and cook for another minute
6 Serve and enjoy your day ! 🙂

Featured

Homemade Flatbread with Potatoes and Feta !

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.
Gabriel García Márquez

Dough ingredients:
– 300g all-purpose flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 20g fresh yeast
– 150ml warm water
– 1 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 400g new potatoes (weight unpeeled)
– 150g Feta cheese
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Serving/baking ingredients:
– 1 tbsp olive oil for brushing the flatbreads before baking
– chopped tomatoes for serving

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Crush yeast into warm (30-35C) water, add 1 tbsp sugar: mix well until sugar an yeast are dissolved and leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour and salt: knead the dough and leave it under cloth for 30 minutes (make the filling meanwhile)
2 Filling
2.1 Peel potatoes and boil until ready: drain extra water
2.2 Combine potatoes with feta and black pepper: mash until smooth
3 Flatbread
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts: roll out each part into 16-20cm round
3.3 Put 1-2tbsp filling in the middle of each round
3.4 Lift up ends of each round to the centre and seal them tight with the fingers. Then gently flatten into 15cm round.
3.5 Brush each flatbread both sides with olive oil and put on the baking paper
3.6 Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C until golden and serve warm!
4 Enjoy with a cup of coffee and a good company 😉

Featured

Spring Salad with Chicken, Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers !

No one’s serious at seventeen
When lindens line the promenade.
Arthur Rimbaud

Chicken Salad with Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g chicken breasts
– 2 eggs
– 3 cucumbers
– 70g walnuts
– 14 prunes
– 2 tbsp mayonnaise
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1 Boil chicken breasts until ready and chop
2 Boil eggs until ready and chop
3 Wash and chop cucumbers, prunes and walnuts
4 Combine chicken, eggs, cucumbers, prunes, walnuts and season with salt & mayonnaise: serve !

Featured

Warm rice salad with mushrooms and green peas: quick and healthy lunch!

If it rubs off, it means I’m in love
Ray Bradbury

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 120g boiled basmati rice
– 400-600g unpeeled green peas
– 10-12 medium button mushrooms
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
– salt and pepper
– dill for serving

Method:
1 Boil basmati rice until ready and drain water
2 Peel and wash green peas
3 Peel and wash (remove dirt with a paper towel) button mushrooms , then slice them
4 Wash and chop dill
5 Preheat the skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil and add sliced mushrooms and green peas: cook for 10 minutes, constantly stirring
6 Add to vegetables: boiled rice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper: cook for another 5 minutes
7 Serve with chopped dill and enjoy!

Featured

Simple and Delicious Parsnip-Apple Chocolate Cake with Hazelnuts !

The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured cosiness.
P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

Ingredients:
– 125g grated parsnip
– 200g grated apples
– 250g spelt flour (wheat flour is also fine, but spelt flour gives a richer taste)
– 125g full cane sugar
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp cardamom
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 4 tbsp cocoa powder
– 50g ground hazelnuts
– 50ml water
– 40ml olive oil
– 1 egg (one can replace the egg by 40ml olive oil for a vegetarian recipe!)

Topping ingredients:
– 2 tablespoons hazelnuts

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Grate peeled apples and parsnip
3 Add flour+sugar+cinnamon+cardamom+cocoa+ground hazelnuts+water +olive oil+egg: mix all well until smooth
4 Add baking soda & vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix well
5 Transfer the batter in the buttered banana bread form and bake for 45-55 minutes at 180C
6 Decorate the cake with hazelnuts halves and serve with a cup of green tea!

Featured

Parsnip-Potato Cream Soup with baked vegetable chips: quick and healthy lunch !

Night is always darker before the dawn and life is the same, the hard times will pass, every thing will get better and sun will shine brighter then ever.
Ernest Hemingway

Parsnip Potato Cream Soup with vegetable chips recipe

Soup ingredients (2 servings):
– 350g parsnip (weight unpeeled)
– 350g baby potato (weight unpeeled)
– 100ml 33% cream
– 400ml chicken broth or water
– 1 tsp salt

Baked vegetables ingredients:
– 3 small carrots
– 1 parsnip (~100g)
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Soup
1.1 Wash and peel potatoes and parsnip
1.2 Chop potatoes and parsnip into 0.5-1cm cubes
1.3 Boil the vegetables in 400ml chicken broth or water for 15 minutes
1.4 Add 33% cream + salt: mash with an immersive blender
2 Vegetable chips
2.1 Pre-heat the oven to 200C
2.2 Wash and peel carrots and parsnip
2.3 Cut vegetables into thin strips
2.4 Put the vegetables stripes on the baking paper, sprinkle with olive oil & salt
2.5 Bake for 20 minutes
3 Serve and enjoy delicious and healthy lunch !

Notes:
1 If you chop the vegetables in advance in the morning, you can have a really quick lunch in the midday 🙂
2 Everything is going to be fine, I have asked Father Christmas and he is quite confident about it !

Featured

Pears-Mascarpone Dessert !

No one’s serious at seventeen
When lindens line the promenade.
A. Rimbaud

Cocoa cake ingredients:
– 1 tbsp cocoa powder
– 75g sugar
– 5g Vanilla sugar
– 80g wheat flour
– 3 eggs
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar

Cream ingredients:
– 250g Mascarpone
– 2 tbsp 33% cream
– 2 tbsp sugar

Fruits ingredients:
– 2 Conference pears

Method:
1 Cake
1.1 Preheat oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 3-5 minutes
1.3 Slowly add flour to whisked sugar+eggs
1.4 Add baking soda & vinegar in the same teaspoon, cocoa powder: mix well
1.5 Pour the batter on the baking paper in the baking form ~25x35cm
1.6 Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C
1.7 Let the cake cool down and cut into 1.5cm cubes
2 Mascarpone cream: mix in a bowl Mascarpone with 33% cream and sugar
3 Dessert
3.1 Cut pears into 1cm cubes
3.2 Put in the glass level by level:
3.2.1 cocoa cake cubes
3.2.2 Mascarpone cream
3.2.3 pears cubes
and repeat the levels again 🙂
3.3 Put the dessert into the fridge overnight and … enjoy with morning coffee !
Happy New 2021 Year !

Featured

Christmas Cranberry-Apricot-Raisin Cake !

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis P. Church

Dough ingredients:
– 150g wheat flour
– 70g sugar
– 4g Vanila sugar
– 70g butter
– 2 eggs
– dash of salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 50ml milk
– 4g orange zest

Fruit ingredients:
– 100g dried cranberries
– 50g dried apricots
– 50 g raisins
– 100ml juice mixture (elder+grapes+orange+apple juices)
– 5g spices mixture (cinnamon+clove+ginger+orange zest)
– 1-2 tbsp wheat flour

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Fruits
2.1 Wash and chop dired fruits
2.2 Soak dried fruits for 10-20 minutes in juice mixture with spices mixture
3 Batter
3.1 Combine sugar+vanilla sugar+salt+butter: mix well until smooth
3.2 Add 2 eggs and whisk
3.3 Add milk and flour: mix well until smooth
3.4 Add orange zest and baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well
4 Cake
4.1 Drain extra liquid from the fruits in the separate bowl (we will need this liquid yet!)
4.2 Mix dried fruits with 1 tbsp of flour
4.3 Add dried fruits to the batter and mix well
4.4 Pour batter into the buttered baking form
4.5 Bake at 180C for 40-50 minutes
4.6 Remove the cake from the oven: cover it with a juice mixture with a brush
4.7 Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar
5 Serve ! 🎄🎄🎄Merry Christmas !🎄🎄🎄

Featured

Baked Pears with Feta, Walnuts and Honey !

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows
William Shakespeare

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 conference pears
– 50g Feta or Gorgonzola cheese
– 6 walnuts
– a few dill sprigs
– 2 tsp acacia honey

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2 Wash the pears, half them and de-seed
3 Cut Feta cheese in cubes
4 Put Feta cubes in the de-seeded pears and bake for 5-7 minutes at 180C
5 Serve warm pears with walnuts, dill sprigs and acacia honey.
6 Enjoy and have a great Sunday!

Notes: be careful, this recipe has an aroma of a holiday season 😉

Featured

Potato Pancakes with Homemade Apple Compote

I sincerely hope your Christmas…may abound in the gaieties which the season generally brings…
Jane Austen

Potato pancakes ingredients (12-14 pancakes):
– 10 medium mashed potatoes
– 2 small eggs
– 1 chopped onion
– 2 tbsp wheat flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper

Apple compote ingredients:
– 2 apples
– 4-6 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1 Apple compote
1.1 Wash and de-seed apples
1.2 Chop the apples
1.3 Cook the apples with lemon juice at medium heat until tender in the pan for 4-6 minutes
1.4 Mash the apples until smooth with an immersive blender
2 Potato pancakes
2.1 Peel the potatoes and boil them until ready
2.2 Batter: mix well mashed potatoes & chopped onion & salt & pepper & eggs & flour
2.3 Pre-heat the non-sticking skillet with one olive oil
2.4 Fry 1 tbsp batter for each pancake for 2-3 minutes each side
2.5 Put the ready pancake on the paper towel to get rid off extra oil
3 Serve potato pancakes with a warm apple compote and fresh miner’s lettuce !

Featured

Ossetian pie Tsakharadzhin with beet greens !

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
Pablo Neruda

Dough ingredients (for 4 pies 20cm diameter):
– 500g wheat flour
– 400ml Kefir
– 10g dry yeast
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 100g beet greens
– 150g Feta cheese
– 150g fresh cream cheese
– 1 pinch black pepper

Directions:
1 Filling: combine chopped beet greens with Feta & cream cheese & black pepper
2 Dough
2.1 Combine dough ingredients and knead the dough.
2.2 Let the dough stay in a warm place for 1 hour
3 Pies
3.1 Pre-heat the oven to 220C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts with a knife
3.3 Roll out with hands a ~20 cm diameter disk out of one of dough pieces
3.4 Put 1/4 of the filling in the middle of the disk
3.5 Gather the sides up sealing the edges tight with the fingers in the center altogether
3.6 Turn over the dough with a filling and gently! flatten into a ~20 cm diameter disk
3.7 Cut out with a knife a small (~0.5-1cm diameter) circle in the middle of the pie to let the air go through while baking
3.8 Put the pie on the baking paper: bake for 20 minutes at 220C until golden
3.9 Repeat 3.3-3.8 for the left pieces of dough
4 Serve hot with a cup black coffee and enjoy with friends ! Without friends the pleasure will be totally lost.

Featured

Chicken baked with Quince !

Without you I wouldn’t have moved this way, to speak the language of flowers.
Vladimir Nabokov

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 chicken breasts
– 1 large quince
– salt and pepper

Serving ingredients:
– small bunch of fresh rucola
– 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Wash well and de-seed quince. Then cut into 0.3-0.5cm width slices
3 Wash chicken breasts and dry with paper towel
4 Put the chicken breasts in the baking form and make wide cross cuts to fit in the quince slices
5 Pepper and salt the chicken
6 Put the quince slices into the cuts
7 Bake for 30 minutes at 180C
8 Serve with fresh rucola and do not forget to sprinkle with balsamic vinegar 😉
9 Have a wonderful day !

Featured

Broccoli Soup with Cream Cheese Tartines: quick and healthy lunch !

The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief;
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
William Shakespeare

Soup ingredients (2 servings):
– 1 medium or 2 small broccoli heads
– 4-6 baby potatoes
– 1 small onion
– 400ml vegetable or chicken broth
– 1/2 tsp salt

Tartines ingredients:
– 6-8 pieces of Ciabatta
– 100g cream cheese (e.g. Almette)
– 1/2 bunch chopped chives
– 1/4 tsp black pepper
– 4-8 cherry tomatoes for decoration

Method:
1 Soup:
1.1 Cut the washed broccoli with stalks & the peeled potatoes into 1-2cm cubes
1.2 Chop the onion as well. Yes, I often do this in sunglasses 😉
1.3 Put the vegetables into the boiling broth and cook for 15 minutes at medium heat
1.4 Add salt and blend the soup until smooth
2 Tartines:
2.1 Combine cream cheese with chopped chives and black pepper: mix well
2.2 [Optional] Bake slightly brushed with olive oil Ciabatta slices at 200C for 5-7 minutes. Let them cool down.
2.3 Butter the cheese mixture on the Ciabatta slices
2.4 Decorate with the cherry tomatoes halves
3 Serve and enjoy!

Featured

Vareniki with Plums or Colțunași !

Iar când te văd zâmbind copilăreşte,
Se stinge-atunci o viaţă de durere,
Privirea-mi arde, sufletul îmi creşte.
Mihai Eminescu

Dough ingredients (all ingredients for 4 servings = ~30 Vareniki):
– 260g wheat flour
– 130ml water
– 30ml olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 15 middle plums
– 2 tbsp sugar

Serving ingredients:
– 200ml sour cream

Method:
1 Prepare dough:
1.1 Add olive oil in the middle of flour heap and mix oil with flour
1.2 Stir in boiled water into the oily flour and knead the dough
1.3 Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
1.4 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts with a knife. Form ~1.5cm diameter “sausage” out of each part with your hands
1.5 Cut each “sausage” into 1cm width pieces and roll out each piece into a ~5cm diameter round
2 Prepare the filling:
2.1 Wash and de-seed the plums. Separate the plums into halves.
2.2 Cut each plum half into ~6 thin slices
2.3 Combine plum slices with 2 tbsp sugar and mix well
3 Make Vareniki:
3.1 Put 3-5 plum slices into each round, fold the round into a half-moon and pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers. Be careful: these plum slices are very naughty…
3.2 Put Vareniki into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes at medium heat
3.3 Serve warm with sour cream and enjoy !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends! 🙂

Featured

Salmon with Quince and Rice: quick and delicious lunch !

See, see how the sun has moved onward while we talked. Nothing can stop it in its course.
Eiji Yoshikawa

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 2 fresh quinces
– 120g white rice mixed with wild rice
– 3 garlic cloves
– 2 tbsp butter for cooking quinces
– 1tbsp olive oil for cooking salmon
– a few sprigs of parsley for serving
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Salmon:
1.1 Wash salmon and absorb extra water with paper towels
1.2 Chop garlic cloves
1.3 Cook it for 4-5 minutes each side until golden in olive oil
1.4 Add chopped garlic cloves to the skillet 2 minutes before salmon is ready
2 Quinces:
2.1 Wash quinces and de-seed them
2.2 Slice quinces into 0.3-0.5 cm width pieces
2.3 Melt butter in the skillet
2.4 Stew quince slices for 15 minutes in butter at medium heat
3 Rice: boil it per instruction in salty water
4 Serve cooked salmon and quinces over the boiled rice: season with salt & pepper and decorate with chopped parsley
5 Enjoy!

Featured

Perfect Saturday Breakfast: Yoghurt, Raspberries with Toasted Oats and Nuts !

He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 300ml natural 3.8% yoghurt
– 250g fresh mashed raspberries
– 60g oats
– 30g chopped cashew nuts

Method:
1 Wash and mash fresh raspberries until smooth
2 Toast (dry fry, no oil) oats and chopped cashew nuts until golden for ~2-4 minutes
3 Arrange in glasses the following levels: natural yoghurt, mashed raspberries, warm toasted oats and nuts. Repeat the levels 🙂
4 Serve and enjoy !

Featured

Homemade Tarte Flambée with Camembert and Cranberry Jam

Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– 100ml water
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 150g Camembert
– 200ml sour cream
– 50ml cranberry jam
– a few sprigs of chives
– a pinch of black pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into a 3mm height oval or rectangle
4 Put the dough on the baking paper: bake at 220C for 5-8 minutes without filling
5 Remove the baking tray from the oven, spread the sour cream over it, then put the Camembert slices
6 Bake Tarte-Flambée for another 3 minutes at 220C
7 Spread cranberry jam, chopped chives and black pepper over the Tarte Flambée
8 Serve hot !

Featured

Plum Oats Crumble !

Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly
Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

Batter ingredients:
– 175g flour
– 100g oat flakes
– 100g butter
– 55g sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 2 lemons zest

Filling ingredients:
– 20 chopped plums without stones
– juice of 1/2 lemon
– 80g sugar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Combine filling ingredients and put them into a battered baling form
3 Combine batter ingredients and mix them to crumbles 🙂
4 Sprinkle crumbles over the filling
5 Bake the cake 40-55 minutes until golden at 180C
6 Serve with fresh mint !

Featured

Potato Dumplings “Kopytka” with Ham and Onion !

But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn’t depend on will because it comes from love.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

Dumplings ingredients (4 portions):
– 2 cups (1 cup=250ml) boiled mashed potatoes
– 1 cup wheat flour
– 1 egg
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1-2 tablespoons olive oil for frying

Serving ingredients (4 portions):
– 2 small onions
– 100g ham
– 2 garlic cloves
– 1 bunch chives

Method:
1 Combine boiled (no extra water!) mashed potatoes+egg+flour+salt and mix well to a dough
2 Separate dough into 6 equal piece: form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each piece
3 Cut the sausages into 1cm width dumplings taking a ~60 degrees angle with respect to the sausage 🙂
4 Boil dumplings for 4 minutes in salted water, then transfer them to a plate
5 Chop ham, onion and garlic
6 Pre-heat a non-sticking skillet: fry the dumplings & onion at medium heat until golden
7 Add ham and chopped garlic to the dumplings: fry for 2 minutes at medium heat
8 Serve the dumplings hot with chopped chives and … enjoy!!

Notes: Kopytka means “little hooves” in Polish and refer to the appearance of these potato dumplings, which are formed in the shape of hooves:-)

Featured

Delicious Garlic Toasts with Goat Cheese, Hazelnuts and Grapes !

The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason, so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Ingredients (for 6 toasts):
– 6 slices rye bread or baguette
– 100g creamy goat cheese
– 2 garlic 🧄 cloves
– 24 red grapes 🍇
– 12 hazelnuts
– 50g corn salad for serving
– 6-7 sprigs green onions for serving
– 1-2 tbsp olive oil for toasts

Directions:
1 Toast rye bread slices with or without olive oil
2 Rub upper part of toasts with garlic
3 Butter goat cheese on the toasts on the garlic side
4 Sprinkle the toasts with sliced hazelnuts, halved grapes and chopped green onions
5 Serve with corn salad and enjoy !

Featured

Spanish Soup Salmorejo: perfect for hot days !

With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.
Lope de Vega

Salmorejo ingredients (2 servings):
– 🍅🍅🍅 500g fresh tomatoes 🍅🍅🍅
– 50g-100g ciabatta or baguette crumb (soft part)
– 2 garlic cloves
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
– 50ml olive oil Extra Virgin

Serving ingredients:
– 100g chopped ham
– a few basil leaves

Directions:
1 Wash tomatoes and remove the green middle part
2 Combine in a bowl tomatoes + ciabatta crumb (add 100g crumb for a thick soup and 50g for a light one) + garlic cloves + salt + vinegar + olive oil: mash everything with a food processor or blender until smooth
3 Serve the soup with chopped ham and fresh basil leaves ! Enjoy !

Notes:
1 This soup will not leave you indifferent 😉
2 Tomatoes, olive oil & garlic quality are essential for the taste!
3 Put the soup in the fridge for 1 hour before serving if you prefer to have it cold 🙂

Featured

Chicken in Hungarian Style with Potato Pancakes !

Úgy szép az élet, ha zajlik.
Hungarian proverb

Chicken with vegetables ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g chicken breast
– 500g tomatoes 🍅
– 1 red bell pepper
– 1 green bell pepper
– 1 onion
– 2 teaspoons paprika
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 3 garlic 🧄 cloves
– olive oil for frying

Potato pancakes ingredients (2 servings):
– 9 medium potatoes
– 1 tablespoon potato starch
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– olive oil for frying

Directions:
1 Start cooking chicken stew (2) and potato pancakes (3) simultaneously to serve them hot 🙂
2 Chicken stew:
2.1 Cut chicken breasts into 1cm cubes, combine with salt and put aside in a bowl
2.2 Cut bell peppers, onion and tomatoes 🍅 into 1cm pieces
2.3 Fry chicken cubes for 10 minutes with olive oil until golden at medium heat
2.4 Add cut vegetables and 2 teaspoons paprika to chicken: stew for another 15 minutes
2.5 Add grated garlic and mix well: done!
3 Potato pancakes:
3.1 Wash and peel potatoes
3.2 Grate one half of potatoes and mash in a blender another half
3.3 Combine grated and mashed potatoes: drain extra liquid through a strainer or cloth
3.4 Combine potatoes with salt, pepper and starch
3.5 Preheat a non-sticking frying pan with some olive oil
3.6 Put 1 tablespoon of potato batter on the frying pan for each pancake-to-be: make it flat and round with a tablespoon
3.7 Fry pancakes at a medium heat until golden approximately 3-4 minutes each side
3.8 Transfer the pancakes on paper towels to absorb extra oil for a couple of minutes
4 Serve potato pancakes & chicken hot. Decorate with chopped fresh green onions!

Featured

Beef with Green Beans: perfect lunch or dinner !

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu

Side dish ingredients (all ingredients for 2 servings):
– 120g rice
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 400g green beans

Beef & marinade ingredients:
– 350g beef
– 1 onion
– 3 garlic cloves
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1-2 tablespoons vinegar
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– olive oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 1/2 bunch parsley
– 1/2 bunch green onions

Directions:
1 Marinated beef:
1.1 Wash beef, remove extra water with paper towels
1.2 Slice beef into 2-4mm width pieces: the thinner the better!
1.3 Mix in a large bowl beef slices, vinegar, salt, black pepper, sliced onion
1.4 Put the bowl in the fridge for 2 hours, then get rid of onion 🙂
2 Cook rice in salted water, keep it warm 🙂
3 Green beans:
3.1 Trim ends of washed green beans
3.2 Boil green beans in salted water for 5 minutes. Then drain extra water.
4 Cooking beef slices:
4.1 Pre-heat frying pan, add some olive oil
4.2 Fry beef slices for 10 minutes at medium heat, stirring occasionally
4.3 Add green beans and cook for another 5 minutes
4.4 Add grated garlic 🧄🧄🧄 and cook for another minute continuously stirring
5 Serve hot with rice and chopped parsley and green onions !

Notes: inspired by Restaurant Style Beef and Broccoli Recipe

Featured

Breakfast French Toasts with Berries and Yogurt !

It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her embroidery-frame was of ebony.
Brothers Grimm

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 6-7 slices of white bread (which makes 12-14 bread triangles)
– 1 egg
– 40g sugar (for soaking toasts) + 1 tablespoon sugar (for frying toasts)
– 200ml milk
– 50ml 33% cream
– 1 teaspoon Vanilla sugar
– 20-50g butter for frying toasts

Serving ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 100g raspberries
– 100g bromberries
– 100g yogurt
– fresh mint leaves

Directions:
1 Whisk an egg with sugar and Vanilla sugar in a large bowl
2 Pour milk and 33% cream to whisked sugar and mix will
3 Slice bread into 1cm thick pieces and half them into triangles
4 Dip bread triangles in the milky mixture both sides for 3 minutes (ideally, use a little dry bread, pain perdu 🥖)
5 Preheat the frying pan, melt some butter and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar
6 Put the bread triangles on the frying pan and fry until golden ~3 minutes each side
7 Serve with fresh berries, yogurt and fresh mint leaves
8 Enjoy with a cup of black coffee and have a great day !

Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
Odes (Horace)

Featured

Vanilla Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Poppy Seeds and Homemade Cherry-Red Currant Compote !

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.
Vladimir Nabokov

Pancakes ingredients (for 16-18 small pancakes = 4 portions):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 3-6 (for batter) + 3 (for forming pancakes) tablespoons wheat flour
– 2 tablespoons spelt semolina
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 2 eggs
– 50g poppy seeds
– 50-80ml milk
– 6-8 tablespoons sunflower 🌻 oil for frying

Compote ingredients:
– 80g cherry 🍒
– 50g red currants
– 3 tablespoons water
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 1 tablespoon starch

Serving ingredients:
– 150g sour cream
– a few mint leaves

Directions:
1 Prepare berries compote:
1.1 wash and deseed berries add put to the pot
1.2 add water+sugar+starch
1.3 boil the berries mixture for 4 min. continuously stirring
1.4 put the pot aside and keep at room temperature
2 Boil poppy seeds with milk for 5 minutes: add milk little by little continuously stirring so that by the end all the milk is absorbed 🙂
3 Cook cottage cheese pancakes:
3.1 Combine cottage cheese+wheat flour+semolina+sugar+eggs+boiled poppy seeds: mix everything well until smooth
3.2 Put on a separate plate 3 tablespoon flour for forming the pancakes
3.3 Preheat non-sticking skillet, add some sunflower oil
3.4 Tricky part to make very gentle pancakes: take a little bit of batter (yes, it is viscous), form a round, roll it in flour and put on the skillet 🙂
3.5 Fry pancakes until golden each side ~3-4 minutes at the medium heat
4 Serve cottage cheese pancakes (or Syrniki) with berries compote and sour cream
5 Enjoy !

Featured

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley !

Numai daca vremea ar sta locului am putea vedea lamurit ce este etern
Mihai Eminescu

Ingredients (for 4 stuffed peppers):
– 4 red bell peppers
– 450g minced beef
– 90g pearl barley
– 7 small tomatoes 🍅
– 1/3 bunch dill
– 1 small onion (to adda flavour to the broth!)
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
– 100g sour cream for serving

Directions:
1 Pre-cook pearl barley: boil for 12 minutes, then drain extra water
2 Mix minced beef with chopped dill & pre-cooked pearl barley & salt and black pepper
3 Wash red bell peppers, carefully remove the top part and de-seed
4 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture 🙂
5 Wash and cut tomatoes into 1cm cubes, peel small onion: put cut tomatoes and an onion into a large pot
6 Carefully put the stuffed peppers to the same large pot with the tops from bell peppers One can put them either horizontally or vertically, the main point is to be able to cover them with the water afterwards.
7 Add to the pot water to cover all the peppers: cook at medium heat for 40 minutes, but evacuate the onion from the pot after 10 minutes of cooking 🙂
8 Serve with sour cream and half a soup ladle of broth !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends 🙂

Featured

Poppy Seed Buns !

‘There you are! It only needed a little more energy,’ said Karlson. ‘Now just put on the coffee, and set a nice little tray and get out a few little buns…’
Astrid Lindgren, Karlson flies again

Buns dough ingredients (for 9 large or 18 small buns):
– 250ml milk
– 450-500g wheat flour
– 21g fresh yeast
– 100g sugar
– 1 egg
– 80g butter
– 1 pinch salt

Buns poppy seeds filling ingredients:
– 150g poppy seeds
– 60g sugar
– 50-100ml milk for boiling poppy seeds
– 1 egg yolk for beautifying

Directions:
1 Prepare the dough:
1.1 Add crushed fresh yeast & 2 tablespoons sugar to warmed up milk to 30-35C: mix well until sugar and yeast are dissolved. Leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Melt butter, cool it down till 25-30C. Mix in the butter to the milk with yeast, then add 1 egg + 100g sugar + 1 pinch salt: whisk everything until smooth
1.3 Mix in flour in small amounts continuously stirring. Leave the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a cloth
1.4 Knead the dough with a stretch and fold technique for 7 minutes. Add some more flour if the dough is too sticky. Put the dough under the cloth for another 30 minutes
2 Prepare poppy seeds filling:
2.1 Boil poppy seeds for 5 minutes in milk and let them cool down
2.2 Join poppy seeds with 60g sugar and crumble them with a blender
3 Prepare the buns
3.1 Roll out the dough to 35x30cm rectangular. The dough height should be ~0.5cm
3.2 Distribute the poppy seeds filling on the rectangular and … fold the rectangular to the half along the long side
3.3 Cut the halved rectangular into ~1-3cm strips (thin strips for thin rings). Convolve each strip 5-7 times and join the edges to make a ring or snail or whatever your imagination is saying to you. Repeat for all strips 🙂
3.4 Put the rings on the baking paper to rest for 15 minutes under the cloth (make sure there is at least 3cm distance between them) and pre-heat the oven to 180C meanwhile
3.5 Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and put a little bit on each bun avoiding poppy seeds parts
3.6 Bake the buns for 30 minutes at 180C
4 Serve with milk or Kefir 🙂

Featured

Summer Raspberry Cake and… The Beatles of course !

But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright
The Beatles

Batter Ingredients:
– 190g wheat flour
– 2 eggs
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 100g sugar
– 100g butter
– 50g sour cream (>=26% fat)
– 175g fresh raspberry
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Cream ingredients
– 400g sour cream (>=26% fat)
– 100g sugar

Cream &decorating ingredients
– 125g fresh raspberry
– a few mint leaves

Directions:
1 Whisk butter with sugar and Vanilla sugar
2 Add eggs+sour cream to butter & sugar and whisk again
3 Mix in flour to butter+eggs+sour cream+sugar+baking soda&vinegar
4 Preheat the oven to 190C
5 Pour the batter into the buttered baking form and add fresh raspberries 🙂
6 Bake 20-25 minutes at 190C (depends on your oven, check with a wooden stick!!)
7 While the cake is being baked, make the cream: slightly whisk sour cream with sugar, then put the cream in the fridge for a while 🙂
8 Let the cake cool down, then pour the cream over the cake and put the baking form in the fridge overnight (best of all, for 14 hours)
9 Serve with fresh raspberries and mint 🙂

Featured

Tomato, Mozzarella and Fresh Basil Sandwiches !

Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the Lover’s ear alone,
What once to me befell.
William Wordsworth

Ingredients (for 4 open sandwiches):
– 4 slices Ciabatta (yes, Italian bread is essential, otherwise all is lost!)
– 3-4 fresh tomatoes
– 125g Mozarella
– 10g pine nuts
– fresh basil leaves

Directions:
1 Rinse and dry basil leaves
2 Toast a little Ciabatta slices
3 Toast pine nuts until golden (no oil! no butter!)
4 Wash and slice tomatoes
5 Lay on the Ciabatta pieces: basil leaves, mozzarella slices, tomato slices, pine nuts
5 Sprinkle with a few drops of olive oil
6 Enjoy !

Featured

Very Green Zucchini Pancakes with Sour Cream Sauce !

… everything I felt a connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion. If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender.
Vladimir Nabokov

Pancakes Ingredients (for 6-7 pancakes):
– 450g zucchini
– 2 eggs
– 250ml milk
– 150g wheat flour
– 1 tbsp 🌻 oil (in batter) + 1/2 tablespoon 🌻oil for frying
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 bunch parsley

Sour cream sauce ingredients:
– 1/2 bunch dill
– 200ml sour cream

Directions:
1 Peel zucchini, grate them, place grated zucchini in the colander, cover with a plate to let them drain for 1 hour
2 Chop parsley and dill
3 Prepare a batter: combine milk+flour+sugar+salt+🌻 oil+eggs: mix well and whisk until batter is fully combined
4 Mix in the batter chopped parsley together with grated zucchini
5 Preheat a non-sticking skillet with a little bit of 🌻 oil (no more oil will be needed!)
6 For each pancake pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet
7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side
8 Make sour cream sauce: combine sour cream with chopped dill
9 Serve !

Featured

Cold Soup Okroshka with Kefir !

‘Tis dark by now. He gets into a sleigh.
The cry “Way, way!” resounds.
With frostdust silvers
his beaver collar.
Eugene Onegin, Nabokov’s translation

Okroshka Ingredients (2 servings):
– 400ml Kefir
– 200ml water
– 100g chicken breast meat
– 4 baby potatoes
– 2 small eggs
– 150-200g cucumbers
– 150-200g radish
– 1/2 bunch dill
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:
1 Boil chicken breast meat; let it cool down; dice the meat into 1cm cubes
2 Peel baby potatoes; cut into 1cm cubes; boil until ready; drain well and let them cool down
3 Boil 2 eggs, let them cool down, peel and dice into 0.5cm cubes
3 Chop dill
4 Cut radish and cucumber into strips
5 Mix in a large bowl cold (from the fridge) Kefir with water, salt, sugar, chopped dill
6 Add to the bowl eggs, radish, cucumbers, potatoes, chicken and carefully mix
7 Serve immediately !

Notes: traditionally Okroshka is served with Kvass, but it is tasty with Kefir as well

Featured

Wheat-Buckwheat Pancakes with Salmon and Blue Cheese-Dill Sauce !

The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.
Haruki Murakami

Pancakes ingredients (10-12 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 3/4 cup wheat flour
– 1/4 cup buckwheat flour (it gives pancakes a special taste & colour !!)
– 2 pinches salt
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 500ml Kefir (hint: Kefir makes pancakes especially tender !)
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil for batter
– 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying

Blue cheese sauce ingredients (2 servings):
– 120g grated blue cheese
– 80g sour cream
– 1 bunch of chopped dill

Serving ingredients (2 servings):
– 100g smoked salmon
– 4-5 chopped green onion sprigs

Method:
1 Cook pancakes with you favourite recipe! I like the following one:
1.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar
1.2 Pour Kefir in the whisked eggs
1.3 Gradually add wheat and buckwheat flour continuously mixing
1.4 Mix in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil (no more oil will be needed!)
1.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake
1.7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side
1.8 Keep the cooked pancakes warm covered with a lid on a separate plate
2 Mix blue cheese sauce ingredients in bowl 🙂
3 Serve pancakes with smoked salmon slices & the blue cheese sauce & chopped green onions
4 Enjoy ! … and let the black coffee flavour enter you room and inspire you for great doings 😉

Featured

Spinach and Feta Fatayer

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/4 cup warm water
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 90g fresh baby spinach
– 90g Feta cheese
– 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Combine flour+salt+warm water in a bowl: knead the dough well for 5-6 minutes
3 Make a filling:
3.1 combine chopped spinach & salt: mix well with the hands for 3-4 minutes to get juice from spinach
3.2 add feta & walnuts & oil & pepper to the spinach & salt, mix well
4 Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and form a ball out of each of them
5 Roll out each ball into a 8-10cm diameter circle: put 1 teaspoon of a filling in the centre of each circle
6 Lift up ends of each circle to the centre to form Fatayers with your fingers
7 Put the Fatayers on the baking paper: bake for 15 minutes at 220C
8 Serve with black coffee and lemon slices !

Featured

Strawberry-Roquefort Sandwich !

After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.
Stendhal, The Red and the Black

Ingredients (4 small sandwiches):
– 50g Roquefort cheese
– 10 strawberries
– 4 slices of rye bread
– a few sprigs of greens onions

Method:
1 Slice and toast rye bread pieces
2 Wash and chop green onions
3 Wash and slice strawberries
4 Butter Roquefort cheese over the rye bread pieces, put over strawberries pieces & decorate with chopped green onions
5 Enjoy !

Featured

Pancakes with Rhubarb Compote !

Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time!
J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit”

Pancakes ingredients (10-12 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) + 1 tablespoon wheat flour
– 2 pinches of salt
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 500ml Kefir (hint: Kefir makes the pancakes especially tender!)
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil for batter
– 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying

Rhubarb compote ingredients:
– 200g peeled chopped rhubarb
– 4 tablespoons sugar
– lemon juice from 1/3 lemon
– 2 tablespoons water

Method:
1 Make rhubarb compote:
1.1 Wash, peel and chop rhubarb in 0.5cm width pieces, transfer them into a bowl
1.2 Add sugar & lemon juice into the bowl and let them stay for 20 minutes
1.3 Transfer rhubarb mixture to a pan, add water, cook for 5 minutes at middle heat
1.4 Cover the compote with a lid to keep it warm!
2 Cook pancakes with you favourite recipe! I like the following one:
2.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar
2.2 Pour Kefir in the whisked eggs
2.3 Gradually add wheat flour continuously mixing
2.4 Mix in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
2.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil (no more oil will be needed!)
2.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake
2.7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side
2.8 Keep the cooked pancakes warm covered with a lid on a separate plate
3 Serve hot, decorate with fresh mint & sugar powder and … enjoy!

Featured

Bouchée cakes with chocolate icing: as in my favourite bakery !

“But I don’t mind some cake-seed-cake, if you have any.”
“Lots!” Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise
J.R.R. Tolkien

Sponge cakes ingredients (all ingredients for 12 cakes):
– 3 eggs
– 70g flour
– 60g sugar
– 2g Vanilla sugar

Filling cream ingredients:
– 50g butter
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 2g Vanilla sugar
– 2 tablespoon water
– 2 tablespoons wheat flour

Chocolate icing ingredients:
– 50g dark (>=50%) chocolate
– 50ml 33% cream
– 20g butter

Beatifying ingredients:
– 8 strawberries
– 12 mint leaves

Method:
1 Sponge cakes:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Whisk the eggs + sugar + vanilla sugar for 2-3 minutes
1.3 Stir in flour and finely mix
1.4 Pour the batter into the buttered muffin forms: bake for 25 minutes at 190C
1.5 Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool down
1.6 Cut cooled down cakes into the upper and lower halves
2 Chocolate-strawberry icing:
2.1 Wash and slice the strawberries; wash 12 mint leaves
2.2 Melt chocolate + butter + 33% cream
2.3 Put each top cake half into the melted chocolate butter -> put on a separate plate
2.4 Decorate with strawberries&mint and put the cakes tops for 1 hour in the fridge 🙂
3 Filling cream:
3.1 Keep the butter at room temperature for 40 minutes
3.2 Whisk all the filling ingredients
3.3 Put the filling cream in the fridge for 30 minutes
3.4 Put the cream in between lower and top cakes halves, then join the halves
4 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight and & get prepared for a great coffee-break ! 😉

Featured

Strawberry Panna Cotta !

“Honey or condensed milk with your bread” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “but don’t bother about the bread, please.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Panna Cotta Ingredients:
– 300ml 33% cream
– 150ml milk
– 90g sugar
– 1g vanilla
– 1/3 tsp agar agar powder
– 100g strawberry

Serving ingredients:
– 100g strawberry

Method:
1 Slice washed strawberries and put them in the glasses
2 Combine in a pan milk+33% cream+sugar+vanilla+agar agar powder
3 Warm up the mixture until boiling constantly stirring
4 Set the pan aside for 3 minutes
5 Pour the creamy mixture from the pan into the glasses over the strawberries
6 Put the glasses in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight and enjoy Panna Cotta with fresh strawberries and … wonderful mood !

Hints:
1 Some agar agar powders are different from others. One might need to make a first try to adjust agar agar amount 🙂
2 Before serving let Panna Cotta stay a little bit outside the fridge, it is tastier when it is not completely cold !

Featured

Saturday pleasures: Rhubarb Meringue Cake !

Most of the dandelions had changed from suns into moons.
Vladimir Nabokov

Sponge cake ingredients (19cm diameter baking form):
– 2 eggs
– 2/3 cup wheat flour
– 2/3 cup sugar
– 3g Vanilla sugar
– 1 stalk rhubarb (150-200g)

Meringue ingredients:
– 2 egg whites
– 4 tablespoons sugar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Make the batter: whisk eggs with sugar, then carefully mix in the flour
3 Pour the batter into the buttered baking form
4 Peel rhubarb and slice it into ~0.5cm pieces and put them over the batter
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C (check if it is ready with a wooden stick, it should come out clean)
6 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
7 Whisk the egg whites with sugar until firm peaks for 5-10 minutes
8 Carefully put the whisked egg whites over the cake and bake for 30 minutes at 120C
9 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
10 Serve with fresh strawberries !

Hint:
1 Meringue can stick to the baking form if you do not let the cake cool down before putting whisked egg whites on it 😉

Featured

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.
Umberto Eco

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 100ml 33% cream
– 300g durum wheat semolina pasta (ideally, Italian Pasta Superior Semola)
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge for now
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into 0.5cm cubes
4 Simultaneously start boiling pasta (5) and cooking salmon (6)
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready and drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 minutes in olive oil with garlic, then add 33% cream and stew for another 5 minutes
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 minute, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Sprinkle pasta with grated Parmesan, add black pepper and serve immediately !

Featured

Healthy Banana Oatmeal Muffins !

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.
“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Ingredients (for 10-12 muffins):
– 90g oat flour
– 120g ripe bananas
– 75g quark or cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp salt

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix all ingredients in a bowl (baking soda+vinegar at the last step)
3 Pour the dough into a buttered muffin form
4 Decorate muffins with oat flakes and bake for 30-35 minutes at 180C
5 Serve with Kefir or black coffee ! 🙂

Featured

Homemade potato gnocchi with spinach-gorgonzola sauce !

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words, like ‘What about lunch?’.
A.A. Milne

Potato Gnocchi with Spinach-Gorgonzola sauce Recipe

Gnocchi ingredients:
– 400g baked or boiled potatoes
– 1 egg
– 80g wheat flour
– 1g salt
– 1g pepper

Sauce ingredients:
– 100g Gorgonzola
– 100ml 33% cream
– 125g baby spinach
– 30g pine nuts
– 4 sprigs green onions

Method:
1 Peel and wash potatoes, cut them into 1cm cubes
2 Boil potatoes cubes for 10 minutes, drain the water and let them cool down
3 Knead a dough from the dough ingredients and divide it into 4 equal parts
4 Make a 1.5cm diameter sausage out of each piece of dough
5 Cut each sausage into 0.7cm-width gnocchi and put them on a floured plate
6 Gorgonzola sauce:
6.1 Toast the pine nuts without oil until golden, put them in a bowl aside
6.2 Wash baby spinach and let it dry
6.3 Melt Gorgonzola in 33% cream on a frying pan
6.4 When Gorgonzola is melted, add spinach to the frying pan: simmer for 4 minutes
7 Put gnocchi in a boiling salted water, cook for 4 minutes
8 Drain the water and carefully mix the gnocchi in the Gorgonzola sauce: gnocchi are ready !
9 Decorate gnocchi with toasted pine nuts and green onions !

Featured

Strawberry custard mini-cakes !

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
A.A. Milne

Mini-cakes ingredients:
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1/2 cup flour

Custard cream ingredients:
– 1 egg
– 300-350ml milk
– 75g sugar
– [optional] 2g vanilla sugar
– 20g flour
– 30g butter

Strawberries ingredients:
– 400g strawberries

Method:
1 Make sponge cakes:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk eggs with sugar and finely mix in flour
1.3 Put the dough in the buttered baking form and bake for 25-30 minutes
1.4 If you want to make mini-cakes, fill muffin cups to a 1/4-1/3 height since we will need a space for cream!
2 Wash strawberries and let them dry
3 Make custard cream
3.1 Put butter in the bowl and let it wait while we are making 3.2 and 3.3
3.2 Whisk for 2 minutes milk+sugar+egg+flour (if you are not afraid of making a super-tasty custard cream, add 2g vanilla sugar, but it will add a little darker tint to the custard)
3.3 Pour the mixture from 3.2 into a saucepan and warm it over middle heat constantly stirring until it gets thicker
3.4 Remove the cream from the heat, then quickly and finely mix in butter
3.5 Let the custard cream cool down
4 Put the custard cream on the cakes, decorate with halved strawberries and put in the fridge overnight to let the custard cream penetrate the cakes and make them delicious 😉
5 Have a great weekend !

Featured

Saturday Apples Pleasures !

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour
– 150g cottage cheese
– 80g sugar
– 5 tablespoons olive oil
– 1 egg
– 1 pinch salt
– 1/2 teaspoon butter for buttering the muffin form

Filling ingredients:
– 2 small apples finely sliced

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Knead the dough from dough ingredients and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge (cover it with a plate)
2 Preheat the oven to 200C
3 Divide the dough into 2 equal parts
4 Cut out a 10x10cm square of a white paper
5 Roll off the first piece of dough to be a 20x30cm rectangular
6 Using the 10x10cm paper square, cut out 6 squares from the dough
7 Repeat 5 and 6 for the second piece of dough
8 Put the 12 dough squares in the 12 buttered muffin form baking cups
9 Finely slice the apples and put them beautifully in the middle of each bag
10 Whisk a yolk in a glass and yolk all apple-bag-edges
11 Bake 25-30 minutes at 200C
12 Enjoy the Apple-Bags some Saturday morning with a cup of black coffee on a balcony when sun is shining, when cherry trees are blossoming and everything will be well!

Featured

Chocolate cookies for a perfect coffee-break !

Now, Watson, there is cocoa ready in the next room. I must beg you to hurry, for we have a great day before us.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 1 cup (1cup = 250ml) wholegrain flour
– 100g butter
– 1/4 cup sugar
– 1/4 cup cocoa
– 30g orange zest

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix flour, butter, sugar and cocoa
3 Form cookies from the dough & put them on a baking parchment
4 Decorate the cookies with orange zest
5 Bake for 25 minutes at 180C and enjoy with a cup of strong black coffee 😉

Featured

Sandwich au Roquefort !

‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 100g du fromage de Roquefort
– 6 prunes
– 2 large slices of rye bread
– 1 small onion
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Spread the cheese on the rye bread slices with a knife
2 Cut an onion into thin half rings and soak them in olive oil with vinegar for 5 minutes
3 Put the onion half rings over the cheese
4 Put the chopped prunes slices over the onion half rings
5 Serve with a vegetable soup !

Featured

Grapefruit Vanilla-Mascarpone dessert !

All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 grapefruits
– 200g Mascarpone
– 50ml 33% cream
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 6 Savoiardi biscuits

Method:
1 Crumble Savoiardi biscuits in a bowl
2 Make Mascarpone cream: mix Mascarpone + 33% cream + sugar
3 Peel grapefruits & remove membranes: cut each grapefruit slice in 3 pieces
4 Arrange in the glass the following layers:
4.1 Savoiardi crumble/ Mascarpone cream/ grapefruit pieces
4.2 Repeat 4.1 until the glass is full with the colorful layers, then serve !

Featured

Red Bell Pepper Soup with Pistachio !

As for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 large red bell peppers
– 6 baby potatoes
– 1 small onion
– optional: 60ml 33% cream
– 400ml water or chicken broth
– 0.5 tsp salt
– 25g green unsalted raw pistachios
– green onions for serving

Method:
1 Roughly chop peeled potato, de-seeded bell peppers & onion
2 Finely grate pistachios
3 Boil potato in a broth for 5 minutes
4 Add bell peppers & onion, simmer for another 10 minutes
5 Add (optional!) 33% cream to the soup-to-be, transfer to the blender, puree until smooth
6 Garnish with chopped green onions & grated pistachios

Featured

Rye-bread tuna sandwiches !

Ce fut le temps sous de clairs ciels…
Paul Verlaine

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 130g canned tuna fish
– 120g Almette or another soft creamy cheese
– 1/2 chopped onion
– 1/2 finely chopped dill bunch
– 1 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
– pinch of salt & a bit of black pepper
– 6-8 triangle slices of rye bread
– one sprig of green onions for serving

Method:
1 Prepare tuna mixture = tuna fish + cheese + chopped onion + chopped dill + mayonnaise + lemon juice + salt + pepper
2 Cut rye bread into triangle slices and toast them if you prefer them toasted 😉
3 Put the tuna mixture on the slices, enjoy it and have a great Sunday !

Featured

Avocado sandwiches for a rainy morning

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards
Vladimir Nabokov

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 2 ripe avocados
– 6 slices of rye bread (it is really tastier with rye bread)
– 125g cream cheese (e.g., Almette)
– 4 sprigs of green onions
– 2 tsp of lemon juice
– 1/3 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Mash avocado pulp in a bowl with salt, pepper, lemon juice and cream cheese
2 Prepare 6 triangle slices of rye bread and toast them
3 Put the avocado mixture on the toasts
4 Serve with chopped green onions and enjoy !

Featured

Homemade Tiramisu !

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul.
Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonets

Ingredients (2-4 servings):
– 250g Mascarpone
– 100ml 33% cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 10-14 Savoiardi biscuits
– 150ml strong black coffee
– 1 tablespoon cocoa for serving

Method:
1 Make Mascarpone cream: mix Mascarpone with sugar & 33% cream: don’t make it too liquid ! 🙂
2 Brew a really strong black coffee !
3 Pour brewed coffee in a plate and let it cool down
4 Now put in the glasses layer by layer (you might use less or more Savoiardi biscuits depending on how high Mascarpone layers you would like to have):
4.1 Savoiardi biscuits dipped each side for 1 second in a coffee-plate
4.2 Mascarpone cream, return to 4.1 if the glass is not full yet 😉
5 Decorate with cocoa on top
6 Put Tiramisu in a fridge overnight
7 Enjoy Tiramisu with a nice old-style black&white movie !

Featured

Goat cheese cranberry sandwiches with walnuts for the perfect weekend !

Les paroles d’amour, qui sont toujours les mêmes, prennent le goût des lèvres dont elles sortent.
– Guy de Maupassant

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 4 slices of whole grain rye bread (it’s way tastier with rye bread than with wheat one !)
– 100g soft goat cheese
– 25g dried cranberries
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 20g miner’s lettuce for serving

Method:
1 Put soft goat cheese on the rye bread slices
2 Put dried cranberries and chopped walnuts over the goat cheese
3 Serve with miner’s lettuce and enjoy it some Sunday morning when spring is about to come and everything is about to change … and with a nice book 😉

Featured

Avocado whole grain toasts with miner’s lettuce !

When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 4 slices wholegrain bread
– 2 large avocados
– 50 g miner’s lettuce
– salt and pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying eggs

Method:
1 Mash avocado with salt and pepper and put on toasts from whole grain bread
2 Cook eggs on olive oil and put on the toasts over avocado puree
3 Serve with fresh miner’s lettuce and enjoy !

Featured

Italian pastry Soffioni: easy and delicious !

Noi leggeveamo un giorno per diletto
Di Lancialotto, come amor lo strinse;
Soli eravamo e senza alcun sospetto
Per più fiate gli occhi ci sospinse
Quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso;
Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.
– Dante

Dough ingredients:
– 150g wheat flour
– 1 egg
– 40g sugar
– 25g olive oil
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 2 eggs
– 50g sugar
– 200g cottage cheese (or ricotta as in original Italian recipe!)
– 1 tablespoon orange zest (or lemon zest as in original Italian recipe!)
– 1 pinch salt

Method:
1 Knead the dough from dough ingredients and put it in the bowl to the fridge for 1 hour
2 Make a yellow mixture: whisk egg yolks with sugar for 3 minutes, then add orange zest and cottage cheese and mix all well
3 Make a white mixture: whisk egg whites with salt for 5 minutes
4 Join yellow and white mixtures and gently mix
5 Preheat the oven to 180C
6 Cut out a 10x10cm piece from a white paper
7 Roll out the dough to be a 20x30cm rectangular
8 Using 10x10cm paper square, cut out 6 squares from our dough
9 Put the dough squares in the 6 buttered muffin form baking cups
10 Add the filling to the middle of each dough squares
11 Join the four angles of each square in the middle of each pie
12 Bake the pies at 180C for 30 minutes and at 160C for 10 minutes
13 Cool the pies down for 30 minutes
14 Serve with powdered sugar and enjoy with a cup of green tea !

Notes:
– Soffioni Abruzzesi = Dandelion of Abruzzo from Italian. These cakes are especially popular in the region of Abruzzo during Easter holiday 🙂

Featured

Creamy parsnip soup with beetroot chips !

“La parole humaine est comme un chaudron fêlé où nous battons des mélodies à faire danser les ours, quand on voudrait attendrir les étoiles”
– Gustav Flaubert

Soup ingredients (for 2 large servings):
– 600g parsnips
– 250g potatoes
– 1 small onion
– 200ml milk or 33% cream
– 1 tsp salt
Beetroot chips ingredients:
– 1 large beetroot

Method:
1 Let’s first make beetroot chips:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 160C
1.2 Peel one beet root and cut 1mm width slices of it
1.3 Put beet root slices on a baking paper and bake them 30 minutes at 180C
2 Peel vegetables for soup, cut them at ~2cm cubes and boil 15 minutes in salty water
3 Leave 100-200ml vegetable broth with vegetables, add milk/cream and puree vegetables with milk/cream in a blender
4 Garnish the soup with root beet chips and black pepper
5 Enjoy !

Featured

Avocado breakfast is always a great idea !

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
Pablo Neruda

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 3 small avocado
– 150g cream cheese (e.g., Almette cheese)
– multigrain bread (at best, home-made but in any case multigrain!)
– 6 cherry tomatoes
– parsley/dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Mash avocado pulp, cheese, black pepper and salt
2 Butter avocado-cheese mixture on multigrain bread
3 Decorate with parsley and cherry tomatoes

Chicken Nuggets with Red Bell Pepper and Pineapple !

Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés
Jean Pierre Claris de Florian

Chicken nuggets ingredients:
– 350g chicken breast
– 2 red bell peppers
– 200g canned pineapple (weight without juice)
– 2 eggs for batter
– 1 tsp chilli 🌶 pepper powder for batter
– 1/2 tsp salt for batter
– sunflower oil for frying

Pineapples-red bell pepper sauce
– 3-4 tbsp all-purpose flour for batter
– 1 tbsp liquid honey for the sauce
– pineapple juice from the can with pineapples for the sauce
– 3 garlic clothes

Method:
1 Chop chicken breast in 1.5 cm cubes
2 Combine and mix well eggs, salt, chilli pepper powder in 1 plate and put flour in another plate for dipping
3 Preheat two skillets (skillet 1 for chicken nuggets, skillet 2 for the sauce) and add some sunflower oil
4 Dip each chicken breast piece once in eggs mixture, once in flour, again in eggs mixture, again in flour – transfer to skillet 1 and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden
5 Fry red bell pepper stripes and pineapple pieces in skillet 2 for 4-5 minutes
6 Transfer chicken nuggets to red bell peppers and pineapples, add pineapple juice and cook for 6-7 minutes
7 Add chopped garlic and honey: cook for another 2 minutes
8 Serve with chopped dill or parsley!

Quick and healthy Salmon and Vegetables soup!

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
Jane Austen

Ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 320g salmon
– 1 head broccoli
– 6 medium carrots
– 8 medium potatoes
– chopped dill for serving
– salt to taste

Method:
1 Peel and cut/chop vegetables
2 Cut salmon in pieces
3 Put chopped vegetables and salmon in the saucepan, add water to cover the vegetables and salmon pieces, add salt to taste
4 Cook for 20-25 minutes after boiling, serve with fresh chopped dill!

Turkey-Pineapple Pancakes !

I am a mathematician, sir. I never permit myself to think.
John Dickson Carr

Ingredients:
– 400g turkey breast
– 200g canned pineapple pieces
– 1 egg
– 50g grated cheese
– 3 tbsp flour
– 1 grated garlic cloth
– salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:
– 200g sour cream
– fresh chopped parsley/dill
– chopped garlic

Method:
1 Combine chopped turkey breast, chopped pineapples, egg, grated cheese, flour, grated garlic and salt/pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet, add sunflower oil: pour 1tbsp of batter for each pancake-to-be. Fry 5-6 min each side or until golden, medium heat
3 Switch to minimum heat and cook pancakes under the lid for 10 min
4 For the sauce combine and mix sour cream, chopped garlic, chopped parsley/dill
5 Serve!

Tarte Flambée with Pears, Brie and Walnuts

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
Jane Austen

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 100ml warm water
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 1 large pear
– 100g Brie
– 10 walnuts
– liquid honey for serving
– black pepper for serving

Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into an oval 3-4 mm height
4 Put the dough on the baking paper and bake at 220C for 8 min without a filling
5 Meanwhile slice pear, cut Brie and slightly chop walnuts
6 Remove the baking tray from the oven, spread the sour cream over the dough, add sliced pear, brie pieces and chopped walnuts
7 Bake Tarte Flambée for another 7-8 minutes at 220C
8 Sprinkle with black pepper and honey, enjoy !

Sage and Butter Pasta !

If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.
Jane Austen

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 30g fresh sage
– 100g butter
– 250g pasta
– 2 garlic clothes
– 50g parmesan

Method:
1 Melt butter in the skillet, add chopped sage, cook at middle heat for 8 min, add chopped garlic and cook for another 2 min
2 Boil pasta in salted water Al Dente, drain water and transfer to the skillet with butter & sage: cook for 2 min
3 Serve with grated parmesan and enjoy !

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: