Month: July 2020

Delicious Beef Stuffed Potato Pancakes (Draniki) with a garlic sauce !

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

W.B. Yeast
Beef Stuffed Potato Pancakes

Pancakes batter ingredients (for 8 pancakes = 2 servings):
– 8-10 large potatoes
– 2 tablespoons potato starch
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Pancakes filling ingredients:
– 100g boiled minced beef
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Serving ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 3 garlic cloves
– 1/2 bunch fresh parsley

Directions:
1 Beef filling:
1.1 Boil minced beef until ready, drain broth and let the meat cool down
1.2 Combine meat with salt and black pepper: mix well
2 Potato batter:
2.1 Wash and peel potatoes
2.2 Grate half of potatoes and crush in a blender another half of potatoes
2.3 Combine both parts of potatoes: drain extra liquid through a strainer or cloth
2.4 Mix potatoes with salt, pepper and starch
3 Garlic sauce: mix grated garlic with sour cream and put in a fridge
4 Potato pancakes:
4.1 Preheat a non-sticking frying pan with some olive oil
4.2 Put 1 tablespoon of potato batter on the frying pan for 1 pancake-to-be: make it flat and round with a tablespoon 🙂
4.3 Put 1-2 teaspoons of meat filling uniformly on each pancake-to-be
4.4 Put another tablespoon of potato batter over each pancake with meat: flatten with a tablespoon to make it nice looking 🙂
4.5 Fry pancakes at a medium heat until golden approximately 3-4 minutes each side
4.6 Transfer the pancakes on paper towels to absorb extra oil for a couple of minutes
5 Serve the pancakes hot with garlic sauce and fresh parsley !

Notes: no eggs and no flour in this recipe make the potato pancakes really delicious preserving a potato flavour ! Try them yourself !

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
French Toasts with Berries and Yogurt

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)

Homemade Pizza with Goat Cheese, Pepper and Leek !

Die Liebe braucht keine Erklärungen, sondern Taten.

Erich Maria Remarque

Pizza dough ingredients (for 1 pizza 32cm diameter = 2 large or 4 small portions):
– 300-350g wheat flour
– 190ml warm water
– 15g fresh yeast
– 0.5 tsp salt
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Filling ingredients:
– 100g sour cream
– 200g leek
– 120g Cubanelle pepper 🌶
– 180g grated goat cheese

Serving ingredients:
– 1/2 bunch of chopped chives
– 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
1 Prepare the dough:
1.1 Pour warm (35C) water into the large bowl, add crusted fresh yeast and stir well with a whisk until smooth, let it rest for 15 minutes
1.2 Add salt+olive oil+150g wheat flour into the bowl: stir well with a whisk until smooth
1.3 Add remaining 150g flour into the bowl and knead the dough. It will be slightly sticky (add a bit more flour when needed): let the dough peacefully rest and rise for 1 hour in a warm place under a cloth 🙂
2 Prepare the filling meanwhile:
2.1 Wash and de-seed the beautiful Cubanelle peppers 🌶 Then cut them … in rings 🙂
2.2 Grate goat cheese
2.3 Wash leek well, trim the root of, slice the leek into rings
3 Cook the pizza:
3.1 Pre-heat the oven to 220C
3.2 Roll out the dough into the circle of baking form diameter (and a bit more if you want to make edges)
3.3 Transfer the dough to the oiled baking form
3.4 Distribute evenly sour cream over the dough
3.5 Distribute peppers and leek rings. Do it beautifully in an artistic manner.
3.5 Spread the grated goat cheese over the vegetables 🌶🌶🌶
3.6 Put the baking form in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 220C
3.7 Serve ! …with chopped chives & black pepper
4 Enjoy with a classic black & white detective movie !

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

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Vladimir Nabokov
Cottage Cheese Pancakes

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 !

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley !

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

Mihai Eminescu
Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Beef and Pearl Barley

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 !

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
Poppy Seed Buns

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 🙂

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
Raspberry cake

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 🙂

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
Tomato, Mozzarella and Fresh Basil Sandwiches

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 !

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
Zucchini Pancakes

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 !