Month: September 2021

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 recipe

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 !

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
Cottage Cheese Zapekanka with Homemade Cherry Compote

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 minгеуы 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

Homemade Trdlo or Trdelník !

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas

Bing Crosby

I always tried Trdlo when being in Prague! Today I ventured to cook it myself – Christmas aroma filled up my kitchen and brought back some nice memories, flavour of frozen snowy morning and sparkling garlands. I can’t wait for Christmas eve to come to enjoy Trdlo again with a cup of cocoa.

Ingredients (for ~10 Trdlo):
– 190ml milk
– 430g flour
– 60g grated butter
– 21g fresh yeast
– 1tbsp brown sugar
– 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 20-40g grated butter for buttering carton rolls
– 60g brown sugar
– 1tbsp grated nuts or walnuts
– 1tbsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Filling
1.1 mix in a cup sugar, cinnamon and grated nuts
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 1tbsp sugar: whisk until smooth and leave in a warm place for 15 min
2.2 Add grated butter, 2 egg whites, 1 egg yolk, salt: whisk well
2.3 Add flour constantly mixing, knead a dough and leave in a warm place under cloth for 30 min
3 Trdlo
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Knead dough with a stretch and fold technique for 2-3 min and separate into 10 equal pieces
3.3 Form a long 0.8cm diameter rope out of each dough piece 🙂
3.4 Wrap paper towel carton rolls with a baking paper: butter baking paper with fingers
3.5 Wind up a dough rope around a buttered paper towel carton roll
3.6 Butter Trdlo surface with fingers before rolling in nuts-cinnamon-sugar mixture
3.7 Roll well each Trdlo in nuts-cinnamon-sugar mixture
3.8 Bake Trdlos for 15 minutes at 190C: serve hot! Jingle bells-jingle bells…

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
Chepalgash - flatbread with cottage cheese and scallion !

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

Filling ingredients:
– 50 g scallion
– 250 g 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 !

Quick and healthy Banana Chocolate Mousse !

Glück gibt es nur, wenn wir vom Morgen nichts verlangen und vom Heute dankbar annehmen, was es bringt – die Zauberstunde kommt doch immer wieder.

Hermann Hesse
Quick and healthy Banana Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 ripe bananas
– 2 full tsp cocoa powder
– 300g natural 3.5% yoghurt
– 100g fresh raspberries
– fresh mint leaves

Method:
1 Combine and mash with blender: bananas+cocoa+yoghurt
2 Transfer banana mousse in glasses
3 Serve with fresh raspberries and fresh mint leaves!

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 with chocolate filling

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 🙂