Valentina - Love... to cooking !

Cheesy Potato Pancakes !

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Pancakes ingredients (16 pancakes):
– 700g potatoes
– 100g cheese
– 1 big red onion
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
– salt and pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying

Garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 1 tbsp mayonnaise
– 2-3 minced garlic cloves

Method:
1 Combine grated raw potatoes, grated cheese, chopped onion, flour, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet with sunflower oil
3 One tbsp batter for one pancake: fry 3-4 minutes each side until golden, medium heat, transfer on paper towels to absorb extra oil
4 Garlic sauce: mix sour cream, mayonnaise and minced garlic
5 Serve warm pancakes with the sauce and enjoy !

Plum Galette by Jacques Pepin recipe

It grew cooler and even a little darker (but not much) with the coming of the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and pretty far north; in the darkest part of that night, you would have needed pretty good eyes to read, but for all that, I have often seen it darker in a winter mid-day.
R.L.S.

Dough ingredients:
– 1 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-170g butter
-1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 cup cold water
Filling ingredients (I changed a little original recipe):
-1/4+1/3 cup sugar
-3 tbsp grated almonds
-3 tbsp all-purpose flour
– 500g prune plums+200g peaches (weight with stones)
-3 tbsp butter

Directions:
1 Dough
1.1 Grate butter in flour, add salt and mix well
1.2 Add cold water, mix well and knead the dough
1.3 Roll out the dough into an oval 0.5cm width and transfer it in the baking paper to rest, make a filling meanwhile
2 Filling
2.1 Cut in stripes plums and peaches
2.2 Mix in a bowl 1/4 cup sugar + grated almonds + flour
3 Galette
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Spread the sugar-almonds-flour mixture in the dough within 4 cm from the edge
3.3 Put the plums/peaches stripes on the sugar-almonds-flour mixture, top with remaining 1/3 cup sugar and chopped 3 tbsp butter
3.4 Bake galette for 50-60 minutes at 200C
3.5 Let the galette cool down and enjoy !

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 !

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 !

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!

Simple Homemade Tiramisu !

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 250g Mascarpone
– 100ml 33% cream
– 2 tbsp cane sugar
– 12 Savoiardi biscuits
– 200ml fresh-brewed black coffee (3-3.5 tsp coffee)
– 1 tsp cocoa for serving

Method:
1 Cream: mix mascarpone with sugar and 33% cream until smooth
2 Brew black coffee (I use French press) and let it cool down
3 Put in the glass casserole dish (mine is 10cmx20cm) layer by layer:
– six Savoiardi biscuits dipped one side for 2 sec in coffee
– Mascarpone cream
4 Decorate with cocoa on top and put Tiramisu in a fridge overnight
5 Enjoy next morning !

Simple and healthy sweet potato and cauliflower soup with beef !

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

Ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 3-4 large sweet potatoes
– half a head cauliflower
– 1 tsp salt
– pumpkin seeds for serving

Method:
1 Boil minced beef for 25 minutes in 2-2.5l salted water
2 Wash and peel sweet potatoes and cauliflower
3 Add finely chopped sweet potatoes and cauliflower to the broth with beef and boil another 15 minutes
4 Mash the soup with a blender until smooth
5 Serve the soup with toasted pumpkin seeds and enjoy !

Pancakes with Beef and Tomatoes filling !

Il y a des fleurs partout pour qui veut bien les voir.
Henry Matisse

Pancakes ingredients (14-16 pancakes):
– 5/4 cup wheat floor
– 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (it gives to pancakes a wonderful color and taste)
– 0.5l Kefir
– 0.3l milk (combination of milk & Kefir gives a special taste to the pancakes)
– 2 eggs
– 2 tsp sugar
– dash of salt
– 1 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil onto the skillet for the first pancake

Filling ingredients:
– 500g minced beef
– 2 small red onions
– 300g tomato purée
– 2 tomatoes
– 1 zucchini

Serving ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 2 cloves garlic

Method:
1 Pancakes
1.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar
1.2 Pour Kefir and milk in the whisked eggs
1.3 Gradually add wheat and buckwheat flour continuously stirring
1.4 Mix in 1 tbsp sunflower oil
1.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
1.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake
1.7 Cook each pancake until golden ~2 min each side
1.8 Keep the pancakes warm covered with a lid
2 Filling
2.1 Fry chopped onion in sunflower oil 2-3 min, add minced meat and fry another 10 min, medium heat
2.2 Add chopped zucchini, tomatoes, tomato purée and stew for 10-15 min
3 Serving
3.1 Put the 1-2tbsp filling on one half of each pancake and roll the pancakes out
3.2 Serve with sour cream with grated garlic and enjoy!

Sweet Omelette with Wholegrain Bread: quick and delicious breakfast !

If it rubs off, it means I’m in love.
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 eggs
– 4 wholegrain bread slices
– 2 tbsp milk
– 2 tbsp cane sugar
– 1 tbsp butter

Method:
1 Whisk eggs with milk and sugar
2 Melt butter on the frying pan and toast bread slices on one side
3 Turn bread slices and pour in eggs mixture, continuously tossing until ready (1-2 minutes)
4 Serve with fresh berries!

Rhubarb Muffins with Walnuts and Cinnamon!

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
R.L.S.

Ingredients (for 12 delicious muffins):
– 1 and 1/4 cup flour (1 cup=200ml)
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– dash of salt
– 1 egg
– 2/3 cup cane sugar
– 8g vanilla sugar
– 1/4 cup sunflower oil
– 1/2 cup milk
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 cup diced rhubarb

Topping ingredients:
– 1/2 tbsp butter
-2-3 tbsp cane sugar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Preheat oven to 180C
2 Butter muffin form
3 Bowl 1: mix flour+salt+baking soda+vinegar
4 Bowl 2: whisk egg with sugar and vanilla sugar, then add oil and milk and whisk until smooth
5 Combine dry ingredients from Bowl 1 with ingredients from Bowl 2 and mix well until smooth
6 Add chopped walnuts and diced rhubarb: mix well
7 Pour the batter into 12 muffin forms
8 Bowl 3: mix melted butter with sugar and cinnamon and put this mixture on top of each muffin to be
9 Bake muffins for 25 minutes at 180 C, let them cool down and enjoy with a cup of coffee !

Le vrais Käsekuchen !

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Albert Schweizer

Dough ingredients:
– 200g all purpose flour
– 75g buter
– 75g cane sugar
– 1 egg

Filling ingredients:
– 500g quark
– 125g butter
– 225g cane sugar
– 200g 33% whipping cream
– 200g sour cream
– 3 eggs

Method:
1 Dough: mix all dough ingredients (it is easy to grate butter dropping it in flour) and knead the dough, set it alone
2 Filling
2.1 Whisk eggs with sugar & butter (it is easy to first grate butter dropping it in sugar)
2.2 Add quark and sour cream: mix until smooth
2.3 Add whisked separately whipping cream and carefully mix
3 Cake
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Distribute the dough evenly on the buttered baking form
3.3 Add filling
3.4 Bake for 60 minutes at 180C
4 Serve it cold with black coffee and let wonderful thing hurry into your life! We all need it and let it be so.

Simple and Healthy Oatmeal-Banana Cookies !

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

Ingredients:
– 150g ripe banana
– 100g oat flakes
– 50g all-purpose flour
– 30g butter
– [optional] 1 tbsp sugar
– [optional] 30g almond flour – almond adds a special flavour to the cookies!

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Grate butter and bananas (it’s easy to grate butter when roll it in flour)
3 Combine oat flakes, flour, sugar, almond flour with grated butter and bananas: mix all until smooth
4 Form rounds from dough (1 cookie from 1 tbsp dough) and out them on the baking paper
5 Bake the cookies at 180C for 16 minutes and serve with black tea with milk 🙂

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 🙂

Homemade sweet potato bread rolls !

Einer neuen Wahrheit ist nichts schädlicher als ein alter Irrtum.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ingredients (for 10 bread rolls):
– 600g all-purpose flour
– 150ml water
– 21g fresh yeast
– 1tsp sugar
– 1tsp salt
– 3 small sweet potatoes

Beautifying ingredients:
– sesame seeds
– 1tbsp milk

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Boil sweet potatoes and mash until smooth
1.2 Warm up water to 35C, add crushed fresh yeast & sugar: whisk until smooth and leave in a warm place for 15 min
1.3 Add flour, salt, mashed potatoes and knead a dough: leave in a warm place under cloth for 50 min
2 Bread rolls
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Separate dough into 10 equal parts
2.3 Form a ball from each dough part and put on the baking paper
2.4 Brush the top each ball with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds
2.5 Leave in a warm place for 20 min
2.6 Bake the bread rolls at 200C for 25-30min
3 Enjoy the bread rolls (best warm) – they are perfect for sandwiches !

Warm soup in the pot with red bell peppers, carrots, beef and pearl barley !

花より団子
Japanese saying

Ingredients (6 pots):
– 400g minced beef
– 3 red bell peppers
– 5-6 carrots
– one large red onion
– 1 glass (250ml) pearl barley
– 2 tsp salt
– 5-6tbsp tomato puree (pure tomatoes, not salted)
– 300-350ml water in each pot

Method:
1 Grate carrots; chop bell peppers & onion
2 Combine vegetables, 1 glass not boiled pearl barley, tomato puree, salt: mix well
3 Preheat the oven to 190C
4 Distribute minced beef equally in the pots
5 Distribute vegetables & pearl barley mixture in the pots equally, over the minced beef
6 Add 300-350ml water in each pot
7 Cover the pots with lids and put in the oven for 60 minutes at 190C
8 Enjoy delicious soup!

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 !

Pelmeni: Dumplings with Beef and Pork !

Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.
Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve

We used to make Pelmeni on Christmas Eve, all the family was gathered together. One of Pelmeni was “lucky one”, made with a different filling from the others – the person who will get the “lucky” Pelemen’ is supposed to be lucky throughout the year!

Dough ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 3 cups (1 cup = 250ml) wheat flour
– 170ml warm water
– 1 tbsp 9% vinegar
– 2 and 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions):
– 250g minced beef
– 250g minced pork
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 2-3 tsp grated butter

Serving ingredients (for 2 portions):
– 200g sour cream

Method:
1 Dough:
1.1 combine dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5-7 min
1.2 leave the dough under the cloth while making the filling
2 Filling: combine minced meat, spices, grated butter: mix well until smooth
3 Pelmeni
3.1 separate dough into 6 equal parts and form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each part
3.2 cut each sausage into 1cm width pieces
3.3 roll out each piece into a ~7cm diameter round
3.4 put 1 tsp filling into each round
3.5 fold the round into a half-moon, pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers; then pull together two corners and pinch strongly with fingers
3.6 boil Pelmeni for 5 min after boiling and serve with sour cream
4 Enjoy !

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 !

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 !

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 !

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