Valentina

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!

Potato Zrazy with Minced Beef !

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Dough ingredients (3-4 servings):
– 1kg (weight unpeeled) potatoes
– 2 eggs
– 6-8tbsp flour
– 1 bunch scallion
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 tbsp olive oil for frying

Filling ingredients:
– 300g minced beef
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– a few sprigs chopped scallion

Method:
1 Beef filling
1.1 Cook minced beef for 40 minutes in salted water
1.2 Drain the broth in another pan
1.3 Mix boil beef with black pepper and salt
2 Potato dough
2.1 Wash and peel potatoes
2.2 Cut potatoes into 2cm cubes
2.3 Boil potato cubes for 20-25 minutes in salted water
2.4 Drain water and mash potatoes
2.5 Combine mashed potatoes+2eggs+6-8tbsp flour+1/2tsp salt+chopped scallion: mix until smooth
3 Zrazy (Potato Cutlets)
3.1 Preheat the non-sticking skillet with some olive oil
3.2 Shape a flat round out of potato dough and put beef filling in the middle: enclose with a second potato round 🙂
3.3 Fry each potato dumpling 3-4 minutes each side
3.4 Absorb extra oil with paper towels
4 Serve Zrazy (Potato Cutlets) with sour cream mixed with chopped scallion
5 Enjoy !

Quick and Simple Gorgonzola and Spinach Pasta !

Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
Walt Whitman

Ingredients:
– 250g Rigatoni
– 100g Gorgonzola
– 100 ml 33% cream
– 125g spinat
– 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Start cooking pasta (2) and making sauce (3) simultaneously 🙂
2 Pasta
2.1 Boil pasta in the salted water al dente
2.2 Drain water
3 Spinach-gorgonzola sauce
3.1 Wash spinach
3.2 Cut gorgonzola in 2cm cubes
3.3 Melt gorgonzola in 33% cream in the frying pan
3.4 Add spinach to gorgonzola-cream sauce and cook for 3-4 minutes
4 Transfer cooked pasta to the sauce: mix well and serve warm !
5 Tired after a long weary week – this warm pasta is what you need 😉

Simple Broccoli Cream Soup with Beef Meatballs !

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
Confucius

Soup ingredients:
– 1 head broccoli (400g)
– 200g carrots
– 250g new potatoes
– 400ml broth from the meatballs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 50ml 33% cream

Meatballs ingredients:
– 200-300g minced beef
– 1 bunch dill
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Meatballs
1.1 Mix minced beef with chopped dill, salt & black pepper
1.2 Form with hands meatballs and boil them in 400 ml water for 40 minutes
1.3 Transfer the meatballs on the plate (cover with a lid to keep them warm) and keep the broth for the soup
2 Soup
2.1 Wash and peel carrots and potatoes
2.2 Wash broccoli; cut 1cm off the bottom of the broccoli stalk and peel the broccoli stalk
2.3 Cut carrots and potatoes into 1cm cubes
2.4 Cut broccoli into small pieces (both stalk and florets!)
2.5 Boil the vegetables in 400ml beef broth (add 1/2 tsp salt) for 12 minutes
2.6 Mash the soup with an immersive blender until smooth
2.7 Add 33% cream to the soup and mix well
3 Serve the soup with meatballs, sprinkle with chopped dill and enjoy ! 🙂

Broccoli-Carrot-Potato Cream Soup: perfect with Cheddar !

Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door.
Emily Dickinson

Broccoli Cream Soup: perfect with Cheddar Recipe

Ingredients:
– 1 head broccoli (400g)
– 200g carrots
– 250g new potatoes
– 400ml water
– 1tsp salt
– 50ml 33% cream

Serving ingredients:
– 100g grated Cheddar

Method:
1 Wash and peel carrots and potatoes
2 Wash broccoli; cut about an inch off the bottom of the broccoli stalk and peel the broccoli stalk
3 Cut carrots and potatoes into 1cm cubes
4 Cut broccoli into small pieces (both stalk and florets!)
5 Boil the vegetables in 400ml salted (1tsp) water for 12 minutes
6 Mash the soup with an immersive blender until smooth
7 Add 33% cream to the soup and mix well
8 Serve the soup with grated cheddar and have a great day ! 🙂

Quick Almond Cookies !

I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say: “Come with me, Milena. We are going to love each other without scruples or fear or restraint. Because the world is ending tomorrow.”
Franz Kafka

Ingredients (for 20-25 cookies):
– 50g grated almond
– 50g butter
– 75g wheat flour
– 30g cane sugar
– 1 tbsp sour cream
– 1 pinch cinnamon
– 1 pinch salt
– some almond petals for beautifying

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Mix grated butter with sugar until smooth
3 Add grated almond, flour, cinnamon, salt & sour cream: mix until smooth
4 Fatten 1 tsp dough within the cookie cutter on the baking paper for each cookie. Decorate each cookie with almond petals 🙂
5 Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes at 190C until golden
6 Serve the cookies with a cup of black coffee

Simple Pilaf with Chicken cooked in oven !

One kind word can warm three winter months
Japanese proverb

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 250g rice
– 400g chicken breast
– 5 (~390g unpeeled) medium carrots
– 2 small red onions
– 3 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1.5 tsp salt
– 0.5 tsp black pepper
– a few parsley sprigs for serving

Method:
1 Wash rice and soak in water for 30 minutes
2 Grate carrots and chop onions
3 Wash chicken breasts and absorb extra water with paper towels
4 Cut chicken breast into 0.5-1 cm pieces and fry
5 Fry chicken pieces with sunflower oil for 10 minutes at medium heat
6 Add carrots, onion, salt, pepper to the chicken: stew for another 15 minutes
7 Preheat the oven to 200C
8 Drain water from the rice
9 Boil 1.5l water in the teapot
10 Put in the four ceramic pots (I have 0.5l pots):
10.1 Chicken with vegetables
10.2 Rice ~2-3 tbsp per pot
10.3 Pour boiled water in each ceramic pot to cover the rice ~1cm
11 Cook the Pilaf in the oven for 40 minutes with covered lids
12 Serve with chopped parsley and enjoy ! 🙂

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 !

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 !

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 !🎄🎄🎄

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 😉

Biscotti: Italian almond biscuits for Sunday morning !

If you pressed me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
Michel de Montaigne

Ingredients (for 12 Biscotti):
– 130g wheat flour
– 78g sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp orange zest
– 1/2 tsp rum or Amaretto
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 63g almonds

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2 Wash almonds and dry with paper towels.
3 Combine in a bowl: flour + sugar + Vanilla sugar + egg + orange zest + rum.
4 Add to the dough baking soda in the same teaspoon as vinegar: knead the dough.
5 Mix the almonds in the dough and distribute uniformly.
6 Form ~3cm width & ~30cm length log from the dough and put it on the baking paper.
7 Bake the log for 20min at 180C until golden.
8 Remove the log from the oven and let it cool down for 5 min. Do not turn off the oven.
9 Cut the log with diagonal cuts into 1.5cm width Biscotti.
10 Put Biscotti back on the baking paper and bake for 5-10 minutes.
11 Enjoy Biscotti some nice Sunday morning with a cup of black coffee and your favourite Christmas movie. Would it be this, this, this, this or this movie? 😉

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 !

Huevos Rancheros for Breakfast !

I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.
Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 2 Cubanelle peppers
– 80g ham
– 80g grated Cheddar
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Wash the beautiful Cubanelle peppers and accurately cut out the upper part to form the boats 🙂
2 Carefully de-seed the peppers
3 Boil in the water the peppers for 5 minutes under a lid at medium heat
4 Drain water
5 Pre-heat the pan with some olive oil for frying the peppers
6 Put the peppers in the pan
7 Put grated Cheddar and chopped ham inside the pepper boats
8 Carefully pour 1 egg in each pepper over the chopped ham and grated cheddar
9 Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat
10 Serve and enjoy delicious breakfast !

Notes: many thanks to Jacques Pépin for the inspiration and for making my Saturday better !

My Favourite Sandwiches: with Camembert and Cranberry Jam !

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
Hans Christian Andersen

Ingredients (for 6 sandwiches):
– 6 Ciabatta slices
– 60g Camembert
– 30ml cranberry jam
– a few miners lettuce leaves

Method:
1 Slice 6 pieces of Ciabatta
2 Slice Camembert
3 Put Camembert slices over Ciabatta slices and sprinkle with cranberry jam
4 Serve for breakfast with miners lettuce leaves and a cup of black coffee !
5 Have a great week !

Sweet Potato Puree with Champignons !

But shouldn’t all of us on earth give the best we have to others and offer whatever is in our power?
Hans Christian Anderson, The Complete Fairy Tales

Puree ingredients (2-3 servings):
– 3 sweet potatoes (~1200g in total)
– 100 ml 33% cream
– 1/2 large onion (~75g)
– 1 tsp salt

Fried champignons ingredients:
– 7 champignons (~300g in total)
– 1/2 large onion (~75g)
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Start cooking sweet potato puree (2) and champignons (3) simultaneously, then you will have a delicious lunch just in 30 minutes
2 Sweet potato puree
2.1 Peel sweet potatoes and cut them into 1cm cubes.
2.2 Chop onion
2.3 Put sweet potatoes cubes and onion into a pan: add 300-350ml water
2.4 Boil at medium heat for 15 minutes, add salt 2 minutes before ready
2.5 Remove the pan from the heat (do not drain water!) and pour in 33% cream
2.6 Mash vegetables with cream with an immersive blender until smooth
3 Fried champignons
3.1 Wash champignons and remove remaining dirt with a paper towel and cut out a small slice from their bottoms
3.2 Chop champignons and onion
3.3 Pre-heat a non-sticking skillet with some olive oil
3.4 Stew champignons and onion at medium heat for 10-15 minutes until golden
4 Serve sweet potato puree with champignons on top: decorate with a few leaves of miner lettuce
5 Enjoy the healthy lunch and have a great sunny Sunday !

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.

Spinach Pancakes with Salmon and Honey !

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Pancakes ingredients (~8 pancakes):
– 200g fresh spinach
– 300ml Kefir
– 2 eggs
– 7 tbsp wheat flour
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 2 tsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt

Serving ingredients:
– 30ml acacia honey
– 100g smoked salmon
– a few raspberries

Method:
1 Wash spinach and squeeze it in a colander to get rid of extra water
2 Mash spinach in a puree with an immersive blender or in a food processor
3 Combine spinach puree, flour, Kefir, eggs, olive oil, sugar & salt: mix well until smooth
4 Pre-heat a non-sticking skillet with a small amount of olive oil (we need extra oil only for the first pancake!)
5 Fry pancakes until golden at medium heat 1-2 minutes each side
6 Serve the pancakes with smoked salmon, acacia honey and raspberries
7 Enjoy and have a great sunny Saturday !

Side note: These beautiful guys might be capricious as many beautiful creates are… That is why it is important to choose the right heat level when cooking them, but after a couple of failures you will be on the right road to their hearts 🙂

Pkhali: minced aubergines, champignons, walnuts and garlic !

It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.
Maud Hart Lovelace

Pkhali ingredients:
– 500g aubergines
– 200g onion
– 8 champignons
– 1-2 tbsp olive oil
– 2 garlic cloves
– 1 cup walnuts
– 1 tsp cardamom
– 1 tbsp vinegar
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper

Serving ingredients:
– pomegranate seeds
– parsley

Method:
1 Prepare Pkhali ingredients:
1.1 Peel aubergines and cut into ~1cm cubes
1.2 Chop onion
1.3 Slice champignons
1.4 Peel garlic cloves
1.5 Keep the walnuts for 5 minutes in hot water (to soften them a little), then dry them with a paper towel
2 Cook champignons, onion and aubergines
2.1 Fry chopped onion and sliced champignons for 7 minutes at medium heat with some olive oil
2.2 Add aubergine cubes and cook for another 15 minutes or until aubergines are soft
3 Combine cooked champignons, onion and aubergines with garlic, softened walnuts, cardamom, salt, pepper, and vinegar in a bowl: mash until smooth with an immersive blender
4 Put the bowl in the fridge for at least 2 hours
5 Take the bowl from the fridge and form with fingers ~2cm diameter balls.
6 Put the balls on the plate and decorate with pomegranate seeds and parsley: serve, it’s a really delicious appetiser !

Notes: you can use the same recipe as a delicious pate for the sandwiches 😉

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 !

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: