Love... to cooking !

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 !

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

Aubergine Rolls with Walnuts and Garlic !

I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days – three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.
John Keats

Aubergine ingredients:
– 2 aubergines
– olive oil for frying aubergines

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

Serving ingredients:
– parsley for serving
– pomegranate seeds for serving

Directions:
1 Cook aubergines:
1.1 Wash aubergines and slice them lengthways into 4mm thick stripes
1.2 Fry aubergine stripes on a skillet with olive oil until golden both sides
1.3 Put aubergine stripes on paper towels to absorb extra oil.
1.4 Let aubergine stripes cool down before filling
3 Prepare the filling: combine grated walnuts, grated garlic, salt, pepper and chopped dill in a bowl. Mix well and add water in small portions stirring constantly
4 Put 1/2-1 teaspoon filling over each aubergine stripe and roll them up
5 Put aubergine rolls in the fridge for 30-40 minutes before serving
6 Decorate with pomegranate seeds, parsley and dill. Serve as an appetiser !

Fresh Apricot Ice-Cream !

.. the future was all happy holiday as I moved Southwards week by week, easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call!
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 250ml 33% cream
– 8 ripe apricots
– 2-3 tablespoons sugar (yes, it’s not much, but it preserves the delicate apricots taste!)
– 3g Vanilla sugar

Method:
1 Wash and de-seed apricots, bake them in the oven 15 minutes at 200C
2 Mash baked apricots with vanilla sugar after apricots have been cooled down
3 Whisk cream & sugar until mild peaks
4 Mix well mashed apricots & whisked cream: put in the freezer for at least 4 hours
5 Serve, serve, serve ! With fresh berries 🙂

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 😉

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 !

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 !

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!

Adjarian Chirbuli (eggs in spicy tomato-walnut sauce) !

There was a huge moon over the western mountains, and it made the city seem even more mysterious and old, and the great black castle on the ridge stood out in front of the moon.
John Steinbeck, A Russian Journal

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 4 eggs
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) tomato sauce (pure tomatoes!)
– 1 chili pepper
– 40g chopped walnuts
– 1 chopped onion
– 3 chopped garlic cloves
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper
– 1/2 parsley bunch for serving
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil for cooking

Method:
1 Chop onion & chili pepper and put them into the first bowl
2 Chop garlic & walnuts and put them into the second bowl
3 Chop fresh parsley and put it into the third bowl
4 Pour some olive oil onto a skillet and set the medium-low heat
5 Transfer chopped onion & chili pepper on the preheated skillet: cook for 5 minutes
6 Add tomato sauce, salt, chopped garlic & walnuts into the skillet: cook for 3 minutes
7 Carefully pour the eggs into the tomato-walnuts sauce (prepare holes for them in there with a spatula right before pouring in eggs): cook the eggs for 5-10 minutes
8 Serve hot with black pepper, fresh parsley and lavash or flat bread !

Buckwheat pancakes with Gruyère, Ham and Egg !

When the first fine spring days come, and the earth awakes and assumes its garment of verdure, when the perfumed warmth of the air blows on our faces and fills our lungs, and even appears to penetrate to our heart, we feel vague longings for undefined happiness, a wish to run, to walk at random, to inhale the spring.
Guy de Maupassant

Batter ingredients (for 5-6 pancakes):
– 1/3-1/2 cup buckwheat flour
– 2 tablespoons wheat flour
– 1/2 egg
– 1 cup water (might be less or more, depends on buckwheat flour)
– 1 pinch salt
– 40g butter for frying

Filling ingredients (for filling 5-6 galettes):
– 5-6 eggs
– 80g ham
– 100g grated Gruyère cheese
– a few sprigs of green onions

Method:
1 Combine batter ingredients, mix them well and whisk until the batter is uniform
2 Grate Gruyère cheese, slice ham and put them in a fridge for a while in 2 bowls
3 Cook the pancakes
3.1 Melt butter in the skillet and pour ~1/2 cup of batter in it
3.2 Cook 2-3 minutes on one side and 1-2 minutes on another side
3.3 Repeat 2.1-2.2 for the remaining pancakes 🥞
4 Cook 5-6 eggs (as many as a number of pancakes you made) in a separate skillet with the melted butter, put them on a plate covered with a lid to keep them warm 😉
5 Warm up the pancakes in a frying pan with some melted butter and add in the middle of them the following levels:
5.1 Sliced ham
5.2 Grated Gruyère cheese
5.3 Cooked egg
6 Put the cooked galettes on the plates, and fold over their four edges
7 Garnish with chopped green onions & black pepper
8 Serve immediately and enjoy !

Hint:
Do not try to replace water by milk or butter by oil otherwise all the charm will be lost! 🙂

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Love... to cooking !