Olivier salad !

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients:
– 3-4 middle potatoes
– 3-4 middle carrots
– 4 eggs
– 200g chicken breast
– 150g ham
– 250g canned green pea
– 5-6 pickles
– 1/3 bunch green onions + 1/3 bunch parsley
– 3-4 tbsp mayonnaise to taste
– salt/pepper to taste

Method:
1 Dice boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs, chicken breast and combine with diced ham, diced pickles, chopped green onions and parsley
2 Add mayonnaise and spices, mix well and put for 1 hour in the fridge
3 Serve ! Merry Christmas !

Syrnyky for the perfect breakfast !

Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.

Lao Tzu
Syrnyky (Syrniki)

Batter ingredients (10-12 Syrniki):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tsp Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 4 tbsp flour

Additional ingredients:
– 3-4 tbsp flour for dipping Syrniki
– sunflower oil for frying
– honey for serving

Method:

1 Mix batter ingredients until smooth
2 For each Syrnik, dip 1 tbsp batter in flour, form a round with fingers and put it on the wooden board
3 Pre-heat sunflower oil in the skillet: fry Syrniki 2-4 min each side until golden: transfer them on paper towels to absorb extra oil
4 Serve warm with honey ! Have a nice day !

Quick warming lunch for a working day: pasta with beef and onion

Once again…welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.

Bram Stoker, Dracula

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g pasta
– 2 small red onions
– (already boiled) beef, chopped
– butter for frying
– salt, papper
– tomatoes for serving

Method:

1 Chop onion and fry it in butter until golden
2 Add chopped (already boiled) beef: fry for 5 minutes
3 Boil pasta al dente, drain water and mix pasta with beef and onion
4 Serve with fresh tomatoes!

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
éclairs

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 !

Apple Envelops !

“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you.”

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
Apple envelopes


Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour
– 150g cottage cheese
– 75g sugar
– 4 tbsp sunflower oil
– 1 egg
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 2 medium apples, sliced

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Combine all dough ingredients and knead the dough
1.2 Let the dough rest for 20 min in the fridge
2 Envelopes preparation
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Peel and deseed 2-3 apples, cut them into 48 slices – yes, adults enjoy the numbers 😉
2.3 Divide the dough into 2 equal parts
2.4 Repeat with each dough piece:
2.4.1 Roll out into ~24cm round and separate with a knife into 4 segments
2.4.2 Make 3 diagonal cuts like on the leaf going diagonally from the side to the center line
2.4.3 Put 6 apple slices on the center line and enclose the apple slices from the left and from the right side with a dough
2.5 Put envelopes on the baling paper and brush them with egg yolk
2.6 Bake the envelopes for 25-30 minutes at 200C
3 Enjoy the envelopes with a cup of strong black tea ! … and the sun will be shining tomorrow too 😉

Prunes and Walnuts cake: taste from childhood !

Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you.”

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
Prunes and Walnuts cake: taste from childhood

Sponge cake ingredients:
– 3 eggs
– 80g sugar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 cup flour
– 1tsp baking soda + 1tsp vinegar

Filling ingredients:
– 100g unsalted butter
– 100g sugar
– 200g sour cream

– 1 cup chopped prunes
– 3/4 chopped walnuts

Directions:

1 Sponge cake
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Combine eggs with sugar and vanilla sugar: whisk well for 3-4 minutes
1.3 Add flour and mix well until smooth, then add baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix in
1.4 Pour the batter in the buttered baking form and bake for 20-30 minutes at 190C (test with a wooden stick for readiness) and let it cool down
2 Filling (while cake is being baked)
2.1 Whisk melted butter with sour cream and sugar: put the cream in the fridge for 30 minutes
2.2 Chop walnuts and prunes
3 Final steps
3.1 Spread the filling on the top of sponge cake
3.2 Decorate with chopped walnuts and prunes
3.3 Put the cake in the fridge overnight (or at least 2-3 hours) to let the filling saturate the sponge cake
3.4 Enjoy the cake in the sunny morning with a cup of strong black tea !

Cottage Cheese and Cocoa Cake !

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”

A.A. Milne


Notes: this a very gentle morning cake, not too sweet and perfect for cosy breakfast with a cup cocoa and in a nice company – you will enjoy it! 😉

Dough ingredients:
– 80g butter
– 160g flour
– 1 egg
– 1tbsp cane sugar
– 1/2 tsp soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar

Filling ingredients:

– 400g cottage cheese
– 70g 33% cream
– 4tbsp cane sugar
– 2 eggs
– 1tbsp cornstarch

Serving ingredients:

– some blueberries
– fresh mint leaves
– 1/2 tsp powdered sugar

Method:

1 Dough
1.1 Whisk egg with sugar
1.2 Grate butter, mix with flour and add to the egg and sugar
1.3 Add soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well
2 Filling
2.1 Whisk eggs with sugar
2.2 Add cottage cheese, cream and cornstarch: mix well until smooth
3 Cake
3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
3.2 Transfer the dough to the buttered baling form (I used 30cm diameter resulting in a thin layer of filling)
3.3 Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180C
3.4 Leave the cake in the oven for 1 hour after switching off the heat – do not open the oven door!
3.5 Put the cake in the fridge overnight – it will become very gentle in the morning!)
3.6 Serve cold with a cup of cocoa and enjoy ! 🙂

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 minutes 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 ! Enjoy ! 🙂

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 🙂

Light Cottage-Cheese Cake with Plums and Raspberries !

There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston’s wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.

Jane Austen
Light Cottage-Cheese Cake with Plums and Raspberries

Ingredients:
– 150g flour
– 140g cottage cheese
– 75g butter
– 2 eggs
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 60g sugar (you can add more if you like it sweet!)
– 1 dash of salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2tsp vinegar
– 6 large sour plums
– 200g raspberries
– 50g almond petals for decoration

Method:

1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Wash plums and raspberries and let them dry
3 Bowl 1: whisk well sugar+Vanilla sugar+eggs+salt
4 Bowl 2: grate butter to the flour, then add cottage cheese: mix everything well
5 Combine content of Bowl1 and Bowl2: add in the same teaspoon soda and vinegar and mix everything well
6 Slice plums
7 Pour the batter into the baking form over the baking paper
8 Sprinkle plums stripes and raspberries over the batter
9 Bake the cake for 45 minutes at 180C, then sprinkle almond petals and bake another 10 minutes
10 Put the cake in the fridge overnight and enjoy the cake in the morning with a cup of black coffee and with the best friend 😉

Cabbage Rolls with Minced Beef: tasty and healthy lunch

…nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book…

Nikolai Gogol

Ingredients (for 12 cabbage rolls):
– 1 pointed head cabbage (it is more tender for this recipe than white cabbage)
– 4oog minced beef
– 120g rice
– 1 red onion
– 250g mashed tomatoes (tomato passata) 🍅
– 1.5 tsp salt
– 0.5 tsp black pepper
– 200g sour cream for serving

Directions:

1 Boil rice until ready
2 Carefully separate cabbage leaves and boil them for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a plate to cool down
3 Chop onion
4 Mix minced beef with boiled rice, chopped onion, salt and black pepper
5 Put 1-2 tbsp beef mixture on one cabbage leave and pack into a roll 🙂
6 Put cabbage rolls side to side in the saucepan and cover with water 1-2 cm above, then add mashed tomatoes: I cooked in 2 saucepans with 125g mashed tomatoes in each
7 Boil cabbage rolls for 30-35 minutes covered with a lid
8 Serve cabbage rolls with cooking broth, sour cream and chopped parsley!

Simple Pilaf with Chicken cooked in oven !

One kind word can warm three winter months

Japanese proverb
Pilaf with Chicken in the oven

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 ! 🙂

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 !

P.S. inspired by Romanian friends 🙂

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 🙂

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

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 

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
Buckwheat pancakes with salmon

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 😉

Bouchée cakes with chocolate icing: as in my favourite bakery !

“But I don’t mind some cake-seed-cake, if you have any.”
“Lots!” Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise

J.R.R. Tolkien
Bouchée Cakes

Sponge cakes ingredients (all ingredients for 12 cakes):
– 3 eggs
– 70g flour
– 60g sugar
– 2g Vanilla sugar

Filling cream ingredients:
– 50g butter
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 2g Vanilla sugar
– 2 tablespoon water
– 2 tablespoons wheat flour

Chocolate icing ingredients:
– 50g dark (>=50%) chocolate
– 50ml 33% cream
– 20g butter

Beatifying ingredients:
– 8 strawberries
– 12 mint leaves

Method:
1 Sponge cakes:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
1.2 Whisk the eggs + sugar + vanilla sugar for 2-3 minutes
1.3 Stir in flour and finely mix
1.4 Pour the batter into the buttered muffin forms: bake for 25 minutes at 190C
1.5 Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool down
1.6 Cut cooled down cakes into the upper and lower halves
2 Chocolate-strawberry icing:
2.1 Wash and slice the strawberries; wash 12 mint leaves
2.2 Melt chocolate + butter + 33% cream
2.3 Put each top cake half into the melted chocolate butter -> put on a separate plate
2.4 Decorate with strawberries&mint and put the cakes tops for 1 hour in the fridge 🙂
3 Filling cream:
3.1 Keep the butter at room temperature for 40 minutes
3.2 Whisk all the filling ingredients
3.3 Put the filling cream in the fridge for 30 minutes
3.4 Put the cream in between lower and top cakes halves, then join the halves
4 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight and & get prepared for a great coffee-break ! 😉

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