Monthly Archives: May 2015

Sweet potato&Raisin Cookies

I had only few tablespoons of leftover mashed sweet potatoes and I couldn’t throw it out. I don’t know how this idea came into my mind when I decided to make cookies, and you know what? Leftover sweet potatoes puree got the new life! I mixed ingredients like for shortbread cookies; I was trying to make it a bit healthier, so I used fine oats instead of plain flour and raisins for a sweet taste. You can even omit the sugar or maple syrup and add more black or golden raisins, they have quite enough its natural sweetness.

And what’s your way of using up leftover puree? 🙂

Sweet potato&Raisin Cookies

Servings: 4
Time: 20mins
Difficulty: easy
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-As you can see I used only 70g of puree, but the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

-You can make fine oats by grinding regular oats or use store-bought.

Ingredients

70-80g (3/8 cup) sweet potato puree (without salt or pepper)

12 Tbsp fine oats

5 Tbsp ground almond (almond meal)

25g butter, soft

1 Tbsp brown sugar or maple syrup, optional

1 tsp molasses, optional

50-70g black raisins

1-2 tsp slivered almonds, optional

In a bowl, mix oats with ground almond, add soft butter, sugar (or maple syrup) and molasses if using. Mix until just combine. Fold in raisins.
Make a log (4cm diameter) and cut into 1cm-width discs.
Arrange cookies on a lined the baking sheet. Press into each cookie few almonds, if using. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 12-15 minutes or until light brown color.

Olive Oil and Rosemary Crackers

I’ve been on a homemade everything kick for a quite long time.. 😀 Homemade crackers is not an exception. I’ve tried lots of crackers recipes and usually crackers turned out like cookies, not very crunchy, tasted like shortbread cookies, or I was unable to roll out dough thinly. Finally, after tasting and comparing different recipes, I created my own recipe of salty crackers. You need only few ingredients to prepare these amazingly tasty, crunchy and aromatic crackers! The dough contains extra virgin olive oil and rosemary, natural bitterness and pepperyness of the oil and piney aroma of the herb give incredible taste and smell to the dough and crackers. You can make sticks, twists or roll out the dough very thinly and cut out any shape you like. I enjoy these crackers as is, it’s a nice midday snack; you can also make a sauce and dip crackers into it.

This edible bouquet for all beautiful and wonderful ladies, who has brought many tasty dishes to Fiesta Friday party today! A feast for the eyes and the stomach! 😉

Olive Oil and Rosemary Crackers

Time: 40-30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

160g strong/bread flour

130g wholemeal flour + more if needed

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black or white pepper

1.5-2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

150ml water

90ml extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, mix flours, baking powder, salt, pepper, rozemary. Add water and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon. Add olive oil and mix again. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead with hands. Add a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky.
Cut the dough into equal 6-8 pieces. Roll each piece into circle as thinly as you like, cut into squares, diamond shape. You can also cut into strips (1.5-2cm width, 15cm length) and then twist each strip.
Place crackers on a baking sheet and bake in preheated 220-230C (450F) oven for 10-11 minutes or until golden color.

I keep crackers in airtight container in the fridge up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

#6 Olive oil and rosemary crackers

Moroccan lamb with peas

Lamb is a very popular type of meat in Morocco and Arabic countries. This stew gets Moroccan flavours from a mixture of aromatic spices such as ginger, turmeric, thyme and cumin. Would be nice if you could find a dried lemon, it adds slightly citrusy aroma, or you can use preserved lemons which are widely-used in Moroccan cuisine. This hearty and tasty stewed lamb with aromatic saffron rice is perfect to share with you family!

Moroccan lamb with peas and saffron rice.

Servings: 3
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from “a little taste of Morocco”

Ingredients

500g lamb, cut into 3-4cm pieces

1+1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1/3 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 dried lemon

200ml water

1/2 tsp dried thyme

100g fresh or frozen peas

2 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander leaves

2 tsp chopped fresh mint

salt, black pepper to taste

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan. Add lamb pieces and brown all over; remove to a dish.
Add more olive oil and onion, fry on a low heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic, spices and lemon and cook for a minute more. Add water, give a good stir, return lamb to the saucepan and season to taste. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to very low, add thyme, cover with a lid and simmer for 50 minutes.
Add peas, chopped parsley and mint, cover with the lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Open the lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes more to reduce the liquid a bit.
Serve with saffron rice.

Saffron rice

180g long-grain rice

1 tbsp olive oil

300ml water

a pinch of salt

1/3 tsp saffron threads

15g butter

In a saucepan, bring water to boil, add saffron, turn the heat off and leave to infuse for 15-20 minutes.
Wash the rice, drain. Heat oil in a pan, add rice and stir well to coat evenly in the oil, stir-fry for a minute.
Add rice and salt to the saffron water, bring to boil and boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to very low, cover with a lid and cook for 9-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the pan covered for 8-10 minutes. Add butter and fluff with a fork.

Apple Scones

Many of you heard about these lovely biscuits, which are called scones. Whenever I see or hear ‘scones’ I immediately imagine the Queen of the United Kingdom, how she’s drinking her 5 o’clock tea, beautiful china teacups are set on a huge royal table, and elegant waitresses serving various treats and of course scones! Did you know that originally scone was round and flat, usually as a medium-sized plate, it was made with oats and baked on a griddle, and only after that cut into triangular sections for serving. Only when baking powder became available and popular, scones began to be the oven-baked. Nowadays, scones are widely liked and popular not only in Britain. Saying honestly, scones aren’t popular in Russia, may be because of large and good variety of cookies and other cakes. Here, in the UAE the same thing, they are not sold in regular bakeries and stores, so I decided to make scones myself and here the result – buttery and tasty triangle scones. 🙂

Apple Scones

Servings: 6-8
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

150g plain flour

100-120g wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp orange or lemon zest

2 tsp cinnamon

100g sugar

110g butter, very cold

110g sour cream

1 egg

1 apple

1 tsp lemon juice

Glazing

100g powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

In a large bowl or food processor, combine flours, salt, baking powder, sugar, zest, cinnamon. Grate the butter or cut into small cubes, add to the flour mixture and mix in. Knead the dough.
In a small bowl, add sour cream, egg and whisk to combine until smooth. Pour the mixture over dry and fold until just combined.
Peel, core and cut apple into small cubes, sprinkle with lemon juice. Fold apple cubes into dough until just combined.
Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, shape into 20-23cm and 2cm thick disk. With a knife slice the disk into 6-8 wedges.
Transfer wedges on a lined baking sheet with some space apart. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes. Allow scones to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the glazing. In a small bowl, sift icing sugar and whisk with lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle scones with the glazing.

Enjoy tea-time!

Sharlotka

Sharlotka – that’s how one of the popular apple cake in Russia called. I believe this cake is so widely-known that there is no a man in Russian who wouldn’t heard about it. When I was a little girl I ate sharlotka so many times that I hardly can count, I ate it at my home, at friends’ home.. And I still love it! It’s one of the easiest recipe that always turns out great!
There are many varieties of Charlotte dessert. Russian ‘charlotte’ was created by French chef Marie-Antoine Careme who worked for Russian Tsar Alexander I in 19th century in London. Believed that the dessert took its name from Queen Charlotte, wife of George III of the Intied Kingdom, who loved apples. For this dessert the bottom of baking mold was lined with sponge cake or savoiardi biscuits, then filled with Bavarian and whipped cream, and completely cooled. Originally the dessert was named ‘charlotte a la parisienne’ but lately became popular under the name ‘charlotte russe’ or simply ‘Sharlotka’.
In Soviet times the recipe was modified and became sponge cake with apples. Nowadays, the cake continues to be liked and cooked by many Russian women, including me. 🙂 It’s also a kind of ‘rescue’ sweets that you can prepare in minutes when your friends came around unexpectedly. Below recipe is my mother’s recipe, I haven’t change a word in it and the cake turns out perfect every time, I think it will make my mummy proud and happy. ❤

Sharlotka

Servings: 6
Time: 50mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can also roughly chop apples, stir into the batter and then bake.

I used 20cm/8inch cake spring-form.

Ingredients

2-3 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3 eggs, at room temperature (better to use large eggs)

80g white sugar

110g plain flour

2 tbsp water

1/2 tsp b.soda

1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

a pinch of salt

icing sugar for dusting, optional

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, add 3 egg yolks, water and sugar. Put baking soda in a tablespoon, pour in lemon juice or vinegar, mix with a teaspoon to dissolve it, then pour into the egg mixture. Beat egg mixture until light and creamy.
In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft but steady peaks.
Gradually mix egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Don’t stir too much.
Gradually sift and fold in the flour.
Grease and dust with flour the baking form. Gently spread half of the batter into the form. Arrange apple slices. Pour in the rest batter, evenly spread.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired. Serve warm with a cup of freshly-brewed tea.

You can keep the cake in a box or on a plate covered with foil in the fridge up to 3 days.

Enjoy!