Monthly Archives: August 2015

Sunday Breakfast

I think, breakfast is one of the most important meal of the day. I never miss breakfast; even if I woke up at 12 or 1pm – I prefer to eat something from breakfast category whether it’s mushroom kasha or sweet pancakes.

I know that lots of people skip breakfast or have only coffee and sort of to-go bar; some say they are not hungry enough, or another reasons are lack of time or motivation. But eating breakfast can help you to wake up, to boost your energy and metabolism. Moreover, experts say that people who eat breakfast tend to have a lower risk of many health issues. Breakfast should be around 30% daily calories intake. So, skipping the breakfast leading to seek out higher calorie food later in the day.

Thus, I decided to start a series of ‘Sunday Breakfast’. Why breakfast? – that you’ve read above. Why Sunday? – because it’s usually weekend, no need to hurry – you’ve got plenty of time to prepare any breakfast you/your family like. I’m going to post breakfast recipes that I’m cooking and enjoying. And I’d be more than happy if you share with me your breakfast ideas and recipes; if you decided to take part in this series – send me links to your posts or articles in the internet with your favourite morning meal. You can also write recipes and send me by email, so I could choose a suitable for me and taste them.

Let’s begin a healthy way to start the day, especially if you haven’t had a breakfast for a long time!

I’m quite sure that almost everyone loves zucchini fritters. We call them oladii/oladushki in Russia, that means small pancakes (have a look another recipe by clicking here). These zucchini oladushki are more healthier, because I used fine oats instead of plain flour and fried them almost without oil. As you can see from the photos: they are served with fried quail eggs, which can be substitute with regular ones; herbs add a nice and aromatic touch – to wake up your senses!

Zucchini oladushki with fried quail eggs

Sunday Breakfast: Zucchini Oladushki

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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*I didn’t use salt, because I used parmesan which is salty itself, but you can add some salt if needed.

**If zucchini oladushki don’t stick to your frying pan- omit the oil.

Ingredients

1 large zucchini, grated

few spoons of fine oats (or wholemeal flour)

*3-4 tbsp grated parmesan

3 quail eggs or 1 regular egg for the zucchini mixture

2 tsp lemon juice, optional

2-3 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)

1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves

freshly ground black pepper to taste

**1-2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil for frying

quail eggs for serving, as much as you like

some grated parmesan for garnish, optional

In a bowl, combine all ingredients, except oil. Heat the oil (if using) in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Using a tablespoon pour a spoonful of the mixture into pan, making oladushki/fritters, fry for a 2 minutes on each side.
Keep zucchini oladushki in a warm place: put them in warm 50C oven or cover with foil. Meanwhile, fry quail eggs (you may use the same pan).
Top oladushki with fried quail eggs, sprinkle with parmesan if desired.

Enjoy your breakfast!

Summer Salad with strawberry

I’ve been preparing and eating salads at home almost every day. I can have a salad as a light dinner, or snack during the day. Salads is classic and great way to calm down raging appetite instead of eating various high-calories snacks. This salad is all about summer: refreshing and light, bright and tasty. Perfect food for hot summer days!

Summer Salad with strawberry

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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Next time I’ll add some sliced almonds for the crunchy note.

You can use arugula instead of spinach.

Tangerine has a sweet-tart taste, you can sub it with orange or clementine.

Ingredients

baby spinach, as much as you want

1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced

5-7 strawberries, sliced

1-2 tangerine

2-3 radishes, thinly sliced

some chopped fennel fronds for garnish, optional

Dressing

zest of one tangerine

1-2 tsp finely chopped mint

1 tsp runny honey

1 tbsp lemon or lime juice, or more if needed

1 tsp white balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

sea salt, freshly ground white pepper to taste

Preparation

Wash spinach, let it dry, arrange onto a serving plate.
Cut peel from tangerine. Using a knife to cut out the segments, letting them fall into a bowl along with the juice.
Add strawberries, fennel, tangerine segments and radish to the spinach. Toss together gently.
For the dressing, in a small bowl, combine all ingredients, stir well, adjust salt, pepper and lemon juice to your taste. Pour over the salad.
Garnish with chopped fennel, if using.

Enjoy!

Summer salad with strawberries, tangerine and fennel

The duo cake

Cheesecake or chocolate cake? This cake is perfect for those who can not choose! I called it ‘the duo cake’ because it combines both the chocolate cake and cheesecake. It turned out great from the first attempt, moreover this cake is so delicious, smooth chocolate part shades nicely into the cheesy-one. The cake has amazing aroma of dark chocolate, sweet vanilla and sunny orange. I hope you will give it a try! 🙂

The duo cake

Servings: 8-10
Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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All ingredients should be at room temperature.

For the recipe I used 20cm square cake tin, but round tin is also can be used.

Ingredients

Cheesecake part

500g cream cheese (Philadelphia)

70g white sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

1 egg

50ml double cream (30%), optional

1 tsp vanilla exctract

zest of one orange

Chocolate part

160g flour

40g cacao powder (unsweetened)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp salt

100g brown sugar (or white sugar)

2 eggs

70g butter, melted

200g sour cream

Top
1-2 tbsp chopped dark chocolate (70-75% cacao)

orange zest

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar and cornflour, mix in egg until just combine, then fold in cream if using. Add vanilla and orange zest.
In another bowl, sift flour and cocoa powder, add salt, baking powder and soda.
In a bowl, beat eggs with brown sugar. Mix in melted butter and sour cream.
Pour egg mixture into flour, combine but don’t overmix.
Line 20cm square baking tin. Pour in chocolate mixture. Then pour cheesecake mixture onto the top of chocolate one. Sprinckle with chopped chocolate and orange zest.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 45-50 minutes.
Let the cake cool complitely, then cut into squres.
I served mine with cranberries, their sourness suits well with the cake.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Godiva.com

Wheel bread with herbs

August 17, 2015
milkandbun
32 comments
baking, bread, cooking, DIY, easy bread, food, food photo, food photography, food styling, herb bread, homemade bread, midweek meal, photo, recipe, sun-dried tomatoes bread, wheel bread

I believe almost everyone loves freshly-baked bread. I bet you can easily imagine its irresistible aroma right now in the air.. 😉 If you have ever tried to make your own bread, you may know that it’s a complex and work-intensive process, especially if you’re making a starter for the dough. The fermentation takes up to 4 days, and you need to keep an eye on the starter and feed it almost like a baby. So, not everybody has a patience or simply time to make it, and for those mankind created yeast! Using yeast makes our lives easier (at least for me); such dough doesn’t take all that much time, and you only need a few ingredients to make a simple bread. And definitely homemade bread is tastier that a store-bought one.

It wasn’t complicated at all to make this beautiful wheel bread. Actually, it reminds me more a pie without a filling, but I absolutely love its texture (because of corn flour) and awesome herb-y smell!

I recommend consuming it the same day it’s made.

Ingredients for 6-8 Servings

Dough:

8-9g instant yeast

2 tsp white sugar

200g corn flour

300g plain flour

1 tsp salt

320ml warm water

Filling:

3 clove garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

5-6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

salt, freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

In a cup, put yeast and sugar, add some warm water, stir, cover and keep for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, sift flours, add salt. Then stir in the yeast. Slowly add all warm water and knead the dough. Place the dough on a table and knead it, then put back into bowl, cover with plascti wrap or towel and leave to rise for 40-60 minutes.
For the fiiling, in a small bowl combine all ingredients.
On a lightly floured surface kneed the dough lightly. Roll out into 5-6mm thick circle, cut into 5-6cm width strips. Spread the fiiling on the dough. Then arrange all strips into ‘a rose’ (on a lined baking sheet), starting from the smallest strip, continue rolling other strips around it.
Bake in preheated oven 190C for 25-30 minutes.
Allow it to cool slightly on a wire cooling rack. Serve with a glass of milk or cup of tea.

Enjoy!

Adapted from here

Eggplant wedges

Hey everyone! I came back from the holidays recently and slowly getting into blogging again. In my previous posts I shared with you some recipes using white and red currants, and you may think that I have had only berries during the summer time in Russia.. Yes I did! This summer has been bountiful: lots of amazing produce, including various berries – gooseberries, strawberries and currants, as well as vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants.

I’m so glad that I was able to enjoy amazing veggies and greens form my parents’ garden. We cooked many dishes using these vegetables, including zucchini oladushki (fritters), sauteed veggies, salads, and so on. Finally we get tired of cooking eggplants and zucchini the same way. Moreover, I missed Dubai with its seductive aromas and herbs, rich and spice flavours in the air.. Fortunately, I brought my favourite spice – zaatar, and the decision was found: to make eggplant wedges with a Middle Eastern note! It was an easy and quick way to prepare eggplants. I drizzled it with aromatic olive oil, sweet molasses and of course zaatar, then served with a slice of country-style bread, yogurt and sliced fresh tomatoes!

Eggplant wedges

Servings: 3-4
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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You can substitute pomegranate molasses with balsamic vinegar or any other pomegranate sauce.

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

3 tsp zaatar mix spice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

pomegranate seeds

100g plain yogurt or sour cream for serving, optional

salt, pepper to taste

Preparation method

Cut washed eggplants into 8-10 wedges. Sprinkle with some salt and leave for 20-30 minutes. Place under running water to wash off the salt. Arrange wedges onto lined baking tray.
In a small bowl, combine olive oil, molasses and zaatar. Brush eggplant wedges with this mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake in preheated 180C for 25 minutes. Then increase the temperature to 200C and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until eggplants wedges are soft and nicely browned.
Arrange eggplant wedges onto a serving plate, sprinkle with sesame and pomegranate seeds.
Serve with yogurt on side, or pour it over warm wedges.

Enjoy!