Monthly Archives: December 2015

Holiday Panna Cotta

Cold days, beautiful pine and spruce trees with toys, lots of gingerbread cookies, smell of mandarins and cinnamon.. How does your holiday look and smell?

Today recipe is a well-known dessert among foodies – panna cotta. Many of you already cooked it or tried in a restaurant, but I’d like to show you the festive presentation, how you can serve the gorgeous-looking dessert to your family and guests during the winter holidays.

Everything in this dessert says ‘winter’: delicate and tender snowflakes (recipe coming soon), smooth and creamy panna cotta that looks almost like a real snow-blanket, rosemary “pine needles”, and of course aromatic mandarin -segments. Another great thing about this dessert is that it looks like you really fussed over it. Shhhh… 😉

You can make panna cotta a day or two ahead, and you will need only to saute mandarin segments and garnish the dessert. But don’t forget to cool mandarins, otherwise panna cotta will melt.

Holiday Panna Cotta

Servings: 4
Time: 4hr+
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Panna Cotta

200ml double cream

300ml full-fat milk

45-50g white sugar

1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

2 tsp powdered gelatin

40ml cold water

Garnish

1-2 tbsp demerara or brown sugar

2 small mandarins

few rosemary needles

2 tsp mandarin zest, optional

1 tbsp orange liquor (or brandy), optional

1 mandarin shortbread cookie per cup (recipe is coming)

Preparation method

In a pan, pour cream with milk, add vanilla and sugar, heat (but don’t boil) until sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and let the mixture infuse with vanilla flavour for 20-30 minutes. Then take out the bean, and rewarm the mixture.
In a small cup, add cold water and sprinkle gelatin over it.
Take the pan from the heat, add gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
Pour the panna cotta mixture into 4 cups, put cups in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
For the garnish, in a frying pan add sugar, mandarin segments, zest and rosemary, and saute for 3-5 minutes on a medium-high heat. Add liquor, if using, and saute for few minutes more. Leave to cool.
Garnish each cup with few mandarin segments and one cookie.

Happy Holidays!

Vinegret

Merry Christmas to you dear reader, to all amazing foodbloggers and friends, to all lovely people who is celebrating this bright and warm holiday!

I’m sharing with you this wintery salad, that’s very popular and loved among Russians. It’s a vegetable salad, that usually served cold as a starter (before the main course) or lots of people would like to have a huge bowl of this salad any time during the day.

Similar salads were known already in 19th century, which were made from boiled vegetables and dressed with oil and vinegar. The name ‘vinegret’ came from French word “vinaigre” – vinegar. The legend says that during the reign of Russian tsar Alexander I, French chef Antoine Careme was working for the Russian court and once he saw how Russian cooks prepared a vegetable salad and dressed it with something similar to vinegar. He wanted to know what was the dressing and asked ‘Vinaigre?’. As for cooks, they thought the chef named the salad itself.. Since then the salad became known as ‘vinegret’.

The salad is very simple itself and easy to prepare, it consists of few main and irreplaceable ingredients: beetroot, potato and carrot. Plus some points below and you can make it too:

-you can either boil beets and potatoes or bake it (in their skins);

-green canned peas are added most of the time, but you can skip it;

-not the least ingredient – pickled cucumbers or cabbage, you can use one of it or both;

-chopped fresh onion can be omit or replace with spring onions;

-some chopped fresh dill make the salad only better;

-dress it simply with aromatic sunflower oil (or olive oil), some vinegar is optional.

All vegetables should be cut into small cubes (0.5-1cm). And the quantity is next: 1 part beets+1 part potatoes+1/2 part carrot+1 part pickled cucumbers or cabbage (I prefer and recommend 2 parts)+1/2 part peas+1/3 part onions.

Moreover, today is a big day for Fiesta Friday party! It’s #100! I absolutely love it and enjoy it every time, so many recipes and lovely bloggers, fun and chat! Let’s party!!!

Vinegret

Servings: 4-6
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: easy
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*Cucumbers shouldn’t be too sour or too sweet.

**Try to buy Russian pickled cabbage (it should be crunchy!).

***I used small can 200g, drained weight 140g.

Ingredients

1 medium beetroot (300g)

300g potatoes

1 medium carrot

6 small or 2 medium pickled cucumbers*

200g Russian pickled cabbage**

1 small can of green peas***

small bunch of fresh dill, chopped

extra virgin olive oil, for dressing

salt and black pepper, to taste

Preparation method

In a large pan, add cold water, put beetroot, potatoes and carrot (don’t peel them). Bring water to boil, reduce heat to low-medium, cover with a lid and simmer for 1 hour or until veggies are soft and ready. Drain, leave to cool completely. Peel veggies and cut into small cubes.
Cut cucumbers into small cubes.
In a large serving bowl, mix all vegetables with peas and dilll. Season with salt and pepper, dress with oil, stir to combine and serve.

Serve vinegret with sliced rye bread. Enjoy!

Sunny pie

Today is the winter solstice, it is an astronomical event that occurs twice a year (summer and winter solstice). Winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. During the paganism time in old Russia this day was a special celebration, which was called Yule night. It was a festive and holy day for the honour of greeting the baby-sun named Kolyada, that was born on this night, which slowly but steady began to be stronger and brighter. That means that with each upcoming day nights became shorter, days longer and sun shone brightly and warmly. In the night people had to get together (there was a superstition that to stay alone in this night was unluckily), they set a big festive fire, sang songs and burnt all old and useless stuff; people also prepared chickens and turkey, baked round pies and praised the Sun.

As you can see, I’ve tried to make a sun-looking pie. Rich and sweet pastry holds lemon-scented milky filling and all covered with lightly soured apricot puree. In a word, I liked this bright and tasty pie! It reminds me another pie that I made – ‘cottage cheese and cranberry pie’, so if you liked that one – give a chance to this sunny pie as well. 🙂

Lemon-tvorog pie with apricot top

Servings: 6-8
Time: 4hr
Difficulty: moderate
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I used 20cm loose-bottom baking pan.

*Tvorog is Russian cottage cheese, you can find it in many European or Russian stores.

Lemon-tvorog pie

Ingredients

sweet lemon pastry

400g tvorog*

100g butter, at room temperature

zest of 1 medium lemon

3-4 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 medium eggs

30g (3 tbsp) brown sugar

30g (3 tbsp) white sugar

60g golden raisins

hot black tea or water, to cover the raisins

2 tsp cornmeal

apricot top

Preparation method

While the pastry case is baking, prepare the filling.
In a small bowl, put raisins and cover with hot black tea or water. You can also add a tablespoon of cognac or brandy for extra flavour. Leave to soak while making the diary filling.
In a large bowl, whisk tvorog with butter until just combined. In another bowl beat eggs with sugars.
Add lemon zest and juice, vanilla and beaten eggs to the tvorog mixture, beat until just combined.
Drain raisins and mix into the filling along with cornflour.
Pour the filling into the pastry case. Pour the apricot puree over the tvorog filling.
Bake in preheated 190C oven for 45-50 minutes. If the top begins to burn – cover it with foil.
Let it cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then carefully transfer onto the serving plate. Enjoy!

P.S. The filling wasn’t smooth as you can see from the pics, if you like it -ok, if not- you may push tvorog through the sieve.

Sweet lemon pastry

170g butter, at room temperature

50g golden caster sugar

zest of 1 small lemon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg (40-45g), at room temperature

260g plain flour

Glaze: 1 small beaten egg yolk, optional

In a large bowl, whisk butter with sugar until just creamy. Add lemon zest, vanilla and egg and mix until just combined. Mix in flour. Cover the pastry with plastic wrap and chill overnight or up to 3 days until ready to use.
Roll out 3mm-thick (or as thick as you like) circle to cover your baking pan. You can also make ‘sun rays’ and stick them to the base and sides of the pan, but it’s optional step. If you have any pastry remains, roll out it and cut out cookies, then bake it on a baking tray for 10-12 minutes.
Put the pan with pastry into the freezer for 10 minutes.
Cover the pastry case with foil, add beans/rice/special stones for baking and bake in preheated 190C oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the weight, brush with the glaze (optional) and return to the oven for 5 minutes more.

Apricot Top (optional)

5 small sliced apricots (150g) (or sub with apricot jam)

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cornflour

20-30g (3 tbsp) golden caster sugar

Beat all ingredients with electric blender into a smooth puree. The apricot top was slightly sour, if you like sweeter -add more sugar.

Enjoy!

Sharing with wonderful and full of fun Fiesta Friday party!

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Hi there! It’s been windy, dark and gloomy all day here in Dubai today. The weather intends to spend a day in the kitchen and bake something warm, aromatic and tasty. And I found a deliciously satisfying dish to cheer this day up! Sweet-smelling baked apples with super tasty filling: walnuts and cowberries! Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? The cozy smell of cinnamon and brown sugar was filling my kitchen while apples were baked.. It’s so easy to turn regular apples into a fabulous warm dessert! Enjoy!

Cowberry (also known as lingonberry) is a very tasty, slightly bitter and sour berry; it contains lots of vitamin C, A and B. It’s a popular type of berry in my home-country (Russia), and as far as I know in Sweden and Norway. Their taste remind small sour cranberries, so you can easily substitute it with cranberries (fresh or frozen).

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Servings: 2
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: moderate
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*You can add more sugar to suit your taste.

**I dry-roast walnuts, then chop it or pulse in a food processor.

Ingredients

2 large apples (sort ‘pink lady’ or ‘granny smith’ are good)

20g/2 tsp butter

3 tsp brown sugar*

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 quail egg, optional

5-6 tsp finely chopped walnuts**

3-4 tsp cowberries (if using frozen-no need to defreeze)

1/2 tsp of cinnamon, for garnish

2-3 tsp pure runny honey, for serving

some extra walnuts and cowberries, for serving

Cut the lid from apples, carefully cut out the core and make a hole in each apple leaving the bottom.
In a bowl, stir sugar and cinnamon with butter. Mix in the egg. Fold in chopped walnuts and berries.
Put apples in baking dish/tray and stuff each apple with filling mixture. Cover with apple lids. Pour some warm water into the bottom of the baking dish (1 cm). Loosely cover with foil.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until apples are tender but not mushy.
Carefully transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with cinnamon, drizzle with honey and garnish with some walnuts and cowberries, if desired.
Enjoy!

Herb-marinated salmon

I love cooking and eating salmon. Roasting salmon is my favourite way to prepare it. Usually I sprinkle it with some sea salt and freshly ground pepper, plus a pinch of dried rosemary or thyme – and salmon goes into the oven. Then a super healthy&tasty dish is ready in short time. A couple of weeks back I bought fresh salmon steaks and decided to roast it again, but that time I prepared a marinade and left it for a half an hour or so to soak up all of the amazing flavours before roasting. I chopped fresh coriander, parsley and mixed it with mustard, and some ground green pepper. Now you can imagine all those wonderful flavours! 🙂 What to say, salmon turned out gorgeous and unbelievably tasty! On the weekend I repeated the recipe but grilled it on a barbecue. It was superb again! Next weekend you will try it, right? 😉

What about you, dear readers? how do you cook salmon? and what spices and herbs are you usually using?

UAE is celebrating today its 44th National Day! Happy Birthday to the country, which has become my second home.

Herb-marinated salmon steaks

Servings: 2
Time: 1 hr
Difficulty: easy
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*You can substitute green peppercorns with white.

Ingredients

2 salmon steaks

Marinade

4 tbsp finely chopped parsley

4 tbsp finely chopped coriander

1 garlic clove, minced or chopped (optional)

2 tsp Dijon mustard (you can also use wholegrain mustard)

1/2 medium lime, juice

1/2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1-1.5 tsp coarse sea salt (or more to taste)

2 tsp whole green peppercorns*

Extra

1 large sliced red capsicum

2 small sliced parboiled potatoes

2 gralic cloves in their skin, optional

Preparation

For the marinade, crush sea salt and green peppercorns. In a bowl combine all ingredients for the marinade.
Put salmon steaks in a shallow plate, pour over marinade and leave to marinade for 30 minutes at room temperature, turning once. You can keep the fish in marinade for longer, but cover the plate with plastic wrap or foil and put in the fridge until ready to roast.
Preheat oven to 190-200C.
Arrange salmon steaks in a baking dish, add sliced capsicum, potatoes and garlic. Roast for 20-25 minutes.

Serve warm. Enjoy!