Baking

Best Ever Plum Crumble

I discovered crumbles not long time ago, but immediately fall in love. Thank to the British for this amazing, simple and absolutely delicious dish! I’ve already tried various sweet crumble recipes – with peaches, mixed berried, pears.. I love them all! But.. Once I stumbled upon a new crumble recipe by James Martin, he is a well-known English chef; the recipe called for plums, spices and wine. And what do you think – it’s the best crumble I’ve ever made and tried! Plums with spices sautéed in red wine remind me mulled wine, and it’s incredibly tasty! This crumble is very aromatic and delicious even without ice cream on top! I slightly adapted the recipe – added oats and chopped nuts, walnuts and/or pistachios is a nice crunchy addition here.

Best ever plum crumble

Servings: 2
Time: 40mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

20g butter

7-8 dark plums, halved, stones removed

1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract

1 star anise

a pinch of fresh nutmeg

1 cinnamon stick

20ml water

60ml red wine

2-3 tbsp golden syrup (I used honey)

2-3 tbsp brown or raw sugar

Crumble topping

50g plain flour

30g oat flour or fine oats

2 tbsp demerara sugar

40g butter, softened

2-3 tbsp chopped pistachios or walnuts

To serve

vanilla ice cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200C.
Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the plums and fry for a few minutes.
Add the split vanilla pod, star anise, nutmeg and cinnamon stick to the pan. Add the water, red wine, honey and sugar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5-6 minutes, until the plums break down to a thick sauce. Transfer plums with sauce to one or 2 individual baking dish.
For the crumble topping, mix the flours and sugar together in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in chopped nuts.
Sprinkle the crumble over the plums and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden-brown.
Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving with ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Pear&Blackberry Tart

Last weekend I wanted to make a cake, I was dreaming about a huge layered cake with delicious and sweet cream, topped with chocolate or strawberries, or blackberries.. At the end of the day I realized that I can’t decide which one to make and I don’t have all required ingredients. 😀 But I have always been a person that needs something sweet after dinner. I wanted a dessert to satisfy my sweet tooth, and better with cream! So I’ve come up with this beautiful and absolutely delicious ‘pear and blackberry tart’. Honestly speaking, I haven’t made this recipe a dozen or even a couple of times, it was perfect from the first attempt! Nutty shortbread base, tender whipped ricotta cream, pear slices and blackberries – all those things merged together into divine combination. I believe that you would find this dessert to be as delicious as it looks! You just need to go to the kitchen, cook it and enjoy! 🙂 I will make it again for sure!

Pear and Blackberry Tart

Servings: 4-6
Time: 1hr 20mins
Difficulty: moderate
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You can use any favourite fruits and berries, like strawberry&blueberry, raspberry&nectarines.

Ingredients

Short pastry (base)

1 large egg, at room temperature

100g plain flour

75g butter, cubed and softened

35g fine sugar

30g ground almonds

Topping

100ml whipping cream (30-35%), cold

1+1 Tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp cognac or brandy, optional

100-120g ricotta

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon zest

1 large pear, sliced

1 Tbsp lemon juice

8-10 blackberries

2-3 strawberries, sliced, optional

1 Tbsp white chocolate chips

Whisk the egg and set aside a half (a bit less then half) for a glaze.
To make the dough, in a large mixing bowl or food processor, mix flour, butter, sugar, half the egg and almonds until combined. Tip dough out onto a floured surface and bring together with hands. Make a flat disk, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30-40 minutes in a fridge.
On a lightly floured table roll the dough into 21-22cm circle. Brush with remaining egg. Transfer to a paper-lined baking dish.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, in a bowl beat cream with 1 Tbsp icing sugar and cognac, if using, until soft peak begin to form. In another bowl, combine ricotta, vanilla, lemon zest and sugar. Add ricotta mixture into whipped cream and whip until smooth for a 1-2 minutes.
Spread cream on the base. Sprinkle pear slices with lemon juice. Arrange pear slices, blackberries and strawberries, if using, on the cream, and sprinkle over chocolate chips. Dust with extra icing sugar, if desired. Enjoy!

Russian red blini (pancakes)

For many people St.Valentine Day is red roses, dinner in a restaurant, chocolate desserts and other heart-shape stuff. Does it seems boring only for me? I think, the best way to diversify this ‘red’ day is by trying something new, like eat non-chocolate dessert, or if you always go out this day stay in to cook a decadent dinner for two. Unleash your creativity! It can be flavorsome salmon steaks or roast quails, you can experiment with sauces.. A small change can have a huge effect! 😉

A perfect St.Valentine Day can be started by serving a late breakfast that will get both of you in the loving mood. Ready to leave an impression? Prepare these amazing Russian red blini (pancakes)! Beets give pancakes stunning color and delicate sweetness. They are the perfect way to treat those you love!

Next week, starts from Monday, will be one of the brightest and entertaining of Russian holidays – Maslenitsa, or also knows as Butterweek or Pancake Week. It’s celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. It’s the festival with lots of fun, dance, songs and of course huge amount of blini, which is constantly cooked throughout the week. I’ll be posting more about Maslenitsa next week.

#5 Red blini

Russian red blini

Servings: 3-4
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Ingredients

130-150g beet, cooked

200-230ml milk, full fat

200ml sparkling mineral water

2 eggs, medium size

a good pinch of salt

2 tsp white sugar, optional

2 tbsp sunflower oil

150-170g plain flour

some oil for frying, if needed

sour cream for garnish, if desired

Puree cooked beet with hand blender or in a food processor until smooth. Add milk, water and stir.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with salt and sugar. Add it to the batter along with oil; stir.
Sift flour and add it to the batter. Stir to combine.
Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the frying pan and fry thin pancakes as usual. You can make any diameter you like.
Serve warm with sour cream or other garnish.

Sweet garnish: sour cream with honey and chopped pear; sweet cottage cheese; mix berries with sweeten condensed milk.

Savory garnish: cured salmon slices; cheese with herbs; ham.

Enjoy!

I’m bringing these lovely and tasty Russian blini to the Angie‘s Fiesta Friday party, co-hosts Suzanne and Sue and to all beautiful ladies! Hope you all have a wonderful St.Valentine day!

Tvorognaya zapekanka

Tvorognaya zapekanka literally means a cottage cheese bake. This is a very special treat for me. It reminds my childhood and good time when I was going to the kinder-garden. Some of my friends do not share the same nice memories about the food in a kinder-garden, and even few of them hate any cottage cheese bakes (and not only bakes) and don’t want to believe that it can be so tasty! Thank God, I was luckier and remember not only huge onion chunks in a beef stew 😀 but also good meals, like this sweet cottage cheese bake and delicious plum jam.

Speaking about tvorog (that’s how we called cottage cheese or farmer cheese in Russia, and it can be both smooth and chunky), I do like it and consume regularly: either as is or adding it to the apple pies and cabbage bakes. So, I’ve tried hundred times to make a bake somewhat childish, and every time it was too liquid or too sweet.. Finally, here it is! The bake is perfect! The only notice, maybe next time I will use a smaller baking dish to make the cottage cheese bake higher.

Russian sweet cottage cheese bake

Servings: 3-4
Time: <1hr
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If you’ve got a chunky and dry cottage cheese – push it through a sieve or stir with electric blender into a smooth mixture.

Ingredients

450-500g cottage cheese

40g butter, melted

2 medium eggs

3 tbsp white caster sugar

2 tbsp semolina (I used coarse, but fine is ok, too)

2-3 tbsp milk, warm

3 tbsp sour cream

a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract or any other vanilla

50g raisins/currants

Glaze (optional)

1 egg yolk

1tsp icing sugar

Garnish

sour cream or sweet condensed milk

icing sugar, if desired

Method

In a small cup, soak semolina in warm milk for 5 minutes. Add sour cream and mix well.
In a other small cup, soak raisins in hot black tea or water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
In a bowl, beat eggs with sugar and salt until pale and creamy, allow sugar to dissolve.
In a large bowl, smooth cottage cheese with a folk or electric blender, add butter and mix. Add beaten eggs and vanilla, mix to combine. Add semolina and raisins, and combine.
Grease the baking dish with some butter or oil, pour the mixture in and bake in preheated 200C oven for 25 minutes. At this step check the color of your bake: if its top is still pale, brush the bake with glaze and put the dish back into the oven for 15 minutes or until golden-brown; if top is already golden-brown, omit the glaze and bake for 10-15 minutes more.
Cut the cottage cheese bake into slices. Serve warm or cold with a dollop of sour cream, if desired. It’s also tasty to pour over some sweet condensed milk (instead of sour cream).

Enjoy!

Fish souffle

What do you imagine when hear a word ‘souffle’? An airy and sweet apple souffle or may be a fluffy and cheesy one?

The word soufflé comes form French verb souffler, that means ‘puff up’ or ‘to blow up’. The base of any souffle is beaten egg whites, which provide the lift: a souffle puffs up in the oven.

What about a fish souffle? 🙂

This tender and light dish is a perfect meal for weight watchers and health enthusiasts! Protein food is an important part of any well-balanced diet, it’s also good for growth and development in children and pregnant women; thus why don’t you make fish souffle to vary your diet. Some children refuse to eat fish and fish souffle is a great meal to feed a peevish child. It’s may be not a gourmet dish but it’s certainly light and tasty. Moreover, it’s one the most easy ways to prepare fish, if you don’t want to hang around the kitchen for hours.

Fish soufflé. Russian recipe.

Servings: 2
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can add 1-2 tsp chopped fresh dill or some grated cheese to the fish mixture before baking.

You could also make this recipe with some leftover cooked fish.

Serve with boiled/roasted potatoes or/and green salad.

Ingredients

300g white fish fillet

1 slice white bread

1 tbsp milk, warm (full fat milk or cream)

1 tsp butter, soft

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites

salt, pepper to taste

butter, bread crumbs, for greasing

1-2 tbsp grated cheese, optional

sour cream, chopped dill, for garnish

Method

In a small bowl, add bread and warm milk, soak for 2-3 minutes.
Check that no bones remain in fish. Cut fish fillet into small cubes, mince in a blender until very fine pieces. Add bread, butter and egg yolks, season to taste, bit the mixture to combine.
In a big bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until firm peaks.
Carefully fold 1/2 egg whites into the fish mixture. Add the rest egg whites and fold in.
Grease two baking tins with butter, sprinkle with bread crumbs. Divide the fish mixture between tins. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and puffed.
Sprinkle with dill, serve immediately with sour cream and your choice of side dish.

Enjoy!