And again easy and tasty

   Hi! I’m here again. Busy days, beach and sun. And diet or a sort of that. Was cooking in steamer – chicken, some veggies, have made pasta with mushrooms and cheesy sauce – nothing special. And the salad with fresh and thinly sliced cabbage, carrots and raw beetroot. Guess how do we call such salad in Russia? (answer will be in next post).

   Almost forgot to say – I’ve baked 2 chocolate cakes!! Yahoo! Hope I’ll make them once again and take not only phone’s pics. You can follow me on twitter – twitter.com/milkandbun  and find some others pics there 🙂

 And for a while greet the salad with figs and rucola leaves!
 Rucola has so many names… aragula/arugula, rugula, rocket… 
 
  So take a plate and washed arugula leaves.
Sprinkle arugula with mix of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, 1-2 tsp dejon mustard.
  Cut figs, radishes and put them over arugula leaves. Add feta cheese, pine nuts and pancetta (it’s Italian bacon and I adore it! It isn’t necessary but of course more tasty). You can substitute it with bacon cutted into pieces. 
Enjoy! 🙂

Red cabbage salad

If you are looking for vegetables that are high in vitamin C and carotene include dishes with red cabbage in your diet.
It’s easy to stay fit with it!
Light salad with red cabbage.
250-300 g red cabbage,  thinly shredded
1/2-1 carrot,  thinly shredded
1 apples or/and 1 cucumber, chopped
olive oil and 1-2 tsps lemon juice for dressing 
salt, pepper
Mix all ingredients together, add dressing and stay aside for 20 mins.
The anti-oxidant salad is ready!

Mascarpone dessert

  Summer is the time for berries! Choose any berries you like- raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and layer with creamy topping and the easiest dessert is done!

  So we need some berries fresh or frozen. Combine them with icing or fine sugar and zest of lemon, it helps to release their  juices, add a bit of wine or liqueur  for taste. Let stand for 20-30min. Don’t be upset a lot if you have no berries or may be it’s winter now and berries are quite expensive, use jam! 🙂
  In a bowl with whisk or an electric mixer beat together mascarpone, yogurt and honey until mixture holds stiff peaks. You’ll get velvety, delicately sweet mascarpone mixture!
  I’m not adding heavy cream/whipped cream to mascarpone – I put yogurt. In my opinion mascarpone cheese itself is so buttery-rich, thick and there is no need to add more heavy cream. But “Every man to his taste”.
And you can add sugar and vanilla instead of honey.
Take glasses and layer the berries with the whipped mascarpone. Garnish with almond/amaretto cookies.
Enjoy!
100-120gr (1/2 cup) mascarpone cheese (or any cream cheese)
80g (1/3 cup) plain yogurt/heavy cream/whipped cream
1-2 teaspoon honey (or sugar+vanilla)
3 cups assorted berries or jam
1 tbsp fine sugar
1-2 tsps zest of lemon
3-4 tbsps wine or liqueur
cookies

Homemade Fresh Ricotta

Very useful recipe for home-made Ricotta!  The only thing I need is to find a time to cook it.

Ingredients:

4 cups (960 ml) whole milk
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
3/4 (180ml) cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a 2 quart saucepan. Slowly bring to a boil over medium to medium-high heat, until curds begin to form 88-93 degrees C (190 to 200 degrees F.)

2. Remove from heat and pour into a cheesecloth-lined fine mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Let drain for 15 minutes. Gather cloth around the ricotta and gently squeeze out a little more liquid. Don’t squeeze it dry or you’ll end up with dry ricotta… leave some moisture in there.

3. Place fresh ricotta in airtight container & refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Recipe for Fresh Ricotta | RecipeGirl.com

As I have no idea where to get buttermilk and what really is it so I’ve found a recipe from net. I believe it can be helpful for someone else.

Ingredients:

Heavy cream

Preparation:

1. Fill a jar halfway with heavy cream. Then, screw the lid on firmly (a canning jar works well for this purpose).

2. Start shaking the jar back and forth. After several minutes, the cream will thicken and turn into whipped cream. Keep shaking until the whipped cream is replaced with a yellow glob (butter) and a separate liquid (buttermilk).

3. Pour the buttermilk out of the jar, and use it in any recipe that calls for buttermilk.

To Use the Butter: Knead it under cold water for a couple minutes to remove any remaining buttermilk (it will spoil very quickly, if you don’t). Then, salt (if desired), and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it.

Stewed buckwheat with pumpkin and beef

Have you ever tried buckwheat porridge? Or have ever heard about this wonderful product?

If you decided to try it 1st time, in my view, cook it in meat broth in the stove/oven and be sure it’ll be the love at first sight!

Usually buckwheat I’m using as garnish to the stewed meat, sausages etc.

Ingredients (for 2 big portions):

500 gr beef small/medium cubes

200 gr buckwheat

100-150 gr pumpkin, diced into cubes

1 piece of onion

2 bay leaves

salt, pepper

some oil-for frying

Method:

In a saucepan fry the beef  about 3-5min, add chopped onion and fry more 5min. Or optionally combine the meat with fav spices, stir and set aside for 30min.

Put the meat+onion into a casserole pan or individual pots, pour in water to cover and  place in the preheated oven for 1-1.5 hour -200 C (you have an hour of free time!)

Add the pumpkin and place again in the oven for 20min.

Washed and dried buckwheat put in the pan/pot, add some more warm water and cook 15min.

Serve with spring onions and parsley.

Bon Appétit!
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