Tag Archives: Blogging

Gingerbread cookies

Holiday Greetings! Merry Christmas! May this amazing and magical time of the year will be filled with joy and happiness, and sparkle with moments of love and laughter!

Winter holidays are about spending time with your family, loved ones and close friends. In this lovely season you may find lots of little things to do, simple things which make you truly happy. I love watching ‘winter’ movies, while eating mandarins or some traditional festive salads, or what a pleasure to wrap up in a cozy blanket and sip hot cinnamon tea, reread favourite book and of course baking! This year I haven’t had time as much as I wanted to spend over baking, but I’d like to share with you my recipe of gingerbread cookies. What a winter without cookies, right? And I can’t wait when my little pie will grow up and we will be making festive cookies together!

Gingerbread cookies

Ingredients

100g butter

100g brown or raw sugar, or mix

1 large egg

4 tbsp/50g molasses

200g or more plain flour

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

mixture of ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves

Barley and Vegetables salad

September 17, 2016
milkandbun
7 comments
barley salad, Blogging, cooking, delicious, food, food photo, food photography, healthy cooking, healthy recipe, midweek meal, My Life, pearl barley salad, recipe, salad

Hello, lovely readers. I miss blogging, baking cakes whenever I want.. Honestly, I have no idea how some new-mums manage to post often. May be their husbands or sisters cook, take photos and then write posts. 😀 Even if you don’t know what mom has been up to all day, just believe me she is often so busy! There are endless tasks – feeding, playing, caring, plus laundry, cooking.. Motherhood turned out wonderful, emotional, sometimes crazy and difficult; so I still need to organize this new life somehow..

I have always wanted to prepare those colorful and beautifully arranged on a plate salads, that I’ve seen million times on the Internet, but never get a chance to do. Finally, few months back I made it (haha, exactly months, not even weeks). This delicious salad is super healthy and extremely easy to prepare plus it can be made ahead and then reheated, if you wish. I prefer it’s served warm over chilled.

Barley and Vegetables salad

Difficulty: super easy
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Ingredients

pearl barley, cooked

roasted red and yellow pepper

roasted eggplant

cherry tomatoes, sliced

feta

olives, optional

sliced red onion, fresh or pickled

fresh chopped parsley

pine and pistachio nuts, chopped, optional

Dressing

lime or lemon juice

EV olive oil (or your fav veg oil)

salt, pepper to taste

Method

Arrange barley and all other ingredients on a large serving plate.
In a small jar combine dressing ingredients, shake well and pour over salad.

Enjoy!

Russian roll with Argentinian pears

Everything is simple here. A few days ago, Argentinian pears were sold in a supermarket here, I’ve never tried them before and the price was attractive, so I bought a huge pack. Even though they turned out juicy and very delicious I still had some not-so-ripe left. Good to highlight, that using a bit hard but ripe pears that retain its shape during the baking process is a key to the good and not mushy filling.

I added tvorog (as I mentioned many times in my blog – it’s very Russian product) into the dough for my roll, it makes the dough softer and more tasty. Don’t worry, the dough won’t rip but make sure you carefully roll it out on a floured surface.

The roll looks like a strudel, but the dough is absolutely different, it’s not that thin and thus much easier to roll out! It is tender&delicious and absolutely deserves to make it again and again. Another bonus, the dough can be make a day ahead! Plus juicy pears, sweet black raisins and crunchy nuts in the filling! Doesn’t it sound luscious? It is! 😀

Russian roll with Argentinian pears

Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

Dough

250g tvorog

90g soft butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1 tbsp white sugar

200-210g plain flour

a pinch of fine salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Filling

40g black raisins

hot strong black tea or water

1 egg white, optional

80-100g roasted almonds, chopped

450g (3-4) pears, cut into small cubes

2 tbsp brown or raw sugar

Glaze

1 egg yolk

2 tsp milk

1 tbsp demerara or raw sugar, optional

Method

For the roll dough, whisk tvorog with butter.
In another small bowl, whisk egg with sugar until pale. Add beaten egg into the mixture.
Sift the flour along with salt and baking powder into the dough. Combine to get the soft dough, shape into the disk. Cover in a plastic wrap and put in a fridge for 30-60 minutes to cool.
Preheat oven to 180C/360F.
Wash raisins and cover with hot strong black tea or water. Leave to soak while ready to use. Drain.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into 30x40cm rectangle, making sure it doesn’t stick to the surface.
Brush the surface of the roll with egg white (optional). Sprinkle with nuts, spread pears and raisins. Sprinkle with sugar. Slightly fold in all sides (thus the filling will stay inside the roll and don’t fall out). Roll the dough into a barrel.
Carefully transfer the roll on a greased lined baking tray. Brush the roll with egg glaze and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden-brown.
Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes. Slice and serve as is or with whipped cream/frozen vanilla yogurt/ice cream.

Enjoy!

Spiced cauliflower with peas

A year ago I visited “Taste of Dubai”. It was a large, full of fun and activities festival, dedicated to food, cooking and eating! It brought together restaurant and street food, music performances, cooking classes and live cooking demonstrations. You could order some nice food, relax and enjoy the music, another great way to spend the evening was to cook along with top chefs. Many world-famous and celebrity chefs were invited to the festival, and I could watch how they are preparing amazing and tasty food, and then taste it. Among many chefs was Dhruv Baker, he is known as a winner of MasterChef 2010, and I didn’t miss a chance to sign his cookbook ‘Spice’.

Honestly speaking, I’ve prepared only few recipes from his book so far. 😀 They were not spectacular as I expected: for example, “caponata” turned out as a regular eggplant stew, that I make often too – only without vinegar and olives. But I really liked this recipe made from fried cauliflower florets with peas, tomatoes and a mixture of spices. Mustard seeds, fresh ginger and cumin infuse the dish perfectly, while chilli adds a mild spiciness. The final addition of fresh coriander leaves on top and lime juice adds a beautiful touch. I served this simple but tasty cauliflower with roasted chicken.

I am curious about all new foodie things and lately, I have discovered on the Internet that the combination of cauliflower and peas is a common in Indian cuisine. I really liked this easy and healthy dish. Spices do wonders! 🙂

Spiced cauliflower with peas

Servings: 2
Time: 30min
Difficulty: very easy
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Adapted from “Spice” by Dhruv Baker.

Double the qauntity of cauliflower and peas to serve the dish as a main vegetarian course.

Ingredients

200-300g cauliflower

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

3 small round chilli

100g frozen peas

1 large tomato, finely chopped

2-3 tsp lime juice, optional

some fresh coriander leaves, chopped

salt, white pepper to taste

Method

Wash the cauliflower and cut into small florets.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat, add mustard seeds. As soon as the start to pop add all spices and stir for a minute.
Add cauliflower florets and stir to coat with spices. Cook on a medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes.
Add frozen peas and tomato, season to taste. Reduce heat to low-medium and cook for 20 minutes or until cauliflower is cooked.
Arrange on a serving plate, drizzle with lime juice if using and top with coriander.

Enjoy!

Fried cauliflower with peas, mustard seeds and round chilli

Mandarin-lemon pudding

There are so many recipes in this world, including pudding recipes: some are baked, another prepared with gelatin and then cooled in a fridge.. and then I’m feeling stuck and really don’t know which one to try. 🙂 I like easy-to-make recipes like this one – baked pudding. It has the amazing mandarin-lemon flavour and bright tasting. The pudding is good on its own, but I also prepared a simple citrus sauce, that I made for this peach pie, and it was absolutely delicious! 🙂

Any favourite pudding recipes, guys? I’d like to hear which one do you like and cook.

Baked mandarin-lemon pudding

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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For the citrus sauce recipe click here.

Ingredients

2 medium eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

a pinch of nutmeg, optional

50g white sugar

zest from 1 mandarin +1/2 lemon

100ml full-fat milk

50g plain flour

1 tsp melted butter, for greasing

Preparation

Beat eggs until pale and fluffy.
Add vanilla, nutmeg, sugar, zests and whisk for a few minutes.
Pour in milk.
Sift in flour, whisk to combine.
Grease tins with butter. Divide the batter between tins. Optionally sprinkle with citrus zest.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 18-20 minutes. Then reduce to 190C and bake for 7-10 minutes more.
Serve warm with sauce. Enjoy!