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Potato pizza-pie

 One day I decided to make a savory potato pie, but to use potato in the crust instead of filling. I imagined myself a good fluffy pie with a creamy filling of fried mushrooms, onions and something else. When I made and rolled out the dough, I realized that it looks more like a pizza not a pie. 😀 However, the potato crust suit nicely to all these colorful ingredients which I used, including some cooked fish leftovers. Grilled bell pepper and bright spring onion gave an extra kick to this pie. Honestly, I was surprised how good and delicious the pizza-pie turned out. 🙂
Potato pizza-pieI’m co-hosting FF#104 with lovely Hilda@alongthegrapevine (she is so creative and has lots of unusual recipes on her blog); so, I’m inviting everyone to join, we share many delicious food there, and you can chat with other foodbloggers and of course don’t forget to like and say “wow, yummy or just hi”! 😀 Read the guidelines here. Happy cooking! 🙂

Potato pizza-pie with fish, bell pepper and mushrooms

  • Servings: 4-5
  • Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

Crust

200g/2 medium potatoes
1 bay leaf
20g butter
1 medium egg
sea salt, to taste
2-3 Tbsp grated parmesan, optional
~150g plain flour
Filling
100-150g cooked fish fillet leftovers (I used sea bream)
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, optional
1 meduim red bell pepper, grilled or roasted, sliced
150g mushrooms
1 large red onion
a bunch of spring onion or chives, chopped
100ml double cream or 30-35% fat cream
Other
1 tbsp olive oil+1 tbsp butter, for frying
sea salt, freshly ground white pepper
Method
  1. Clean, peel potatoed, cut into fourths. Put in a pan along with some salt and bay leave, cover with water and boil until ready. Drain. Add butter, season with salt and mash potatoes. Stir in egg. Mix in parmesan, if using. Sift the flour into potato mixture, combine into a soft dough (add some more flour if the dough is too wet).
  2. Grease the baking paper (to suit your baking tray). Roll the dough out on this paper. Put in a freezer for 5-7 minutes (or in a fridge for 15 minutes).
  3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Slice mushrooms and onions, fry on a medium-high heat in a mixture of oil and butter (you can do it in a one large frying pan, but don’t mix it-put side by side and fry). Stir 1/3 of the cream into mushrooms, and season to taste. Set aside.
  4. Add some butter into the same pan and chopped spring onion (reserve some for garnish, optional), saute for 2 minutes on a low heat –  you only need to soften the onion.
  5. In a bowl, mix fish with the remaining cream, sautéed spring onion and nutmeg, season to taste.
  6. Sprinkle crust with breadcrumbs. Bake it without filling in a preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes.
  7. Spread onion, fish, mushrooms and pepper slices over the crust. Bake for 15-17 minutes more.
  8. Sprinkle with remaining spring onion (optional). Serve warm.
Enjoy!

I’m also sharing it with Saucy Saturdays, Foodie Friends Friday, Foodie Friday

Top 10 Recipes of 2015

 Cheers to the New Year! Let this Year be the one, where all our dreams come true and may it will be filled with lots of delightful surprises!
 Happy 2016 to you, dear reader! Hope you’ve met the new year in a good mood, with delicious food and among beloved family and friends!
 I want to represent my Top 10 Recipes  of the 2015 year, I’ve picked up my favourites that I truly love and enjoyed last year. Under the photos you can find the links to all recipes. What do you think? Which recipe does suit your the most?
 I would also love to hear what recipes you’d like to see and read in this year: may be more savoury dishes or from Russian cuisine. Thanks so much for reading and staying with me!
#1 Sharlotka
#4 Baked apple with cowberries
#7 Vegetable tian
#8 Carrot rolls
#2 Millet kasha
#5 Red blini
#9 Knyshy
#3 Braised rabbit
#6 Olive oil and rosemary crackers
#10 Arabian meatballs

Click on the links for the full recipe and post:

 

Oven fries and homemade potato seasoning

 Many of us like potato fries/chips, and I’m not an exception. 😀 Yes, I know that they are not healthy.. But if your diet is balanced and healthful most of the time, you can have one cheat day during a week or so. However, it’s certainly preferable to make your own homemade fries. And I mean roasted fries instead of those deep-fried and greasy. My secret to great and tasty fries is a special spice mix, that I prepare myself: for that you need to combine rosemary, turmeric, paprika and some other spices (look at the recipe below). This seasoning suits perfectly to both regular and sweet potatoes. Once tried, you might want to make a larger jar next time! 😉Oven roasted potato fries

 Enjoy your aromatic snack!

Oven fries and homemade potato seasoning

  • Difficulty: easy
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Oven roasted fries
Sweet or regular potatoes
Potato seasoning
Olive oil
  • Wash and peel potatoes. Cut them into slices (or wedges if you like), put in a large bowl of cold water. Soak for a 20-30 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
  • Drain potatoes and pat dry on a kitchen towels (or use kitchen paper).
  • Put potatoes on a baking tray, generously sprinkle with potato seasoning and drizzle with a bit of oil. Spread into one layer.
  • Bake for 30 minutes. If you have a broiler – broil it for 6-7 minutes more.
  • Enjoy as is, or with your favourite sauce or as a side dish to chicken or meat.
Potato Seasoning
2-3 tsp dried rosemary (whole or crushed)
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves, crushed
1.5 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp coriander, crushed
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/3-1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika
1/2-1 tsp curry, optional
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground coarse black and white pepper, to taste
Happy cooking!

Carrot rolls with orange marmalade


When the sun is shining almost every day, you’ve got an inexpressible feeling when it starts raining. You can breeze in fresh and cool air. All day has been gloomy, cool and windy. I made a huge mountain of these rolls early today. Then I wrapped up myself in a cozy blanket, filled a cup with my favorite Earl Grey tea, took few carrot rolls and sat outside to enjoy the sound of rain!Carrot rolls with orange marmalade These freshly baked rolls with orange taste and cinnamon-ginger aroma added a real autumn-note to my day. Carrot rolls

Carrot rolls with orange marmalade

  • Servings: for crowd
  • Difficulty: moderate
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You can make the dough one day ahead.
*The weight before grating.
**You can substitute orange marmalade with apricot or peach jam. 

Ingredients

300g plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp ginger powder
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 fine salt
150g washed, cleaned carrots*, finely grated
150g butter, cold
100g sour cream (20% fat)
2-3 Tbsp white sugar (you can add more to suit your taste)
Filling
orange marmalade (with orange peel)**
dry-roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Preparation method
  1. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and add spices. Cut butter into small cubes or grate it. Rub into the flour mixture until you get coarse crumbs. Mix in grated carrots.
  2. In another bowl whisk sour cream with sugar, fold into batter. You should get a soft dough. You may add a bit more flour if needed.
  3. Divide the dough into 2 parts and shape disks, cover each with a plastic wrap and put into the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.
  4. Take one part of the dough from the fridge and roll it into a 2mm-thick circle. Cut into triangles; the size is up to you.  Spread 1-2 teaspoons of orange marmalade on each triangle, add a teaspoon of hazelnuts and roll into croissant shape. Repeat with the second part of the dough.
  5. Arrange rolls on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle with more hazelnuts, if desired. Bake in preheated 190C oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden-brown.
  6. Serve warm or cooled.
Enjoy!
Carrot rolls with marmalade and hazelnuts

Sunday Breakfast: Savory bread pudding

  During the week I’m trying not to buy an extra loaf of bread, if I still have some leftover. But when I see a freshly-baked croissants it’s so hard to resist.. And the poor leftover bread is lying and waiting to be used somehow. Though I use leftover bread and make breadcrumbs with herbs or croûtons for a soup-puree, but sometimes I simply do not need it. Several years back when I started being interested in various cuisines and tried to cook different recipes, I stumbled upon one English recipe – ‘bread pudding’. I was surprised how simple this dish is, and lately – how trendy it can be. It dates back to the early 11th century England and was a popular dish among poor classes, because leftover bread was used for this frugal meal. We have similar dish in Russian cuisine, which is called ‘grenki’ (fried bread); for that we just dip white bread slices into a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar, and then fried it. But what I like the most in English version, that I can bake it and even make it a night ahead. Plus there are endless possibilities for bread pudding: I can add soaked raisins, fresh peaches or any other available berries, vary the type of bread and even make it savory! And that’s what I did this time – I cleaned up my fridge and used not only bread leftovers, I added fried mushrooms with onions (have got some from a pie filling), some peas and cheese. Simple and tasty! 🙂Savory Bread Pudding

Savory bread pudding

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: very easy
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Also tried to add some fried smoked bacon, it adds a nice smell and taste.
Ingredients
few white bread slices, cut into cubes
2 eggs
80ml full-fat milk
1/2 dried thyme
salt, freshly ground black pepper, to taste
fried onions+ mushrooms
a handful of peas (if using frozen, no need to defreeze)
50g feta or mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes
some grated parmesan, optional
1-2 tsp butter or oil, for greasing baking dish
Method
  • Preheat oven to 190C. Grease a baking dish, arrange bread cubes.
  • In a bowl, whisk eggs with milk and spices. Pour over bread crumbs, mix with your hands or a spoon.
  • Mix in fried mushrooms, onions and peas. Season with some extra pepper. Put in the oven for 14-15 minutes.
  • Take the dish out and top with feta or mozzarella cubes. Sprinkle with some parmesan as well, if using. Put back into the oven for 5 minutes more.

Serve immediately for breakfast! Enjoy!

P.S. Even if the bread is too stale, don’t throw it – go outside and feed birds! 🙂
Savory Bread Pudding with mushrooms and peas
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