Tag Archives: cooking

Stuffed chicken with beans

Hello, folks! December just started and I’ve already seen a glorious amount of mouth-watering cookies and holiday cakes! And may be now you are sipping a huge cup of hot chocolate and browsing through the internet, searching for inspiration, new ideas for the Christmas eve, or probably watching snowflakes settle on trees and ground. I can see how it falls only on some websites and photos, so far. 😀

Besides making and baking numerous amount of cookies, we need to cook a normal food as well, or at least order a pizza. You will always have something quick and tasty to eat for dinner with a chicken breast on hand! It is versatile, quick-cooking, protein-rich and low in fat, does it sound tempting? Delicious skinless and boneless chicken breasts stuffed with parsley and cream cheese, covered with breadcrumbs and baked on a bed of beans. This flavorful chicken dish is perfect for any day of the week or dinner occasion.

I’m bringing this tasty dish to all beautiful and lovely people, who has been parting at Fiesta Friday (Oh my #45 already), enjoy the dish and the weekend!

Stuffed chicken with beans

Servings: 3
Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from “one pot meals/hamlyn”

Ingredients

For the filling

90g Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature

1 Tbsp finely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, optional

25g butter, room temperature

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/3 tsp freshly ground white pepper

For the stuffed chicken breasts

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 can X 530g (drained weight) flageolet beans

70-80ml chicken or vegetable stock, homemade preferable

70-80ml dry white wine

3 Tbsp coarse breadcrumbs, homemade preferable

1 sprig of fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried

2 Tbsp olive oil+ 1 Tbsp butter, for frying

sea salt, white or black pepper, to taste

Preparation Method

For the filling. In a small bowl, beat cheeses, butter, garlic, herbs and seasoning. Using a small knife, make a horizontal cut in each chicken breast. Divide the filling and pack it into breasts, secure with toothpicks. Season the chicken breasts outside with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil with butter in the casserole and fry chicken breasts on both sides until lightly browned. Set aside.
Put drained beans into casserole, add stock, wine and thyme, season to taste. Arrange the chicken breasts on top. Cover and place in preheated 190C/375C oven for 15-16 minutes.
Put breadcrumbs in a small frying pan with some olive oil and heat until breadcrumbs begin to brown. Set aside.
Remove the casserole lid, spread breadcrumbs over the chicken breasts. Return to the oven for 5-7 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to serving plates, put beans alongside.

Enjoy with a glass of white wine or as is!

Vanillekipferl

Winter holidays is my favorite time of the year (after birthday)! It seems like people smiling more often, and enjoying cold weather and upcoming festival! We putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with beautiful toys, buying and wrapping gifts. It’s the right time to plan the holiday menu, whether to roast chicken or prepare the fish pie, make cherry strudel or chocolate cake..
The December would be incomplete without baking! Nothing says it’s holidays quite like Xmas cookies! There is something special about a tray filled with delicious vanilla or cinnamon-flavored cookies.
Baking cookies is such a fun and wonderful event! You can even organize a cookie party, call your kids or friends to help you, to share a holiday mood, and of course to enjoy eating all those treats you’ve made.
I bet you’ve seen crescent-shaped cookies somewhere or may be tried it. These biscuits are very popular in Europe, and especially in Germany, where they’re traditionally baked for Christmas, even though they originate from Vienna, Austria.

Make this season merry and delightful with irresistible vanilla biscuits, that just melt in your mouth! 🙂

Vanillekipferl - German Christmas Biscuits

Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: easy to moderate
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Ingredients

200g butter, cold and cut into small cubes

60g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

seeds from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp vanilla extract, or vanilla sugar

1 large egg yolk

100g ground almonds

270g plain flour

+vanilla icing sugar*, for dusting

Preparation

*First, prepare your own vanilla icing sugar. Split vanilla pod lengthwise into two halves, and put it in a jar with icing sugar, close tightly. After 1-2 days you will get amazing naturally-flavoured vanilla icing sugar!
For the dough quickly mix butter with sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix in egg yolk. Sift flour and add it to the dough along with almonds. Qucikly knead the smooth dough. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Divide the dough and form rolls 1.5-2.5cm in diameter. Cut each roll into 5-6cm length slices, and form the crescent shape biscuits.
Put biscuits on a baking tray lined with parchment. Bake in preheated 200C oven for 10-15 minutes.
Put vanilla icing sugar in a plate, and roll still warm biscuits in it.
Let the biscuits cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

Trout fritters with green peas

Last weekend I bought a beautiful rainbow trout. It’s a very delicious fish, that rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and its’ also an excellent source of vitamins and protein. One its part gone to be cured (you may find the recipe here), another was roasted and I still had some more. I decided to make a pie from the book “pies and tarts” by S.Reaynaud. The recipe is very simple, it’s called for the trout, puff pastry, peas and horseradish, I’d had all that stuff. I’d made the filling and was disappointed because its quantity was more then enough, despite that I used more puff pastry then was needed. Fortunately, the overall result was fine, and the pie tasted pretty good. Have you tried to cook any pies from that book?

Thus I had to fix the remaining trout.. And here is the easiest and quickest recipe of delicious fritters. I used fresh trout, but you can substitute it with salmon, fresh or canned. I ate these little fritters for breakfast, they were good and satisfying!

After plating I topped it with with sour cream and some horseradish sauce, also I recommend finishing it with a slice of cured trout or salmon. It was truly divine!

Trout tritters with green peas and horseradish

Trout fritters with green peas

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

100-150g fresh trout, chopped

2 large potatoes, peeled and grated

50-60g green peas, fresh or frozen

1 Tbsp finely chopped onion, optional

1 egg white (or whole egg)

1-2 tsp horseradish sauce

3-4 Tbsp thin cream

4 Tbsp or more plain flour

sea salt, white pepper, to taste

Garnish: sour cream, horseradish sauce, lemon wedges, cured trout/salmon slices

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Line the baking tray with parchment.
Squeeze out the liquid from potatoes. Add it to a mixing bowl along with trout, peas and onion. Add horseradish, egg white, cream and combine.
Add flour, salt and pepper, and mix well.
Scoop out the dough to make 10-12 fritters. Gently press them down with hand.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden-brown.
Serve with sauce you like and cured trout slices.

Enjoy the meal!

Trout fritters with peas and horseradish

Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

Hey guys! What’s the autumn in your country/city? The weather here finally became amazing – only +29C! And in my home-city in Russia is -7C! Which weather do you like more?

I had the leftovers of squash in my fridge.. and I needed to come up with something to have for dinner. A very simple way to use it – make savory pancakes, but that idea seemed too boring for me. Further ‘excavations’ brought me a beet, a piece of pecorino cheese and a glass of red wine. And the idea came up! Give it up and just drink wine. 😀

So, the measurements in the recipe are given roughly, don’t be afraid to be an artist and make it to suit your own taste. The dish has a wonderful flavour, and this is a very simple way to cook. I served it over a bed of mashed squash and potatoes, and that was incredibly satisfying! Bright and slightly sweet squash and beet, mildly spicy pink pepper give that contented and warm-inside feeling which is what autumn cooking about.

Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

Servings: 1
Time: 20-30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

100-150g veal, cut into cubes

5 pink peppercorns, crushed

few sage leaves

1-2 Tbsp dry red wine, optional

80-120g squash or pumpkin, cooked and mashed

1 Tbsp beet, cooked and cut into cubes

1 small potato, cooked and mashed, optional

1-2 Tbsp pecorino cheese, grated

sea salt, to taste

1 Tbsp olive oil

Method

In a bowl put veal cubes, pink pepper, some salt and chopped sage. Pour in wine and stir well. Cover and let marinate for 10-20 minutes.
Make vegetable puree for the garnish. Combine mashed squash, potato and cheese together. Season to taste.
Heat an oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When oil is hot, add meat and fry it. Turn occasionally until done as desired and browned on all sides.
Mix pan-fried veal with beet cubes.
Put the squash puree on a serving plate. Arrange veal on top. Sprinkle with sage and pecorino cheese, if desired.

Of course a great glass of red wine goes hand in hand with this delicious veal. 😉

Enjoy the dinner!

Pokhlyobka – The Old Russian Pottage

Pokhlyobka is a kind of thick Russian soup made by adding flour, grains, potatoes or other vegetables. It is similar to the Britain Pottage.

Long time ago, it was a main meal among poor strata of Russian society. Most of the time, villagers and peasant farmers cooked and ate vegetarian pottage, because such expensive ingredients like meat or fish were not affordable for them. It’s worth mentioning that meat was eaten once or twice a year; more luckily were farmers, who had lived near rivers and could caught a fish throughout the year. The dish was easy to prepare, and people could use the remains of the yesterday meal – chunks of boiled potatoes or cabbage, then add extra millet or buckwheat. The rich part also ate pokhlyobka, but it was significantly better and besides potatoes, contained the meat of duck, hazel-hens, and etc.

My recipe of Russian pottage is also without meat.. Definitely, a good piece of fatty pork or beef could makes the pokhlyobka especially rich, so if you’re not a vegetarian you may add it. But I suggest you to try the non-meat option, which is infused with aromatic spices, and delicious pumpkin and thick sour cream make the soup absolutely irresistible!

‘Acoulina cooked absolutely delicious koulebyaks, various pokhlyobki..kvas..soaked apples..’ from the Russian novel ‘Whites, blacks and grays’ by Ivan Lazhechnikov written in 1856.

‘The dinner was absolutely delicious that day: pokhlyobka made from goose meat with wild onions, venison shashlik and slices of bear meat..’ from the Russian novel ‘Plutonia’ by Vladimir Obruchev written in 1915.

Pokhlyobka - The Old Russian Pottage

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

120-130g yellow split peas

3 small potatoes

300g pumpkin or squash

1 medium carrot, sliced

60-70g celery root, cut into small cubes

1 small onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped, optional

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 bay leaves

1.2 l water

1 Tbsp sunflower oil

salt, black pepper to taste

fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

sour cream, for serving, optional

fresh country-style bread, for serving, optional

Preparation

Wash peas, put in a pan, cover with water and soak overnight. Pour out the water. Cover peas with new cold water. Boil on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until peas are tender. Skim the foam during the boiling.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the oil, add spices and fry them for a minute. Add garlic, onion, carrot, celery root and saute vegetables on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
Peel and cut into small cubes potatoes and pumpkin.
Add potatoes to the pottage. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Add pumpkin along with fried vegetables, simmer the pottage for 10 minutes more or until the pumpkin is soft.
Adjust seasoning. If the pottage is too thick, add more hot water and stir through.
Garnish each plate with a dollop of sour cream and chopped parsley. Serve with a slice of bread.

Enjoy the old Russian farmer meal! 🙂

I’m bringing this traditional recipe to all lovely people who’s enjoying the FF party today!

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