Tag Archives: cooking

Beetroot dip with coriander crackers

This is an extremely delicious beetroot dip that is super easy to prepare and is a crowd-pleaser. The bright beetroot dip can be made as a tasty and healthy appetizer for either home-parties or just your family, especially if you serve it with lots of homemade coriander crackers. Appetizer made from scratch adds a special touch to any kind of gathering. 🙂 It’s also a healthy snack anytime – just spread it over toasted bread, or use it as a wrap filling.

You can make the dip even without cheese, but I like it this way more. Also try to add feta or other soft white cheese instead of cream-cheese, walnuts is a another good substitute for pine nuts.

Beetroot dip with coriander crackers

Difficulty: very easy
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Keep covered in the fridge up to 3 days.

Beetroot dip

Ingredients

150g cooked beetroot (boiled or roasted), chopped

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/2-1 tsp cumin, crushed

1 tbsp EV olive oil

2 tbsp Philadelphia cheese

1 tbsp parmesan, finely grated, optional

1 tbsp pine nuts, lightly roasted

sea salt, freshly ground pepper, to taste

Put all ingredients, except the pine nuts, in a small bowl of blender and blitz until smooth. Season to taste, add pine nuts and pulse a couple of times to keep some nuts pieces; if you like more smooth-pulse again.
Garnish with pine nuts and some grated parmesan, if desired. Serve with crackers or toasted bread.

Coriander crackers {Make approx 18 crackers}

Ingredients

130g plain flour+some for kneading and rolling

1/3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine salt (want less salty, add less salt)

some freshly ground white pepper

1 tsp whole coriander seeds, crushed or ground

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, ground

40 ml EV olive oil

40 ml water+1/2 tsp white sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, b.powder, salt and all spices. Mix in olive oil.
Dissolve sugar in water and pour into dough, knead the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and keep to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
On a lughtly dusted surface, roll the dough (approx 3-4 mm thick) and cut into 5×5 cm squares.
Transfer to a lined baking sheet and bake in preheated 190C oven for 15 minutes or until golden-brown.
Cool&Enjoy!

Russian sour cream cake

Hello-hello! May be some of you remember this post when I wrote about cowberries. I love these bright, sour and bitter beauties. These little cowberries is an excellent source of Vitamin C, and of course the best way to eat them as is or sprinkle with some sugar. A handful of these beauties make any cake only prettier, like I did – threw some on the top of this wonderful cake. I know, it’s not easy to find even frozen cowberries in stores, so go ahead and use cranberries (but I mean small ones). Honestly speaking, they are pretty similar. Russian sour cream cake

In Russia, we consume much of sour cream; we use it as a sauce for both sweet and savory pancakes, to dress salads, to make famous Beef Stroganof and etc. And it’s no wonder that we make sour cream cakes. The cake is very soft, aromatic and tender; and the big plus – you can use almost any fruits that you can find in your fridge – apples, plums, or may be some pears.. And even prepare it plane-without any fruits or berries, then cut a good freshly-baked slice and enjoy it with a cup of hot milky tea. 🙂

Russian sour cream cake (with plums and cowberry)

Servings: 6-8
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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I used 20cm baking tin.

You may substitute yellow plums for red; and use cranberry instead of cowberry.

Ingredients

200g sour cream (20% fat)

80g white sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

1 medium lemon, zest, chopped

1/3 tsp baking soda

2 tsp lemon juice

150-180g self-raising flour

4-5 yellow plums, cut into 4-6 slices

100-150g frozen cowberry (no need to defreeze)

Preparation method

In a large bowl, whisk sour cream with sugar for 5 minutes. If using electric blender 2 minutes will be enough.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with vanilla, cinnamon and lemon zest ( you need only to combine ingrefients, dont overwhisk). Stir into sour cream mixture.
Dissolve soda in lemon juice and stir into the batter.
Gradually add flour.
Line and grease baking tin. Pour in batter. Arrange plum slices (lightly push them into batter) and cowberry. You may sprinkle with extra lemon zest and granulated sugar.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 35 minutes. Leave to cool in a tin for 10 minutes. Carefully take it out and serve.

Next day gently reheat the cake before serving.

Enjoy!

Small quiches: 4 fillings

I Love Pies! Small and large, closed and opened, with fish and hm less meat, whether it’s cabbage pie or raspberry tartlet. So, it was that day when I couldn’t decide what filling to choose and made 4 different savory quiches! Beautiful and delicious! 🙂 It’s a quick (especially if you prepared the pastry ahead as I did), easy and tasty way of using up all those small cheese pieces and veggies leftovers.

Small quiches: 4 fillings

Servings: 4-8
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: moderate
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Pastry

160g/5.6oz all-purpose/plain flour

120g/4.2oz butter, cold and cut into cubes

a good pinch of ground sea salt

40-50ml iced-cold water

Put flour, salt and butter in a big bowl. Quickly rub ingredients together until coarse breadcrumbs (or use food processor). Add water and mix until the dough is formed. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. You can keep the pastry in a fridge up to 3 days.

Roll out 3-4mm thick dough to fit your baking tins. Bake blind in 180C preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

Filling

2 large eggs

100-150ml 30% cream (or double cream)

freshly ground sea salt and black-white pepper, to taste

Broccoli+Gruyère cheese
Leek (slightly sautéed in butter)+Cheddar
Zucchini (raw, sliced or grated)+Thyme(fresh or dried)+Parmesan
Sun dried tomato (chopped)+Olives+Basil (fresh or dried)+Pecorino Romano cheese

Whisk eggs with cream and season to taste. Arrange vegetables, grated cheese and herbs in pastry cases. Pour the egg mixture over veggies. Bake in 180C preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Recipes of 2015

January 3, 2016
milkandbun
20 comments
blog, Blogging, cooking, desserts, food and recipes, food photo, food photography, food styling, holidays, recipes, Russian food

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:

#1 Sharlotka – my family recipe of Russian apple pie.

#2 Russian millet kasha with cinnamon apples and walnuts.

#3 Rabbit braised with thyme, juniper berries and prunes.

#4 Baked apples with cowberries and walnuts.

#5 Bright and tasty blini.

#6 Crunchy and aromatic crackers.

#7 Vegetable tian.

#8 Carrot rolls with hazelnuts and orange marmalade.

#9 Knyshy – small round pies with potato filling.

#10 Arabian meatballs.

Holiday Panna Cotta

Cold days, beautiful pine and spruce trees with toys, lots of gingerbread cookies, smell of mandarins and cinnamon.. How does your holiday look and smell?

Today recipe is a well-known dessert among foodies – panna cotta. Many of you already cooked it or tried in a restaurant, but I’d like to show you the festive presentation, how you can serve the gorgeous-looking dessert to your family and guests during the winter holidays.

Everything in this dessert says ‘winter’: delicate and tender snowflakes (recipe coming soon), smooth and creamy panna cotta that looks almost like a real snow-blanket, rosemary “pine needles”, and of course aromatic mandarin -segments. Another great thing about this dessert is that it looks like you really fussed over it. Shhhh… 😉

You can make panna cotta a day or two ahead, and you will need only to saute mandarin segments and garnish the dessert. But don’t forget to cool mandarins, otherwise panna cotta will melt.

Holiday Panna Cotta

Servings: 4
Time: 4hr+
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Panna Cotta

200ml double cream

300ml full-fat milk

45-50g white sugar

1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

2 tsp powdered gelatin

40ml cold water

Garnish

1-2 tbsp demerara or brown sugar

2 small mandarins

few rosemary needles

2 tsp mandarin zest, optional

1 tbsp orange liquor (or brandy), optional

1 mandarin shortbread cookie per cup (recipe is coming)

Preparation method

In a pan, pour cream with milk, add vanilla and sugar, heat (but don’t boil) until sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and let the mixture infuse with vanilla flavour for 20-30 minutes. Then take out the bean, and rewarm the mixture.
In a small cup, add cold water and sprinkle gelatin over it.
Take the pan from the heat, add gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
Pour the panna cotta mixture into 4 cups, put cups in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
For the garnish, in a frying pan add sugar, mandarin segments, zest and rosemary, and saute for 3-5 minutes on a medium-high heat. Add liquor, if using, and saute for few minutes more. Leave to cool.
Garnish each cup with few mandarin segments and one cookie.

Happy Holidays!