Tag Archives: festive cooking

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!

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Hi there! It’s been windy, dark and gloomy all day here in Dubai today. The weather intends to spend a day in the kitchen and bake something warm, aromatic and tasty. And I found a deliciously satisfying dish to cheer this day up! Sweet-smelling baked apples with super tasty filling: walnuts and cowberries! Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? The cozy smell of cinnamon and brown sugar was filling my kitchen while apples were baked.. It’s so easy to turn regular apples into a fabulous warm dessert! Enjoy!

Cowberry (also known as lingonberry) is a very tasty, slightly bitter and sour berry; it contains lots of vitamin C, A and B. It’s a popular type of berry in my home-country (Russia), and as far as I know in Sweden and Norway. Their taste remind small sour cranberries, so you can easily substitute it with cranberries (fresh or frozen).

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Servings: 2
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: moderate
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*You can add more sugar to suit your taste.

**I dry-roast walnuts, then chop it or pulse in a food processor.

Ingredients

2 large apples (sort ‘pink lady’ or ‘granny smith’ are good)

20g/2 tsp butter

3 tsp brown sugar*

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 quail egg, optional

5-6 tsp finely chopped walnuts**

3-4 tsp cowberries (if using frozen-no need to defreeze)

1/2 tsp of cinnamon, for garnish

2-3 tsp pure runny honey, for serving

some extra walnuts and cowberries, for serving

Cut the lid from apples, carefully cut out the core and make a hole in each apple leaving the bottom.
In a bowl, stir sugar and cinnamon with butter. Mix in the egg. Fold in chopped walnuts and berries.
Put apples in baking dish/tray and stuff each apple with filling mixture. Cover with apple lids. Pour some warm water into the bottom of the baking dish (1 cm). Loosely cover with foil.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until apples are tender but not mushy.
Carefully transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with cinnamon, drizzle with honey and garnish with some walnuts and cowberries, if desired.
Enjoy!

Braised Rabbit with red wine, prunes and thyme

I’m sure you know that Easter is on the way (Catholic falls on April 5 and Orthodox April 12), and you’re probably planning what to cook, or searching your notes with traditional recipes. I think some of you have a special main course recipe for this occasion, or may be it’s a wide range of recipes. What will you choose this year? An elegant dish or simple&casual? I think, with spring bringing nice and pretty weather, that you’re likely to be in the mood for something hearty and light! 🙂 I’ve always been partial to rabbit; when I’m visiting my parents in Russia I’m always pleased to eat a rabbit stewed in sour cream. It’s always tender and delicious, of course because it’s prepared by my mom. 😀 Today recipe is elegant and great for a special dinner! I’d like you to try rabbit with prunes and thyme, braised in red wine. It requires few ingredients to be transformed into a flavoursome meal! Enjoy!

Braised Rabbit with red wine, prunes and thyme

Servings: 3-4
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

1 rabbit, 1.3-1.5kg

water

1-2 tsp apple or wine vinegar, optional

2 tbsp olive oil

20g butter

1-2 garlic clove, peeled, chopped

5-6 shallots or 1 onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

4 black peppercorns, optional

4-5 juniper berries

12-15 prunes, pitted

4 springs thyme or 1 tsp dried

150ml dry red wine

100ml or more hot water, if needed

sea salt and white pepper to taste

Garnish

boiled or roasted potatoes

sour cream

Preparation method

Joint the rabbit, wash it and put in a large bowl, fully cover the meat with water, add vinegar if using, then cover with a wrap and leave to marinate for 1-3 hours. It helps to make rabbit meat more tender and get rid of any unpleasant smell.
Heat the oil and butter in a heavy-bottom pan on a medium-high heat. Add the rabbit pieces and brown each side for 6-8 minutes or until golden colour. Take out the rabbit pieces and place aside. Don’t clean the pan.
Reduce the heat to medium, add onions, garlic, peppercorns (if using), juniper berries, bay leaf, some thyme leaves and sauté for 3-5 minutes or until onion have softened. Add rabbit, pour over wine and scrape up the bottom of the pan. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
Fold in prunes and remaining thyme. Season to taste. The liquid should come half way up the rabbit pieces. So, add some water, if needed. Reduce heat to low, cover with a lid (keep a small slit) and braise the rabbit for 45 minutes. Now turn the rabbit pieces on the other side, adjust the seasoning, again cover the pan with a lid and braise for further 40-45 minutes. The rabbit should be easily pulling off the bone.
Serve with sliced boiled/roasted potatoes, or rice. Add a tablespoon of sour creme, if desired.

Mimosa Salad

Hello guys! It’s a very special Friday for me. I’m so glad and excited that I’m co-hosting the wonderful virtual party – Fiesta Friday by Angie, and Jhuls is another great co-host this time. I’d like to invite everyone and each of you to join the very-friendly party! Let us know that you’re joined by linking your post to Angie, me and Jhuls. Of course, will be lots of appetizers and welcome drinks, and you can eat&drink non-stop! 😀 Newbies could find the guidelines here. Another point is to bring your favourite dishes and put the link here, so every blogger can grab a slice of your cake or tuck in the stew while chatting. You’re also welcome to visit and like other bloggers’ posts and of course you can leave a comment or just say hi; it’s such a lovely possibility to find new blogofriends, have a small talk and plenty of fun!

I have decided to bring this nice-looking salad to the party, it’s Russian layered salad or to be exact Soviet salad, but still popular in many ex-USSR countries. In Russia we have lots of layered salad recipes, so many that I even don’t how many. 😀 This one is associated with spring (thou, also popular for New Year), Women’s Day and it’s named after the beautiful flower – mimosa. Last layer of the salad is crumbled egg yolks, which remind little yellow blossoms of mimosa. The main ingredient is canned fish here, so the salad is very budget and at the same time tasty, plus looks festive (that was important during deficit time). Usually saury/saira fish is used in ‘mimosa’, but salmon species is also good here, like red or pink salmon. I’ve tried to make it with tuna and can’t recommend it, its meat too dry for this salad, but if it’s the only canned fish you can get – add more sour cream or mayonnaise. Many variations exist – with or without potatoes, with cheese, spring onions, grated butter, etc. Better to prepare this salad some time in advance before serving to allow all layers to soak; so you can make it a night ahead.

Mimosa Salad

Servings: 4-6
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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To make salad more rich you can add some grated butter – between carrot and yolks layer.

Ingredients

1 large or 2 medium potatoes

1 large carrot

3 large eggs or 4 medium

250g canned fish (I used red salmon)

1 small onion, finely chopped

150-200g mix of sour cream and mayo (or only mayo)

some fresh dill, optional

salt to taste

Method

Wash potatoes and carrot, don’t peel. In a large pot with water, add potatoes, carrot and boil it until ready. Cool, peel the skin, then grate on a small or medium grater into separate bowls. Set aside.
Hard boil the eggs, cool and separate whites and yolks. Finely chop or grate.
Put chopped onion into a small bowl, cover with hot water and keep for 10 minutes. Drain the water.
Drain the fish and mash it with a fork.
Prepare a deep serving bowl or another serving plate. Arrange grated potatoes evenly on the bottom. Spread some mayo.
Make fish layer, then add chopped onion and spread more mayo.
Arrange egg whites and spread again mayo.
Arrange grated carrot and spread again mayo.
Arrange egg yolks. It was the last layer.
You can sprinkle the salad with chopped dill, if desired, or decorate whatever you want. Enjoy!

You can cover the salad with a piece of foil and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Cottage cheese and cranberry pie

Winter holidays are almost here and I can’t wait to celebrate! Holiday preparation is already well underway and it can be stressful, but I love this hustle and bustle season: frenzied shopping, decorating homes and work places, buying delicacies and champagne, choosing and wrapping gifts for family and friends. I’m absolutely absorbed in the planning of New Year dinner. Shopping list is written, salads and starters are chosen, goose and turkey are waiting in the freezer. And certainly I couldn’t forget about desert. For me it’s an important and sweet part of the dinner. Any festive dinner should be finished with a perfect cake! Have you chose the one? What will be the sweet star on your table? Will it be traditional cake or pudding, that you make every year or a fancy cake, that you’ll order from a restaurant?

This year I’ll be making the vanilla cheesecake with cranberry or red currant compote. It sounds simple, but that’s exactly what we need this winter – delicious, smooth and tender cake. 🙂 But if you’re tired and bored from all traditional desserts, why don’t you try my festive cake recipe. It seems similar to cheesecake, but I used tvorog (cottage cheese) and sweet condensed milk, and its taste and structure became different. Bright cranberries on the top make this milky and sweet cake absolutely festive! Definitely all guests’ eyes will be on this cake!

If you noticed cranberries are small, because it’s Russian, they are smaller and juicier compare to American cranberries. Needless to say, you can use any cranberries you can find, or frozen cherries are also great here.

Cottage cheese and cranberry pie

Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: moderate
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A new take on the vanilla cheesecake, this cake will go down well on any occasion.

Ingredients

Crust

260g flour

160g butter

1 small egg

2-3 Tbsp caster sugar

1 egg yolk for brushing the pastry crust, optional

Filling

450g tvorog/cottage cheese

3Tbsp cream cheese, optional

3-4Tbsp sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs or 3 small

2 tsp granulated sugar (or omit it and add more condensed milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp cognac or brandy, optional

3 Tbsp ground almonds

100-150g cranberries

almond flakes, for decoration

icing sugar, for decoration, optional

Preparation method

Make the cake crust. Cover and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out 3mm thick and cut a circle larger than 20cm (approx.26-28cm) baking pan. Bake blind in preheated 180C oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the weights, optionally brush with egg yolk, then return to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes more.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl beat eggs with condensed milk and sugar if using until the mixture is pale and sugar almost dissolved. Add vanilla, cognac, cream cheese and mix.
If the cottage cheese is very crumble first mash it with a fork, then add to the filling mixture along with ground almonds, and stir to combine. Taste, add more condensed milk if it’s not enough sweet.
Pour the filling into pastry crust. Arrange cranberries on top, and decorate with almond flakes.
Reduce the heat to 170C and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the filling is set.
Let it cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes, then carefully take out and put on a serving plate. Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired.
Enjoy!