Tag Archives: food photography

Wheel bread with herbs

August 17, 2015
milkandbun
32 comments
baking, bread, cooking, DIY, easy bread, food, food photo, food photography, food styling, herb bread, homemade bread, midweek meal, photo, recipe, sun-dried tomatoes bread, wheel bread

I believe almost everyone loves freshly-baked bread. I bet you can easily imagine its irresistible aroma right now in the air.. 😉 If you have ever tried to make your own bread, you may know that it’s a complex and work-intensive process, especially if you’re making a starter for the dough. The fermentation takes up to 4 days, and you need to keep an eye on the starter and feed it almost like a baby. So, not everybody has a patience or simply time to make it, and for those mankind created yeast! Using yeast makes our lives easier (at least for me); such dough doesn’t take all that much time, and you only need a few ingredients to make a simple bread. And definitely homemade bread is tastier that a store-bought one.

It wasn’t complicated at all to make this beautiful wheel bread. Actually, it reminds me more a pie without a filling, but I absolutely love its texture (because of corn flour) and awesome herb-y smell!

I recommend consuming it the same day it’s made.

Ingredients for 6-8 Servings

Dough:

8-9g instant yeast

2 tsp white sugar

200g corn flour

300g plain flour

1 tsp salt

320ml warm water

Filling:

3 clove garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

5-6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

salt, freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

In a cup, put yeast and sugar, add some warm water, stir, cover and keep for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, sift flours, add salt. Then stir in the yeast. Slowly add all warm water and knead the dough. Place the dough on a table and knead it, then put back into bowl, cover with plascti wrap or towel and leave to rise for 40-60 minutes.
For the fiiling, in a small bowl combine all ingredients.
On a lightly floured surface kneed the dough lightly. Roll out into 5-6mm thick circle, cut into 5-6cm width strips. Spread the fiiling on the dough. Then arrange all strips into ‘a rose’ (on a lined baking sheet), starting from the smallest strip, continue rolling other strips around it.
Bake in preheated oven 190C for 25-30 minutes.
Allow it to cool slightly on a wire cooling rack. Serve with a glass of milk or cup of tea.

Enjoy!

Adapted from here

Eggplant wedges

Hey everyone! I came back from the holidays recently and slowly getting into blogging again. In my previous posts I shared with you some recipes using white and red currants, and you may think that I have had only berries during the summer time in Russia.. Yes I did! This summer has been bountiful: lots of amazing produce, including various berries – gooseberries, strawberries and currants, as well as vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants.

I’m so glad that I was able to enjoy amazing veggies and greens form my parents’ garden. We cooked many dishes using these vegetables, including zucchini oladushki (fritters), sauteed veggies, salads, and so on. Finally we get tired of cooking eggplants and zucchini the same way. Moreover, I missed Dubai with its seductive aromas and herbs, rich and spice flavours in the air.. Fortunately, I brought my favourite spice – zaatar, and the decision was found: to make eggplant wedges with a Middle Eastern note! It was an easy and quick way to prepare eggplants. I drizzled it with aromatic olive oil, sweet molasses and of course zaatar, then served with a slice of country-style bread, yogurt and sliced fresh tomatoes!

Eggplant wedges

Servings: 3-4
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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You can substitute pomegranate molasses with balsamic vinegar or any other pomegranate sauce.

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

3 tsp zaatar mix spice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

pomegranate seeds

100g plain yogurt or sour cream for serving, optional

salt, pepper to taste

Preparation method

Cut washed eggplants into 8-10 wedges. Sprinkle with some salt and leave for 20-30 minutes. Place under running water to wash off the salt. Arrange wedges onto lined baking tray.
In a small bowl, combine olive oil, molasses and zaatar. Brush eggplant wedges with this mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake in preheated 180C for 25 minutes. Then increase the temperature to 200C and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until eggplants wedges are soft and nicely browned.
Arrange eggplant wedges onto a serving plate, sprinkle with sesame and pomegranate seeds.
Serve with yogurt on side, or pour it over warm wedges.

Enjoy!

Sharing with all bloggers at Fiesta Friday party!

WhiteCurrant tart

Hello-hello! I love summer because it’s berry season! May be not that summer when the outside temperature is +40C or even 50C.. Hope you are having the same great summer as I do this time in Russia: lots of organic berries, vegetables and greens, amazing weather, long walks and talks with friends. But sometimes the weather plays a joke: in the morning can be so cold that you need a thick jacket, later so hot – you need a dress instead of jacket, and so on..

Talking about summer berries, currants is super common and one of the popular type of berry in Russia. I’m sure many of you tried redcurrants or seen it in supermarkets, or tried a dessert garnished with it. Here, there are three types of currants: black, red and white. They differ from one another not only in their color; blackcurrant is the sweetest one, red is tender and sour, and whitecurrant is sweet-and-sour with lots of seeds. And I guess, the white one is less-known, so I’ve been determined to make something tasty with these beautiful berries. Here, they are usually eaten as is or they make compotes (cold drink), jams. I made shortcrust pastry with tvorog (cottage cheese), filled with tender tvorog filling (yes, again cottage cheeese! I love it!) and scattered whitecurrants over the top. Yummy!

So, how is your summer going on? 🙂

WhiteCurrant tart

Servings: 6-8
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: easy
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The recipe calls for whitecurrants, which are usually uncommon, so use redcurrants or any berries that you can get.

If you’re using frozen berries, don’t defreeze it.

I used 22cm baking tin.

Ingredients

Pastry

200g flour

100g butter, cut into small cubes

100g tvorog/cottage cheese (I used 0% fat)

1 egg

Filling

3 eggs

70-100g sugar or fructose (depends on your taste)

300-350g sour cream (20-30% fat)

100g tvorog/cottage cheese (I used 0% fat)

1 tsp vanilla sugar/extract

450-500g whitecurrants

Preparation method

To make the pastry, place flour, butter in a large bowl (or in the food processor) and mix to get breadcrumbs. Mix in tvorog. Add egg and mix until just comes together. Shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry on a lightly floured table to form a round. Grease the baking tin and lightly dust with flour. Arrange pastry into the baking tin. Place in the fridge to cool while you’re preparing the filling.
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a bowl, whisk eggs with sugar. Beat in sour cream. Add cottage cheese and vanilla, whisk to combine.
Take the pastry out the fridge, pour in filling. Scatter over berries.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the baking tin, then carefully remove from the tin and serve.

Enjoy!

Arabic Mezze

While I’m enjoying the time in my home-country, in Dubai is the month of Ramadan. It’s one of the important months for Muslims; during the month they are fasting (no food or drink) during the daytime. Traditionally, it’s normal to brake the fast with dates before Iftar. Iftar includes buffet tables with a large variety of dishes.

Mezze is a selection of small dishes, appetizers served before the main course in many countries like Turkey, Lebanon, UAE, Syria, Greece, Cyprus. There are vegetarian, fish or meat mezze. Arabic-style mezze platters often include marinated olives, fresh herbs such as mint and zaatar, labneh (thick yogurt), halloumi cheese, kofta (meatballs) and many others. I guess, almost everyone is familiar with classic hummus – pureed chickpea dip. I do like this tasty dip, it’s wonderful with roasted chicken or lamb kofta, or simply with bread. But this time I made unusual hummus -with roasted red bell peppers and pomegranate molasses; it turned out so delicious! I served the hummus with Arabic pita bread, olives and baked halloumi cheese.

Halloumi cheese is another tasty appetizer, which is pretty popular in Middle Eastern cuisine. Baked halloumi with touch of honey and thyme makes wonderful snack. Serve it warm with bread or salad.

Arabic Mezze: Roasted red pepper hummus & Baked halloumi

Servings: 4-6
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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Roasted red pepper hummus

Adapted from BBCFood

Ingredients

2 large red peppers

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot or 1/2 small brown onion

1 small garlic clove, chopped

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika (plain or smoked as you like)

1 can (400g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2-3 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp orange juice

2 tsp pomegranate molasses (or add more lemon juice)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

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

Preparation

Cut peppers into halves and place them onto lined baking tray under the grill for 15 minutes, or roast covered in foil in preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes. Remove their skins.
In a small frying pan, heat olive oil, add onion and fry over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, add garlic and cumin and saute for a minute more.
In a food processor, add peppers, fried onion, paprika, chickpeas, coriander, lemon and orange juices, molasses if using and pulse several times. Add extra virgin olive oil, and blend again. Season to taste.
If you want to make the hummus thiner, add a couple of tablespoons of water.
Serve with Arabic bread, pita, crackers or your favourite bread.

Baked Halloumi

Ingredients

200g halloumi cheese

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp liquid honey

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp black sesame seeds

Cut halloumi into slices. Place onto baking tray lined with baking paper or foil.
Mix all other ingredients. Pour over cheese.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 10 minutes or under the grill until just begin to brown.

Salad “Tashkent”

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, one of the former USSR countries. According to one version this salad was created in Moscow during USSR times, when Soviet government set the task to popularize the various national cuisines of the Soviet Union. Due to a very limited availability of the ingredients in most parts of the USSR, Soviet cuisine can be characterized as simple. So, the salad also had to be simple, tasty and nourishing. Another version says that the salad was created by chef of the “Tashkent” restaurant in Moscow, where it also was served for the first time.

Main ingredients are boiled beef and green radish, sounds simple but believe me the salad will be very tasty! Unhealthy side is dressing, because it’s mayonnaise. So, I suggest to make and eat this salad during weekend, or serve it for a special occasion and everyone will certainly be in awe. 😉 You can also substitute mayo with sour cream, but the taste will be slightly different. Another option for dressing is flavorful sunflower oil, that sometimes mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar. Chose the option and enjoy the salad!

Servings: 4
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

400-500g beef fillet

800-900g green radish (I used daikon/Chinese white radish)

4 eggs, hard-boiled

1 large brown onion

2 tbsp sunflower oil for frying

100-150g mayonnaise for dressing (or sour cream/sunflower oil)

fresh chopped coriander or parsely for serving, optional

pomegranate seeds for serving, optional

salt, black pepper to taste

Preparation

In a large pan, put the raw meat, cover with cold water, season with salt. Bring to boil, remove the foam, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 50-60 minutes. Optionally, you can add few peppercorns, bay leaf, small onion to get aromatic stock which you can use later. Cool the meat, then cut into julienne (thin strips).
Cut eggs into thin strips. Optionally, instead of cutting eggs into strips you can cut them into 4 wedges and garnish the salad.
Cut radish into julienne. Sprinkle radish with salt and let stand for 15 minutes, drain the liquid. If you are using green radish, cover it with cold water and leave for 1 hour to get rid of bitterness; then drain the water.
Thinly slice the onion into half-moon. Heat the oil and fry the onion until golden-brown.
In a large serving bowl, mix radish with onion, add beef, season with salt and pepper. Carefully stir in eggs and dress with mayonnaise. Garnish with coriander/parsley and pomegranate seeds.