Tag Archives: food styling

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

Servings: 2
Time: 30mins
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

Oatmeal Cookies with dates

There are thousands recipes of oatmeal cookies, I guess. Needless to say, I prefer homemade cookies to store-bought. Homemade is homemade, right? Plus I can vary the amount of sugar, thus you can feel that you’re eating oat cookies, not sugary cookies with oats! And of course, you can add your fav nuts or chocolate chips as much as you like. 😀 Personally, I don’t like chocolate chips in cookies. I add it sometimes too, but almost never do it; choco chips contain more sugar than pure chocolate; so if I deliberately reduce the sugar in a recipe why should I add more sugar but in another form.. I prefer roughly chopped dark chocolate, it’s healthier and adds much more flavour and taste! Add a small handful of dried berries or fruits for extra deliciousness! 🙂

So, it’s my fav oatmeal cookies recipe. What’s yours? 🙂

Oatmeal Cookies with dates

Servings: 20-22 cookies
Time: 20-30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Instead of dates you can add some black raisins or dried cherries.

Addition of chopped dark chocolate make cookies only better.

Ingredients

170g butter, soft at room temperature

35g brown sugar

35g golden caster sugar (or more brown sugar)

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g plain flour

50g fine oats

1/2 tsp fine salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2-1 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

200-220g oats

80-100g roasted walnuts, roughly chopped

6-8 large dates, stoned and chopped

Method

In a bowl, whisk flour with fine oats, salt, baking powder and spices.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugars until creamy about 2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture into cookie batter and whisk/beat until combined.
Stir in oats, walnuts and dates.
Line 2 baking trays with parchment. Scoop in cookies, leaving the space between cookies about 4-5cm. With wet hand flatten the cookies slightly.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 minutes or until light golden.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk!

Cauliflower couscous with shrimps

When I saw a cauliflower couscous recipe for a first time in a food magazine I didn’t pay much attention to it and dismissed it, and made another pan of creamy cauli soup. 🙂 But when I stumbled upon similar recipes again and again, I decided to give it a chance.

I red few recipes to know how to make a cauliflower couscous: the main thing is to pulse cauliflower florets in a food processor to get tiny bits, which reminds couscous grains and then you can mix it up with any your favourite ingredients. Thus, I came up with my own recipe. Even thou, I topped cauli couscous with shrimps, you may omit it and keep totally vegetarian. Whatever you choose, this dish is full of flavour! It’s a good alternative for a regular couscous, and especially for people with gluten sensitivity. Such couscous pairs well with roasted chicken or barbecued meat as well.

And you know what, now it’s my fav way to prepare cauliflower! When I served it for a dinner my husband couldn’t guess what was that – whether pasta or couscous, but he liked it. Because it tasted divine: buttery and aromatic! 🙂

Cauliflower couscous with shrimps

Servings: 2
Time: 20mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can also try to add: chopped walnuts or pistachios, raisins, goji berries, chickpeas..

Ingredients

Cauli’couscous

cauliflower 400g

baby onion 5-7, sliced

1 garlic clove, chopped, optinal

olive oil 1 tbsp+ butter 1 tbsp, for frying

lemon juice 1 tbsp

sea salt, black&white pepper to taste

chopped mint 1 tbsp

chopped parsley 1 tbsp

olives 6-7, stoned

extra virgin olive oil, for dressing

roasted slivered or flaked almonds 2 tbsp

Shrimps

medium shrimps 10 (or more if shrimps are small), cleaned

lemon juice 2 tbsp

1/3-1/2 tsp chilli flakes, optional

1 tsp sweet paprika

freshly ground sea salt and white pepper to taste

olive oil 2 tbsp, for frying

Method

Mix up all ingredients for shrimps marinade. Put shrimps in a bowl, pour over marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a fridge at least for 1 hour.
Wash and roughly cut cauliflower. Using a food processor, blitz cauliflower until breadcrumbs/couscous size.
In a frying pan, heat oil and butter. Add whole baby onions and fry over medium heat until golden. Add cauliflower and garlic if using, fry for 10-15 minutes or until cauliflower is ready. Add lemon juice and season to taste. Stir in chopped herbs and olives.
In a separate pan heat oil and fry shrimps for 2-3 minutes on each side over medium-high heat.
Arrange cauliflower couscous on a large serving plate. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with almonds. Top with shrimps.

Enjoy!

Sunday Breakfast: Cheesy Onion Cookies

Hello-hello! It’s been a kind of hectic week and I really didn’t have a time to post anything. But I can’t skip the Sunday breakfast series, so I decided to reblog one of my old recipes – savory onion cookies! I love this recipe: it’s quick&easy what especially valuable in the morning (ok, may be not that quick as a fried egg but worth any minute), and of course these cookies taste incredible! So, if you still haven’t tried them, click here to get the recipe. 🙂 These savory cookies combine many amazing ingredients, like a classic English cheese – Red Leicester or Cheddar, that adds a slightly sweet and nutty note to cookies, plus sautéed in butter leeks and some chilli flakes, which give you a nice and healthy jump start! 🙂 Enjoy!

Buckwheat porridge with caramelized orange and figs

Another Sunday, and here is another idea for Sunday Breakfast! This time it is a well-balanced, healthy and very tasty buckwheat porridge, that makes a fantastic breakfast treat. I guess many of you need something special to pull yourself out of the bed in the cold autumn mornings, and this warm and cozy porridge does help you!

I used for it buckwheat flakes mixed with some oats. Do you know, that buckwheat grain provides a very high level of protein, second highest only to oats! It makes this porridge high in energy, so it might help you to do more housework during the day or just stay in a good mood! 😉 For those of you who not especially concerned with buckwheat nutritional benefits, it is also tastes delicious and has a delightful nutty flavour. Plus, I topped the porridge with caramelized orange slices and figs, now you can imagine how divine and irresistible it was! Some chopped almonds or hazelnuts add an extra nice and crunchy note to your morning breakfast bowl!

Buckwheat porridge with caramelized orange and figs

Servings: 2
Time: 15mins
Difficulty: very easy
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You may drizzle the porridge with honey.

Ingredients

Porridge

100g buckwheat flakes

50-60g oatmeal

100ml water

300ml milk (I used full fat)

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp white or brown sugar (to taste)

vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

3-4 tbsp white sugar

2 large figs or 3 medium, cut into fourths

1 large orange, peeled and cut into 1cm slices

2-3 tbsp lemon juice

8-10 whole toasted almonds, roughly chopped

Method

Put the water and milk in a saucepan over a medium heat, when it just begins to boil, add buckwheat flakes, oatmeal and all other ingredients for the porridge. Stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low, simmer for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the porridge is too thick add more milk or water. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and leave for 4-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, put a pan with sugar on a medium-high heat. Don’t stir it, allow to become lightly golden. Add figs and orange slices, caramelize for 2-3 minutes on each side. Turn the heat off. Take out figs and orange slices. Add lemon juice to the pan and stir with all sugar and juices in the pan.
Spoon the porridge into bowls and top with figs and orange slices. Pour over the sweet juice from the pan. Sprinkle with almonds.

Enjoy warm and cozy breakfast!