Tag Archives: food styling

Savory pumpkin pancakes

Hello blogofriends and foodies! Hope your Sunday is going to be exceptional! May be you planning to go out for a picnic with your family or date out with your beloved.. Whatever you will choose to do today, firstly, do not forget to have a delicious and nourishing breakfast! 😀 Like this one – always favourite pancakes, but this time they are savory: with slightly sweet pumpkin, salty parmesan and aromatic spices!

These pumpkin pancakes are bursting with autumn flavours, plus you can use pumpkin or squash leftovers! Even if the morning is not your favourite part of the day, try to start it with a smile on your face, and you will feel the difference throughout the day! And of course, brighten up the morning with this wonderful breakfast! 🙂

Savory pumpkin pancakes

Servings: 2
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from Jamie Oliver magazine

Ingredients

Pancakes

200g pumpkin/squash puree

1 egg

250ml full-fat milk

150g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

a pinch of fresh nutmeg

1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes

1 sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped

30-40g finely grated parmesan

olive or sunflower oil for frying

Extra for serving

some grated parmesan

chopped fresh parsley

sour cream, mixed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, S&P

few oak leaves lettuce or any other, optional

In a bowl, mix pumpkin puree with the egg and milk. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, chilli, rosemary, parmesan.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan, spoon some of the batter to make a pancake. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until golden. Serve with extra parmesan, if desired.

Enjoy!

Tsvetaeva Apple Pie

On this day, 8 of October, 123 years ago one of the greatest poetess in Russian literature – Marina Tsvetaeva drew the first breath.

She was born in the intelligent family: her father Ivan was a famous philologist, art critic and a professor of Fine Art in Moscow University and mother Maria was a pianist. Marina Tsvetaeva begun to wrote here first poetry being a 6 years old child, her poetry was written not only in Russian, but also in French and German languages. Her mother was terminally ill with tuberculosis and that time was believed that a change in climate could help to cure the disease, so young Marina spend quite a long time in Italy, Switzerland and Germany; lately she studied French literature in famous Sorbonne University.

Tsvetaeva published the very first poetry collection in 1910 on her own money..

Russian Civil war (1917-1922) was severe time for the poetess and here own family. She rejected Russian Revolution and wrote the cycle of poems about the war, glorifying those who fought against the communists. While here husband joined the White Army (anti-communist), she had no support and lived in starvation with her daughters.

In 1922 Marina Tsvetaeva left the Soviet Union and moved to Berlin, lately her family lived in Prague and finally settled in Paris. Unfortunately, living abroad didn’t made here life easier, they lived in poverty and were homesick for Russia. Tsvetaeva did whatever she could: began to write more prose because it made more money than poetry. Meanwhile, her husband and daughter were involved in NKVD (predecessor of KGB), and when French police interrogated Marina Tsvetaeva, she was shocked about news that her husband was a spy. Furthermore, police implicated here son in the murder of former Soviet defector.

Finally, in 1939 she returned to Russia..

Returning to the apple pie recipe and its name. It’s being said that such apple pie was served in the house of Marina Tsvetaeva and her sister Anastasia. Young Marina spent a lot of time with famous poets and writers on the literary evenings, and it’s been known that she served an apple pie to her visitors. I really want to believe that she really had an opportunity to participate and enjoy such evenings, where this tender and delicious apple pie was served. At least there was something striking and good in her life.

Tsvetaeva Apple Pie

Servings: 6-8
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: moderate
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You can make the dough one day ahead and keep it in the fridge.

Ingredients

Dough

150g butter, at room temperature

250g plain flour

4 tbsp sour cream, 30%

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp apple vinegar or lemon juice

Filling

3 sour medium apples

1/2 lemon, juice

250g sour cream, 30%

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

100g white sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

Method

For the dough, in a large bowl, add butter, sift the flour and mix until mixture resembles crumbs. Add sour cream. Dissolve soda in vinegar or lemon juice and pour in the dough mixture. Mix to combine. Knead a dough a bit, shape into a disk, cover in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take the baking tin, grease it and line with baking paper. Roll the dough into the circle to fit the baking tin. Put the tin into the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel (optional), core and thinly slice apples, sprinkle with lemon juice.
In a bowl, with electric or hand whisker beat sour cream with egg and sugar. Add vanilla, if using. Sift the flour. Whisk to combine.
Take the baking tin with dough from the fridge. Arrange apple slices. Pour over the sour cream mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 180C and bake for 25 minutes more. If the top begins browning too much, cover it with a foil.
Allow the pie to cool completely in the baking tin. Then carefully transfer the pie onto the serving plate. Slice and serve with cup of hot tea.

The remaining pie cover with a foil and keep in the fridge up to 2 days. The pie will be even better on the next day, as the cream becomes thicker.

Boyar Millet Kasha (Porridge)

Millet is a tiny and round-shaped grain, that usually has a yellowish color. It is edible (and it’s not only for feeding birds) and delicious grain with mild nutty taste. Millet is a quite popular grain in Russia, though not that much as buckwheat, but still it’s widely used and served as a savory side dish or breakfast cereal; and it is also good for adding to stews and soups.

Millet is more than just an interesting alternative to common grains, it is a good source of anti-oxidants and vitamins, especially folic acid, niacin, calcium and iron. Millet is high in fiber and contains no gluten. Moreover, it helps to regulate blood sugar level, which is helpful for diabetics and those trying to lose weight.

Have you ever tried or cooked millet? What’s you favourite way to consume it?

I called today Sunday Breakfast ‘Boyar Millet Kasha (Porridge)’. Boyars were members of the highest rank of the feudal aristocracies in 9-16th centuary in old Russia. They were immensely powerful people and occupied the highest positions in the government: boyars were the major legislators of old Russia, as members of The Boyar Duma (the advisory council to Tzar). Needless to say, it was extremely wealthy class with various privileges. I guess, their everyday food was diverse too, including spices and nuts (which were expensive and not affordable to the lower class), and they could enjoy this beautiful and delicious millet porridge. 🙂

Russian Boyar Millet Kasha (Porridge)

Servings: 3
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Millet

200g millet

400ml milk

300ml water

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp sugar

Topping

50-60g black or brown raisins

1 large apple

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla, optional

50ml warm water

30g butter

2 tbsp sour cream, optional

2 tbsp chopped walnuts

2 tbsp honey

Wash millet thoroughly under running water.
Warm the milk and water in a medium saucepan, add millet, salt and sugar. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until millet is ready, stirring occasionally. The millet should be creamy, so add more hot water if it’s too dry.
Meanwhile, soak raisins in hot water for 5-10 minutes, drain.
Cut the apple into small cubes. In a small pan, add apple cubes, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, water and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes or until apple soft.
Stir in butter and sour cream, if using. Stir raisins and apple into the millet (or top). Top with nuts, raisins and drizzle the millet porridge with honey. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Boyar millet porridge with apple and black raisins

Radish-Cucumber salad

Many of you already greeted the autumn season and began to bake various apple pies and cook hearty dishes. Autumn signs have been also trickling into Dubai, but slowly and it is still summer-like days here with plenty of strong sunshine during the day-time. Mornings and days, though still warm and sunny as usual, have been followed by lovely and cool evenings. Despite of all hot days, it’s a big advantage of living near the Gulf: we can enjoy the sea and sand any time over the year long. That’s what we did one afternoon – went to a beach. But before the joy of swimming in the sea, I prepared a very simple, light and fresh, and crunchy salad. It needs only few ingredients including beautiful radishes, which I found at local supermarket and just couldn’t resist picking up a huge bunch.

As you can see, the recipe is V-E-R-Y simple: all you need is love, fresh sliced cucumbers and bright radishes, chopped spring onions, some seasoning and sour cream!

I like this salad. It reminds me summer holidays: staying at parents house, fun of gardening and eating lots of fresh veggies and berries. And for that reason I decided to mix up vegetable slices with traditional Russian dressing – sour cream, instead of olive oil. Simple and well-loved. Be generous with spring onion! You may also add some chopped dill, if you wish.

Radish-Cucumber salad (with sour cream dressing)

Don’t be sad if the summer is over in your place, I will post autumn recipes soon {more pie recipes are on the way..} Thanks for reading and Stay turned! 🙂

Sunday Breakfast: Zaatar fried egg

Good morning to you my dear reader! I have an intriguing question for you this lovely Sunday morning – what time are you awake on weekends? Is it 6am or 11am? Today I had a special fitness morning. Firstly, I wake up early today: at 8am (yes, it is early for me), went to a nice and energetic pilates class, which is really made my day. Afterwards, I was so hungry and in need of something extremely tasty and healthy!

I fell in love with zaatar (it’s a mix of dried spices) since I moved to Dubai. I can’t remember how or when I tried it for the first time, but once I tried this incredible mixture, it remains my favourite Middle Eastern spice ever since. As my husband says: “you can eat anything with zaatar”. 😀 it’s funny but true. You can prepare many dishes using zaatar, like eggplant wedges with it and pomegranate molasses or delicious roasted salmon steaks, or anything else you like.

All you need for today is an egg and zaatar! A slice of wurzel or sourdough bread, some olives and feta could make your breakfast more complete and nourishing. Hope this bright and simple meal satisfy your taste buds! 😉

Zaatar friedd egg on a slice of wurzel bread

Zaatar fried egg

Servings: 1
Time: 10mins
Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients

1 or 2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp olive oil, for frying

1 tsp dry zaatar spice mix (per egg)

salt, pepper to taste

1 slice of wurzel or sourdough bread

1 tbsp olives (preferably in olive oil)

1 tbsp feta cheese

few cherry tomatoes, optional

Heat oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat, crack an egg, season with salt, pepper, then sprinkle with zaatar and fry for a couple of minutes.
Meanwhile, toast the bread or put it under the grill for a minute.
Arrange bread on a serving plate, carefully transfer the fried egg on the toast. Top with olives and crumbled feta.
Serve immediately with fresh cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with extra zaatar, if you like.