Tag Archives: lunch

Thick lentil soup with pork ribs

One is dreaming about spring and warm days, another like me wants the weather staying cloudy and windy as longer as possible. This soup is not something extraordinary, but it is comforting and hearty. It nourishes and fills you up, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need after a long day at work. I love lentils because they are healthy – contain protein, fiber and vitamins, and easy to prepare – you do not need to soak them for hours.

Aromatic bay leaf and hot chilli flakes make this thick soup brighter! So, wake up your taste buds and start cooking the soup, it’s a great way to warm up your belly and bowl!

If you want this soup to be vegetarian, feel free to omit the meat or try this recipe of red lentil soup (meatless).

Lentil soup with pork ribs, chilli and bay leaf

Thick lentil soup with pork ribs

Servings: 2-3
Time: 1hr30min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

200g pork ribs, cut into segments

200g beef, but into medium cubes

4-5 black peppercorns, optional

100g brown or green lentils, washed

1 small leek and 1 small red onion, sliced

2 small potatoes, peeled, cubed or sliced

1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 medium tomato, chopped

1+1 tbsp olive or other veg oil, for frying

salt, black pepper to taste

small bunch fresh parsley or coriander, chopped, for garnish

Method

In a frying pan, heat oil and fry pork ribs and beef cubes from all sides on high heat until just browned. Transfer the meat to a soup pan along with peppercorns, cover with water. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not season with salt, it will increase the lentils cooking time.
Add lentils to the pan, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the same frying pan (you use another one if you wish), add more oil if needed, and fry leek and onion on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add potatoes and fry for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in chilli and garlic, saute for a couple of minutes.
Stir vegetable mixture into soup, season to taste and simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes or until lentils and potatoes are cooked.
Serve hot, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Rus magazine “Collection of recipes”, 2010

Sharing with lovely foodie-parties: Throwback Thursday, Fiesta Friday, Saucy Saturdays, Foodie Friends Friday Party

Arabian kofta

Kofta or Kufta is a simple dish, small balls of minced meat – usually lamb or mutton blended with fresh herbs, aromatic spices, garlic and/or onions. These meatballs are very popular in Middle Eastern countries like UAE, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, and there is no fixed recipe, each cook adds their favourite spices like chilli, cinnamon or cardamom. I highly recommend you to not omit fresh herbs; mint, coriander and parsley give kofta amazing freshness. Lamb meat is often used for kofta, but if you don’t eat lamb meat or it’s too fatty for you – you can easily substitute it with beef; in that case I suggest you to add a tablespoon of olive oil or butter for richness. And of course, the meat should be finely minced.

#10 Arabian meatballs

Kofta meatballs can be grilled, fried or even baked. Serve them with rice, fresh tomatoes and olives. I love to eat them wrapped in Arabic bread with a slice of roast eggplant, tomato and chopped fresh herbs, and dipping this lip-smacking wrap into hummus. 🙂

Arabian kofta

Servings: 28 small meatballs
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

500g finely ground lamb

100ml sparkling mineral water

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

3-4 Tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2-1 tsp harissa paste, optional

S&P to taste

2 Tbsp olive oil for frying

Garnish

Arabic bread, hummus, chopped iceberg and herbs

In a large bowl, mix meat with water. Add garlic, herbs, spices, season to taste and mix throughly with you hand.
Form small meatballs, the size of walnut.
Heat the frying pan with oil, add kofta meatballs and fry all over for 6-7 minutes or until cooked through.
Serve with bread, lettuce, herbs and hummus, if desired.

Enjoy!

Golubtsi – Russian stuffed cabbage rolls

Stuffed cabbage rolls is a very popular dish in many countries over the world. In Russia, it’s called ‘golubtsi’ – white cabbage leaves stuffed with sautéed ground pork or beef and rice or buckwheat.

Originally, cabbage leaves were stuffed with meat mixed with millet porridge and the dish was named ‘galushi’. But in 18-19th centuries France had a great influence on Russian cuisine, at least for the upper classes. Many French chefs streamed to Russian to work for royal courts, nobility and other wealthy families.

French cooking was so prevalent among the upper classes that there were not enough French-born chefs to fill the demand. Wealthy Russians began to send their serfs to work under French chefs in Moscow and Sr.Petersburg, and a few were even sent to France for their training. Some of these peasants were allowed to work in the city, provided they remitted to their masters the required obrok or quit-rent, which was a payment in kind or in money. Others were sold after they had completed their training. Count Rostov in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, for instance, spoke with satisfaction of paying a thousand rubles for Taras, a serf who prepared savory hazel grouse sautéed in Madeira for his daughter Natasha’s name day dinner.*

Thus, Russians were hooked on French dishes, and among which was popular a whole grilled pigeon, covered with a cabbage leave. The dish became fancy and well-liked, and soon was called simply ‘golubi’ or ‘golubtsi’ – from Russian word ‘golub’ that literally means pigeon. Lately cooks began to prepare a fake ‘pigeon’ – well-known stuffed cabbage rolls, which were cheaper and affordable for the lower classes.

Also, big thanks to Angie for featuring my post – red pancakes! I’m bringing these cabbage rolls to the super Fiesta Friday party! I know, it’s such a simple dish, that many of you have tried it already, but I hope you are tired of sweets and enjoy Russian comforting food. 🙂

Golubtsi - Russian stuffed cabbage rolls

Servings: 10-12 rolls
Time: 1hr+
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

1 white cabbage

500g beef mince (or mix pork+beef)

90-100g uncooked white rice, short-grain

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

1/2 carrot, shredded

1/2 tsp dried marjoram, optional

S&P to taste

Sauce

1/2 large onion, chopped

1/2 carrot, shredded

2-3 tbsp tomato paste

oil, for frying

200-300ml water*

2 bay leaves

5-6 black peppercorns

S&P to taste

Garnish

sour cream, chopped parsley, optional

Sauce. In a large pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add onion and carrot for the sauce, cook for 5-6 minutes or until soft. Stir in tomato paste. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Cabbage. Discard the 2 or 3 outer leaves of the cabbage. Carefully pull off leaves one by one. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Immerse cabbage leaves and cook for 3-4 minutes. Using tongs, take the leaves out and transfer to a bowl. *Reserve the water to use it lately for the sauce.
Filling. Cook the rice fro 8-10 minutes in bowling water. In a large bowl, mix together the beef, rice, onion, carrot and spices. You can fry onion before adding it to the filling.
Working with one cabbage leaf at a time, slice off the thick outer rib near the stem end. Place the leaf, rounded up like a bowl, stem end closest to you. Spoon about 2 tbsp of the meat mixture, form it into a short log shape. Don’t make the rolls too tight. Transfer the roll, seams down, to the pan with sauce. Shape the remaining rolls in the same way.
Pour in water – just to cover the cabbage rolls, add more if needed. Season to taste, add bay leaves and peppercorns. On a medium-high heat bring it to boil. Then reduce heat to lower, cover the pan with a lid (or you can use a piece of foil) and cook for 40 minutes. You may cut one roll to test it.
Serve rolls with their cooking sauce, sprinkled with parsley and garnish with sour cream, if desired.

Macaroni a la flot

Flot means fleet in Russian. This simple dish consists of macaroni mixed with fried minced meat. In 17-18th centuries, in Russia similar dishes were quite popular among travelers and especially sailors; that no-fridge time meat was salted-cured and kept in barrels, thus seamen could cut a piece of the meat anytime, fry it and mix with some boiled macaroni. The dish became popular again during World War, but instead of fresh or frozen meat was used tushonka – canned stewed meat (usually fatty pork or beef), which was always on hand, and it could be stored up for years without loosing its nutritional value. Post-war period was also hard time for Russia, so such not expensive and nourishing dish didn’t get out of use. Nowadays, ‘macaroni a la flot’ are still widely-cooked and well-known dish; normally pasta tubes are used for macaroni, which mixed with fried minced meat (it can be pork, beef or mixture), onions and sometimes tomato paste or fresh chopped tomatoes.

Macaroni a la flot

Servings: 4
Time: less than 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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You may try to add a shredded carrot or chopped tomato and saute it along with meat.

Ingredients

500g minced beef meat (with not less then 15% fat, or you may add some pork)

350g uncooked tube macaroni (like maccheroni, maccheroncini, bucatini, ziti or any other)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp sunflower oil (or any other veg.oil)

1/2 Tbsp butter

salt, black pepper

chopped parsley or fennel for garnish, optional

Instructions

In a deep pan, melt the butter with oil on a medium heat, add onion and fry for 4-5 minutes. Add meat and use wooden or stiff spatula to break it up into small pieces. Season to taste. Ensure you stir the meat regularly so it doesn’t stick to the pan and to make sure it cook evenly. The meat is cooked when it shows no signs of pink.
Meanwhile, put pasta into a large pot of boiling water. Be sure to add plenty of salt to the water. Cook the macaroni according to package instruction.
Add 3-4 Tbsp of pasta-boiling water to the meat, mix well.
When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add to the pan with meat. Give it a good stir.
Serve warm. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or fennel, if desired.

Enjoy!

Stuffed chicken with beans

Hello, folks! December just started and I’ve already seen a glorious amount of mouth-watering cookies and holiday cakes! And may be now you are sipping a huge cup of hot chocolate and browsing through the internet, searching for inspiration, new ideas for the Christmas eve, or probably watching snowflakes settle on trees and ground. I can see how it falls only on some websites and photos, so far. 😀

Besides making and baking numerous amount of cookies, we need to cook a normal food as well, or at least order a pizza. You will always have something quick and tasty to eat for dinner with a chicken breast on hand! It is versatile, quick-cooking, protein-rich and low in fat, does it sound tempting? Delicious skinless and boneless chicken breasts stuffed with parsley and cream cheese, covered with breadcrumbs and baked on a bed of beans. This flavorful chicken dish is perfect for any day of the week or dinner occasion.

I’m bringing this tasty dish to all beautiful and lovely people, who has been parting at Fiesta Friday (Oh my #45 already), enjoy the dish and the weekend!

Stuffed chicken with beans

Servings: 3
Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from “one pot meals/hamlyn”

Ingredients

For the filling

90g Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature

1 Tbsp finely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, optional

25g butter, room temperature

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/3 tsp freshly ground white pepper

For the stuffed chicken breasts

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 can X 530g (drained weight) flageolet beans

70-80ml chicken or vegetable stock, homemade preferable

70-80ml dry white wine

3 Tbsp coarse breadcrumbs, homemade preferable

1 sprig of fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried

2 Tbsp olive oil+ 1 Tbsp butter, for frying

sea salt, white or black pepper, to taste

Preparation Method

For the filling. In a small bowl, beat cheeses, butter, garlic, herbs and seasoning. Using a small knife, make a horizontal cut in each chicken breast. Divide the filling and pack it into breasts, secure with toothpicks. Season the chicken breasts outside with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil with butter in the casserole and fry chicken breasts on both sides until lightly browned. Set aside.
Put drained beans into casserole, add stock, wine and thyme, season to taste. Arrange the chicken breasts on top. Cover and place in preheated 190C/375C oven for 15-16 minutes.
Put breadcrumbs in a small frying pan with some olive oil and heat until breadcrumbs begin to brown. Set aside.
Remove the casserole lid, spread breadcrumbs over the chicken breasts. Return to the oven for 5-7 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to serving plates, put beans alongside.

Enjoy with a glass of white wine or as is!

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