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Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

Hey guys! What’s the autumn in your country/city? The weather here finally became amazing – only +29C! And in my home-city in Russia is -7C! Which weather do you like more?

I had the leftovers of squash in my fridge.. and I needed to come up with something to have for dinner. A very simple way to use it – make savory pancakes, but that idea seemed too boring for me. Further ‘excavations’ brought me a beet, a piece of pecorino cheese and a glass of red wine. And the idea came up! Give it up and just drink wine. 😀

So, the measurements in the recipe are given roughly, don’t be afraid to be an artist and make it to suit your own taste. The dish has a wonderful flavour, and this is a very simple way to cook. I served it over a bed of mashed squash and potatoes, and that was incredibly satisfying! Bright and slightly sweet squash and beet, mildly spicy pink pepper give that contented and warm-inside feeling which is what autumn cooking about.

Veal with pink pepper and squash puree

Servings: 1
Time: 20-30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

100-150g veal, cut into cubes

5 pink peppercorns, crushed

few sage leaves

1-2 Tbsp dry red wine, optional

80-120g squash or pumpkin, cooked and mashed

1 Tbsp beet, cooked and cut into cubes

1 small potato, cooked and mashed, optional

1-2 Tbsp pecorino cheese, grated

sea salt, to taste

1 Tbsp olive oil

Method

In a bowl put veal cubes, pink pepper, some salt and chopped sage. Pour in wine and stir well. Cover and let marinate for 10-20 minutes.
Make vegetable puree for the garnish. Combine mashed squash, potato and cheese together. Season to taste.
Heat an oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When oil is hot, add meat and fry it. Turn occasionally until done as desired and browned on all sides.
Mix pan-fried veal with beet cubes.
Put the squash puree on a serving plate. Arrange veal on top. Sprinkle with sage and pecorino cheese, if desired.

Of course a great glass of red wine goes hand in hand with this delicious veal. 😉

Enjoy the dinner!

Classic Beef Stroganov

Beef Stroganov is a well-known Russian dish, which become extremely popular in many countries. It consists of fried beef cubes mixed with sour cream sauce. Various explanations are given for the name, one says that such dish was firstly appeared at the count Alexander Stroganov’s dinners, who was the Russian minister of the interior from 1839, the member of the state Council from 1849 and the governor general of Novorossiia from 1855. The sauteed beef was among other different dishes, which were served at ‘open tables’ when all decorous and presentable people could came in straight from the street and tried any meal.

The first known Beef Stroganov recipe doesn’t contain onions or mushrooms, only floured beef cubes, which fried and sauced with mustard, bouillon (stock) and some sour cream. Thus, you may guess that it’s not the best recipe. The dish becomes much tastier and aromatic if you add onions and mushrooms (it tastes fantastic with cep mushrooms, even if you add only one), such recipe is considered now as classic Beef Stroganov.

Classic Beef Stroganov

Servings: 4
Difficulty: moderate
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You can also serve the beef with buckwheat instead of mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

500g beef fillet, cut into medium cubes

2 medium brown onions, thinly sliced

200-300g mushrooms, sliced (cep mushrooms or brown champignons)

2-3 Tbsp plain flour

150-200ml sour cream

2 tsp dijon mustard

2-3 Tbsp beef stock

butter or sunflower oil

sea salt, black pepper to taste

mashed potatoes, chopped dill or parsley, rye bread, for serving

Method

To make the sour cream sauce, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream with mustard, add stock to make it more thin (it should be liquid like kefir).
Mix the flour with a good pinch of salt. Lightly flour beef cubes from all sides, shake off any flour excess. Heat the heavy frying pan, when it’s hot, add butter or sunflower oil. Then sear beef cubes in 2 or 3 batches, so you don’t overcrowd the pan and steam the meat. Cook for 2-3 muntes or just until browned. Transfer to the plate.
In the same frying pan (reduce the heat to medium), add a knob of butter, mushrooms and onions. Fry onion until it’s soft. Then add fried meat, season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, you need to warm the meat mixture for 2-3 minutes. Now add the sauce, stirring continuously for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with lid and let it rest for few minutes.
Serve with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with dill or parsley. Enjoy!

You can keep the dish in the fridge up to 1-2 days. Keep the fried meat and sour cream sauce separate in the different containers. Just mix it together and rewarm before serving (but don’t let the sauce bubble).

Mrs Pumpkin’s Rolls

Mrs Pumpkin and Mr Squash are in trend this autumn! 🙂 It seems everybody is obsessed with them and cooks lots of dishes. Bright, sweet-smelling and delicious, that is hard to resist and don’t to eat it; moreover pumpkin is a great course of vitamins A, C, B, K, E!

Pumpkin always pairs good with such warming spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. And it’s amazing how all the cozy autumn spices make cool weather quite easy to enjoy, and bring a sense of comfort on cold days.

Today recipe is for all Mrs Pumpkin’s admires! 😀

These rolls are perfect for weekend breakfast, or simply enjoy it anytime! Cinnamon-scented pumpkin filling, cheese glaze and hazelnuts make rolls crazy delicious!

Pumpkin Rolls with brown sugar and cinnamon

Actually, it was an experiment. I had to use cottage cheese leftovers, and firstly I planned to make cookies; but it seemed bored, besides that I’d made shortbread cookies a day before, thus idea of pumpkin rolls was born!

As you may see, I’m so pleased with the result of my experiment! Perfectly spiced and tender rolls! They can be served with lightly sweeten mascarpone or yogurt instead of cheese glaze. And one more important thing – the dough has no yeast, so the rolls can be easily made in the morning or when you’re short on time and don’t have time to wait for the dough to rise. 🙂

Mrs Pumpkin's Rolls

Servings: 8-10
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

The dough

1 egg, at room temperature

40g brown sugar

120-150g cottage cheese

80g plain flour

110g wholewheat flour*

1/2 tsp/2.5g baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

20g butter, melted

Pumpkin filling

300g pumpkin

1 medium apple

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

30g mix of dark muscovado and brown sugar/ or only brown sugar (adjust sugar to taste)

20g butter, melted, for brushing the dough

Honey cream cheese glaze

70g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 Tbsp liquid honey

2-4 Tbsp full fat milk

icing sugar, if needed

hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped

Method

For the dough, beat egg with sugar until pale and sugar is dissolved about 4-5 minutes. Add cottage cheese and fold in. Add flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, vanilla and mix in. Stir in butter and mix to combine. The dough should be soft but not sticky. *Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Cover and keep to rest.
Meanwhile, prepare pumpkin filling. Core and cut in small cubes pumpkin and apple. Heat butter and olive oil in a frying pan, add pumpkin and apple cubes, drizzle with lemon juice; saute on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Add cinnamon and nutmeg, mix and set a side to cool. Blend to get a puree.
Roll the dough out to 37×26 cm rectangle. Brush the dough with melted butter, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Spread evenly the pumpkin mixture on the dough. Cut the dough into 8-10 equal strips, and carefully roll each strip into a ‘barrel’.
Transfer rolls to the baking tray, lined with baking paper and greased. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden-brown.
For the glaze, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add honey and milk and beat again. If you want to make the glaze more liquid add more milk and mix. Add icing sugar, if it’s not sweet enough.
Arrange pumpkin rolls on a serving plate, pour the glaze over the warm rolls, and sprinkle with hazelnuts.
Enjoy warm!

Rolls can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days (without glaze). Reheat before serving.

Pumpkin Rolls/Sprinkle the dough with sugar

Pumpkin Rolls/Spread the pumpkin filling

Pumpkin rolls not only look amazing, they taste great! 😉

A touch of summer. Radish salad with goat cheese and black salt.

I know! It’s autumn out there.. and most of you would like to see hearty, meaty dishes with lots of roasted vegetables.. When I think “autumn and hearty” I always imagine stew and potatoes! Or that’s because I love potatoes! 😀 You know, in Russian potato is ‘kartoshka’, and we consume it a lot. But today’s hero is a fresh salad!

The temperature in Dubai slowly but steady going down.. I was pretending again that it’s kinda autumn while did my shopping, and was looking for pumpkin and beets, when stumble upon beautiful radishes! They literally told me – buy us, eat us! 😀 Certainly, I had to buy them!

I love simple salads, when you can cut cucumbers and radishes, dress it with sour cream or olive oil, season with sea salt, and that’s it! This salad is one of such variations, but with a small twist – pungent goat cheese, fancy black salt and crunchy sesame seeds! Oh, they work super here! The salad looks so bright and cheerful, that I bet you want it right now! 😉 I hope you can get fresh radishes and make it.. Otherwise, welcome to the UAE, the country of eternal sun!

Ingredients for one person

Radishes 5-6, or as many as you like

Cucumber 1

Cherry tomatoes 4-5

Goat cheese 1-2 Tbsp

Coriander or parsley 2-3 Tbsp, chopped

Chives 1 Tbsp, chopped

Sesame seeds 1-2 tsp, roasted

Walnuts 1 Tbsp, roasted and chopped

Black salt and pepper, to taste

Extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp

Balsamic vinegar or cream 1 tsp

Method

Thinly slice radishes and cucumbers. Cut tomatoes into haves. Put all vegetables in a serving bowl, add all remaining ingredients.

Enjoy!

Spiced Plum Cake with streusel

What could be better than a moist and sweet cake that takes minutes to put together? I always like to explore different butter cake recipes; I’ve tried to use different types of flour, with milk or yogurt.. Actually, most of the recipes turned out good. But for the seasonal autumn recipe, I decided to add spices and crunchy streusel to make it more rich. Spiced plum cake with streusel topping The cake is warmly spiced, plus ripe plums make it more soft. It is so delicious and yet so easy. Perfect as a midday treat! It’s also good and tasty on the next day, in case if you got any leftovers, though it never lasts long. 🙂 It goes really well with a dollop of mascarpone. You can sprinkle the cake with icing sugar, or pour over a maple syrup, but for me the cake has enough sweetness.

Spiced Plum Cake with streusel

Servings: 6-8
Time: 45-50mins
Difficulty: easy
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* In stead of store-bought almond powder, I suggest to buy whole almonds, dry-roast them and then blend into powder. Walnuts are also nice and can be used instead of almonds.

Ingredients

7-8 plums, firm but ripe, pitted and cut into fourths or sixths (I used dark and yellow plums)

110g butter, at room temperature

70g brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

100g plain flour

20g cornflour

50g almond powder*

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2-1/3 tsp cardamom, finely ground

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg, finely ground

1/6 tsp cloves, finely ground

60g yogurt (I used lowfat, but full fat is ok too)

Streusel

40g wholewheat flour or fine oats

15g butter, soft

20-30g demerara or white sugar

1-2 Tbsp walnuts or pistachios, roughly chopped

For serving

mascarpone or whipped cream

maple syrup, if desired

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 18cm cake tin (you can use 10-15cm cake tin also, the cake will be higher; or 20cm round tin is ok too).
Cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time (don’t over-beat, just stir to combine).
Mix together flours, almond powder, salt and all spices. Add to the egg mixture a little bit at a time. Finally add yogurt.
Spoon mixture into the cake tin. Individually place plums at an angle to make rings, using gentle pressure to push them slightly into batter. Leave about 2cm between each plum.
For the streusel, mix the butter into flour. Add sugar, nuts and combine until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the cake.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Once baked remover from the oven and allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.
Slice and serve with a dollop of mascarpone or whipped cream. If it’s not enough sweet, pour over the cake maple syrup.

Enjoy the cake with a nice cup of hot tea!