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Midweek Salad

Hey guys! What do you cook during the week? If it’s going to be a hectic working week – do you make anything time-consuming? Personally, if I’m tired I don’t cook complicated dishes and eat simple dishes, including lots of different salads. Hopefully, you eat well and do not buy unhealthy quick and junk meals as I do. Moreover, it seems to me that to make a salad or simple pasta at home for your tomorrow lunch is much cheaper and healthier than to eat any junk-food. Thus, eating healthy foods whiteout spending a lot is possible, and I suggest you to start prepare salads like this one. I love beets and add it everywhere, caramelized beets is even more tasty! Eat the salad, man! 😀

Midweek Salad

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 medium beet, cooked

2-3 tsp brown sugar

1/2 Tbsp balsamic or wine vinegar

1 Tbsp olive oil

100-120g green beans

10-15g butter

8-10 cherry tomatoes, yellow or red, cut into halves

60-80g feta cheese, crumbled

bull’s blood leaves, a handful

2 tsp black sesame seeds

1-2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted

S&P to taste

extra virgin olive oil

basil micro sprouts, optional

Cut the beet into small cubes or wedges. In a frying pan or saucepan, combine vinegar, oil and sugar on medium heat; mix to combine. Add beet cubes and swirl to coat. Cook on a medium heat for 7-10 minutes.
In a small saucepan, put beans and cover with water, add a butter, some salt and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Drain the water.
On a serving plate, arrange washed leaves, put on beat cubes, beans, tomatoes and feta. Sprinckle with sesame and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, if desired, garnish with basil and season to taste. Enjoy!

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!

Russian red blini (pancakes)

For many people St.Valentine Day is red roses, dinner in a restaurant, chocolate desserts and other heart-shape stuff. Does it seems boring only for me? I think, the best way to diversify this ‘red’ day is by trying something new, like eat non-chocolate dessert, or if you always go out this day stay in to cook a decadent dinner for two. Unleash your creativity! It can be flavorsome salmon steaks or roast quails, you can experiment with sauces.. A small change can have a huge effect! 😉

A perfect St.Valentine Day can be started by serving a late breakfast that will get both of you in the loving mood. Ready to leave an impression? Prepare these amazing Russian red blini (pancakes)! Beets give pancakes stunning color and delicate sweetness. They are the perfect way to treat those you love!

Next week, starts from Monday, will be one of the brightest and entertaining of Russian holidays – Maslenitsa, or also knows as Butterweek or Pancake Week. It’s celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. It’s the festival with lots of fun, dance, songs and of course huge amount of blini, which is constantly cooked throughout the week. I’ll be posting more about Maslenitsa next week.

#5 Red blini

Russian red blini

Servings: 3-4
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Ingredients

130-150g beet, cooked

200-230ml milk, full fat

200ml sparkling mineral water

2 eggs, medium size

a good pinch of salt

2 tsp white sugar, optional

2 tbsp sunflower oil

150-170g plain flour

some oil for frying, if needed

sour cream for garnish, if desired

Puree cooked beet with hand blender or in a food processor until smooth. Add milk, water and stir.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with salt and sugar. Add it to the batter along with oil; stir.
Sift flour and add it to the batter. Stir to combine.
Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the frying pan and fry thin pancakes as usual. You can make any diameter you like.
Serve warm with sour cream or other garnish.

Sweet garnish: sour cream with honey and chopped pear; sweet cottage cheese; mix berries with sweeten condensed milk.

Savory garnish: cured salmon slices; cheese with herbs; ham.

Enjoy!

I’m bringing these lovely and tasty Russian blini to the Angie‘s Fiesta Friday party, co-hosts Suzanne and Sue and to all beautiful ladies! Hope you all have a wonderful St.Valentine day!

Tvorognaya zapekanka

Tvorognaya zapekanka literally means a cottage cheese bake. This is a very special treat for me. It reminds my childhood and good time when I was going to the kinder-garden. Some of my friends do not share the same nice memories about the food in a kinder-garden, and even few of them hate any cottage cheese bakes (and not only bakes) and don’t want to believe that it can be so tasty! Thank God, I was luckier and remember not only huge onion chunks in a beef stew 😀 but also good meals, like this sweet cottage cheese bake and delicious plum jam.

Speaking about tvorog (that’s how we called cottage cheese or farmer cheese in Russia, and it can be both smooth and chunky), I do like it and consume regularly: either as is or adding it to the apple pies and cabbage bakes. So, I’ve tried hundred times to make a bake somewhat childish, and every time it was too liquid or too sweet.. Finally, here it is! The bake is perfect! The only notice, maybe next time I will use a smaller baking dish to make the cottage cheese bake higher.

Russian sweet cottage cheese bake

Servings: 3-4
Time: <1hr
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If you’ve got a chunky and dry cottage cheese – push it through a sieve or stir with electric blender into a smooth mixture.

Ingredients

450-500g cottage cheese

40g butter, melted

2 medium eggs

3 tbsp white caster sugar

2 tbsp semolina (I used coarse, but fine is ok, too)

2-3 tbsp milk, warm

3 tbsp sour cream

a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract or any other vanilla

50g raisins/currants

Glaze (optional)

1 egg yolk

1tsp icing sugar

Garnish

sour cream or sweet condensed milk

icing sugar, if desired

Method

In a small cup, soak semolina in warm milk for 5 minutes. Add sour cream and mix well.
In a other small cup, soak raisins in hot black tea or water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
In a bowl, beat eggs with sugar and salt until pale and creamy, allow sugar to dissolve.
In a large bowl, smooth cottage cheese with a folk or electric blender, add butter and mix. Add beaten eggs and vanilla, mix to combine. Add semolina and raisins, and combine.
Grease the baking dish with some butter or oil, pour the mixture in and bake in preheated 200C oven for 25 minutes. At this step check the color of your bake: if its top is still pale, brush the bake with glaze and put the dish back into the oven for 15 minutes or until golden-brown; if top is already golden-brown, omit the glaze and bake for 10-15 minutes more.
Cut the cottage cheese bake into slices. Serve warm or cold with a dollop of sour cream, if desired. It’s also tasty to pour over some sweet condensed milk (instead of sour cream).

Enjoy!

Apple soufflé

It seems I’d been eating and eating during the past two months, too many delicious pies and sweets, so me and my husband decided to limit the amount of sugar and fat in our regime and keep more healthy diet for a month or so. Diet doesn’t mean the food should be tasteless and dull. Thou, plain meal like steamed fish with broccoli or buckwheat isn’t so bad, especially after a few days of eating it without adding too many salt, spices, butter, cheese or whatever makes it more yummy. 😀

Another happy moment – desserts for healthy diet do exist! A good and tasty example is Apple Souffle. Apples are baked, then pureed and mixed with egg whites, after those easy steps you need to bake it and voila – tender, airy and delicious dessert is ready! 🙂
I adapted the recipe from old Russian book published in 1984.

Apple soufflé

Servings: 2
Time: 50mins+
Difficulty: moderate
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You can serve apple soufflé with cold whipped cream or a glass of cold milk.

Ingredients

300-350g apples

2-3 tbsp water

2 tbsp white caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon, optional

2 egg whites

a pinch of salt

some butter or oil for greasing

Instruction

Wash, peel, core and cut apples into 4 slices. Put on a baking tray, add water and bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-30 minutes or until soften.
Puree apples. Put apple puree in a small pan, add sugar and cinnamon, cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks. Continue beating, add warm apple puree and beat all together for 2-3 minutes more.
Brush ramekins with butter, pour in apple mixture. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15-20 minutes.
Serve warm. Enjoy!

I’m bringing these delicious and beautiful soufflé to all wonderful bloggers who is celebrating Fiesta Friday anniversary at Angie’s place and two co-hostesses Selma and Nancy. Enjoy! 🙂

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