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Sharlotka

Sharlotka – that’s how one of the popular apple cake in Russia called. I believe this cake is so widely-known that there is no a man in Russian who wouldn’t heard about it. When I was a little girl I ate sharlotka so many times that I hardly can count, I ate it at my home, at friends’ home.. And I still love it! It’s one of the easiest recipe that always turns out great!
There are many varieties of Charlotte dessert. Russian ‘charlotte’ was created by French chef Marie-Antoine Careme who worked for Russian Tsar Alexander I in 19th century in London. Believed that the dessert took its name from Queen Charlotte, wife of George III of the Intied Kingdom, who loved apples. For this dessert the bottom of baking mold was lined with sponge cake or savoiardi biscuits, then filled with Bavarian and whipped cream, and completely cooled. Originally the dessert was named ‘charlotte a la parisienne’ but lately became popular under the name ‘charlotte russe’ or simply ‘Sharlotka’.
In Soviet times the recipe was modified and became sponge cake with apples. Nowadays, the cake continues to be liked and cooked by many Russian women, including me. 🙂 It’s also a kind of ‘rescue’ sweets that you can prepare in minutes when your friends came around unexpectedly. Below recipe is my mother’s recipe, I haven’t change a word in it and the cake turns out perfect every time, I think it will make my mummy proud and happy. ❤

Sharlotka

Servings: 6
Time: 50mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can also roughly chop apples, stir into the batter and then bake.

I used 20cm/8inch cake spring-form.

Ingredients

2-3 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3 eggs, at room temperature (better to use large eggs)

80g white sugar

110g plain flour

2 tbsp water

1/2 tsp b.soda

1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

a pinch of salt

icing sugar for dusting, optional

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, add 3 egg yolks, water and sugar. Put baking soda in a tablespoon, pour in lemon juice or vinegar, mix with a teaspoon to dissolve it, then pour into the egg mixture. Beat egg mixture until light and creamy.
In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft but steady peaks.
Gradually mix egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Don’t stir too much.
Gradually sift and fold in the flour.
Grease and dust with flour the baking form. Gently spread half of the batter into the form. Arrange apple slices. Pour in the rest batter, evenly spread.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired. Serve warm with a cup of freshly-brewed tea.

You can keep the cake in a box or on a plate covered with foil in the fridge up to 3 days.

Enjoy!

Sharing this tasty cake with Fiesta Friday and all lovely bloggers who is enjoying it!

Vegetable Tian

The first time I saw a layered vegetable dish, I couldn’t took took my eyes off the screen. It was so colorful and gorgeous! So, I did some research and found out that it’s called ‘tian’. Tian originated in Provance region of France and owes its name to the earthenware shallow dish in which it’s cooked in the oven and then served. It’s also can be describe as a gratin but in the Provencal style. I love such simple and delicious bakes, and I’ve already made various gratins but they are topped with breadcrumbs or cheese, so all its beauty is almost fully covered. I was lucky to buy some yellow zucchini (most of the time its price much higher compare to green ones) and made a beautiful tian! I had such a fun composing it, arranging vegetables slices in layers. 🙂

After making, baking and eating I came to the conclusion that tian is a wonderful and full of flavour dish, which is simple and fun to prepare! And one more note: the more colorful the vegetables – the more attractive the appearance of the tian. 😉

Vegetable Tian

Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Potatoes take the most time to cook, so if you want you may parboil potato slices or totally omit it.

Ingredients

yellow or/and green zucchini

eggplants

tomatoes

small potatoes, optional

olive oil

a pinch of dried basil and thyme

sea salt and ground pepper to taste

some grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, optional

Wash all the vegetables, clean the skin off the potatoes. Slice finely.
Grease a shallow dish with olive oil, arrange vegetable slices. Sprinkle with herbs, drizzle olive oil, and season generously. Cover loosely with foil.
Cook in preheated 180C oven for 40 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle some cheese if using and cook uncovered for further 20-35 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
Serve warm as is or as a side dish to meat.

Enjoy! ❤

Chicken Liver Pâté

Hey guys! To say the last few weeks of my life have been filled with sport, beach and meeting with friends, so I hadn’t been posting regularly and commenting on your lovely blogs, but I will resume blogging and posting more often. 🙂 And I want to share with you a simple but super delicious recipe – chicken liver pate! The pate is very quick and easy to make, and require only a few ingredients. Another advantage is a low cost of chicken livers. Pureeing the cooked livers along with butter and a little cognac or brandy transforms the plain part of chicken into something magnificent! It’s a great breakfast on a slice of toasted bread or can be a nice appetizer topped with a cornichon or little pickled onion. 🙂

Chicken Liver Pâté

Servings: >6
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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If cooking for children, omit the cognac.

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 medium carrot

20g butter

500g chicken liver, cleaned

1+1 tbsp cognac (or brandy/whiskey)

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

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

50ml water or chicken stock

100ml cream (12-15%)

50-60g butter, at room temperature

sea salt to taste

freshly grated black and white pepper to taste

Top

40-50g butter

Preparation

Peel onion and cut into small cubes. Wash, peel and grate carrot.
In a deep frying pan or saucepan, heat butter and add vegetables, cook on a medium heat until soft (don’t brown). Add liver and fry for 8-10 minutes. Add one tablespoon of cognac, herbs and season to taste. Simmer on a medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add water, cream, bring to boil and turn off the heat. Leave to cool at room temperature.
Transfer to a food processor or puree with hand blender. If the consistency is too thick, add more warm water or stock. Adjust the seasoning. Add soft butter, cognac and blend again.
You can make a butter ‘lead’, for that heat the butter in a small bowl and pour over the cooled pate.
Transfer pate to a bowl and keep covered in the fridge up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Coriander Chicken Drumsticks

Today I realized that I haven’t ate chicken for quite a long time. When I was a teenager chicken drumsticks weren’t available as a separate part of a chicken. When my mother wanted to prepare chicken for dinner she used to buy whole chicken thighs and cook it as is or cut into two parts.. I’m not even sure that drumsticks are on sale in Russian stores now, may be except the capital. Anyway, nicely spiced and roasted chicken drumsticks is a good and quick-to-cook midweek meal (with some rice or potatoes on a side) or a very good accompaniment to a beer! For this recipe I grind dried coriander seeds, then add turmeric and mild paprika, stir into the meat along with olive oil and let it marinade. If you’re hungry, skip the marinating and roast it straightaway! 🙂

Coriander Chicken Drumsticks

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

500g chicken drumsticks (I used without skin)

2-3 tsp dried coriander seeds

1 tsp turmeric

3/4 tsp mild paprika (or hot if you like)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp lime juice (or lemon)

2-3 garlic clove, unpeeled

freshly ground black and white pepper, to taste

sea salt, to taste

Grind or crush coriander seeds, mix with turmeric and paprika. Combine with olive oil and lime juice. Rub the marinade into chicken drumsticks. Add garlic cloves, season generously with pepper and salt to taste. Cover and leave to marinade in the fridge for 1-3 hours, or skip this step and arrange chicken (with all marinade juices) onto a baking tray or dish.
Bake in the preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes. Then low the heat to 150C, cover with a piece of foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until the drumsticks have cooked through.
Serve warm, but they are also good cold. The cooked drumsticks will keep in the fridge for 2 days.

Plum cake

It’s a fact that spring came to this year-round sunny city too, and temperature start to creep slowly. During the day the weather is still nice for swimming and sunbathing without uncomfortable sweating like in the summer months. Another pleasure is to take an evening walk in the fresh air, or to sit outsite and enjoy sipping a tea while the weather is till cool. Having a tea without a piece of cake is absolutely wrong thing! 😀 So, you can guess that one of my favourite ‘indoor activities’ is baking! I had mascarpone cheese and ripe plums that used to be a jam, but mascarpone was nearly to expiry date and I had to use it somehow.. It was a ‘mix all what you have’ cake, I also added a splash of cognac for an extra hit. After a half an hour of baking the cake was still uncooked and I was a bit worried. But the final result was a wonderfully divine and delicious cake! It was totally worth the wait: tender, moist and filled with amazing flavour! I will be making this cake again! 🙂

Plum cake with mascarpone and cognac

Servings: 6
Time: 1hr 15mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients for 18cm baking tin

50g butter, very soft

80g brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp cognac (or brandy)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp lemon zest, optional

100-120g mascarpone, at room temperature

100-110 g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4-5 dark plums, sliced

1 tbsp plum jam (or apricot jam), optional

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with sugar. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with cognac, vanilla and lemon zest. Gradually stir into the butter mixture. Fold in mascarpone cheese. Sift flour with baking powder into the batter, mix to combine.
Pour the batter into greased baking tin. Arrange plum slices on top. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 50-60 minutes or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean. Grease the top with jam. Let it cool slightly before serving.

Enjoy!