Tag Archives: recipe

Russian Easter. Kulich

April 12, 2015
milkandbun
10 comments
baking, cake, Easter, Easter cake, kulich, recipe, Russian, Russian food, Russian tradition

Today is Paskha (Easter) in Russia, it’s a bright and warm festival that is celebrated among Orthodox Christians. Traditional and famous treats for this day are the colored eggs, kulichi, and paskha (in my next post). During this day we congratulate each other and say ‘Христос Воскресе’ which means Christ is risen, and the reply is ‘Воистину Воскресе’ – indeed hi is risen.

Kulich is a special Easter sweet cake/bread which usually has a cylindrical shape and decorated with white icing. It’s made from rich yeast dough; raisins, currants or candied fruits can be added. Traditionally kulichi have a cylindrical shape, and some Russian housewives use empty tins from pea or beans for that purpose. After baking and cooling kulichi is glazed with white icing (egg white or water with sugar) and decorated with edible sugar beads, flowers, and thin candles. Kulichi and died eggs can be also blessed in church; a part of Easter treats usually is leaved in church for poor people.

Kulich recipe {Russian Easter cake}

Servings: 2 pieces
Time: 4hr
Difficulty: moderate
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I used large eggs. Egg for the glazing needs to be very fresh.

The dough should be soft, but if needed add more flour.

Ingredients

350g plain flour

5-6g yeast

small pinch of salt

130ml milk, warm

1 egg

1 egg yolk

80g white sugar (or 90-100g to make it sweeter)

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

50g butter, very soft but not melted

60g raisins (golden)

60g currants (dark)

Icing

1 egg white

150-160g icing sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Sprinkles for decorating

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, sift 100g of flour, add salt, yeast, warm milk and stir to combine. Cover with a wet kitchen towel and let it rise for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk a whole egg, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar with a hand or electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until pale. Add egg mixture and butter to the dough, mix to combine. Sift the remaining flour and knead to combine. Cover again with a wet kitchen towel and let it rise for 30-40 minutes.
Wash raisins and currants, blot it up with a paper towel, sprinkle with a teaspoon of flour – you need to cover all raisins with some flour, it allows them to be evenly distributed throughout the dough. Add raisins and currants to the dough, mix into the dough. Cover with a wet kitchen towel and let it rise for 60 minutes.
Line baking pans with baking paper, grease with butter. Divide the dough between two baking pans, the dough should occupy 1/3-1/2 of the volume (because it will rise very high during baking) of the volume. Cover and let it rise for 20-30 minutes.
Bake in preheated 100C oven for 10 minutes, then in 180C for 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted into it gets back dry. If the top becomes too golden – cover kulichi with a piece of foil or baking pepper.
Take out of the oven, let it completely cool.
For the icing, whisk the egg white with few tablespoons of sugar and lemon juice until well combined. Or beat it with an electric mixer on a low speed. Gradually add more sugar and whisk again. Keep adding sugar until you get the desired consistency (not too liquid).
Spread the icing on top of each kulich with a tablespoon. Add sprinkles. Let it dry.

Enjoy!

Cover kulichi in the foil and keep in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.

Spring Asparagus with mushroom sauce

April 8, 2015
milkandbun
16 comments
asparagus, cooking, food, mushroom sauce, recipe, spring recipe

Happy Easter to all who had celebrated it on the 5th April! I know, you’d already eaten a dozen of eggs, so today’s recipe without an egg in it. 🙂

A bunch of asparagus reminds me flowers, the start of spring and a time of new beginnings. Do you know that the name asparagus come from Greek word meaning ‘sprout’ or ‘shoot’. This vegetable is believed to have originated 2000 years ago in eastern Mediterranean region. Asparagus is loaded with antioxidants and nutrients, and has an aphrodisiac qualities! 😉

I’ve been enjoying crunchy asparagus for a breakfast with a poached or scrambled eggs, but I’ve been looking for new recipes.. I also made a quiche with asparagus and roast chicken leftovers, which was tasty as any pie. Finally, I stumbled upon an interesting recipe which called to blanch asparagus and then top it with a mushroom sauce. I love this delicious and full of flavor mushroom sauce, that can be great with other spring vegetables as well or even with eggs! Below recipe can be served as a nice appetizer or a side dish which you can make very quick!

Spring Asparagus with mushroom sauce

Servings: 2
Time: 15-20mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

300-400g asparagus

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped, optional

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

2 tbsp water or veg.broth

1 tbsp dry white wine, optional

2 tbsp cream cheese

5-6 medium mushrooms (button or oyster), sliced

1+1 tbsp grated parmesan

sea salt and white pepper to taste

For the sauce, in a frying pan heat oil, add onion, garlic, thyme, season to taste; cook until tender. Stir in water, wine and cream cheese. Bring to boil, then add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes or until mushrooms ready and sauce is slightly thickened. Stir in 1 tbsp parmesan.
Wash and discard woody bases from asparagus. Cook it in a boiling water for 3-4 minutes or until crispy, drain.
Arrange asparagus on a serving plate, top with mushroom sauce, sprinkle with remaining parmesan.

Enjoy!

recipe adapted from here

Citrusy Scampi with fennel salad

One day my husband brought home these strange-looking shrimps from a local fish market. A fishmonger called it ‘scampi’, wikipedia told it’s a kind of shrimps or langoustines. So, I’d decided to make a citrusy marinade as for shrimps and then fried it. Sliced fennel with cubes of bell pepper and orange segments worked out great with fried scampi. The smell was amazing! It turned out unbelievably delicious! This scampi recipe can be done in minimal time, super tasty and will leave you satisfied!

Now, it’s one of my favorite seafood meals. Moreover, it looks elegant and you can serve it as a top-class dish for your guests or for a romantic dinner under the stars in your garden. 🙂

Citrusy scampi with fennel salad

Servings: 2
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: moderate
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You can substitute scampi with large prawns.

Ingredients

3 large scampi per person as a starter or 6-7 as a main course

Marinade

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lime juice

1/2-1 tbsp orange juice

2-3 tsp orange zest

2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped, as you like

1 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

S&P to taste

Salad

1/2 red onion

1 small fennel bulb or 1/2 large

1/2-1 bell pepper, red

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp white balsamic vinegar

1 orange

S&P to taste

Serving

fresh chopped coriander

extra virgin olive oil or basil oil

Preparation method

Cut the fennel and onion into julienne (thin slices) and add to the mixing bowl with the balsamic vinegar and oil, toss in. Cut bell pepper into small cubes, add to the bowl. Remove the rind on the orange then cut into segments and add to the mixing bowl (save all orange juices and add it to the salad); gently toss in the bowl with all ingredients. Reserve at room temperature.
Clean scampi, leave tails on if desired. In a bowl mix together olive oil, citrus juices, garlic, chopped coriander and orange zest. Add scampi and leave to marinate for 30 minutes to 1-2 hours. Heat the frying pan on a medium-high heat, add scampi without marinade. Cook for 2-4 minutes on each side, depends on the size of scampi. Season to taste.
Season the salad and gently mix. Divide the salad evenly on plates. Serve salad with scampi placed on top. Sprinkle with finely chopped coriander and drizzle even more oil, if desired.

Enjoy!

Sharing at 62nd FF party with Angie, co-hosts Jess, Prudy and all guests! Hope you all gonna love these bright, healthy and delicious dish!

Homemade Aromatic Breadcrumbs

I’m sure most of you eating bread almost every day. And I guess you have pretty much leftovers, which going to be mouldy or dry out. My decision is not to buy or eat less bread, is to make your own homemade breadcrumbs! Of course, you can make a bread pudding or French toasts with the leftover bread, but I bet you do not always have a time to prepare it in the morning. Easy to follow steps allow you to make aromatic breadcrumbs, which is extremely good and more tasty than store-bought, and you know all ingredients you’ve used. Include different types of bread and play with herbs, I prefer rosemary, thyme, basil, sage. Breadcrumbs should be store in an air-tight container, or even in the freezer. When you need some, just spoon out the amount of breadcrumbs you need.

I make a simple pasta topped with breadcrumbs, or stuffed chicken breasts. You can also make a delicious snack – baked slices of zucchini and/or eggplants. For that you need to combine breadcrumbs with dried or minced garlic, chopped fresh parsley and thyme, fresh ground pepper, olive oil, grated parmesan, then top each slice of veggie with the mixture and bake. 🙂

I hope you will never buy commercial breadcrumbs again, or at least you will try. 😉

Homemade Aromatic Breadcrumbs

Difficulty: easy
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If you have only few leftover bread slices, cut them into cubes, put into a freezer bag and place in the fridge. When you’ve got more leftovers, keep adding bread pieces to the bag until you have enough quantity. Then follow the recipe steps.

Ingredients

one/two-days old bread or any leftovers

1 tsp each: rosemary, basil, thyme

Cut bread into small pieces with a knife, then arrange on a baking tray. Bake in preheated 160-170C/150C-fan oven for 20-30 minutes or until bread pieces is golden and crispy.
Put bread pieces into a food processor along with dried herbs and blend to a small crumbs. You can also put bread pieces into a plastic bag and smash it with a kitchen mallet.
Put into a glass jar/container and cover tightly. Or put breadcrumbs into a freezer bag and keep in the freezer.

Pirogki with spring onions and eggs

Pirogki means small pies in Russian. Most of the time yeast dough is used for these delicious pirogki, like I made for Kulebyaka pie. But making such dough is a time-consuming, and you need to make lots of small pies or one big. I suggest you to try the dough based on kefir or any other soured milk product, it’s very quickly to prepare, and you can use both sweet and savory filling. Today I chose one of favourite filling in my family – a mixture of chopped spring onions and hard-boiled eggs. Pirogki with this filling reminds me warm days in Russia, first of the spring crops, including young and juicy spring onions from parents’ garden and amazing aroma of these pies. For my husband, it brings memories about his grandmother, the days she was cooking these pies and serving with a jug of fresh milk. 🙂

Pirogki with spring onions and eggs

Servings: 3-4
Time: 1hr30mins
Difficulty: easy
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*Using sour cream is optional, you can substitute it with the same amount of kefir or creme fresh.

These pirogki is also good with a soup instead of bread.

Ingredients

220-250ml full fat kefir (buttermilk or laban)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white sugar

2 tbsp sour cream*, optional

1 large egg

2 tbsp sunflower oil

400-450g plain flour

Filling

150g spring onions, chopped

1 tbsp butter

4 large eggs, hard-boiled, chopped

S&P to taste

Egg wash

1 large egg yolk

1 tbsp milk

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, add kefir, soda, salt, sugar and mix. Leave for 4-5 minutes. Add sour cream (if using), egg, sunflower oil and mix well. Sift the flour into mixture, stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel and leave to rest for 20-30 minutes. If you don’t have time – rest it for 10 minutes or for a time while you’re preparing the filling.
For the filling, in a small frying pan melt the butter, add chopped onions and saute on a medium heat for 5-7 minutes until soft. Don’t let it burn. In a bowl combine soft spring onions with eggs, season to taste.
Roll the dough into 10-12cm circles, add 2-3 tsp of the filling into each circle, seal the edges.
Arrange pirogki on a lined baking tray. Brush each pie with egg wash {for egg wash whisk ingredients together}. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-22 minutes or until golden.
Serve warm with a glass of milk.

Enjoy! ❤