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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! 🙂

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!

Siberian fish pie

This pie is called Siberian. Try to guess why? First of all, fish has always been a favourite food and often the main dish for people living by the sea or river. One of the famous Siberian dishes is “stroganina”, which is thin chips cut from fresh frozen fish (or it can be meat) and dipped into the mixture of salt and pepper. Also fish is used as a stuffing for large and small pies, for soups and stews. Also, it’s necessary to take into account the Siberian weather, during the winter the temperature is very low (or to be exact – the freezing cold), thus any fish can be easily frozen and kept outside for a long time.

So, I used halibut for my Siberian pie, it’s a flatfish that live in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea (Russian North seas). Halibut is a valuable source of Omega-3 fat acids and vitamins-B, what makes the pie more healthy and tasty. You can substitute halibut with any other white-meat fish. Along with the fish I added cooked millet, it’s unusual cereal for the filling, but an interesting alternative to the common rice, it has a nice tender texture.

The pie is satisfying and makes a delicious weekend dinner!

Siberian fish pie

Servings: 8-10
Time: 3h+
Difficulty: moderate to difficult
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Rich Leavened Dough

500-600g all-purpose/plain flour (or 200g spelt/wholemeal flour+300g plain flour)

350-400ml full-fat milk, warm

11g instant yeast

1+1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

100g melted butter or 2.5 tbsp sunflower oil

To make a sourdough in a large mixing bowl, add warm milk, yeast, 1 tbsp sugar and mix well. Add around 100-120g sifted flour, stir throughly to get the consistency like for pancakes. Cover with a plate or wrap, and allow to ferment for 1 hour in a warm place.
In another small bowl lightly beat eggs (with hand whisker) with 1 tbsp sugar and salt.
Add the beaten eggs into a bowl with sourdough mixture. Sift the remaining flour, pour in butter or oil, mix to combine.
Now, knead the dough for about 20-30 minutes on a flat surface. Add more flour, if needed.
Place the dough in a large bowl, wrap it up and leave to rise for 1.5-2 hours in a warm place.

Filling

550-600g halibut fillet, cut into small cubes

80-100g Tbsp millet

1 big onion

2-3 tbsp sunflower or any other veg.oil, for frying

50g butter, cut into small cubes

salt, pepper to taste

Glaze

1 egg+1 Tbsp milk

20-30g butter, melted, for brushing

Serving

50g butter, melted, optional

cold milk

First, you need to cook millet. Rinse it thoroughly under running water. After that, add millet and two parts boiling water in a small pan. After the water has return to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 18-20 minutes. Let it cool.
Heat oil in a frying pan, add onion and fry it on a medium heat until golden color. Mix fried onion with millet. Season to taste.
Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out the smallest dough part into oval shape (38x30cm/1cm thick) and arrange it on a lined baking tray. Spoon millet mixture, then spread the fish cubes. Dot with butter, season to taste.
Roll out the second part of the dough – large enough to cover the filling. Seal the edges. Decorate with trimmings. Cover the pie with tea-towel and let it rise for 20-30 minutes before baking.
Cut three or four slits in the top. Brush the pie with the glaze.
Bake the pie in preheated 180C oven for 35-40 minutes or until golden-brown.
Brush the pie with melted butter, cover with tea-towel and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
Cut the pie into slices. If the filling is dry for your taste, pour over some melted butter. Serve with a glass of milk.
Enjoy the Siberian pie!

Winter Orange Cake

Hello everyone! Hope you had wonderful and joyful winter holidays! As you may know from my previous posts, me and my husband have been to Russia, and it was a memorable and great trip. We celebrated New Year and Christmas eves with the whole family, met with friends, and had lots of fun with a snow: throwing snowballs, rolling and tumbling around, and exploring virgin and deep snow on foot! Once we almost were frozen to the bones, because it was -30C/22F (and the phone told me it was felt like -40C in the night)! But wool socks, mittens, fur hats and thick coats do wonders! 😀

So, I was torn by what recipe to start 2015 with. I decided to warm up cold days with a superb and fantastically delicious winter dessert -an orange cake. Oranges and mandarins may not be the most obvious fruits in baking, but for me it symbolizes the winter season. The smell of mandarins rind always brings back my childhood memories, when my parents bought them for the New Year eve. The cake is moist, bright, tangy, and delightful in both taste and texture. It is also great any time of the year. 🙂

Winter Orange Cake

Servings: 6-8
Time: 1 1/2 hr+
Difficulty: moderate
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You can use fresh orange slices as is, or cook them in a sweet water (1 cup water+1/3 cup sugar) for about 20-30 minutes on a medium heat – it helps to get rid of orange bitterness.

Ingredients

2 small oranges or 1.5 medium size, sliced

3 Tbsp demerara sugar

160g butter softened

120-150g golden caster sugar, depends on your taste

3 heaped tbsp orange jam (or fine-cut marmalade)

3 eggs, beaten

160g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 tsp baking powder

40g almond powder (ground almonds)

1.5 medium-size oranges or 2 mandarins, finely grated zest and juice

Glaze:

3 heaped tbsp orange jam/marmalade

1-2 tsp orange-flavoured liqueur (Grand Marnier or Cointreau), optional

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease the 18cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Sprinkle the base with demerara sugar. Arrange orange slices on the base, making overlapping layer.
Beat the butter and caster sugar until pale, mix in marmelade and beaten eggs. Fold in flour, salt, baking powder, almonds, orange or mandarin zest and juice.
Pour the batter into tin. Bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes, until golden and firm to touch.
Allow to cool for a few minutes at room temperature.
Meanwhile, make a glaze by warming 3 Tbsp jam and liqueur (if using) in a small pan with a little water.
Carefully turn out the cake onto a serving plate, while it’s still warm. Prick holes in the cake. Spoon glaze over the cake.
Serve warm! Enjoy!

Adapted from Jamie Oliver magazine/issue 26

Cottage cheese and cranberry pie

Winter holidays are almost here and I can’t wait to celebrate! Holiday preparation is already well underway and it can be stressful, but I love this hustle and bustle season: frenzied shopping, decorating homes and work places, buying delicacies and champagne, choosing and wrapping gifts for family and friends. I’m absolutely absorbed in the planning of New Year dinner. Shopping list is written, salads and starters are chosen, goose and turkey are waiting in the freezer. And certainly I couldn’t forget about desert. For me it’s an important and sweet part of the dinner. Any festive dinner should be finished with a perfect cake! Have you chose the one? What will be the sweet star on your table? Will it be traditional cake or pudding, that you make every year or a fancy cake, that you’ll order from a restaurant?

This year I’ll be making the vanilla cheesecake with cranberry or red currant compote. It sounds simple, but that’s exactly what we need this winter – delicious, smooth and tender cake. 🙂 But if you’re tired and bored from all traditional desserts, why don’t you try my festive cake recipe. It seems similar to cheesecake, but I used tvorog (cottage cheese) and sweet condensed milk, and its taste and structure became different. Bright cranberries on the top make this milky and sweet cake absolutely festive! Definitely all guests’ eyes will be on this cake!

If you noticed cranberries are small, because it’s Russian, they are smaller and juicier compare to American cranberries. Needless to say, you can use any cranberries you can find, or frozen cherries are also great here.

Cottage cheese and cranberry pie

Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: moderate
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A new take on the vanilla cheesecake, this cake will go down well on any occasion.

Ingredients

Crust

260g flour

160g butter

1 small egg

2-3 Tbsp caster sugar

1 egg yolk for brushing the pastry crust, optional

Filling

450g tvorog/cottage cheese

3Tbsp cream cheese, optional

3-4Tbsp sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs or 3 small

2 tsp granulated sugar (or omit it and add more condensed milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp cognac or brandy, optional

3 Tbsp ground almonds

100-150g cranberries

almond flakes, for decoration

icing sugar, for decoration, optional

Preparation method

Make the cake crust. Cover and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out 3mm thick and cut a circle larger than 20cm (approx.26-28cm) baking pan. Bake blind in preheated 180C oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the weights, optionally brush with egg yolk, then return to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes more.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl beat eggs with condensed milk and sugar if using until the mixture is pale and sugar almost dissolved. Add vanilla, cognac, cream cheese and mix.
If the cottage cheese is very crumble first mash it with a fork, then add to the filling mixture along with ground almonds, and stir to combine. Taste, add more condensed milk if it’s not enough sweet.
Pour the filling into pastry crust. Arrange cranberries on top, and decorate with almond flakes.
Reduce the heat to 170C and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the filling is set.
Let it cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes, then carefully take out and put on a serving plate. Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired.
Enjoy!