Tag Archives: recipes

Red pepper Dip

Hello-hello! If you have seen the previous post, I promised the recipe with roasted peppers, so for keeping you waiting for so long. Here it is. The dip is such a nice snack, especially for mums, when you are doing lots of thing at a time, it is easy to forget to feed yourself (of course not your child, haha). All you need for this lovely dip is to prepare roasted peppers ahead, and then just whizz peppers with nuts and oil in a blender until you have a rough paste. In fact, I actually prefer not to measure ingredients in such simple recipes, throw in as you feel – that’s all. Then scoop the dip into a beautiful bowl, put on a table with some sliced bread or crackers on the side, and dig in when you have a time. Red pepper dip goes nicely with roasted chicken or fried chicken breasts. Yum! Healthy, delicious and sooooo quick to prepare, sounds perfect. 😀

I’ve tried this dip with a store-bought almond meal and homemade roasted ground almonds, and surprisingly I love the option with almond meal. Honestly speaking, I thought I would like a note of roasted nuts in the dip but I didn’t. The choice is up to you, try both and let me know what do you like more.

Dip with roasted red peppers and almonds

Tips

If you like it spicy – add chili flakes or chili oil.

If you want to make the consistency thinner – add a splash of water.

No nuts? Not a problem, make it nut free – sub almonds with breadcrumbs.

Red pepper Dip

Servings: 2
Difficulty: easy
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What You’ll Need

1 roasted&marinated red pepper

1 garlic clove from the marinade

1 tbsp EV olive oil

2 tbsp almond meal

6-8 basil leaves (optional)

1-2 tbsp water, optional (to thin the dip, if desired)

Salt, pepper, to taste

How to Make it

Put all ingredients in a blender, blend until desired consistency.
To make it thinner, add water – spoon by spoon, but not much!
Serve with bread, crackers or even chicken.

Enjoy!

Leftovers wholemeal galette

If you could have a look at my freezer you would found there a disc of shortcrust pastry. It’s very handy to have one there, so once you don’t know what to cook or unexpectedly a friend decided to come over, you can prepare a nice tasty galette (or mini quiches, click here for the ideas) in almost no time. Tip: make a couple of crusts ahead, shape into discs (it takes less space in the freezer and then easier to roll out) and freeze. For the filling you can use almost whatever you can find in your fridge or even freezer, wether it is savory or sweet stuff. And another tip: freeze roasted or boiled chicken, deli ham leftovers; or if you bought too many fruits and berries, clean and cut them and freeze as well.

This time I had a roasted chicken and gammon leftovers, I combined both. Gammon was a bit dry, so probably I won’t use it next time. But the chicken tasted quiet nice, especially mixed with lots of leeks sautéed in a butter and few cherry tomatoes. Some cream cheese (on any other cheese) on top makes this delicious wholemeal galette only better.

If you fancy to try sweet galette click here. Cherry one! 😉

Leftovers wholemeal galette

Servings: 4-6
Time: 50min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Wholemeal shortcrust pastry

100g wholemeal flour

100g plain flour

120g butter

1-2 tbsp iced cold water

Filling

roasted chicken leftovers

leek, sautéed in butter&oil

few cherry tomatoes, cut into halves

2 quill eggs (1 egg yolk separated), optional

some cream cheese

S&P to taste

Method

For the pastry combine ingredients, shape into a disc and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes, or freeze until needed.
Roll out the pastry into 2-3mm thick disk, arrange filling. Pour over slightly bitten eggs, if using. Dot with creame cheese. Fold in the pastry edges. Brush with remaining egg yolk.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Russian Beetroot Caviar

This bright beetroot dip doesn’t contain salmon or any other fish raw. In my home-country vegetable spreads and dips that are mushed into a non-smooth consistency are often called caviar. In USSR fish caviar was an expensive product and most of the time was served over special occasions, but people have always wanted something tasty not only during holidays or weekend; and such vegetables as an eggplants, marrows and beetroots were cheap and available almost throughout the year, thus I guess economical version of the “caviar” was created.

The recipe I found in a book dated 1990, it calls to boil beetroot, fry onions and press through the meat-grinder machine along with other ingredients. Easy-peasy. It turned out so tasty, that i have already made it few times in a row! Moreover, it was a hit at the home-party, especially when I served this dip nicely decorated with little festive crackers; needless to say, guests asked for the recipe!

The original Russian recipe calls for the salted pickled cucumbers, which are usually watery and personally I don’t like its taste, so I used regular crunchy pickled cucumbers and the beetroot dip was absolutely amazing and delicious! I prefer slightly coarse a caviar-like texture, so I don’t blend ingredients too much, but if you wish – just blitz it more to get the smooth dip. Enjoy!

Russian Beetroot Caviar

Servings: 4
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

400g/2 medium-size beetroots

2 tps olive or sunflower oil, for frying

1/2 large brown onion

~100g pickled cucumbers

2 cloves of garlic

Salt&Pepper, to taste

Method

Boil beetroots until soft. Cool, clean and chop.
Chop the onion and fry in a oil until soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
Finely chop cucumbers. Also finely chop or mush garlic.
Blitz all ingredients in a food processor until desired consistency.
Check the seasoning. Serve with rye bread or crackers.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Recipes of 2015

January 3, 2016
milkandbun
20 comments
blog, Blogging, cooking, desserts, food and recipes, food photo, food photography, food styling, holidays, recipes, Russian food

Cheers to the New Year! Let this Year be the one, where all our dreams come true and may it will be filled with lots of delightful surprises!

Happy 2016 to you, dear reader! Hope you’ve met the new year in a good mood, with delicious food and among beloved family and friends!

I want to represent my Top 10 Recipes of the 2015 year, I’ve picked up my favourites that I truly love and enjoyed last year. Under the photos you can find the links to all recipes. What do you think? Which recipe does suit your the most?

I would also love to hear what recipes you’d like to see and read in this year: may be more savoury dishes or from Russian cuisine. Thanks so much for reading and staying with me!

#1 Sharlotka

#4 Baked apple with cowberries

#7 Vegetable tian

#8 Carrot rolls

#2 Millet kasha

#5 Red blini

#9 Knyshy

#3 Braised rabbit

#6 Olive oil and rosemary crackers

#10 Arabian meatballs

Click on the links for the full recipe and post:

#1 Sharlotka – my family recipe of Russian apple pie.

#2 Russian millet kasha with cinnamon apples and walnuts.

#3 Rabbit braised with thyme, juniper berries and prunes.

#4 Baked apples with cowberries and walnuts.

#5 Bright and tasty blini.

#6 Crunchy and aromatic crackers.

#7 Vegetable tian.

#8 Carrot rolls with hazelnuts and orange marmalade.

#9 Knyshy – small round pies with potato filling.

#10 Arabian meatballs.

Moroccan-inspired Dinner. Roast chicken with chickpea stuffing and sauteed okra.

When was the last time you had a proper Sunday dinner {or Friday dinner in Arabic countries}? Do you plan it ahead or make it spontaneously? I suggest you to plan the dinner this time. Find the recipe you haven’t tried yet (or try mine) and which doesn’t require much time to be cooked, do the shopping a day ahead. And probably in the weekend you can allow yourself the luxury of feasting on the company of those you love the most.

I love to spend a weekend afternoon in the kitchen preparing dinner surrounded by the wonderful aromas! Last weekend I was browsing through the photographs from the trip to Morocco, and inspired by all those bright, ancient and beautiful scenes, I decided to prepare the dinner in Arabic style. 🙂

This roasted chicken recipe is a terrific option for dinner if you are looking for scrumptious, healthy and something easy to cook! The richness of garlic, the fire of harissa paste and the aroma of lemon make the dish comforting and that the whole family will love!

So get cooking! 😉

Roast Arabic-spiced Chicken

Servings: 4-6
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Roast Arabic-spiced Chicken

Ingredients

1*1.3-1.5 kg chicken,corn fed, free range

Salt, pepper to taste

2Tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 tsp thyme leaves, fresh or dried

Rub:

1/2 lemon, juice and zest

3-4 tsp harissa paste

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp ginger powder

5 allspice berries, ground

1 Tbsp olive oil

+2 Tbsp zaatar

Stuffing:

200g chickpeas, cooked or from tin

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 small chilli, finely chopped

1/2 lemon

olive oil

Method

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Coat it inside and out with salt and pepper.

Gently separate the skin from the flesh with your fingers and insert butter and thyme under the skin.

Mix ingredients for the rub to make a marinade. Rub all over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for 1-3 hours.

Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cook. Sprinkle with zaatar.

For the filling, in a bowl mix chickpeas, garlic, chilli and a dash of olive oil. Stuff the chicken and place the half of the lemon at the entrance.

Truss the chicken and place in the roasting pan (breast-side up).

Roast in preheated 210C oven for 40 minutes, then down the heat to 180C and roast 30-40 minutes more, or until the juices run clear.

Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Extract the lemon from the cavity of the chicken and spoon the filling in a serving bowl. Squeeze the juice from the lemon, season with salt and pepper, mash chickpeas with a spoon a little bit. Drizzle with olive oil.