Tag Archives: Russia

Eggplant wedges

Hey everyone! I came back from the holidays recently and slowly getting into blogging again. In my previous posts I shared with you some recipes using white and red currants, and you may think that I have had only berries during the summer time in Russia.. Yes I did! This summer has been bountiful: lots of amazing produce, including various berries – gooseberries, strawberries and currants, as well as vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants.

I’m so glad that I was able to enjoy amazing veggies and greens form my parents’ garden. We cooked many dishes using these vegetables, including zucchini oladushki (fritters), sauteed veggies, salads, and so on. Finally we get tired of cooking eggplants and zucchini the same way. Moreover, I missed Dubai with its seductive aromas and herbs, rich and spice flavours in the air.. Fortunately, I brought my favourite spice – zaatar, and the decision was found: to make eggplant wedges with a Middle Eastern note! It was an easy and quick way to prepare eggplants. I drizzled it with aromatic olive oil, sweet molasses and of course zaatar, then served with a slice of country-style bread, yogurt and sliced fresh tomatoes!

Eggplant wedges

Servings: 3-4
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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You can substitute pomegranate molasses with balsamic vinegar or any other pomegranate sauce.

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

3 tsp zaatar mix spice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

pomegranate seeds

100g plain yogurt or sour cream for serving, optional

salt, pepper to taste

Preparation method

Cut washed eggplants into 8-10 wedges. Sprinkle with some salt and leave for 20-30 minutes. Place under running water to wash off the salt. Arrange wedges onto lined baking tray.
In a small bowl, combine olive oil, molasses and zaatar. Brush eggplant wedges with this mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake in preheated 180C for 25 minutes. Then increase the temperature to 200C and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until eggplants wedges are soft and nicely browned.
Arrange eggplant wedges onto a serving plate, sprinkle with sesame and pomegranate seeds.
Serve with yogurt on side, or pour it over warm wedges.

Enjoy!

Sharing with all bloggers at Fiesta Friday party!

WhiteCurrant tart

Hello-hello! I love summer because it’s berry season! May be not that summer when the outside temperature is +40C or even 50C.. Hope you are having the same great summer as I do this time in Russia: lots of organic berries, vegetables and greens, amazing weather, long walks and talks with friends. But sometimes the weather plays a joke: in the morning can be so cold that you need a thick jacket, later so hot – you need a dress instead of jacket, and so on..

Talking about summer berries, currants is super common and one of the popular type of berry in Russia. I’m sure many of you tried redcurrants or seen it in supermarkets, or tried a dessert garnished with it. Here, there are three types of currants: black, red and white. They differ from one another not only in their color; blackcurrant is the sweetest one, red is tender and sour, and whitecurrant is sweet-and-sour with lots of seeds. And I guess, the white one is less-known, so I’ve been determined to make something tasty with these beautiful berries. Here, they are usually eaten as is or they make compotes (cold drink), jams. I made shortcrust pastry with tvorog (cottage cheese), filled with tender tvorog filling (yes, again cottage cheeese! I love it!) and scattered whitecurrants over the top. Yummy!

So, how is your summer going on? 🙂

WhiteCurrant tart

Servings: 6-8
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: easy
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The recipe calls for whitecurrants, which are usually uncommon, so use redcurrants or any berries that you can get.

If you’re using frozen berries, don’t defreeze it.

I used 22cm baking tin.

Ingredients

Pastry

200g flour

100g butter, cut into small cubes

100g tvorog/cottage cheese (I used 0% fat)

1 egg

Filling

3 eggs

70-100g sugar or fructose (depends on your taste)

300-350g sour cream (20-30% fat)

100g tvorog/cottage cheese (I used 0% fat)

1 tsp vanilla sugar/extract

450-500g whitecurrants

Preparation method

To make the pastry, place flour, butter in a large bowl (or in the food processor) and mix to get breadcrumbs. Mix in tvorog. Add egg and mix until just comes together. Shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry on a lightly floured table to form a round. Grease the baking tin and lightly dust with flour. Arrange pastry into the baking tin. Place in the fridge to cool while you’re preparing the filling.
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a bowl, whisk eggs with sugar. Beat in sour cream. Add cottage cheese and vanilla, whisk to combine.
Take the pastry out the fridge, pour in filling. Scatter over berries.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the baking tin, then carefully remove from the tin and serve.

Enjoy!

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

Happy New Year

January 1, 2015
milkandbun
20 comments
Happy New Year, holidays, photography, photos, Russia, Russian tradition, Russian winter, snow, travel, travel photography, winter

Happy New Year, guys! It’s the very first day of the year, and it’s -13C/9F and snowing in Russia currently. What does your family do every New Year eve? Do you have any memorable tradition? Every family celebrates holidays in their own way. The New Year Eve is a very important holiday in Russia, it’s time when all family members gather together, bring salads and sweets, cook pork or roast goose, socialise and discussing passing year, watch music tv-shows and exchange presents.

From the Soviet time Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated and most of the religious traditions, which are common for the Western people took their place on the New Year Eve. And so it is every since.

Traditionally all the best foods and treats were set on the festive table, the most popular salads still shuba and oliver (will post soon). Cold cuts, salted mushrooms and pickled cucumbers are also served. The dessert can be any cake or chocolates, and every home is full of mandarine aroma.

By one tradition, we open a bottle of champagne sharp at twelve midnight and make a wish. 🙂

By another tradition, Grandpa Frost (Santa Claus) and his granddaughter Snow-maiden come to children and they should tell festival poems and songs, and children receive gifts in return.

Have a fabulous winter!

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Goat cheese must be the most controversial cheese. One does like it, another hate. What about you, dear reader? Do you like goat cheese or its odour is too pungent for you?

Whatever you goat cheese stance, I suggest you to try it! May be you will find you earthreal cheese! 🙂

I couldn’t find a good goat cheese, when I lived in Russia, there was no any variety even in supermarkets. You could find the goat milk, which was sold by farmers in the countryside, but usually only milk, they didn’t produce any goat cheese. There were plenty of soft and hard farmer cheeses but made from cow milk. Thus many people haven’t try goat cheese. Of course the situation has changed now.

I was amazed how many goat cheeses are sold in Dubai: fresh, soft and creamy, aged, etc, which are brought here from Europe (usually from France).

Once I watch a food-show and chef made a salad with mini cheese balls, covered with parsley. I liked the idea.. After several days I created my own appetizer to impress my guests.

It looks like a gourmet appetizer, and it’s certainly good if you don’t want to hang around the kitchen for hours. 😉

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Servings: 5-6
Difficulty: easy
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If you want to make it ahead of time, you can roll the balls and roast beetroots 1 to 2 days beforehand.

Ingredients:

150g soft goat cheese (I used honey-flavoured)

1 Tbsp cream cheese

a pinch of sea salt

1/3 tsp white or pink pepper, freshly ground

1-3 Tbsp walnuts, finely chopped

1-3 Tbsp fresh thyme, sage, flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1-2 small beetroots

1-2 small tomatoes

Dressing:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1/2 tsp liquid honey

Method:

Wash and clean beets, cover with a foil and bake in preheated oven 200C/400F for 30-45 minutes, depends on the beets’ size.
Cut the beets and tomatoes into equal circles, and arrange them on a serving plate.
In a bowl combine goat and cream cheeses along with salt, pepper and walnuts. Spoon cheese mixture and form into balls (you can use table or teaspoon, depends on a size of your choice).
Gentle roll the balls in herb mixture, coating well. Place onto vegetables.
Serve immediately (with fresh arugula or young chard leaves, if desired), or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Optionally, you can make a dressing and pour over cheese balls and salad.

TIP: You can add 1-2 fresh or dried finely chopped figs into the cheese mixture.

I’m bringing this dish over to FF tonight! Hopefully, someone has brought a good bottle of wine.. 😉 And don’t forget to bring the good mood to the party!

ENJOY!

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