Tag Archives: travel photography

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!

Summer

Hello my dear blogofriends! I’ve been out of blogging for some time, but I have a reason: I’m currently on holiday in my home-country. The weather is perfect here, only +30-35C during the daytime, and evenings are cool and fresh. Moreover, it’s a strawberry season here, and my parents have got lots of delicious strawberries in their garden, so you can imagine how many berries I’ve been eating every single day. 😀 Local strawberries are totally different from those ones in Dubai’ supermarkets, they are flavorful, sweet and of course organic!

Another amazing thing about fruits, that cherries and apricots are both in season in Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan), and fortunately for me, plenty of these fruits are sold in Russian markets straight from sunny Uzbekistan, which is known for their tasty fruits.

And here is the picture of ‘zemlyanika’ or wild strawberries which I picked myself in the wild woods near one Russian village. I have no words to describe them! These little germs are full of wonderful aroma! You need to try these little berries at least once. 🙂

Moroccan lamb with peas

Lamb is a very popular type of meat in Morocco and Arabic countries. This stew gets Moroccan flavours from a mixture of aromatic spices such as ginger, turmeric, thyme and cumin. Would be nice if you could find a dried lemon, it adds slightly citrusy aroma, or you can use preserved lemons which are widely-used in Moroccan cuisine. This hearty and tasty stewed lamb with aromatic saffron rice is perfect to share with you family!

Moroccan lamb with peas and saffron rice.

Servings: 3
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from “a little taste of Morocco”

Ingredients

500g lamb, cut into 3-4cm pieces

1+1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1/3 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 dried lemon

200ml water

1/2 tsp dried thyme

100g fresh or frozen peas

2 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander leaves

2 tsp chopped fresh mint

salt, black pepper to taste

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan. Add lamb pieces and brown all over; remove to a dish.
Add more olive oil and onion, fry on a low heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic, spices and lemon and cook for a minute more. Add water, give a good stir, return lamb to the saucepan and season to taste. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to very low, add thyme, cover with a lid and simmer for 50 minutes.
Add peas, chopped parsley and mint, cover with the lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Open the lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes more to reduce the liquid a bit.
Serve with saffron rice.

Saffron rice

180g long-grain rice

1 tbsp olive oil

300ml water

a pinch of salt

1/3 tsp saffron threads

15g butter

In a saucepan, bring water to boil, add saffron, turn the heat off and leave to infuse for 15-20 minutes.
Wash the rice, drain. Heat oil in a pan, add rice and stir well to coat evenly in the oil, stir-fry for a minute.
Add rice and salt to the saffron water, bring to boil and boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to very low, cover with a lid and cook for 9-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the pan covered for 8-10 minutes. Add butter and fluff with a fork.

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.