Marinated Cabbage Salad

It may not look much, but this salad is just wonderful – flavorful, juicy and super healthy!

It’s a very refreshing side dish for any meat, chicken or fish. Another good news about it – it can stay in the fridge for weeks, and be ready for your family and guests at any time.

Ingredients:

White or green cabbage 1 kg (2 lbs)
Carrots – 2 medium
One medium size apple, peeled
Cranberries – 1/3 cup
Grapes, about 10-12 berries, depending on size

Marinade:

Water – 2 cups
Vinegar, preferrably apple cider – 1/3 cup
Salt – 1/2 tbsp
Sugar – 1/4 cup
Light olive oil (without strong taste) – 1/3 cup

Directions:

Prepare marinade by combining all marinade ingredients in a pot, bringing it to a boil and boiling for 2 minutes
Chop cabbage into 1/2-2/3 inch square pieces
Chop carrots and apple into the same size pieces
Cut grapes into small pieces
Place all vegetables into a big bowl
Pour hot marinade over cabbage
Mix well, cover with a lid or plastic wrap
Keep the bowl in room temperature for about 2 days, mixing occasionally (~every couple of hours during a day)
Taste it from time to time, the cabbage should become very soft and will change color. It will look like swimming in it’s juice.
Place into a jar and off to fridge.

Pilav (Plov) – simple and delicious.

It’s a meal in a pan – one grand main dish, no sides needed. Feeds a crowd and can be served in a pan, makes a great centerpiece.

Ingredients:

Lamb ~ 1-1.5 lbs
1 big yellow onion
Carrots – 1-1.5 lbs
Rice parboiled is better, but jasmine or baldo rice will work: 2.5 – 3 cups. It is shorter grain than basmati and cooks longer.
Head of garlic (at least, 2 is better)
Salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, chili pepper, thyme

Directions:

Cut lamb into half inch pieces, remove extra fat, but keep some.
Finely chop onion
Carrots have to be cut, not grated to retain it’s juice. I used food processor this time, but regretted it.
Use big heavy pan (dutch oven is the best). Pour 2-3 tbsp light olive oil into the pan.
Start frying onions. If you have extra time it’s better to start with frying your meat, getting it seared, then removing from a pan and then fry onions. But to make it simpler…
When onion is golden brown add meat, mix to combine and keep frying on high heat to get it seared, stirring occasionally. Spice your meat.
When meat is seared and browned (it should actually be cooked, pieces are small) add carrots, mix with meat and onion, keep frying all together for 3-5 minutes.
Rinse rice with cold water, add to the pan, mix with onion and vegetables
Pour cold water over rice, bring it to a boil on high heat, check the sauce for salt and spices and adjust as needed.
Reduce the heat to very low, cover your pan with the lid.
In about 5-7 minutes when rice absorbs water place full head of garlic (or two) inside the rice.
In about 10 minutes start checking rice for being cooked. Turn the heat off when rice is fully cooked.

Simple Satisfying Soup

It’s a meatball soup, but meat can be replaced with ground chicken or turkey or veal, based on what you like or what you happen to have in your fridge. Dumplings will work too. Adding some vegetables will make it very flavorful, colorful and fragrant. You can make it heartier by rolling more meatballs or spicier with several drops of sriracha directly into the pan.

The ingredients and their amounts are so flexible, you can even change them as you go – if it seems a little watery – add some rice or orzo. Or just pour more water if it starts to remind you of a stew.

Ingredients:

Ground meat (turkey) – about a cup for 5-6 cups pan.
Carrots – 2 medium
Parsnip – half of a root
Celery – 1 stick
Sweet pepper – 2 small
Lentil – 2 tbsp
Rice – 1 tbsp
Tomato sauce or paste – 1 tbsp
Frozen peas – 2 tbsp

Directions:

Pour ~5 cups of water into a pan, bring to a boil
Add 1 tsp of salt
Make small balls from the ground meat (about half inch in diameter) and put them into a boiling water.
If you use lentils – add them at the same time with the meatballs, they cook a little longer than vegetables.
When meatballs come to the surface of the pan reduce the heat to medium/low
Add finely chopped vegetables, let them boil for about 5 min
Add rice or orzo (all optional)
Check for salt, adjust as needed, add freshly ground black pepper.
Optional – add some tomato sauce or paste (even in the form of ketchup), about a tbsp, or even sriracha sauce if you want to add some heat
When vegetables and everything else is cooked – add some frozen peas for a nice crunch
That’s it – the soup is ready in 15-20 minutes!

Super Candy

Here is synergy in it’s best! Two antioxidants combined, can even be taken as a vitamin. Very energizing and absolutely delicious!

Ingredients:

Pomegranate seeds
Chocolate, the darker the better. Even 100 % cocoa works.

Directions:

Place pomegranate seeds on flat plate covered with parchment paper
Melt the chocolate in double boiler
Pour the chocolate over the seeds, trying to cover all the seeds
Allow to cool and put into a fridge

Skinny Focaccia

My takeaway from the latest trip to Rome – pita thin, but not flat focaccia. Chewy, spongy and delicious!

Ingredients:

Active Starter – 100 gr
Water (room temperature) – 430 gr
Molasses – 1 tbsp
Bread Flour – 512 gr
Salt – 10 gr (more to sprinkle on top)
Olive oil – 2 tbsp (more to sprinkle on top)

Directions:

Pour water into a big bow.
Add active starter
Add molasses, mix well
Add flour and salt
Mix all ingredients together with the spatula
Put in a warm place for 4-6 hours
Add olive oil, fold it into the dough, cover and keep in a warm place for another 8-10 hours. The dough should raise at least twice and be full of bubbles (total time depends on the room temperature)
Unload the raised dough onto a well oiled baking sheet (you can cover baking sheet with parchment paper)
Spread the dough evenly with your hands
Sprinkle with olive oil, rosemary, sea salt, red pepper flakes (all optional, can be any herb you like)
Bake in preheated to 450°F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown crust.

Put all ingredients except olive oil into big bowl

Easy Latest Life style

Hanukkah Time!

December 26, 20241 min read AlwaysTasty

You will want to eat it every day of Hanukkah and beyond! The most comforting, satisfying and easy to make dish. There is no strict

Potato Pancakes (Latkes)

Ingredients:

Potatos (starchy) – 4 medium Yucon Gold
Eggs – 2
Shallot or small onion (optional)- 1
Garlic (optional) – 2 cloves
Salt 1/2 tsp, pepper 1/4 tsp

Directions:

Peel and grind potatoes
Add eggs
Add finely chopped shallot and garlic
Add salt and pepper
Mix everything well with fork
Potato will release a lot of water, don’t discard it! Instead – mix it in every time you spoon your pancakes!
Heat non stick or stainless steel pan to little under medium high
Pour 2 tbsp of vegetable oil into a pan, add 1/2 butter
Measure pancakes with tablespoon.
Fry for about 3 minutes (or until golden brown) on each side.
Taste for salt and adjust as needed
Maintain heat under medium high so that the potatoes cooks through before burns outside.
Add oil and butter as you go

Wonder Bread

What makes this bread wonderful is a combination of flours – bread, spelt, rye and amaranth. Makes the crumb very soft and silky and crust – thin and delicious. And VERY HEALTHY!

Ingredients:

100 gr of active starter
Water (room temperature) – 350 gr
Bread flour – 350 gr
Whole wheat or spelt flour – 50 gr
Rye flour – 20 gr
Amaranth – 30 gr
Salt – 10 gr
Optional: seed mix (flax, sunflower, pumpkin) – 60 – 80 gr or finely chopped olives

Directions (mostly the same as here https://stellarkitchen.net/?page_id=747):

Pour water into a big bowl
Add your active starter, mix well
Add flour, salt and garnish (seeds or olives)
Mix well, cover and put in a warm place ~75 °F
Repeat 4 foldings every 30-45 minutes (using the technique shown here: https://stellarkitchen.net/?page_id=747).
Let your dough sit for 3-4 hours, it should raise ~ 70%.
Form the bread and place to the raising basket or towel covered form ( sprinkled with flour).
Let it proof for another 2-3 hours, depending to your room temperature, it should raise about 20-25%.
Put the formed bread into the fridge for cold fermentation overnight.
Bake in preheated to 500 °F oven in dutch oven or some over bread vessel with lid for 20 minutes
Remove lid, reduce temperature to 450 °F and bake another 20-25 minutes till you see golden crust.
Remove, cool completely and enjoy