Works best with shiitake, you can combine it some other mushrooms – oysters, baby bella, but shiitake is a must.
Small shallot or 1 leak
Heavy cream – 1/2 cup
White wine 1/4 cup
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
2 tbsp of light olive oil + 2 tbsp butter
Directions
Heat your pan with 2 tbsp of light olive oil. Start with frying some mild onions (shallot or leaks) till golden brown
Add your dry clean mushrooms to the pan and let them get golden brown, only after they get that nice crust keep stirring them till they are almost fully cooked.
Add butter, stir and fry mushrooms for another minute
Season with salt and pepper
Deglaze the pan with white wine, reduce the heat and cook for about 5-7 minutes
Add the cream, bring to a boil, cook for about 2 minutes
My favorite snack while cooking – kale chips. Just tear some kale leaves, sprinkle with olive oil, several drops of balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper. Add
It is one of Russian specialties, a unique combination of tasty and healthy food, loaded with vitamins C and K, iron and fiber and contains probiotics. It is called sour cabbage, and with all due respect to all things German is much better than pale mushy sausage condiment. It makes a great side for anything – chicken, fish, steak or ribs. It can even be a salad of its own, or mixed with some sliced shallots and topped with olive oil. One of my favorite meals when I was a child was mashed potatoes mixed with sour cabbage.
The cabbage should be fermented in its own juice, therefore it has to be green cabbage usually harvested late in fall. Another traditional ingredient is carrots, it contributes more to the color, not so much to flavor. The only important proportion to remember – 30 grams of salt per kilogram of cabbage. The rest is optional
Ingredients:
Cabbage 1 kg (2 lbs)
2 medium carrots
Kosher salt 30 gr
2 garlic gloves (optional)
Caraway seeds 1 tsp (optional)
Directions:
Cut the cabbage into 4 big parts, remove the core
Make sure you weight what will be chopped, the ratio of cabbage to salt is important
Shred the carrots
Chop the cabbage into thin strings, the way you do for the coleslaw
Add salt, caraway seeds, thinly sliced garlic and several red pepper flakes
Place everything into a big bowl
Mix everything with your clean hands, don’t squeeze, just mix to evenly distribute salt, carrots and spices. It is actually tasty right away, somewhat like oversalted coleslaw
You will see that the cabbage starts extracting the juice when salt touches it.
Transfer the mix into a glass jar pressing it tight with a spoon, potato masher or just your fist.
Cover the lid
Let it sit on the counter top for 3 days, check daily, open the lid and let some extra gas to evaporate, but still pressing it is submerged into the juice.
It should be ready in 3-4 days, just taste it – it won’t taste like a coleslaw anymore. It will taste like sour cabbage.
Needs to be refregarated once ready
Pumpkin crepes
All ingredients and proportions are the same as for regular crepes, pumpkin addition makes them extra flavorful. You can stuff your crepes with whatever you like, making them sweet or savory. They are actually absolutely delicious just as they are, and the color will brighten your day.
Ingredients :
(for 10 small crepes, about 4″ in diameter, double the amount for more)
1 egg
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Flour – 1/2 cup
Milk – 1 cup
Pumpkin puree – 2-3 tbsp
Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
Directions:
Put an egg into a bowl, add salt, sugar and about one third of flour
Mix all together with whisk till well combined
Add pumpkin puree and mix again
Start adding milk gradually alternating with flour till batter is smooth with no clumps of flour
Whisk in a tablespoon of vegetable oil
Put your non stick skillet on medium high heat, no oil is needed since there is some inside the batter
Using ladle pour 2-3 tbsp of batter into the pan, rotate the skillet it so the batter spreads evenly and covers the skillet surface
Fry about 1 minute on one side (when the edge is golden brown), flip it over and fry about 30 seconds on another side
Remove a crepe into a plate
I usually taste the 1st one and adjust salt/sugar if needed
Abundance of Cilantro!
It’s not just a way to preserve such fragrant and delicate herb but make a great condiment of your own.
Here is one idea – cilantro pesto:
Ingredients:
Cilantro – about 1 cup (stems can be used too)
Garlic – 3-4 cloves
Red pepper flakes
Lime juice 2-3 tbsp
Olive oil – 3/4 of a cup
Pistachios – 1/4 cup
Salt -1/2 tsp
Pepper – 1/4 tsp
Optional – Manchego cheese
Directions:
Put all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse till it becomes a paste.
It can stay in the fridge for weeks, great with rice, pasta, fish, cracker or just slice of bread.
