Very famous ballerina Maya Plisetskaya once said “People didn’t invent anything better than bread and butter”. I am sure this is the bread she meant
Category: Recipies
Legendary Rye Bread (Borodinsky)
First thing first: you will absolutely need this product – fermented rye malt. It is this powder that adds that sweet & sour almost umami flavor that distinguishes this bread from any other. I couldn’t find it on Amazon, but it is available on Etsy and ebay from several vendors. The delivery can be long (2-3 weeks), it may come from Kazakhstan or some other distant place.
Here is the picture:
The rest of the ingredients are all wildly available:
For Leaven(for the night):
- starter from the fridge – 70gr
- room temperature water – 70 gr
- rye flour – 70gr
For Brewing (for the night):
- Rye flour – 80 gr
- fermented malted rye – 25 gr
- ground coriander – 6 gr (1 1/2 tsp)
- boiling water – 250 gr
For Initial Dough:
- all leaven
- all brewing
- rye flour – 170 gr
- room temperature water – 50 gr
- yeast – 0.5 gr (optional)
For Final Dough:
- Molasses – 20 gr
- Room temperature water – 80 gr
- Sugar – 30 gr
- Salt – 10 gr
- Rye flour – 100 gr
- Whole wheat flour – 75 gr
- Coriander seeds (whole and/or crushed)
Directions:
The bread is done in 4 main stages:
- 1st stage – leaven:
- Mix your starter with room temperature water, the add rye flour, cover and leave overnight on the counter
- 2nd stage – brewing:
- Mix well brewing dry ingredients
- Add boiling water, mix well so everything is incorporated
- Place in 60° C or 140° F oven ( or on some heating pad) for 2 hours. Leave it in the oven after turning it off overnight
- 3rd stage – initial dough:
- In a big bowl combine leaven, brewing , flour and water. Add yeast if you want the dough to rise faster, I skip it.
- Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place (28° C or 82° F) for an 3-4 hours
- 4th stage – final dough:
- mix well water, molasses, salt, sugar till salt and sugar dissolve
- Add your wet ingredients to the dough
- Add both types of flour and mix the dough well with spoon or wooden spatula
- Cover with plastic and let it raise for another hour
- Prepare the baking form by covering it with the parchment paper
- Using wet hands extract the dough from the bowl, shape it a little and place into the baking form.
- Press the dough into all corners of the form with your wet hands
- Sprinkle with coriander seeds and press them a little
- Leave it to raise for an 1-2 hours
- You can bake it after raising or put in the fridge overnight.
- Preheat your oven to 250°C or 500° F
- Bake for 10 min then reduce temperature to 200° C or 450° F and bake for another 55-60 min
Lekach – Honey Cake
This traditional Rosh ha-Shana dessert was one of my mom’s favorite. She never wrote down the recipe, and every store bought honey cake I tried in Israel was so unimpressive – they were too moist, or too sweet or too heavy, mostly all of the above. As I was leaving Israel my dear friend wrote me his mom’s recipe which I implemented several years later and the result was the closest one or even better than my mom baked (honestly by then I didn’t remember what it was, but I am sure my mom would approve) – it was soft, light, airy, fragrant, full of but not overloaded with walnuts, melting in your mouth. Absolutely fantastic with coffee, and worth documenting. So here it is … I will still keep that small piece of paper with my friend’s handwriting as long as I live.
Ingredients:
- 5 eggs at room temperature
- Sugar – 3/4 cup
- Honey – 1 cup
- Baking soda – 1 tsp
- Sour cream – 1/2 cup
- Milk – 1/2 cup
- Vegetable oil ( I use light olive oil) – 2-3 tbsp
- Flour – 2.5 cups
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Ground ginger – 1 tbsp (my addition to the original recipe)
- Walnuts – 1 cup
Directions:
- Separate yolks from white
- In big bowl whisk egg yolks with honey
- Add sour cream and vegetable oil, keep whisking
- Add milk and whisk again
- Gradually mix in flour mixed with soda
- Add walnuts to batter
- In a separate bowl whip egg whites with 1 cup of sugar with hand mixer
- Gently fold whipped whites into the batter
- Pour batter into greased baking form (batter should be liquid)
- Put into preheated to 375 °F oven
- Bake for 55-60 minutes
Very special dessert for very special occasion
Here is the elevated version of this double mousse. Not that it’s just in a high glass, it’s black currants instead of red that results
Grilled Eggplant Spread
The best tastes of summer in one dish, just grill, chop, add olive oil, salt and pepper.
And if you don’t have peppers – t’s fine too. Actually my mom was doing it with just 3 ingredients: eggplant, tomatoes and onion. The amounts are very flexible, but the important is – don’t use a blender, it should not be pulverized, just finely chopped.
Ingredients:
- 1 Midsize Roasted/grilled eggplant
- 1 Large Roasted bell pepper, red or yellow
- 3 – 4 mid size tomatoes or use 2 small ones
- 1 Shallot
- 2 gloves of garlic
- 1 tsp of Salt 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/3 cup Olive Oil
Directions:
- Peel grilled or roasted eggplant (grilled is always better), poke eggplant with a fork before grilling/roasting so it doesn’t explode
- place it in the sieve to drain extra liquid.
- Chop the eggplant into small chunks about 1/8 inch.
- Do NOT use food processor, it completely changes the taste.
- Peel tomatoes, use your knife to bruise tomatoes (forcing the juices to the skin) so it’s easier to peel and chop them to the same size as the eggplant
- Chop grilled bell pepper. I leave the skin on intentionally, it is part of the taste in my opinion.
- Finely chop shallot and garlic
- Add salt, pepper, olive oil and mix it all together with a fork or a spoon.
- Check for seasoning and add if needed.
- Serve room temperature as a dip with bread, the best way in my opinion to consume it – as side dish with any meat or fish.
- To see the details click here:
Caprese Salad Alternative
Mozzarella replaced with feta cheese, basil with cilantro. Happy Summer!
Zucchini soup
Looks fancy, tastes delicious, cooks fast!
Ingredients (2 servings):
- Small onion or shallot
- Zucchini 2 medium
- Sour cream – 1 tbsp
- Chicken/vegetable broth – 1-2 cups
- Light olive oil – 1-2 tbsp
Directions:
- Chop onion/shallot
- Chop zucchini to half inch cubes
- Put your pan on a medium high heat, add olive oil
- Start frying onion
- When onion is translucent add chopped zucchini to the pan, mix with onions
- Saute zucchinies with onion for about 10 minutes, till golden color, stirring occasionally
- Add sour cream, mix in with the vegetables
- Keep sauteing for a couple more minutes
- Pour stock, bring to a boil
- Add salt and pepper and turn the heat off.
- Puree with emerging blender or pour the soup into a regular blender and puree.
Serve hot, garnish with roasted pancetta, prosciutto or feta cheese
Super healthy sandwich.
Start with the rolls, loaded with seeds inside and out, they almost have more seeds than flour and even flour is a combination of rye,
Very green salad
Trying to live from the land: have lots of cucumbers and herbs in my garden and made this super green , healthy and delicious salad. In just 2 minutes. There are no proportions and not exact ingredients, just try to use up as much greens as possible. Avocado and feta cheese are store bought.
Ingredients:
- cucumber
- cilantro
- parsley
- chives
- green onion
- feta cheese
- lime juice to dress
Directions:
- Slice cucumber, I kept the skin because it’s sweet and crunchy
- Chop your herbs really finely
- Chop avocado
- Crumble feta cheese
- Add salt and pepper
- Sprinkle with lime juice
Perfect summer drink – Café Glacé (Iced Coffee in French)
It is just coffee with some ice cream, but for me – it’s a flashback to my teens. I mastered the drink during super hot
