Granted – not everybody likes liver, nor that it has an appetizing look. For some reason this organ does not get any respect in the
Category: Recipies
Sauerkraut Russian style
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
Eat more Pumpkin
Eat what’s in season. Pumpkin on its own maybe boring but adding it to other dishes brightens and gently sweetens them. The hardy creature gives
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.
Tomato salad from my childhood
Back in the day and the place there was no dressing. There were just 2 options for vegetables salad accompaniment – sunflower oil and sour
More Zucchini Pancakes
With carrots and onion
Add some carrots and red onions to your zucchini – it makes them chewy and colorful. The taste is the same as with Trader Joe’s “Nests”, but it’s fresh, never frozen and so much better!
Ingredients:
- 1 medium size zucchini
- 1 medium size carrot
- 1/4 – 1/3 red onion
- 2 eggs
- flour – 2 tbsp
- salt, pepper
Directions:
- Grind zucchini and carrot
- Thinly slice onion
- Add eggs, flour, salt, papper
- Mix everything to combine
- Heat a pan with 2 tbsp grape seeds oil
- Fry about 2 min on each side or till golden brown
- Serve warm or room temperature
With ricotta cheese:
- zucchini
- ricotta cheese or farmer cheese 1/2 lbs
- flour
- 2 eggs
Directions:
- Same all steps, then:
- Optional – separate yolks and whites
- Mix egg or just egg whites with your zucchini batter
- Fry them on 1 side, flip
- If you preserved the yolks – make a little indentation with a spoon and gently place egg yolk in the middle of a pancake.
Zucchini Flowers Tempura
Cut fresh “male” flowers, the ones with long stems. Don’t worry – very few of them can pollinate lots of female flowers, so you don’t put your zucchini harvest in danger.
Ingredients
- flour – 2 tbsp
- baking powder 1/4 tsp
- sparkling water – 1/3 cup
- grape seed oil -2-3 tbsp
Directions:
- Mix flour with the baking powder and start adding your sparkling water gradually stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
- Heat the oil in the pan, dip each flower and every sage leaf into the batter and put into the hot oil
- Fry about 2 min on each side till golden brown
- Sprinkle with salt
You can add some sage leaves to the bouquet, applying the same tempura treatment to them:
Simple stuffed cabbage
First thing first – got to have a cabbage. The size doesn’t matter, but if it’s it medium or big – much easier to cut it in 4 pieces, remove the core, and keep just bigger leaves, the small ones is impossible to stuff so you can take them out and use for salad or something else. Put your whole small cabbage or leaves into a pot , add some cold water, 1 tbsp of salt and put over medium heat. Let it boil for just 5 min, fish it out and let it cool. The stuffing is
Ingredients:
- Medium size cabbage
- Ground beef/chicken/turkey – 1 lb
- 1 small onion
- 1 egg
- Rice – 3 tbsp
Directions:
Prepare the filling
- Fry finely chopped onion in a frying pan with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
- Place ground beef, fried onions, rice and egg into a big bowl
- Add salt, pepper, rice, other herbs of your choice and/or red pepper flakes
- Mix all to combine using your hand or a big fork
Make the rolls
- Separate cooked cabbage leaves, place about 1 tbsp of filling on each leaf and wrap the rolls. You can also stuff some sweet peppers if you have an extra filling.
- Add about 1 cup of water (or use the water from boiling cabbage) into a big pot or dutch oven.
- Bring it to a boil, add 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper, a can of diced tomatoes (or some other tomato sauce and/or paste)
- Reduce heat to low, and place the cabbage rolls into a pot with the boiling sauce
- Simmer for about an hour
- Taste the sauce for salt and adjust to your taste.
- Serve hot, garnish with parsley/cilantro/chives
My family strudel
It’s all about pastry, the filling can vary: a combination of jam, berries, nuts, dry fruits, chocolates, poppy seeds or maybe even savory. But the pastry I remember my mom was making was magical, she was rolling it out to the whole width of the kitchen table – paper thin, stretchy, but very delicate. It was almost invisible inside wrapping the layers of the filling. But that’s what makes it melt in your mouth. Another good news is – this strudel can last for several days in room temperature.
For the pastry Ingredients:
- 200 gr cold butter
- 200 gr sour cream
- 2.5 cups app purpose flour
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
Directions:
- Place cold butter and flour into the big bowl
- Cut it with pastry cutter or do it in the food processor till butter is pea size
- Add sour cream, pinch of salt, 1 egg
- Mix into a ball using your hands for about 2-3 minutes
- Divide into 2 equal parts, wrap with the plastic wrap and put into the fridge for a couple of hours at least (you can keep it there for a week).
- Take 1 ball, sprinkle working surface with some flour and start rolling trying to make it into a rectangular like shape (15-16” wide), it should be super thin, but it’s not hard, the pastry is very stretchy.
- Brush the pastry with melted butter or neutral olive oil (not extra virgin, it shouldn’t have a strong smell). Sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon/cacao mixture or you can skip this step
- Put the filling in a single row, or you can spread it wider to have several layers of party inside.
- Roll the pastry around the filling forming a log.
- Put strudel on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg.
- Make small incisions (about an inch from each other) on your strudel so it’s easier to cut after it’s baked
- Place into preheated to 375 °F and bake for 40-45 min or till golden brown, cool completely
Tart cherries filling (the proportions are very flexible):
- Tart cherry jam without syrup – 2 cup
- Walnuts – 1 cup
- Lemon zest – 1 tbsp
- If the jam is too sweet – lemon juice 2 tbsp
- To make the filling more condensed add more nuts or dried cherries or even crashed cookies.
