Boeuf Salad

Ingredients

- Five red potatoes
- One large parsnip
- One large carrot
- One chicken breast
- One cup of sweet peas
- Eight baby dill pickles
- Two pickled bell peppers (if you can't find those, use fire-roasted peppers kept in lemon juice or vinegar for one hour)
- One-two cups of mayonnaise
- Three boiled eggs
- Spices: salt, pepper
- For presentation: two boiled eggs, mayonnaise, olives, extra pickles, fresh parsley



Preparation

•  Boil the eggs, including the ones to be used for presentation (make sure the yolks are firm).
•  Boil the chicken breast for about an hour in a large pot, together with the peeled potatoes, parsnip, sweet peas, and carrot. Periodically remove the foam that forms on top of the boiling soup. You may want to start checking with a knife about 45 minutes in, and remove the pot from heat once a knife starts to easily slide through the largest potato.
• Remove from heat and drain. You may want to save the water and use it for a soup.
•  Carefully dice the boiled vegetables, the chicken, and the pickles. You want all pieces to have about the same size - aim for something slightly slightly bigger than a pea. Place everything in a large bowl.
•  Take three of the boiled eggs, cut them in two, and separately the yellows. Dice the egg whites, and add to the other diced ingredients.
• Add the spices, to taste. Be careful with the salt - the pickles are already fairly salty.
• Finally, you want to add as little mayonnaise as possible, but make sure that the whole dish stays together. You may want to add a few spoons of mayonnaise, mix everything together, check the overall consistency, and repeat if not yet ready.

Read more 

Fluffy Cherry Cake

Ingredients

- Four eggs
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of sparkling water
- A pinch of salt
- One cup of fresh fruits
- One spoon of vanilla
- One spoon of lemon peel
- A bit of butter or oil
- For presentation: powder sugar, a few extra fresh fruits


Preparation

•  Preheat the oven to 325F.
• If you're using cherries (or other seeded fruits), carefully remove their seeds.
• Carefully separate the egg yolks from the whites. We'll thoroughly whip the them in two separate bowls. I recommend you use a mixer, unless you're in the mood for a serious workout.
•  Start by whipping the whites for about 5-10 minutes (they turn into a foam). Continue whipping to incorporate half of the sugar.
• Next, we'll whip the yolks for about 5-10 minutes. Add the rest of the sugar slowly and gradually, then the lemon peel, vanilla, the sparkling water, and a pinch of salt. Continue whipping for another 15-20 minutes. The end result has a lot of volume due to small air bubbles mixed in the composition - these will make the whole dessert fluffy.
•  We need to gently combine the whipped whites, yolks, and two-thirds of the flour (we'll need a third for the next steps). The key word here is gently - we need to preserve the airiness of the composition. Start by putting the whites and yolks in the same bowl, and mix slowly from the bottom to the top with a wooden spatula. Use a sifter to gradually add the flour, and keep slowly mixing the composition from the bottom to the top. We're actually not even mixing the flour in - we're gently incorporating it by allowing the flour powder to stick to the surface and then turning the mixture over.
•  For baking, choose a pan wide enough to accommodate the composition while not spreading it too thin (I use a 9x9x2 inches pan). Coat it with a thin layer of butter or oil, then a thin layer of flour (use the sifter again). Remove any extra flour. This allow the cake to nicely separate from the pan.
•  Use the sifter to cover the cherries (or whatever fruits you use) with a thin layer of flour. Mix to uniformly cover all sides of the fruits. This will help some of the fruits to not sink to the bottom of the cake.
• Place the mixture in the coated pan. Gently add the flour-covered fruits on top. Bake for 45 minutes.
• Remove from the over and let cool.

Read more 

Vegetable Gelatine-Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

200 g. carrots
200 g. frozen green peas
350 g. potatoes
5 eggs, boiled
100 g. apples
6 tbsp. mayonnaise
3 tsp. sour-cream
200 ml. vegetable broth
20 g. gelatine
1 tsp. prepared mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the carrots, peas and potatoes. Slice carrots and potatoes. Slice apple and add in salad bowl together with vegetables.
2. Stir in mayonnaise, sour-cream, mustard and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Dissolve gelatine in vegetable broth. Then add in salad bowl and mix well. Add in all the rest ingredients, except the eggs.
4. Cover the bottom of loaf pan with plastic wrap. Add in half salad. Place boiled eggs like train and cover with the second part of salad. Place it in the refrigerator overnight.


Read more

French Flan

Ingredients
 
 - Ten eggs
 - Two cans of evaporated milk (12 oz each)
 - Two cans of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz each)
 - One tablespoon of lemon peel (for simplicity, I use orange marmalade, same same)
 - Four tablespoons of sugar
 - Four tablespoons of vanilla extract or rum essence
 - A pinch of salt
 - One pie crust



Preparation

•  Break the eggs in a bowl, and add the sugar, the rum or vanilla, the lemon peel, and the pinch of salt. Mix everything until uniform. Add the condensed and the evaporated milk. Use a mixer to ensure the composition is homogeneous.
•   Note that the French flan needs to be between three and four fingers tall when cooked. Choose a baking pan where the composition would fill about that much space. Also, make sure that there is a bit of extra space on top - the flan tends to bloat while cooking, and then it reverts pretty much to its original volume.
•   Preheat the oven to 425F.
•   Carefully lay the pie crust such that it uniformly covers the baking pan (both bottom and sides). Add the flan batter. Leave about half an inch of crust above the batter level, and discard the rest.
•  Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Serve cold.

Read more 

Blueberry Liquor | Afinata

Ingredients
 
 - Five pounds of fresh organic blueberries
 - Five cups of sugar
 - (Optional) 2-3 tablespoons of vanilla essence or 1 vanilla bean
 - One 750ml bottle of 150 proof distilled alcohol



Preparation

•  Wash the blueberries thoroughly, then dry with a paper towel. As an optional step, gently poke each blueberry with a toothpick to help the juice flow out. Place them in a large jar, accompanied by the sugar (make sure the sugar is spread all around the berries, not just in a uniform layer on top or on the bottom). Also, add the vanilla bean now, if you're using it. Cover the jar, mix occasionally (about once per day), and let sit for around one week (until the berries are covered in syrup and there is no more visible sugar).
• Add the alcohol. If you want to add vanilla essence (and did not add a vanilla bean earlier), now is a good time to do so. Cover the jar, and let sit for 1-2 months.

Read more 

Papanasi

Ingredients

- Half a pound of cottage cheese, white cheese, or farmers cheese (if using cottage cheese, place it in a strainer, cover it, and keep it in the fridge overnight to discard extra water)
- Two cups of flour
- A pinch of salt
- Half a cup of sugar
- One teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- One tablespoon of vanilla
- One teaspoon of baking soda
- One tablespoon of lemon juice
- One egg
- One tablespoon of lemon peel (optional)
- One cup of sour cream
- One jar of fruit preserve (my favorites include sour cherries or berries)
- Plenty of cooking oil
- A couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar (for decoration)



Preparation:

• Stir the baking powder with the lemon juice. Add the cheese, salt, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, egg, and lemon peel. Mix until uniform (it's ok if you have small chunks of cheese every here and there).
• Slowly add the flour, and mix. You want to end up with a dough that does not stick to the fingers - you might not need all the flour, depending on how wet the cheese you use is.
•  Now to forming the papanasi. There are two parts: the base, and the top. You create the base by using a bit of dough, rolling it in a line that has the same diameter as a pinkie and the length of about three pinkies, and firmly joining the two ends (same shape as a doughnut). Note that the dough will increase in volume when cooking.
•  For the top, use about a tablespoon worth of dough, and roll it into a sphere.
•  The next step is frying. It is best if you have enough oil to cover the papanasi when cooking: so use a taller frying pan, and be generous with the oil. Pre-heat the oil on medium heat - it is ready when you add a bit of dough in the pan and it starts quickly cooking and forming circles around it. Now carefully add bases and tops, rotate and necessary, and remove when they turn golden-brown and look delicious. Don't overcrowd the pan. Place the cooked papanasi on a paper towel (such that it absorbs the extra oil from cooking). You may want to prepare one or two papanasi, cut them, and check the interior - if it's not properly cooked, then reduce the heat to prevent burning the outside while the interior is still cooking. If they're too thin or think, adjust the size/shape of the dough before starting to cook.
•  You want to serve this quickly, while they're still hot/warm.

Read more 

Sweet Potato Souffle

Ingredients

- Four sweet potatoes
- One cup of sugar
- Half a teaspoon of salt
- Quarter cup of flour
- Half a cup of brown sugar
- Four eggs
- One can of evaporated milk (12 fl oz)
- One tablespoon of vanilla extract
- A third of a teaspoon of nutmeg
- One and a half teaspoons of cinnamon
- Two and a half sticks of unsalted butter (about 1 cup and a quarter, or about 250 grams)
- Three fourths of a cup of walnuts


Preparation:

•   Cover the sweet potatoes in aluminum foil, and bake in the oven until they are soft (it takes about an hour). When done, remove the skins, and mash with a fork or with a hand mixer. Let the oven stay heated at 400F.
• Separately, whisk the eggs, then add the vanilla extract, the cup of sugar, salt, and the evaporated milk. Add over the mashed sweet potatoes.
• Melt two of the butter sticks in a pan, then combine with the sweet potatoes. Add the nutmeg and the cinnamon, and mix till uniform.
•   Take the baking pan where you will cook the dish. You still have half a stick of butter - use a bit of it to coat the pan. Following, add two-three spoons of flour to the pan, and distribute them uniformly (they'll stick to the butter). This will prevent the dessert from sticking to the pan.
• Melt the remaining butter (after the coating is finished), and mix with the chopped walnuts, the flour, and the brown sugar.
• Carefully place the sweet potato mixture in the pan, then top it with the walnuts crumbles as prepared at the previous step. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes.
•   Remove from the oven, let cool overnight, then store in the fridge. Serve cold. 

 Read more