Borsch

This year I made for the first time Borsch, the famous purple soup from Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and Poland. It is a soup like no other because the color is so crazy insane rich, but the flavor too! a big wow. My recipe comes from my jewish book so I am not sure how I can copyright it. Sorry!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 kg of fresh beet.
-Salt and pepper.
-1 quick squirt of a lemon.

-1 leek.

-1 carrot.

-1 stick of celery.

-1 turnip.

-1 onion.

-1 clove of garlic.

-2 cubes of meat stock.

-2 litres of water.

-salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. For this recipe you need to basically have 2 pots going and then mix them. So first we will start with the beet soup. Peel the beet and cut in pieces and place it in a big pot with 1 litre of cold water, salt and pepper. 

2. Bring it to a boil and then reduce fire and let it simmer for 30 mins. Let the vapor come out so it is more reduced. 

3. Now let it cool and then puree it with a hand mixer.

4. On the other pot prepare the meat stock. Now you can do this stock with meat, but honestly that just about too much for me! So I used stock, so sorry. So cut up the leek, the carrot, the celery, the onion, the garlic and the turnip and 1 litre of water.

5. When the vegetables are soften after 20-30 minutes turn off fire and liquify them with a hand mixer.

6. Now mix the 2 soups together and add boiled eggs cut in half if you want. 

It is so good, what a unique flavour. Be really careful though to not stain your clothes.

       

Dill & Lemon Chicken Soup

 This soup was really really really good. This combo of lemon and dill with chicken and rice is a winner I tell you. I found it at Baker by nature in Instagram and did it right away. It doesn't call for weird ingredients but you can substitute the fresh dill for dry.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 litre of chicken stock.

-1 or 2 carrot.

-1/2 onion.

-2 sticks of celery.

-1'5 cup of rice.

-1 chicken breast or chicken leftovers.

-1/2 lemon juice.

-1 cup of white rice already cooked.

-1/4 tspoon of garlic powder.

-1/4 tspoon of onion powder.
-1 stalk of green onion.

-some cilantro (optional).

-1/2 teaspoon of dill or a bunch of fresh dill.

STEPS:

1. Dice up celery, carrot and onion and sautee until it softens for 10 minutes.
2. Now add the chicken stock and the onion powder and garlic powder, and the green onions. let it cook for 1o minutes and bring to boil for a second.

3. Now reduce and add shredded chicken, cooked rice and add all herbs: the cilantro, the dill, and squeeze the lemon. Let it all come together for 5 minutes and serve!

It's so good this soup. I think it is also because the stock was actually made with real chicken and you just cannot beat that.

Chocolate Coconut Egg Nests for Easter

It's Easter again! and I wanted to make a fun recipe that was a little Pinteresty but not crazy laborious. I found this one and thought this is easy and fun.

INGREDIENTS:
-100 grams of dried coconut.
-100 grams of 70% chocolate.

-25 grams of brown sugar.

STEPS:

1. Melt the chocolate in a little pot.

2. Mix the melted chocolate with the coconut and coat it all really well.

3. Now scoop out and make little nests on baking paper.

4. Now place the eggs on top quickly while it is still hot and let it cool for a lot of hours, at least 12.

That's it. So good! My family loved it and they could tell they were nests. Spring is finally here you all.

Easy Tandoori Chicken

Last summer I came across this awesome tandoori chicken recipe. Very easy. Mine is a modified version because I simply buy the spice and not make it my own. But this is the link of the recipe I followed. It is pretty tasty and the following day, if you have left overs, it will taste even better.

INGREDIENTS:
-8 chicken thighs.
-2 white yoghurts.
-4-5 tablespoons of masala tandoori mix.
-salt and pepper.

-4 onions.

-1 lime or lemon.

-1 tablespoon of oregano.

-10 ml of meat stock.

-400 grams of basmati rice.

STEPS:

1. Marinate the meat with salt and pepper and then with the yoghurt mix. For the mix , add the yoghurt to the masala tandoori mix in a bowl and add the chicken and coat really well. Let it sit at fridge for 1 hour at least. If you do it over night it will be even better.

2. Now place in dish and stick in oven for 40 minutes to 200 degrees, until the yoghurt has disappeared a little. Don't leave it for way too long or it will dry. When 20 minutes have passed turn chicken around so that the back browns as well.

3. In the meantime, get the glorious onions going. Very simple. Julianne onions and fry them in intense fire for about 10 minutes until they brown quite a bit, but do not burn them! not that high.

4. After this add oregano, the meat stock that you have previously dissolved in a tiny bit of water and the juice of the lime. it is an amazing flavour. Let it all cook together and soften the onions. 

5. Serve basmatic rice with onions and chicken. One trick to make the rice nicer is to add cardammon seeds to the water. It tastes sooooo much better.

And there it is, this recipe is very tasty, and the followind day the chicken taste even better and is super pinky.

Bollo de Pan duro or Bread Pudding Slices

This recipe is from my mom, from when we were growing up. I had it zillions of times growing up because it is made of old bread. It is a good one because it makes you understand that anything, anything can be turned into dessert with a little bit of sugar (and some cinnamon!).As you can see the pictures are not fancy! I mean, yes you can say, it looks bad! like who would eat that, right? 

INGREDIENTS:
-1 old baguette.
-4 eggs.

-1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

-4 tablespoons of butter.

-100 grams grams of sugar.

-15 mg of baking powder.

-1,5 cups of walnuts.

-1 cup of raisins.

-1 cup of milk.

STEPS:
1. Cut the bread in pieces, place in bowl and soak with milk. Let it soften for about 10 or 15 minutes.
2. In the meantime, in another bowl, melt the butter and add to the beaten eggs. Now add the 6 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Now drain the excess of the milk of the bread, as much as you can and discard it.
4. Now add the eggs mix to the bread and mix well. 
5. Add cinnamon, walnuts and raisins.
6. Sprinkle more cinnamon on top if you want.
6. Now place all the mix in tray for about 30 minutes to 200 degrees. It should dry up and the top should dry too.  You might have to play with your oven, don't let burn but don't let it be uncooked....ah you know...oven stuff...

 So good! An inexpensive dessert perfect for meriendas. Thanks mom.

Easy blueberry Cheesecake

                              

 This cheese cake is really easy and really good. I picked it up from my jewish book (as a matter of fact I have no idea how to copyright her cause it is from a book not a website). 

So this cheesecake is not too sweet and the amounts are pretty much perfect! Baking is a great great art you all. It is so precise! I am learning a lot about this. There is not a "more or less" with baking, you better measure your ingredients and follow the freaking recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
-200 grams of blueberries.
-1 kg of fresh cheese (queso fresco).

-3 eggs.

-120 grams of sugar.

-1 pinch of salt.

-some drops of vanilla.

-90 grams of flour.

STEPS:

1. Preheat your oven to 160.

2. Prepare the dough, so mix in a bowl the cheese and eggs. Beat and mix well.

3. Now add the sugar, salt and vanilla. 

4. Now add slowly the flour.

5. Now pour the mix in a dish with baking paper. The original recipe recommends 20x20 but mine was bigger.

6. Now bake in 160 degrees for about an hour or so until it is firm.

In hindsight I wish I had put more blueberries on top. Next time I will. You can also add raspberries or red berries, etc. Also keep an eye to your oven because it might take longer or less. Also, last tip, the following day it tastes much much better. Let it cool off and leave it alone! 

                    

Warm Bacon Potato Salad

Spring is coming you all, and salads are due! Finally some cold-lukewarm food for picnics. 

Today I needed carbohydrates. What to do? I looked in the fridge and I had potatoes, some bacon! The bell rang: some cool potato salad. And I remembered these recipes that looked drooling with bacon and green onions.

INGREDIENTS:
-700 grams of potatoes.
-300 grams of bacon.
-1/2 white onion.

-4 sticks of green onions.

-1 teaspoon of onion powder.

-5 tablespoons of vinegar (white or rice).

-2 tablespoons of sugar.

-1 tablespoons of dijon mustard.

-seasoning; salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Boil potatoes. Cut in half so that they cook quicker.

2. In the meantime dice up the bacon in small bits and fry until it is brown. Set apart.

3. Now, with the same grease of the pan cook the onions that you have diced up previously. Brown them and set apart.

4. Dice up the green onions and set apart as well.

5. Now prepare the dressing. Mix the vinegar, the sugar, the dijon mustard, the salt and pepper and the onion powder. It has to be sour, sweet, salty all at the same time.

6. Now mix everything together, potatoes cut in wedges or quarter, the dressing and the bacon, onions and green onions together and coat well.

7. Serve warm. 

It's so so good, a great combo of flavours. As my friend Tep says: everything is better with bacon. 

Amazing Crunchy Curry Chicken Salad

Wow! What a salad. This salad really rocked my world, it is the salad that you eat in Delis in New York City or London. The type that you want more of but it is so expensive..so you buy a sandwich but it is 7 or 8 and you are still hungry! so annoying.  

Well it is super easy to make and this recipe is very good. It has a lot of crunch and very little curry...a slight touch. I had been meaning to do it for a long time and finally we had a picnic cause Spring is coming!

INGREDIENTS:

For the sauce:

-1/4 cup of mayonnaise.
-1/4 cup of plain yoghurt. 
-1 tsp lemon juice.
-1/2 teaspoon of honey.
-1 teaspoon of curry powder or even less.
-1/4 teaspoon of salt.-cracked pepper.

-3 stalks of celery.

-3 whole green onions.

-1/2 cup of almonds.

-1/2 cup of raisins.

-2,5 cups of cooked chicken.

STEPS:

1. There are basically no steps other than cut up the salad ingredients in slices, the green onions, almonds and celery.

2. Mix all the other ingredients of the sauce and mix together stirring.

3. Add it all in a bog bowl and enjoy.

Coconut Slices = What to do with coconut pulp-

Now that I have been making coconut milk I have all this coconut pulp left. Do you? Well don't throw it away, you can make desserts!  

Australians are suckers for coconut! must be the influence of the asians, so I found a good recipe, perfect for all that pulp, I mean you do not even have to dry it out. I reduced the sugar of this recipe, the original one called for 3/4 cup but I added 1/2 and it was perfect (for my taste).

INGREDIENTS:

-1 cup of flour.
-1 teaspoon of baking powder.

-1 cup of coconut pulp.

-125 g butter melted.

-1/2 cup of milk.

-1 tsp of vanilla extract.

-1/2 cup of sugar.

-2 eggs.

-1/4 teaspoon of salt.

For the icing:

-1 teaspoon of butter.

-50 grams of icing sugar.

-1 drop of food coloring.

-1 tablespoon of boiling water.

-1/2 cup of coconut.

STEPS:

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, coconut and melted butter in bowl and mix well with fork. It should become a thick paste.

2. Now add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix well. 

3. Spread the thick mixture into a tray with baking paper (everybody's solutions to life baking paper), and bake for 40 minutes to 180 degrees or whatever it takes. 

4. If it is too white on top, turn grill on for a few minutes, to give it a lovely golden tone.

5. Now you have two options, you can wait for it to cool off and the do the icing and then spread the coconut on top, or straight after the oven you can sprinkle it with lots of coconut and will stick to the top cause it is still wet. 

I did the icing but next time I will definitely just spread the coconut because it is too sugary for me with icing. By the way as you can see I ate half of the cake before I could decorate it...it was real good.