Sleepover and potato pancakes with mushrooms

Sleepover is the best ever thing invented! Last Saturday Arina has her friend Tory over at our house and both girls wanted potato pancakes for tea. Easy to say and easy to make when you have two little helpers :)



The process is very simple.

Maslenitsa - time for Blini (pancakes/crepes)

Arina makes the best pancakes in our family. Every Sunday she makes her favourite ones with cinnamon. I can't even share the recipe as she is keeping it as a secret. So, about Maslenitsa - it's time before 40 days fasting. During this week you can't eat meat, but you could have milk products, eggs and other nice things that are not allowable during the 40 days of the fasting period. You would ask - how you could you live for 40 days without meat, eggs or milk, but I would ask how could you eat pancakes for a week?!



I hope I could get the recipe from Arina later, but I definitely know her favourite one - potato pancakes with mushrooms.

Tastes from my childhood - "Birds milk"

It is amaizing feeling when you can go back to your childhood. No, I'm not talking about time machine, I just talking about recreation of tastes from my childhood. One of them is a very rare cake that was called "Birds Milk" ("Ptichje moloko" in russian). I found the recipe in the blog of one russian lady who does a lot of baking and already issued a few cookbooks. (here is original recipe in russian http://chadeyka.livejournal.com/220905.html). I baked this cake at home a few months ago and shared with my russian friends. They were very excited and asked me to show them all steps in a master-class.

Today was the day to recreate the childhood taste. Of course, everybody forgot about the camera during the process, but here is the result. Even my hardest critics admit that the cake was like one 20 years ago.

Tartalettes with caramelised onion and goats cheese

I love recipes that are simple and don't need a lot of tie for preparation. Some time ago I found a great recipe of caramelised onions with chocolate and dates. It was a hit! And I've decided to make little tartalettes with goats cheese and caramelised onions. I've used puff pastry and cookie cutters to make nice daisy forms and left in 200C over for 15 minutes.



I bought the goats cheese on the market and it was really fresh.



The plate full of little tartalettes disappeared in a few minutes, as always.

Nathan Myhrvold: Cooking as never seen before | Video on TED.com

Nathan Myhrvold: Cooking as never seen before | Video on TED.com

Little Miss Sunshine

I found this beauty next to my home. It was a little surprise and had to share that with you.

Cake with Ricotta, Cashew nuts & Cranberries

Since I've started mastering my Sirnyki recipe, I've always got ricotta in my fridge and with my new mixer I can make this cake in a few minutes.




Ingredients
160 gr sugar
80 gr butter
150 gr flour
1 tea spoon of baking powder
200 gr of ricotta
2 eggs
100 gr cashew nuts
handful of dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 170C. Mix together sugar and butter in the mixer for 8-10 minutes until mixture became white and fluffy. Add ricotta and continue to mix and then 2 eggs one by one. At the end add nuts and flour with baking powder and cranberries (only if you like them).

Grease the form with butter and sprinkle a bit of flour. Add mixture and put into the over for 50-60 minutes. After 50 min check with the match it should be clean.



It doesn't get better than this. 

Lemon Curd

I haven't noticed in the past that August is a lemon season in Australia. I've seen this little lemon tree at my neighbours on the way to the market.





This make me thinking about lemon curd. The recipe is very simple and could be used for making any citrus curd. For 1 lemon (juice and zest) I've used 50 gr of sugar, 1 egg and 10-15 gr of butter.



I've prepared zest and juice of 4 lemons and mixed with the 200 gr of sugar. In a separate bowl I've mixed 4 eggs and then added the eggs into the lemon-sugar mixture. I let it stay for 30 minutes and then sieve in to the pan, heated up and added butter. You need to be very careful not to scramble eggs. [I have to admit, that when I've tried the same recipe with oranges, it didn't really worked well, but the taste was still fantastic.]You will see that the curd is ready when it became quite tick. The put into the little jars, let them cool and keep in the fridge.

From 4 lemons I've got only two little jars (approximately 200 ml).


This lemon curd is very good with my favourite Orange cake (I'll have to share the recipe as well)



This is a great and easy thing to have in the fridge and excites all my friends every time I bring a little jar with my cakes. 

Spring is here

Yes, this is only what I can say - Spring is here!

These beautiful trees are blossoming only for 2-3 weeks in a year (at the end of August). Masha and I had only a few minutes on that busy Sunday to take a few shots. We saw an old man walking by and he told us that this tree is called Prunus.



An extensive genus, Prunus is considered to provide the most spectacular spring blossom and includes flowering almonds, flowering apricots, flowering cherries, flowering peaches, (Including dwarf peach and nectarine) and flowering plums. They have been selected specifically as flowering plants rather than any fruiting ability. Prunus are very hardy, adaptable and possibly the most popular deciduous trees grown in Australia. Flowers can be pink, white or mottled shades, single through to double and in a range of sizes. The often prolific flowering habit makes them excellent as small to medium sized specimen trees and their versatility ensures they can be used in a variety of applications. Prunus trees are ideal for small to medium gardens.

There are a few trees next to my home and they are all beautiful.



Apparently, there were many Prunus trees in Burnside area, but not so many left.




These trees made me think that our life is very short and we need to cherish every moment with our loved ones. 

Best chocolate cake ever

If you ask my friends and family what cake they prefer on any given Sunday, the immediate answer will be The chocolate cake with nuts. I'm going to reveal the second secret of all secrets - why the chocolate cake is so simple to bake? - you have to use Nutella! The below recipe is based on the Nigella Lawson's Hazelnut Nutella cake, but with my variations and short-cuts.

For the average size cake [12 pieces] you will need the following ingredients:

Nutella (400 gr) - yes, this is the main ingredient!
Unsalted butter 125 gr
100 gr of nuts [I use almonds, but you can use your favourite ones]
100 gr of melted dark chocolate
6 eggs [separated]
splash of orange liqueur
zest of one orange[my interpretation of the original recipe]
pinch of salt

Preparation is very quick and easy.

1. In a large bowl, whisk [I do it with the mixer] the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry.

2. In a separate bowl, beat the melted butter and Nutella together, and then add the orange liquor (or Frangelico or whatever you're using), egg yolks and ground almonds. You can add orange zest at this moment, if you feel so.

3. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a large dollop of egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them in a third at a time.

4. Pour into the prepared tin [I use 26 cm tin] and cook for 40 minutes in 180 C preheated oven or until the cake's beginning to come away at the sides, then let cool on a rack.

Of course, the additional ingredient would be an icing on top, but I believe that a bit of "snow flakes" and fresh or frozen berries would be the best.

I still have to learn how to do a raspberry coolie, but I need to leave something for summer to play with.

The best time to eat cake is on the next morning, when it's completely set [if you lucky and anything left].





It couldn't get better than this!