Mint Chicken Stew

This is another meal my children adore, so I am publishing the recipe per their request.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts cut into large cubes, or 6-8 chicken thighs 
• 2 big carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 lb potatoes, cut into big, ~1 inch cubes
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 big onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp dry mint
• 1 tbsp flour
• salt to taste
• fresh parsley

In a big pot saute the chicken in the olive oil. Add the mint, the salt, and the onions.

Add few sprinkles hot red pepper flakes.

Cook until the onions become soft. Add the sweet paprika, the carrots and the tomatoes.

Add 3-4 cups water or chicken broth, close the lid and cook it until the chicken and the carrots are ready, about an hour. Then add the potatoes. While the potatoes are cooking take out a cup of the stew sauce in a bowl and wait for 5 minutes for it to get colder. Mix well the flour into the sauce and pour it back to the pot. Cook for another 15 minutes till the potatoes are ready and the sauce thickens.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with salad and bread.

Pickled Vegetables - "Trushia"

Pickled vegetables, a.k.a. turshia or trushia, as it is pronounced differently in different parts of Bulgaria, is an excellent accompaniment to meat dishes. Typically it is made in the late fall with the last load of vegetables picked in the home gardens. Made in huge amount, the turshia is then stored in the darkest and coldest places of the houses to last till spring. In the older times people ate only produce in season, so the typical winter diet consisted mainly of grilled pork cutlets, and home made sausages,  pork stews with potatoes, beans, pork cooked with pickled cabbage, and of course turshia. All the households in the villages had pigs and the killing and processing of the meat from the pig, usually happening around Christmas, was a pleasant occasion for family and friends gatherings and celebrations. The trushia had permanent place on the tables, used as an appetizer that people had when drinking rakia and a side dish for the meat dishes. Every family had their own recipes, or tips and tricks, and there was always a silent competition going on of who makes the most crunchy, fresh and delicious turshia.

These days, when we eat fresh vegetables all year round, we don't make turshia very often. It happens once in a while, usually around Christmas, to follow the years-long  tradition and satisfy the cravings we usually experience. 

A friend of mine DM gave me this simple recipe for a quick turshia. It gets ready in 2-3 days. There are variations of what types of vegetables you can use. In addition to my list below, you can add regular cabbage, green tomatoes, and small sweet peppers. The original recipe recommends slightly grilling the tomatoes and peppers before adding them to the mix.

This is what I used:

(Adapted from the original recipe)

• 2-3 heads cauliflower, cleaned and cut in small pieces
• 8 - 10 carrots cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 5 celery stalks, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 lb peppers cut in pieces. I use different colors peppers
• 1 head garlic, each clove peeled and cut into 3 pieces
• 1 bunch of parsley

Marinade:

• 300 g vegetable oil
• 500 g sugar
• 200 g salt
• 700 g apple cider vinegar

Procedure:

Boil the marinade and leave it aside. Mix all the vegetables, with the exception of garlic and parsley, in a big pot. Pour the marinade over the vegetables. Be careful not to use very hot marinade, because the vegetables will loose their crunchiness and become mushy. Cover with plastic foil or a lid and leave it for 24 hours in a cool place.

On the next day, add the garlic and parsley. Pack the turshia in glass jars and store in the fridge. If you live in a cold weather you can keep it outside. Usually the turshia is ready for eating in 2-3 days.

Crepes or Palachinki (Палачинки)

Palachinki (Crepes, or Палачинки) is a popular Bulgarian brunch item. When we were growing up my mom and grandma would make them on the weekends and we would wait around the stove and just grab them as soon as they were done and devour them with either honey, jam or feta cheese! The recipe is quite simple and with the modern kitchen appliances (such as Blenders) everyone can make perfect batter and enjoy delicious home made crepes!

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 16 table spoons all purpose flour
• 1 table spoon sugar
• 1/2 table spoon salt
• 1/4 table spoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup water (sparkling water works great but if you don't have any then tap water is just fine)

Process:

Put eggs + flour + sugar + salt + vanilla + milk + water in a blender. Blend until the mixture is nice and homogeneous and there are no more chunks of flour left.
 

Put very little olive oil in a pan and heat on med/high setting.
 

Then gently add ~ 2/3 laddle of the batter and swirl the bottom of the pan while adding in order for the batter to be evenly distributed. Cook on med/high heat for ~ 1 min then flip the crepe and cook for another minute.

Serve with your favorite jam or honey or whatever else you like on your crepe.
ENJOY!

Zelnik (Зелник)

This traditional Bulgarian variant of Banitsa (Баница) is really delicious and our favorite during the Holiday season. Usual recipe calls for leeks, spinach and sorrel, but you can put any leafy greens that you have on hand and you will not be disappointed. Lokuma made this couple of weeks ago and she put kale and it tasted really good! Online you can find other recipes for Zelnik and some of those even include meat, but where we come from we've always had it vegetarian.

INGREDIENTS:
1 pack fillo dough
3 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 lb feta cheese, crumbled
3 leeks
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch kale
1/8 cup butter + 1/8 cup olive oil

PROCESS:
0. Preheat oven to 400F.

1. Wash the leeks really well to get rid of any dirt and slice them finely (using food processor really helps here). Wash the kale and chop really finely. Wash and chop the spinach.

 








2. Saute the leeks with a little bit of olive oil over medium heat for about 5 min. Then add the chopped kale and cook with the leeks until fully cooked (10 min). Last add the spinach and cook until all water has been released (5 min).

 

3. In a large mixing bowl combine the crumbled feta and eggs and mix well. Then add the yogurt and mix until homogeneous consistency.


4. Melt the butter and the olive oil and lightly grease the bottom of a 9' x 13' pan.

5. Place one sheet of fillo dough and grease it slightly with the oil+butter (very easy if you have a brush). Then place a second sheet of dough on top of it and grease again. Place a third sheet and this time add 1/3 of the sauteed greens (distribute evenly along the surface) and 1/3 of the egg+feta+yogurt mix. Cover the filling with new sheet of fillo dough and repeat the layering (pretty much 3 sheets of fillo dough greased lightly in between => filling =>3 sheets fillo dough => filling => 3 sheets of fillo dough => filling => 3 sheets fillo dough).

 

6. Once done layering, cut the Zelnik into squares and put in the oven.

7. Bake at 400F for ~ 40 min or until nicely brown. You can cover with  aluminum foil for the first 20 min to prevent the edges from becoming too brown.

No-knead Bread

Dona Domata introduced us to this recipe over Christmas and we have been obsessed with it. It is so easy and the bread comes out really tasty. Also you don't have to knead the dough so it is perfect for the lazy bakers :) Marulka and Lokuma had also made delicious breads using this very basic recipe (see previous post).

Recipe (makes four 1 lb loaves):

1. 6.5 cups unbleached all purpose flour (i use 5 cups all purpose flour + 1.5 cups whole wheat flour)
2. 1.5 tsp salt
3. 1.5 tsp dry yeast
4. 3 cups lukewarm water (~ 100ºF)

Method:

In a large mixing bowl mix the yeast with the water until the yeast is all dissolved. Then add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until there are no dry patches left and the mixture is homogeneous. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for at least 2 hours.

Split the dough into four pieces. Take one piece and shape it into a rectangle, dust with flour and put it in the bottom of a 9'x6' pan. Leave the dough in the pan and let it raise for ~ 2 hours. Also, 20 min before baking, preheat oven to 450ºF and put an empty broiler tray at the very bottom tray of your oven that will be used for holding water. The remaining three pieces of dough you can put in separate zip-lock bags and keep it in the freezer for up to 14 days. Then when you want to bake a new batch, take out of the freezer, shape and place in pan and let sit for ~ 2 hours before baking it.











 

You can slash the surface of the dough with a sharp knife to get a more artisan looking bread.

Place the bread in the oven in the middle tray. Then VERY CAREFULLY pour a glass of water into the empty broiler pan that has been sitting in the bottom tray of the oven and be very careful not to get burned by the steam.

The steam from the water will make the crust really nice and crunchy. Bake for about 30 - 40 min or until the crust is nicely brown and firm to the touch. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting.














ENJOY!

Grissini (Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes)

Dona Domata reignited my passion for breadmaking with a groundbreaking no-knead & refrigerate approach that she shared with me over the holidays....and I am not the only one going gaga over homemade loaves of bread - fellow bloggers Lokuma, Plodova Salata and Slaninka have all started baking bread from scratch on a regular basis. Since Christmas, I have experimented with multiple whole grain recipes using the same method and have baked pizza, flatbread, crackers, foccacia, boule, pain d'epi, ficelle and just now...grissini.

                             

I won't go over the mechanics in detail here as I am told that MM and Slaninka will be sharing their tips and tricks for making artisan bread in 5 minutes in a detailed post ( stay tuned). Instead, I'd like to show you a quick idea for using your refrigerated dough whenever you don't feel like waiting 20-90 minutes for a proper bread rise or just want a crunchy snack in 15 -20 minutes flat...

Breadsticks are super easy to make and you can easily customize them to your liking - I sprinked mine with garlic salt and cayenne pepper for a little kick. I can imagine that they would be wonderful with a touch of parmiggiano regiano and some rosemary... I used a Bavarian-style whole grain pumpernickel bread dough which was fantastic but you can easily sub any of the ABin5 or HBin5 pre-mixed doughs...

Adapted from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 3/4 cups rye flour
2 1/1 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten ( I used Bob's Red Mill's gluten - thank you Lokuma!)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 cups lukewarm water

If using a baking stone, allow for a 30 minute preheat to 400F, if not 5 min should be fine. Shape the dough into a ball using the cloaking method then roll the dough into a rectangle, sprinkle with salt and then cut into strips (you can vary the thickness and width of the strips depending on your taste - thicker / wider strips will yield chewy and doughy breadsticks, while thinner / narrower strips will result in crunchy grissini). Bake for 10 - 16 minutes depending on thickness and width.

Stir-Fried Pork Loin cubes with Balsamic vinegar and Orange reduction

This turned out so good! I pretty much followed the recipe as described here except I had to scale up, since I had twice the amount of pork and I also added some onions. I also did it in a cast iron pan, since I don't have a wok, and it still turned out really tasty!

Ingredients:
5 pork loin chops, boneless, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes.
2 orange bell peppers, chopped into cubes.
2 white onions, peeled and sliced into strips.
3-4 garlic cloves.
2 oranges, juiced

Marinade:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 inch piece ginger, smashed
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp corn starch (or 1 tsp flour if you don't have corn starch)

Glazing sause:
3 tsp balsamic vinegar
juice of 2 oranges, freshly squeezed
1 tsp brown sugar

Method is exactly as described in the recipe that I found on the web:
1. Rinse pork chops, pat dry and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Put in a bowl and add the marinade ingredients EXCEPT THE FLOUR. Mix well, cover with clear foil and put in fridge for ~ 1 hour.
2. Once the meat is done marinating, heat some olive oil in a pan and saute the garlic for ~ 2 min.
3. Then add the flour to the meat, mix well and transfer the pork into the pan. Cook on medium heat until done. Can season with additional black pepper and some cayenne pepper. Then remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
4. Saute the onions and peppers briefly in the pan with whatever oil was left from the meat. Then pour the glazing sauce and stir constantly until it gets reduced to about half the original volume.
5. Put the pork back in the pan and cook for ~ 5 more minutes or until the glaze is nice and thick.
6. Serve with rice or with mashed potatoes and enjoy!

p.s. When I ate this with mashed potatoes, the flavor reminded me of "vinen kebab"! Yummy!

ETL: Fennel, Bok Choy and Watermelon Radish salad

We got fennel from our CSA box and I remembered that last year Marulka had made an amazing fennel and celery salad, topped with shaved cheese. Well I was out of celery and did not have any cheese so I decided to improvise and used only the ingredients that we got from the box. The result was awesome!

Ingredients:

1 fennel bulb, cleaned and thinly sliced.
2 heads of bok choy, cleaned and thinly sliced.
2 watermelon radishes, washed, peeled and thinly sliced.
5-6 kalamata olives, sliced lengthwise
1 lemon, juiced
some olive oil, salt and black pepper.

Wash all vegetables well and slice thinly (i used food processor and it took 30 sec!). Mix in a large salad bowl and add some olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with the leftover fennel fronds and enjoy!

p.s. Here is what watermelon radish looks like :)

ETL: Easy and Delicious Pumpkin Cake

If you  LOVE pumpkin, as much as I DO, you must try this easy-to-make pumpkin layered cake. Each bite melts in the mouth, leaving a perfect flavour of pumpkin, cinnamon, and walnuts.
I must give all the credit for this recipe to my friend D.M. She worked on the recipe for years and gave me a perfected version of it. I made very small adjustments to reduce the calories.

Ingredients:
Makes 12 squares

Dry Mix:

1 1/4 cup of semolina or farina
3/4 cup of flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup walnuts, chopped or grounded
1 tbsp baking powder

Wet Mix:

6 cups of shredded butternut squash
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla

2 tbsp butter or olive oil (optional )

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a sauce pan saute the shredded pumpkin with the oil and the sugar. Add the cinnamon and the vanilla at the end.



Grease a 8x8 cake pan. Lay 1/3 of the dry mix in the bottom of the pan, following with a layer of the 1/3 of the wet mixture. Continue layering, alternating dry and wet, finishing with the wet mixture as shown on the photos below.
I made 2 batches at once and used a 13x9 pan.

Cut 2 tbsp of butter into small chunks and space them out on top of the cake. I think using additional fat ( butter or oil) in this step can be avoided. The cake is moist enough from the pumpkin and can do without extra fat.

 

Bake the cake for 30-40 minute.

Allow to fully cool and cut into 12 squares. Decorate with a spoon of whipped cream and enjoy!!!

PS. Did I tell you that cooking with wine is always GOOD ? :)