Monday, October 15, 2007

Pistachio cookies

Pistachio cookies


I know this recipe from childhood but didn’t cook it for a long time. Don’t know why, just forget. Some days ago have seen this recipe in my old recipes copy-book and have decided to remind it. It is very interesting cookies so want to tell you.


You’ll need:


125g butter

100g sugar

2 eggs

125g flour

125g starch

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp pistachio

2 tbsp rum

100g fruit jam


Step 1: Whip butter, sugar and eggs. Sift flour, starch and baking powder together (right to the whipped mass). Add rum and knead a dough (in the beginning use spoon, then hands);


Step 2: Preheat oven to 200 oC. Place large piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet;


Step 3: Divide your dough in a pieces and make balls as walnut, strew it with pistachios and place them on the baking sheet. Flatten balls slightly and make a deepening in a centre of each ball;


Step 4: Bake cookies on a middle level of oven during 13 minutes until golden colour. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool them on a wire rack. Fill up every deepening with jam.




M-m-m-m delicious!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Risotto

Risotto and mushrooms

Risotto from the Italian language means rice. A secret of its popularity is great number of cooking variants. Invariable is one rule: rice in risotto has to be tender outside and hard inside. It is very important to choose right rice kind. The best one is middle grains. When you cook such rice, it discharges enough starch and rice mass become soft and sticky. But for all that, grains keep hard. The best choice of rice is Arborio, Vialone and Carnaroly. Don’t wash rice before cooking! And always when you add meat or vegetable bouillon, it has to be very hot. Cook risotto 20 minutes stirring slowly but continuously.


Step 1: Saute onion with 1 tbsp butter. To make more juice, add pinch of salt;



Step 2: Add 300g rice and stew it during 3 min stirring slowly. Pour in 150 ml wine and let it boil away. Add mushrooms, stir;






Step 3: Add 1l hot bouillon gradually as rice will take it up. Stir constantly;




Step 4: Dissolve pack of saffron stamen with hot bouillon and mix with prepared rice (over 20 min);









Step 5: In conclusion add 40g grated cheese and 1 tbsp butter to rice, stir. Strew with parsley, stir. Serve at the same time.








Saffron imparts appetizing yellow color and gives piquancy to risotto. If you haven’t saffron, use turmeric.

Fresh green is part and parcel of Italian cuisine. You can put basil, thyme and parsley to risotto. Don’t chop green, just tear leaves off.

Ceps (fresh or dried) impart especial, nut flavour to risotto. If you use dried mushrooms, soak it into hot water during 20 minutes. Then pour water out and add mushrooms to the rice.

Parmesan is one of the most appropriate cheeses, but you can also use moccarella, mascarpone or gorgonzola.

Bon appetit!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Soup "Harcho"

Soup “Harcho”


Delicious for REAL men

At first time I cooked this soup as lazy, ignorant of Georgian tradition cuisine cooker. I also used mutton! But can say that – not bad. In actual fact, “Harcho” is Georgian dish, soup (name means beef soup). It is very important to use 3 ingredients: beef, tklapy (concentrated sauce tkemaly-plum sauce) and grated walnuts. I’ll show you my first experience and then recipe of real “Harcho”.


For 4 persons you need:


500 g mutton

2 onions

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp flour

2-3 gloves of garlic

2 tbsp tomato paste

100 g rice

2 tbsp wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

salt

black pepper

1 tuft of fresh green



Step 1: Wash meat, dry it up, slice large pieces and put into pot. Pour 2.5l of water, reduce till boiling and skim a scum from bouillon. Boil during 2 h (small fire);



Step 2: Peel onion and chop finely. Warm up oil in a pan and fry it slightly. Strew onion with flour, make it brown and take away fire;




Step 3: Put rice into bowl and wash it out by cold running water, then pour water out. Put fried onion and rice into bouillon, salt, pepper and boil during 20 minutes;




Step 4: Peel garlic, chop finely and add to our soup with tomato pasta, bay leaf and wine vinegar together. Salt, pepper one more time and boil 5 min more;




Step 5: Wash fresh green, dry it up and chop finely. Serve Harcho in plates and strew with green.




Good advice: add 1tsp vinegar during boiling and meat will become tasty and will be prepared faster. You can also rub meat with soda previously and leave for 3-4 h, then wash it out thoroughly and boil.

Real Georgian recipe Harcho:

  1. Boil meat (put cut meat into cold water. Boil during 2-2.5h, middle fire);
  2. Take meat away pot and put there rice. Salt bouillon and boil rice with roots together (but take it away in the finishing) and back meat;
  3. Add first portion of spicery: fried onion with 1 tbsp flour (see Step 2), 1 parsley root, bay leaf and some crushed pea black pepper;
  4. Over 5 minutes pour grated walnuts in;
  5. After 5 minutes more add second portion of spicery: 2 tbsp parsley green, 1 tsp dry basil, 0.5 tsp red pepper, 0.5 tsp cinnamon. At the same time add sour sauce tklapy (if you haven’t it, add 0,5 glass pomegranate juice or at least tomato pasta). Add hmely-sunely if you have.
  6. Cook no more than 5 min, add pounded garlic, 2 tbsp kinza green, 0,5 tbsp basil green then leave covered Harcho with lid about 3-5 minutes to brew;

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Cakes "Potato"

Cakes "Potato"

I can’t live without something sweet. You can make this recipe by our own hands.


You need:

250g biscuits

100g hulled filberts

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cacao powder

1 tbsp butter

50 ml milk

1 tbsp rum

powdered sugar and cacao for breading


Step 1: Crush biscuits as small pieces and grind by blender with hulled filbert;






Step 2: Combine cacao and sugar, fill up with milk and heat up stirring until sugar and cacao will be dissolved;

Step 3: Add butter and reduce almost to boiling, take away fire and leave to get cold. At the same time stir it to avoid skin;



Step 4: Little by little pour chocolate mass to filberts with biscuits until getting smooth homogeneous mass. Add rum or coffee or chocolate liquer (the best choice is Sheridan's);








Step 5: Make small balls from this mass and roll up them into powdered sugar and cacao mix.





Ready!

Soup with mushrooms

If the weather don’t bring you happy today, cook something tasty. But, what can be tastier than hot aromatic soup with field mushrooms? The best choice is to go and breathing fresh air to pick mushrooms in a field or steppe, I can add that you may take white mushrooms (brown cap boletus, cep, orange-cap boletus) – pick in a forest. Or, if you haven’t such opportunity, take marinated mushrooms – good equivalent for lazy people :).

Very easy soup consists of:

500g mushrooms

2 tbsp semolina

3 potatoes

2 tbsp butter

salt, pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tuft fresh green


Step 1: If you have fresh mushrooms, peel it, wash and slice mushrooms;



Step 2: Heat up 1 tbsp butter in a large thick-walled pan, take out mushrooms there, add 2 tbsp water, make little fire and stew 15 min covering above.

Step 3: Slightly dry semolina in a pan without oil;

Step 4: Peel potatoes, wash them and dice;

Step 5: Powder mushrooms with semolina and fry stirring slowly around 7 min.;

Step 6: Add there potato and pour 3l hot water in, reduce to boiling, salt, pepper, add bay leaf and cook 10 minutes (small fire);

Step 7: Prepared soup strew with chopped green and tbsp sour-cream.



Note: You can cook with meat bouillon – very interesting variant.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Meat with “nameko” mushrooms

Meat with "nameko" mushrooms

This is a dish liked by everybody who eats meat. Aromatic smell and ingredients composition put together extraordinary range of gustatory sense. I cooked this dish using my imagination and products that I had in refrigerator at this moment. So, if you'll want to try it you can vary ingredients composition.

We need:

1kg meat (pork, mutton or beef but use marinade for this one. For example, combine some tablespoons olive oil, basil, pepper, salt (sea salt is better). Rub beef with this mixture and leave for 20 minutes)
100g mushrooms (you can take marinated. Usually I take namekoes but if you haven't take another kind)
1 glass of dry red wine
2 large onions
2 handfuls of cranberries
little handful of flour
salt, pepper, species

Step 1: Wash meat, dry it up, dice or carve average pieces;

Step 2: Dice onion rather finely (but not too finely);

Step 3: You can use deep pan or cauldron. Fry meat in a cauldron with 1-2 tsp olive oil some minutes, add flour, mix.
Step 3a: Add onion, mix and close cauldron. Let to stew in meat's own juice;
Step 4: Over 10 minutes add mushrooms (if mushrooms are large, cut it), mix;

Step 5: Later some minutes add glass of wine and mix. Stew;

Step 6: After 15 minutes add cranberries.

Step 7: After 15 minutes more season meat with salt, pepper and species, dry or fresh greens;
Step 8: Total cooking time for fresh pork should be around 1-1,15h, for beef - 1h and 30min.


Great! Fantastic!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Pasta and vegetables

Pasta and vegetables

I like Italian cuisine very much. Pasta is one of the most favourite. I can cook it when have guests or just to have delicious dinner and everytime different: with mushrooms, cheese, with bacon and creams, with vegetables and nuts. Today, we had first snow, so I wanted something hot and tasty - pasta with vegetables and cedar nuts.

For 4 portions we need:
500g macaroni (in perfect way - "penne", but if you haven't like me this time, use "tubules")
salt
250 g carrot
250 g marrow
5 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
80 g cheese
50 g cedar nuts
ground black pepper
2 tsp. basil

Step 1: Boil water in a large pot, add salt to you liking, add macaroni and stir it around, neatly.


Step 2: Wait after boiling 9-11minutes - macaroni are ready. Carefully pour water out( you can use colander)
Step 3: Peel carrot and garlic


Step 4: Wash vegetables, cut it finely and fry 8 minutes with 3 tsp olive oil.
Step 5: Add boiled macaroni, cedar nuts and 2 tsp oil.
Step 6: Season with salt, pepper, mix it and service immediately. Strew with grated cheese and basil.


Mmmm….wonderful!


Note: if you haven't marrow (as me) don't worry - you can put another vegetable or just miss it.
Note: you can add some cranberries.