Purple Cauliflower, Squash, & Parmesan Cream Soup
Seriously, look at that purple! I initially thought the soup would come out a non-descript brown-black color, but the purple just shone through! Boiled chopped butternut squash, purple cauliflower, onions, garlic and chopped celery in a veggie broth for an hour. Added some milk (maybe half a cup), salt and parmesan (all to taste) and blended giddily. Topped with a splash of heavy cream and ground fresh nutmeg.

Goodbye, gazpacho and cold summer soups – I am in full autumn-prep mode for something hearty, warm and cozy 🙂

Golden Berry (Physalis) Pico de Gallo
Golden berries are these plump round yellow cherry-tomato looking fruits in pretty husks. They occasionally appear in the grocery, but I have never known what to do with them, until curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try them. They are, as the label says, sweet and tangy, and uniquely suited for salads and salsas. This pico de gallo is just red onions (well, shallots, actually), cilantro, and coarsely chopped berries with salt and pepper. No lime juice was needed at all – the fruit is sour enough. This goes well with sweet potato tortilla chips and is a welcome change from regular tomato-based salsas.

 

Swiss Chard, Chive and Feta Porridge

Ethnic/grannie dish alert!

We call porridge “kasha” in Bulgarian, and it is usually a creamy milk and butter based mush, eaten with bread. It really is better than it sounds, especially if you don’t skmip on the butter and the “accoutrements” – in this case: chives, feta cheese and the secret ingredient… garlic!

– Chop the swiss chard and sautee it in butter with some salt and green onions (until soft)
– Add 2-3 tablespoons of flour to it and let sit (we are making a roux)
– Add about 2 cups of milk until you reach the consistency you like
– Beat an egg on the side and then pour into the mixture until it starts bubbling and becomes a bit thicker
– Take off the stove and add extra butter, salt, pepper, herbs (chopped chives!!!), and crumbled feta cheese
– Just before you serve stir in some chopped fresh garlic

Warm, crusty bread will do this one well.

I would think this is a winter dish, because it is so comfort-foody (dipping the bread in it and all), however it is made with fresh greens, so I guess it goes for all seasons. Can be made with stinging nettles, but they require some pre-boiling.

Frozen Honey Saffron Mousse
Stop what you’re doing and make this. Seriously. It is like an airy ice cream – with a deep sweet flavor, balanced with the fresh blackberries on top. It sounds like it is tricky to make, but not really, it was rather painless. I was tasting the intermittent steps and it just cried out to me that it needs saffron so I obliged.

Recipe – > https://food52.com/recipes/76821-frozen-honey-mousse

Date & Fig Amaretto Easter Bread
Easter bread, or “kozunak” in Bulgarian, is made primarily for Easter but also throughout the year and is something we Bulgarians snack on with yogurt very, very often. It is usually made with nuts, raisins, and a swirl of marmalade on the inside, but more contemporary versions include nutella, chocolate chips, and generally any ol’ sweet filling.

So yeah, of course my preference is something soaked in alcohol – so I chopped dates and soaked them in Amaretto, and also spread generous doses of fig preserves to make mine. Going for some sort of cross-cultural mashup, while I eat it, I am drinking cafe blanc – which is neither coffee, nor white – but hot water with orange blossom essence (and is good for digestion purposes): http://qc.allrecipes.ca/recette/6988/caf–blanc-d-a-da.aspx. This is a takeaway from the Moroccan Jewish Mimouna celebration. This year the Eastern Orthodox Easter and Mimouna coincide, so it seemed appropriate.

On the side, I have an Easter egg, decorated based on the solid tradition of extreme consumerism according to which you buy the latest gizmo on Amazon for decorating eggs with stripes using non-toxic markers 🙂

There are a million recipes for kozunak, here is one that I regularly follow:
http://www.bobthechef.com/recipe/kozunak-sweet-easter-bread

Nutty Carrot Pineapple Cake
It seems we all had the same idea this Easter – to make carrot cake. I mean, it is a very universal, omni-present thing – all cafes have it, most restaurants serve it for dessert, and here we are also making it at home too. Granted, we all added extra stuff! Jasmina Brozović’s one, for instance, looks so lusciously creamy! and those toppings are adorable: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JasminaBrozovi%C4%87/posts/jZoCPiDoKfC

The recipe I followed this Saturday calls for pineapple, coconut and lots of nuts too. I added not just any ol’ nuts but maple glazed ones.
https://www.momontimeout.com/to-die-for-carrot-cake-recipe/ (note that the 1 lb of powdered sugar for the frosting is wayyyyyyy too much – just go by taste).

Now, on to the Eastern Orthodox Easter next week! Ain’t it fun to cook for two Easters 🙂

Lazy Brown Sugar Kouign Amann
Once again Azlin Bloor has inspired me with her posts! This time it is the sweet and buttery Breton dessert Kouign Amann (see her original post: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AzlinBloor/posts/3Jdjy3Sm3hK). Some 7 years ago I attempted and failed at making my own puff pastry, so having a developed PTSD after the incident, after much hesitation I decided to go for the cheater recipe… BUT… I did at least make the effort to get the dough from a local bakery which has incredibly flaky croissants! Also, I decided to go against the grain and use brown sugar instead of regular, because I read on some blog that a bakery shop somewhere (I know – this is awfully specific!) makes to-die for brown sugar kouign ammans. In any event, I am happy with the result, and I have to admit – I do prefer these when they are a day old!

Preparation instructions here:
https://www.aspicyperspective.com/cheater-kouign-amann-recipe/2/

 

 

Bacon Maple Beignets
This is powerful stuff! Not only because of the maple glaze and bacon combo, but because the actual beignets are very fluffy and have a nice yeasty taste. The preparation wasn’t hard either (except for the waiting….:)). And by the way, I didn’t have buttermilk, I just had a bottle of mango kefir in the fridge and that did nicely! Now I didn’t cover the beignets with the glaze entirely – I just drizzled some on. It would have been way too sweet if they were dipped whole in it. But seriously, this is becoming my go-to recipe for any sweet fritter kind of thing and I plan to add crazy stuff in the dough or as toppings.

I bow to the Two Lazy Gourmets:
http://www.twolazygourmets.com/2013/02/bacon-beignets/

A friend who lived for a while in Germany told me about Hoppel-Poppel – it’s cubed (or cut) potatoes with onions, eggs, and ham – all scrambled – > a way to put together leftovers. I decided to make it but with sunchokes (which I just learned come from the sunflower family). Sunchokes have prebiotic “powers”, wow! They have a sophisticated nutty flavor too. Oh, and the Quebecois call them “topinambour”. I didn’t scramble my eggs with them, but poached them. So yeah… strongly recommended – have some!

I always order flautas (or taquitos) in Mexican joints – love the crispy/soft texture. I finally realized you can make them at home without using a deep fryer. They actually take a surprisingly small time to get brown and crispy!

I had leftover chili, so I saved it by putting a tablespoon in my mini tortillas.
The cilantro sauce is basically sour cream, mayo, lime juice and cilantro swirled for 5 minutes in my finnicky Vitamix.

Here is a recipe you can follow:
http://pinaenlacocina.com/2015/04/30/baked-chicken-taquitos/