General Tso Quinoa Stir Fry Bowl

Recently, I started visiting a local lunch joint called the Wok, and they offer a DIY stir-fry bowl which could have quinoa as the base. Ever since I assembled a veggie version with General Tso (for not very cheap unfortunately), I started obsessing about making it at home. You can hardly see the quinoa, but I promise it’s there. Layered on top – stir fried baby bok choy, white asparagus tips (sliced), baby eggplants, beech mushrooms, black Trumpet mushrooms, carrots, chopped scallions and fried egg. With a generous General Tso sauce helping on top (store-bought, but decent).

The interesting element here are the black Trumpet mushrooms, also called “Horn of plenty” – they look like black seaweed, and I am not sure if they have a flavor of their own. I fried them with some sweet chili sauce and soy cause, and they became very crispy – which did this bowl good in the diversity of textures department. More on them here: http://foragerchef.com/the-horn-of-death-black-trumpet-mushrooms/

Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Sandwich

I know some will complain that it is the pork that makes the Bahn Mi sandwich, but I am happy with this imposter.

Chop/slice/spiral carrots, daikon radish and watermelon radish, and marinate in sesame oil, rice vinegar and sugar. Either make your own meatballs with lots of ginger, garlic and cilantro or use ready made ones seasoned with Chinese Five -Spice powder. Pour sriracha mayo on top (in my case I used Yum Yum sauce, lazy me). And garnish with fresh mint, sliced jalapenos and cilantro leaves, black sesame seeds and fried red onion.

Woks of Life has a fantastic recipe you can follow: http://thewoksoflife.com/2015/04/spicy-meatball-banh-mi/

Ricotta Fritters with Strawberry Syrup

This recipe is Estonian and it involves ricotta or cottage cheese. In Bulgaria we call these “bukhti” and they are what grandma usually makes for you for breakfast. There is a more “bready” version of these (with more flour) and then there is this one – which is extraordinarily puffy, lightly creamy and soft. They are usually eaten with powered sugar and jams, but some folks eat them with feta. I am having them this morning with some mocha espresso with a scoop of scorched marshmallow cream. Because.

Here is the recipe:

250g of curd cheese or ricotta

2 medium eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

100g all-purpose flour

rapeseed oil for frying

icing sugar or powdered sugar to top off

Use a wooden spoon, mix the cheese and eggs until combined. Mix the flour, salt and baking soda separately. Fold into the cheese/egg mixture.

Heat about 3-4 cm of oil in small saucepan until hot.

Take two teaspoons – one to take a spoonful of the dough, the other to push the dough into the hot oil. (Teaspoons rather than tablespoons make smaller fritters which avoids undercooked dough inside).

Fry for about 2 minutes until golden brown, then use a slotted spoon, flip the dough over (although sometimes it flips on its own! Estonian magic…)

Remove from the oil and place on paper towel to drain the extra oil. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and eat warm (not too hot) or lukewarm.

Asparagus Cheese Tart w/ Ground Pink Peppercorns

This is a good ol’ classic one – puff pastry, cheese base, and asparagus and the magic happens on its own. I think this definitely benefits from very coarse ground pink peppercorns and from a balsamic reduction drizzled on top (not pictured here).

Followed several “model recipes” but mostly this one from “Cazaz Recipes” (first time I add egg yolk to the base):

ASPARAGUS PUFF PASTRY TARTS

Crisp flaky pastry, soft cheese and fresh asparagus come together effortlessly to make this excellent light lunch. Quick to prepare, these tarts look great on a plate accompanied by a simple salad.

Ingredients:

500g puff pastry (I used JusRol squares)

1 sprinkle plain flour, for rolling

150g soft French herb cheese

1 egg yolk

125g fine asparagus spears

25g Parmesan, shaved

1 bag salad to serve

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas6.

1. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out 4 rectangles, 18cm by 12cm.

2. About 2cm in from the edge of rectangle mark a border, ensuring you don’t cut right through the pastry, and place on a baking tray.

3. Beat together the soft cheese and egg and divide between the pastry rectangles.

4. Spread to cover the inner rectangle.

5. Trim the asparagus to fit and arrange over the cheese mixture.

6. Sprinkle with the parmesan.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

8. Serve with salad.

Poached Eggs with Feta Cheese And Yogurt

Since I am in Bulgaria I wanted to make this traditional dish called Sirene (Feta) Po Shopski – “from the Shopsko region”. Some time ago a post by Meg L about different egg dishes around the world had the Turkish version of this dish, which is very similar (it doesn’t include the dill for instance). To be fair, there are lots of variations of this even within Bulgaria, and my own family will argue if I am being authentic by not adding tomatoes, and introducing dill, but I stand by this.

Here is what you do – you layer some chunks of feta cheese in your plate, poach an egg or eggs (my favorite method is with a strainer), spoon it over the cheese; then you melt some butter and add paprika to it to sprinkle on top of the egg. Next, you grate some garlic and add it to several tablespoons of yogurt (Greek will do, but regular is the default) along with chopped fresh or dry dill, and spoon the yogurt mix over the rest of the dish. Dip some crusty bread in it and you’ll be quite happy.

Pancakes With Cookie Butter

One of the many uses of Trader Joe’s Speculoos butter is for stuffing pancakes. I wish I had a better pic of it oozing out, but until I got the technique right most of the oozing out occurred in the pan 😦 Still makes a good combination though.

Happy Sunday morning!

This is my go-to recipe for buttermilk pancakes. Oh, the fluff!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/24530/buttermilk-pancakes-ii/

Poutine with Cafe Con Leche Gravy

This one is admittedly weird. I recently learned that in the South they make a coffee based gravy called “Red Eye” gravy. Of course that had to be tried. So here I am using a Paula Deen recipe for my poutine. So first – one cube bouillon is way too much! Too salty. Ruined the whole thing. Second, do not be tempted like me to use espresso instead of coffee – too bitter. Second, easy on the butter seriously. For crying our loud the base is bacon fat! Because of the saltiness I added half-and-half and this is how the “con leche” part came in. That tempered the saltiness. I think the lessons here are to perhaps maybe just add coffee to basic gravy for just a hint of taste and bitterness, because I really really liked the boost coffee gave this. Added the gravy to french fries with cheese curds, along with bacon bits and chives. It really is unique, but I would honestly prefer this with a ham steak as the original recipe suggests (copy/pasted below). Although after so many fats I am not sure how one doesn’t just automatically get a heart attack. Well that’s Paula Deen for ya.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/country-ham-and-red-eyed-gravy-recipe

Pistachio-Lime Bars

Buttery base, tangy filling, crunchy pistachios – it’s all in there. You know, the New York Times food section is kicking butt lately – all of their recipes are not only eye catching, but very accessible. This is something hard to come by when most recipes in the foodie blogosphere today strive to be “shock and awe” and always feature something fancy schmancy, and ingredient that are hard to come by. So this is half lemon bar/ half St. Louis gooey bar. Except that I just had to make it with lime. Next time I will plop some merengue on top and add a merengue key lime pie to the mash up 🙂

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/6960-pistachio-lemon-bars?action=click&module=Recirculation+Band+Recipe+Card&region=Trending+on+Cooking&pgType=recipedetails&rank=2%3Fsmid%3Dfb-nytdining&smtyp=cur

Irish Sage Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich

Sometimes the best recipes come from the back of product packages -> found a Dubliner Cheese Biscuit with Sage and Walnut recipe on the Kerrygold butter box (retyping it below). The sage and walnuts make it taste like a sausage, and its super flaky, so it’s great breakfast material. Move over, McMuffin – this here is luscious stuff – add a slice of Dubliner cheddar to ooze off seductively, a breakfast chicken patty and a fried egg, and don’t count the calories.

Recipe:

Heat oven to 450 and grease a baking sheet. In a bowl stir 2 cups of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Add to the flour 1/2 cup of Irish butter cut into tiny cubes and cut with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Stir in 1/2 shredded sharp cheddar, 2 teaspoons dried sage, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pepper and 2/3 cup buttermilk and mix until mixture forms a ball. Press dough on floured board into a 1 inch circle. Cut into 12 pieces and place on baking sheet. Bake from 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese, Red Grapes and Honey

A couple of takeaways from this one – first the honey is mandatory! Second, the rosemary can barely be tasted, and third – it never ceases to amaze me how different my dishes end up looking when compared to the recipe’s official photo. Of course it could always be just me, but then again I suspect that a lot of professional sites and blogs take the photos while something is half baked, or they move the stew or soup to a clean pot, etc. etc. In one case you cook for looks, and in the other for actual eating.

Oh well. Pretty happy with the result here!

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/rosemary-flatbread-blue-cheese-grapes-and-honey