My Grandma's roll up fruit cookie

This is a very fast and easy recipe that one likes to have on hand when cookies are needed within an hour. They come out flaky and buttery with the flavour of fruit filling that you've chosen.If you will go for something more sour it would be tangy or sweeter- it would be a sweet tooth pleaser.

Here is what you'll need:

1 egg
1/4 tea spoon baking soda
1 table spoon vinegar
pinch of salt
1/2cup water

2 sticks (about 200 gr) margarine or butter
2 cups flour

If you want to make larger amout of dough can use 2 1/2 cups of flour to 250 gr of margarine.


Break egg in the cup and mix lightly, add soda with vinegar and salt and add water so that it becomes 3/4 of a cup.

Put butter and flour in the bowl and cup with pastry cutter until it reaches the stage of fine crumbs. Start adding liquid ingredients gradually and continue cutting with pastry cutter. continue till dough forms. stop adding liquid once sufficient for the butter flour mixture.

Cut dough in half and roll our each half about 1 to 2 ml thick. Cut into wedges. Put preserves of your choice and roll up.

Bake at 350F for about 16 to 18 minutes or until golden on the edges. Once cooled can dust with powdered sugar.

Baklava

In St-Petersburg they used to have the store that was called “Eastern Sweets”. It was right on the main street of the city- Nevskii Prospeckt. To this day I remember what a treat it was to buy some sweets there. And they would have baklava and fudge and sorbet and nougat and kurabeye (sweet buttery cookies) and million other tasty things- or at list it seemed that way when I was a kid. When I’ve found this recipe on http://www.azcookbook.com/, I right away felt that this would be the taste that I remember from those early days. And it surely is! I did small modification- I love spices too much, so I've added some clove and cinnamon to filling and to the dough. It is not too sweet and plain delicious!

Here is what you'll need:

The Dough

3 cups of flour
8 oz of butter
1 cup of sour cream mixed with teaspoon of baking sode
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/3 teaspoon of clove, ground

The Filling

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites
2/12 cups walnuts, finely chopped
1 tea spoon cinnamon

Incorporate butter into the flour using pastry cutter. Add sour cream and soda mixture and add egg yolks. Continue incorporating with the pastry cutter until it comes together. Divide into 3 parts and chill for 1 hour.

For the filling combine sugar, spice and egg whites and add to the chopped nuts.

Take 8 by 12 inch pan. Roll out the first piece of dough to approximately fit the pan, transfer to the pan and adjust with your hand up to the edges. Spread half of the filling. Roll out the second piece of dough. Stretch a bit with your fingers to fit the pan up to the edges. Spread the second half of the filling. Roll out the third piece of the dough. Lay it on the top of the filling. Brush the top with egg wash.

Cut the pastry into diamond shapes with the sharp knife. Place a walnut piece on each piece of pastry.

Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes. Let cool completely.

Vinegret- Russian Beet Salad

There are a few dishes that are considered staples of Russian table, particularly for holidays. This salad is one of them in my opinion. With quite a bit of cold weather, majority of vegetables that were used were root vegetables that keep well. It is very basic but tasty and nutritious. It can be used as an appetizer ( can serve it in a nice bowl or in letters cups) or it can make a hearty side dish for dinner.

Here is what you'll need:

1 large beet
1 or 2 potatoes
3 to 4 carrots
Half of white onion
5 medium size pickles
jar of peas or steamed fresh pees
2 table spoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Steam or boil beet, potatoes and carrot in there jackets. You can do that 24 hours in advance to making the salad. Peel.

Cut in even cubes. Dice onion as small as you can. Cut 4 pickles same size as the rest of vegetables and grade 1 pickle on a large grader. Mix everything gently in the bowl, add peas and oil and mix again. Add salt and pepper to taste.
You always can add fresh herbs such as dill or parsley, finely chopped.

Blueberry Tart

Summer time - fruits and berries everywhere. It is hard not to be trying deserts using them.... I have never before made tart of any kind. But I've found this recipe on another food blog (Nami -Nami http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2009/07/tarte-aux-myrtilles-recipe-for-french.html) and in a few days happened to find myself with about a kilogram of fresh blueberries that were not very sweet. Cool day and blueberries – the answer calls for itself!

It is very simple and quite delicious.

Here is what you need:

100 g cold unsalted butter or margarine
70 g sugar
1 small egg
1/3 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
170 g plain/all-purpose flour

400 g blueberries or bilberries
75 g sugar
1- 2 Tbsp potato starch

Put all the ingredients for the dough in the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the metal blade. Pulse until dough holds together. You can do the same process with the metal bowl and dough cutter. Then mix dry ingredients, cut in the butter and add the egg. Turn out the dough onto clean surface, rap and let rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Mix sugar and starch in the cup, sprinkle over blueberries evenly and mix carefully with the spoon.

Fluted tart pan with the removable bottom works the best for this baking adventure. The tart comes out very delicate and it is a breeze to take it out if you can use a pan like that. The size that will be needed is 24 by 14 sm.

Roll out the dough as much as you can and transfer in the pan. Adjust by hand so that the dough reaches the sides and create a little border. Add the blueberry filling that you have prepared.

Bake at 375F (190 C) until the edge of the tart is golden brown.
Let cool and enjoy!

Avocado Salad

One of my offerings for a Mad Tea Party is Avocado Salad. I‘ve found this recipe in “Ayurvedic Healing Cuisine” by Harish Johari. It is a wonderfully source of delicious recipes! My family really enjoyed it the other day and my mother added it to her collection of recipes!

Here is what you’ll need:

1 medium avocado with juice of 1 lemon so that it does not turn dark
1 medium banana
1 medium orange
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
roasted sunflower seeds or pine nuts
Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel the avocado, banana and orange. Cut into small pieces. Combine the lemon juice with all the spices. In an attractive bowl, combine all the ingredients. Sprinkle with seeds or nuts if desired.

Honey Cardamon Madeleines

One of my favorite recipes - Honey Cardamon Madeleines. I originally saw it in some French cookbook and one of the things that I liked about this recipe is that it is not quite as rich as a lot of other versions of it. I did make small modification- added cardamon. I think that it makes it even lighter yet.

Here is what you need if you'd like to give this recipe a try:
It will make exactly 12 regular size Madeleines.

4 tablespoons (50gr) unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
3/4 cup all -purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar (I usually use about half of this amount- I like Madeleines not to be excessively sweet)
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Melt butter, stir in honey, vanilla extract and cardamon. Let stand until reaches room temperature. In small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In a medium bowl mix eggs and sugars until combined. Mix in flour mixture. Continue to fold until combined. Don't over mix.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425F. Brush madeleine molds with melted butter. Fill each mold 3/4 full. Do not overfill. Bake until puffed and edges are golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Suffed Peppers and Sweet Eggplant Relish

Couple days ago I have made this Stuffed Peppers. They came out slightly spicy and sweet with a strong pepper taste. I combined couple of ideas that I've tasted in a Greek and Indian restaurants and put it together in this dish.

Here is what you'll need if you would like to give it a try:

About 5 large sweet peppers, cleaned and set aside

3 table spoons of oil
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, washed and graded
About 1 pound of ground turkey or chicken (can omit the meat for a vegetarian version and increase the amount of carrot)
4 table spoons of Patak's Eggplant Relish ( it is widely available in Indian grocery stores or ethnic sections of the regular grocery store, if not available in your area- recipe for this wonderful relish follows down below) plus 1 tablespoon for the sauce
1 cup of raisins
Salt and ground pepper to taste

1 cup of uncooked rice, washed
Water enough to cover the rice mixture by about ½ inch.


Hit medium size Dutch oven and add oil. Sauté onion until translucent and add carrot. Sauté onion/ carrot mixture for couple minutes and add the meat. Let it cook for about 5 minutes. Mix well making sure that you breaks meat into as little pieces as possible. Add the relish, raisins, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the rice and water. Bring to boil, lower the heat and cover with the lid. Cook for about 25- 30 minutes. Then open and check- rice should be very mildly not done.

Fill the peppers with the stuffing. Place them in a large dip pan. Put a cup of water mixed with 1 table spoon of the relish. You could add about ¼ cup of raisins to the sauce as well. It would add sweetness and depth of flavor. Place pan with the peppers on the stove. Once the sauce came to boil make sure to put a spoonful of sauce on each pepper. Cover with the lid and let cook and medium to low heat for about 30 minutes.

Brinjal Eggplant Pickle:

1 1/2 kg eggplants (brinjal)

4 ounces ginger (5 inch)

6 ounces garlic cloves (3 North American large pods or 6 small pods)

5 ounces hot red chili powder

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

2 tablespoons black mustard seeds, powdered

1 1/2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds, roasted and powdered

2 tablespoons cumin seeds, roasted and powdered

3/4 cup salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups prepared mustard oil(Indian grocory store) or vegetable oil

1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind pulp or tamarind paste

curry leaves, from indian grocory store (optional)

1 1/4 cups vinegar

Julianne or dice small eggplant. Layer eggplant with salt alternately. Let stand 4-5 hours till waterseperates from vegetable. Squeeze in handfuls eggplant till water is removed. Keep in seperate bowl. Grind ginger and garlic in some of the vinager to paste. Heat oil till smoke starts rising. Fry eggplant two hand fulls at a time. Drain with slotted spoon and set aside. Wait for water to evaporate from oil, till the bubbles stop before frying another lot of eggplant. Add and fry garlic and ginger paste for 5 minutes. Add dry spices, fry 2 minutes. Add vinager and tamrind, mix well for 1 minute. Add curry leaves and sugar, mix well. Add eggplant mix well and cook 1-2 minutes. Cool and bottle.