Ingredients:
This recipe takes us south to the Mediterranean island nation of Malta. In an effort to dabble in the culinary traditions of my other half beyond pastizzi, a delicious Maltese cheese pastry, I present a version of zebbug mimli. If you can’t be anywhere near the turquoise blue Maltese water, then have some of these tuna stuffed green olives, close your eyes, and just pretend. Continue reading
With just 3 ingredients, this recipe clearly isn’t about what you add to a dish, the focus is how you cook it! Spreading vegetables like broccoli or green beans on a sheet pan and baking them at a high temperature maximizes flavor and is as simple as it gets. Continue reading
Ingredients:
I gave the spiel on pierogi in my potato and cheese potato and cheese filling post. This recipe is for the popular sauerkraut and mushroom filling. If you are having trouble finding dried mushrooms or if they are too expensive in stores near you, just use fresh mushrooms! Some recipes call for 1 shredded and sautĂ©ed carrot…that would be a great addition if you’d like.
Pssst…you can make this recipe vegan if make a dough with flour, water, and salt (start 3:1 ratio flour to water) and adjust as necessary).***
Reminder that once pierogi are assembled, you can refrigerate them and cook them the next day, or you can freeze them for a few weeks.
This make about 3-4 dozen pierogi. Continue reading
Leczo is a bell pepper stew that originally hails from Hungary (where it is spelled lecso). At some point, variations made their way through the region and over to Poland. This is NOT a recipe for an authentic Hungarian Lecso, but it does contain some of the necessary fundamentals: peppers, onion, tomato, and paprika. The end result is still delicious and can be a vegetarian stew/ragout used to top something like rice or buckwheat, or it can include kielbasa or other meat to make it a heartier standalone stew. Or it can just be a great side. This recipe is also much thicker than a lot of other leczo recipes out there, but you can obviously combine elements of all and adjust based on your preferences. 🙂 Continue reading
Pirozhki are fried or baked stuffed buns made with yeast dough. Popular in Russia and other countries in eastern Europe and central Asia, they can be stuffed with virtually anything, but common fillings include potatoes, cabbage, ground meat, or even sweet fillings.
This one here is a simple mixture of onion sauerkraut, and carrot (which could also be a great filling for pierogi). Typically, the are oval or crescent shaped, but I got distracted and formed round ones. Oh well, they taste the same. Adding an egg wash before baking will add a nice shine, but is optional, as are seed/toppings…I just happened to have everything bagel seasoning on hand and added it. This recipe will make about 30 pirozhki, but can very based on the size you choose to make. Continue reading
Kasza manna/farina is very popular and economical breakfast choice for people all around the world. And while this recipe could be eaten for breakfast, the sugar content makes it better suited for a quick and easy dessert. The simple combination of strawberries and rose water turns this regular old bowl of porridge into something a little more special. Continue reading
These cod cakes help make just over a pound of cod (or other fish) go pretty far, so they’re good for a small crowd or family dinner. This leek mustard sauce has some sweet and tangy notes that come from white wine, mustard, sour cream, and apricot jam, which might seem like an odd addition, but it works! If you don’t have apricot jam, you could add a few pinches of sugar, or maybe a tablespoon or two of orange juice. Just make sure to wash your leeks very well before cooking–there is a 100% chance that there is a ton of dirt in between the layers! You can either slice lengthwise and run each layer under water, or, you can chop to your desired size and then put in a large bowl of water. This way, the dirt will settle to the bottom and you can scoop out your clean leeks from the top. I promise it isn’t that much of a hassle, and the leeks are worth it! Also, you can use fresh dill if you want for the cod, I just haven’t had any luck finding it in stores since the start of the Covid lockdown. Anyway, here is the recipe. Smacznego!
Before I go into the recipe, I just wanted to say that I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and listening to guidance from their respective health officials!!! These days, hand sanitizer is worth its weight in gold, and I don’t think anyone has seen yeast on a grocery store shelf in weeks (why has that been such a hot ticket item along with TP)?
That means there’s 0 chance of makowiec for for Easter this year, as the dough requires yeast. Makowiec is a traditional Polish poppy seed roll cake that is served on holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Poppy seeds are admittedly always hard to find in regular grocery stores, but I had a bag in the back of my kitchen cabinet that I picked up at a Russian store…you’ll find the most luck in any Polish or Russian or other eastern European deli/shop. I also had a package of puff pastry in my freezer. So, with no yeast available in the greater metro area, I decided to make poppy seed puff pastries for Easter this year instead of makowiec. They aren’t the real thing, but they have a lot of the familiar flavors and are faster to put together.
DO NOT EAT THESE (OR MAKOWIEC) IF YOU ARE EXPECTING A DRUG TEST ANYTIME SOON. These desserts use a lot of poppy seeds, and I’m just sayin’ you might test positive for opiates. Yes, it can happen. Continue reading
Zofia's Kitchen 