Making home at new home

It's funny, how I am trying so hard to make our new home look like our old one. Things, that make us feel comfortable , and are familiar to us are gathered from store to store. And of, course, food is a big part of it. Whenever I see a similar ingredient in the supermarket, I am grabbing all the boxes from the shelf in fear that I won't find it some other time.Cooking home-comfort food for me was a natural call, that I followed, and cooked our favorite dishes all week long. Uzbek plov, Borscht, Pelmeni, fried potatoes with mushrooms(russian style),chicken noodle soup, and of course a piece of simple cake. I shared the recipe of Uzbek plov before in my blog.
Sometimes, if I want to make a quick version of it, I use chicken meat instead of lamb, and it becomes super-quick and delicious meal.
The basics are the same, please, let me know, if you want step-by-step recipe for Plov with chicken.
Today, I want to share a recipe for Borscht soup. It's a "landmark dish" in Russia, and Ukraine. Everyone makes borscht their only right way, and everyone knows, that their mother's Borscht is the only best version of it, that have a right to live. I am very flexible about cooking, and accept their versions, but still , my grandmother's borscht was the best, I had ever tried. After consulting with my mom (live Skype conversation, she followed every step of the process), I am ready to put this for public view.

BORSCHT.

Soup Pot-5 liters.
One Frying pan.
Box Grater
Knife and cutting board.

Ingredients.
Beef Bones with some meat on it.Mom's preference is veal.-500-700 gr. (For Stock)
Beets-1 medium/or 2 small
Yellow onion-1 medium
Carrots-2 medium
Sweet red pepper- 1
Tomato paste -1 Tablespoon
Ready tomato sauce 4 Tablespoons/or 1-2 fresh tomatoes grated
Cabbage
Salt
Parsley or celery stalks for meat stock.

1.Make a basic meat stock. Wash your meat, and bones, add cold water, after it gets to the boiling point, skim the foam, add salt. You can tie together parsley, and few pieces of red pepper, and add it to your stock at this point.
2.Peel, and wash the beets. Add whole beets into the stock.It will be easier for you to work with them later after they will get little softer.
3.Chop your onions, cut 1 carrot into small cubes,1 carrot grated, cut potatoes in cubes. Slice the cabbage. My cabbage was medium size, and I used a quarter of it.Grate the tomatoes, if you use fresh ones.
4. The stock cooks about 40 minutes. Depends on your meat. After 30 minutes of cooking time, pull out beets, and cool them down under the cold water.
5. Grate the beets. Heat oil on the frying pan, and add onions. After onions turn golden color, add beets, and grated carrot. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir, and add tomato sauce/or fresh grated tomatoes.Cook 5 minutes. Add 1 ladle of your meat stock to it. Cook until beets are soft-about 10 minutes.
6.Add potatoes to your stock. If your cabbage is hard, add it to stock before the beets mixtures.If it's not, add it after the beets mixture. You have about 10 minutes to decide that, before your potatoes are getting ready. Cabbage cooks about the same time.
7. Turn off the heat.Cover it with the lid, and let it stay for 30 minutes. It has to absorb all the juices.
8. For the serving, I make bread croutons, or toasted Garlic bread . Add a teaspoon of sour cream to you plate with Borscht. Borscht is always more delicious the next day.

Alacati, Cesme, Urla.

I must say thank you to our wonderful friends-Guniz & Deniz. Deniz's mom opened the doors of her beautiful home for us, where we enjoyed fantastic weather, great food, and best company ever. We stayed at Urla, which is conveniently located next to more crowded and popular Cesme, and Alacati cities. We did couple day trips to Efesus, Cesme beaches, and enjoyed our evenings by browsing streets of Alacati. Absolutely the best breakfast, I ever had. (Urla)

Marmaris, Datca, Knidos.

Moving to Turkey.

Summer 2012 brought a lot of surprises into our life. We sold our cafe, and moved to Istanbul, Turkey. This is a brand new beginning for my family. I hope you will enjoy new turkish-inspired culinary adventures, and my very hard to adjust to new ingredients experience. I will try to cook my family's favorite dishes with new turkish equivalent ingredients, and share my new finds with you. We started our new life with very exciting chapter-Vacation. We moved from city to city in our car, and stayed in different places couple nights, which gave us some time to rest, and some time to enjoy. Stop #1-Lagoon between Adrasan and Olympos-Antalya.

Zero comfort, fantastic pebble beach, the best sea in the world, and you eat whatever you catch, or kill. The owner of this little paradise killed a wild goat, and cooked it for a dinner. The meat was cooked without any spices added to it, and yet, it had an amazing the strong oregano sense in every bite. It was amazing!

Catch of the day

Happy Valentine's Day-or early love letter to my husband.

 Not a big fan of this holiday. Before we got married with my husband, we had decided not to celebrate 14th of February, instead, surprise each other occasionally, and cherish the love between us everyday of our life. I am posting this on 13th, not to ruin the traditions :)

  "I am 12 years old, and asking my mom,
- Mom, how in the world, you would know, which guy to get married with. There are so many to pick from. I am really afraid to make a wrong choice.
 Mom with a smile
  - You will definitely know if He is the Right one."

Now, I know, that my mom was %1000 right, and the second I saw him, I knew he was THE ONE. I love you , and love you, and love you endlessly, like an ocean. You are an amazing soulmate, that understands me, supports me, holds me, lifts me up, listens, and loves. I am grateful to have you entering my life, and sharing every moment of it. I Love you, and thank you for loving me back.

Almonds, Sunflower Seeds-salted snack.

 I love crunchy seeds, nuts in granola, salads, or simply by itself. I purchase raw, unsalted sunflower seeds, or almonds (slivered/or whole), and turn them into perfection in my kitchen.

  This recipe is pretty basic.
  You will need a cup of almonds, or sunflower seeds, water, and kosher salt.
   I use small saucepan, fill it with water, boil it, add 1/2 Tablespoon of kosher salt. The water has to be pretty Ocean salty. When the water reaches boiling status, add your nuts and seeds. Let them simmer in the salted water for 5 minutes.
   Drain the nuts, and spread them on the baking pan. Toast in the oven at 350F for 5-10 minutes. The nuts should be nice, dry, and toasted. For smaller amount of nuts, use the frying pan, and toast them on top of the stove.
 For more interesting taste, you can add some olive oil, red/or black pepper before the toasting in the oven.

Strawberry Balsamic Dressing.Roasted Beet Salad.

 I am surrounded by cupcakes, cookies, crepes, ice cream, and cakes. It's so hard to resist to try everything we make in Pushkin, and stay in good shape, that's why, couple days a week, I eat light and no-calories meals. I love salads, and there are so many creative ways of making delicious salad from basic ingredients that you can pick up, mix up, and eat up without feeling guilty.

STRAWBERRY BALSAMIC VINEGAR DRESSING.

  You can guess, that we use a lot of strawberries in our cafe, since one of he most popular crepe in our menu is... -That's right, "Nutella and Slice Fresh Strawberries" crepe.
 I pick through the strawberries, and pick only the best, that go into the customer's meal. Some strawberries are just not perfect enough, and not so bad to throw them away. That's why I make strawberry sauces, and strawberry dressings. You can do the same thing at home- pick through the pint the not -so- beautiful berries, and make something delicious.

   -About 10 ripe strawberries
   - Juice of half of a Lemon
   -pinch of salt
   -pinch of black pepper
   - Balsamic Vinegar 1 Tbsp
    -Honey 2 Tbsp  (or more, if you like it little bit sweeter)
    -Olive oil - If you are on a diet, 2 Tbsp will be perfect.If not, then add exact same amount as, the strawberry puree. 1/2 olive oil+1/2 strawberry puree.
  Use medium saucepan. You can puree strawberries in blender. I sliced, and pureed them with hand stick blender. Add pinch of kosher salt, and black pepper, juice of a lemon. Set the heat on medium, and boil sauce for 5 minutes. You will see, that sauce will thicken, and reduce in amount. Turn off the heat, add balsamic vinegar, and let it cool. Add honey, taste the sauce, and add more salt, or pepper, or honey. I liked to leave it sometimes at this stage. But you can definitely add some olive oil, and whisk throughly. You will have a thick emulsion.

 

ROASTED BEET SALAD. 

If you think, that you don't like beets, it means you never tried roasted/baked young beets. Purchase young, small beets from your supermarket, or farm stand, and you will enjoy the health benefits of this fantastic root vegetable. You can use fresh beet in your power fresh juices, and make some delicious Russian-inspired salads. But today, let's stay on the safe side, and make something, that's  more familiar to everyone. 

  To bake beets, you will need to wrap them in foil, and bake at 425F for one hour in your oven. My professional oven is super monster, and I had them ready in one hour at 350F.  Time will vary, if the beets are bigger in size.

 Let them cool. Wrap them, and refrigerate, until you ready to use them. I usually bake couple at a time, and use them during the week, whenever I feel like having a salad.

  Mix some greens (arugula, spring mix, green spinach), slice your beets. Add some toasted pecans, crumble some goat cheese (or feta), and Strawberry Dressing. Voila!!!