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!!! 

  

New York surprises us with warm weather

 Weekend's weather was fantastic, everyone for a moment forgot about winter, and enjoyed outdoors. We haven't had the snow yet, and winter blizzards. There is something strange about it, but I like it!
Here is a little piece of Staten Island, which I really like. 

Rough and Inverse Puff Pastry.

I picked basic recipes for Rough/or quick puff pastry and Classic Inverse Puff Pastry. The results are Rough pastry will be forgotten by me and never used again. I found it to be too rough for my taste. Inverse puff , however made me think of myself, as of magician! The raise, the qualities, the layers of buttery delicious pastry made me feel happy, and satisfied. I will simplify the recipe for inverse puff pastry and post it as soon as... I promise.


Quick pastry baked

 Apple turnover with rough pastry

Apple turnover with Inverse puff pastry

 

Layers of pastry with buttercream made into Napoleon.

Goat Cheese Mushroom Pie.

 When we decided to open Pushkin, the main goal was to surprise and satisfy any customer. Our crepes are very different and unusual in some way. I love all of our crepes, but one of the most favorites one is "Goat Cheese+Sauteed Mushrooms+Caramelized onion Crepe."For Home Thanksgiving meal, I really wanted to make a pie with the same ingredients. I used my mother's favorite short crust pastry (pate brisee). Prepared the ingredients one day ahead at work, and assembled the pie before baking.

    Pate Brisee /Mom's short crust pastry

1 1/4 cup Flour
1/4 tsalt
1/2 cup of cold butter
I use pastry knife to "chop" the butter into the flour. You will have to have crumbs of butter covered with flour. 
Add 1/4 cup of sour cream
2 t of fresh lemon juice or 1 t of vinegar
1/4 cup or less of cold water

I use the scraper to mix in the wet ingredients with flour. Don't add all the water at once, start with half, mix it in, and see if more is necessary. inish kneading with hands, do not over knead. Simply, try to put all the crumbs into one big ball of dough. Make a disc , and wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Note: I made the dough, and prepared the ingredients for the filing a day before. I left everything in the refrigerator overnight,

Filling:
1 1/2 pound of white mushroom /sliced/
1 big onion sliced and caramelized
Goat cheese is up to you and your taste.

Slice mushroom and saute in the pan until cooked. Caramelize onions (in separate pan). Mix Mushrooms+Onions, add salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 400 F.
I used Pyrex Pie Pan, roll out the dough into circle about 26". Fill  it with mushroom + onions mix, crumbled the goat cheese on top, and baked for about 45 minutes.
After first 15 minutes of baking, lower the temperature to 350 F.
The pastry should get nice brownish/golden color.

New Year's Cake -2012!!!

   I am baking my special cake every year. This year, I had to double the size. The cake is so delicious. Layers of walnut sponge cake, meringue layer, and espresso caramel buttercream, with milk chocolate ganache and roasted walnuts. This cake is all my favorite ingredients together!!! The recipe is complicated, but I will try to put it together in nearest future. Since 2012 is Fire Dragon Year by Chinese year, the decoration is inspired by that fact.

Merry Christmas to all Orthodox Christians!!!

 S Rojdestvom!!!

Cinnamon Sticky Buns

 Cinnamon Sticky Buns.

(adapted from Oprah's magazine)

Buns, Croissants, Brioche, Danishes-my yummy world of yeasty dough. "Bulochki" in Russian for buns  have been so my favorite since my childhood. Grandmothers were using poppy seed filling and specially baking it for me for my after school snack. Yeap...no chips, no oreos, no soda, no carrot sticks, and no peanut butter sandwiches-only delicious freshly baked poppy seed buns. I will be honest, and tell you the truth, that I never succeeded in remaking those childhood buns. I tried thousands of recipes, and it just never awoke that memory. I will share with you the recipe, which is very easy to do, the results have been always satisfying, and received approval from now-days school snackers. :)

  -1/4 cup of warm water
  -1 packet/or 2 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast
 - 1/3 cup of sugar
  -3/4 cup of milk
 - 4 Tablespoon softened butter
  - 3 Large egg yolks
 - 1 Tablespoon of orange zest
  -  1 1/4 teaspoon salt
 - 4 - 41/4 cup flour


 Filling
-1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar
-1 T. cinnamon
-4 T softened butter

Warm water + yeast+ 1t sugar, leave for foaming in the mixing bowl.
Add milk+butter+sugar+egg yolks+zest+ 3 cups of flour, use the dough hook for your mixer.And add 1 cup of flour, if the dough is sticky add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour.
Leave the dough in the greased stainless bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and a towel on top. Leave it for 1 hour , until doubles in volume. Punch it down with your fingers, and let it rest for 20 minutes more.While waiting prepare the topping. 


Topping
-3/4 cup pf light brown sugar
-4 T-butter
-3 T-honey
-1 T light corn syrup
-1 1/2 chopped pecans
In a 1 quart saucepan, combine sugar, butter, honey, corn syrup. let it simmer.
Prepare 12x18 rectangle pan,  or 12x18 pyrex. Pour the sticky mixture into pan, sprinkle equally pecans on the bottom of the pan. 


 Roll dough in 12"x18" rectangle. Brush melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture, roll the dough, starting with the long side.Slice into equal 15 pieces. Place dough slices flat side down on top of prepared topping. Cover with plastic wrap, leave it to rise for an hour.

 

If you are baking in the morning, you could leave the pan in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, leave it outside of the fridge for 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake 30-35 minutes. While hot, turn it upside down on the pan, or a big serving dish. Make sure the pecans, and the sticky topping stays on the buns, not on your feet. I bake the buns without waiting overnight, after 1 hour of raising time in the pan.