Chickpea with pork

Introduction

Rich in proteins dish

Materials

Pork
Chickpea
Soya sauce
Apple vinegard
Garlic
Baking soda
Olive oil
Champignons
Spinach for cooking
Black pepper
Oregano
Savory
Bay leaf
Lemon

Procedure

1. Soak the chickpea overnight in water containing baking soda and olive oil
2. Soak the meat pieces in apple vinegard and soya sauce together witch cut garlic cloves
3. Heat some olive oil and add the meat and the garlic
4. Mix and fry the meat till it start changing its colour
5. Add the washed champignons, mix and let it cook for several minutes
6. Rinse the chickpea with water and add it to the meat and the champignons
7. Add the spices and mix
8. Squeeze half a lemon
9. Add the spinach and let it cook for 10-15 min longer

Results

Discussion

It's good ... I thought of adding some cream but I didn't and now I know it was the right choice.


Bon Appétit !

Turshia with rice

Introduction

Onother ''why not?" dish ...

Materials

Turshia http://nadi4ka.blogspot.com/2011/01/turshia-or-fermented-vegetables.html
Soya sauce
Piri-piri sauce
Sweet hot chilly sauce
Olive oil

Procedure

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan
2. Pour some soya sauce
3. Add the turshia and mix
4. Add some piri-piri and sweet hot chilly sauce and mix
5. Let it cook covered by a lid for several minutes
6. Add rice, mix well add water enough to cover the rice and cook till the rice is not too soft
7. Turn off the heat and let it stay 10-15 minutes covered with a lid ... (standard rice cooking I guess)

Results

Discussion

The turshia saves a lot of time, you go to the store, by, cut and prepare several kg. of vegetables only ones and you use them till they finish and additionally they have been already naturally flavoured in a very good way. Great!

Bon Appétit!

Creamy steak

Introduction

I have read creamy steak recipes ... I've never learnt how to spell this word ... recepies that take as much as 3-4 even 8-10 hours wow ... It took me less than 20 minutes to have one of the best steaks I have ever eaten ... and it was melting in my mouth ...

Materials

Steak(s), in my case they were pork
Butter
Cream
Salt
Savory
Black pepper

Procedure

1. Melt the butter in a frying pan
2. Place the steaks
3. Spread salt, black pepper and savory on top of the frying steaks
4. Turn the steaks several times
5. Pour some cream and turn of the heeat in 1-2 min
6. Mix the cream and the butter and serve ...

Results

Discussion

Great for your mood ... fatty, spicy ...


Bon Appétit!

Eggless cake

Introduction

At 10 p.m. I was dying for a cake ... and I had no eggs.

Materials

1-1/2 cups flour 
1/2 cup intensive olive oil 
1 cup sugar 
1-1/2 tsp baking soda 
1/4 tsp salt 
1 scant cup cream
1 sp sangria
vanille
7-8 digestive bisquits


Procedure


1. Mix well all the ingredients till you get a homogenous mixture
2. Pour the mixture into a well greased baking pan
3. Bake for about 1 hour in a non-preheated oven


Results

Discussion

When it is ready I will be able to tell more ...

After half the cake is already gone ... or not yet, it's still with me ;) ... I might say it's very nice, with delicate taste and a sense of softness ... quite abstract descriptio of a cake, isn't it ...

24 hours after I had baked it I thought it was the best cake I have ever eaten, better than my ( already ex-) favorite hotel cake sold at c1000 in the Neterlands ...

Bon Appétit!

References:

http://www.ochef.com/218.htm

Hot spicy pork with orange

Introduction

Another ''why not?" - dish ...

Materials

Mince
Orange
Sweet-hot chilly sauce
Piri-piri sauce
Soya sauce
Tomatoe puree
Garlic
Rice
Olive oil
Hot red pepper
Black pepper
Parsley

Procedure

1. Boil the rice in salty water together with several cloves of garlic, some black pepper and some parsley
2. Heat some olive oil and fry few garlic cloves
3. Add the mince which has been soaked in soay sauce in advance, mix and fry
4. Add the peeled orange pieces and mix
5. Add one or two spoons of sweet hot chilly sauce and a spoon of piri-piri sauce and mix
6. Add the hot paprika and the black pepper, keep mixing
7. Add the tomatoe puree, mix well, reduce the heat and let it cook for few minutes
8. Serve on top of the rice

Results

Discussion

It was good enough. However, with pine apples it would have been much better ... next time.

Bon Appétit!

Sauerkraut leaves sarmi

Introduction

This is a tradicional Balkan dish, very special and easy. Actually, I can't remember at least a Bulgarian dish which is difficult to prepare, obviously we are quite practical and pragmatic in the kitchen.

Materials

Sauerkraut leaves - nowadays you can buy them from the big grocery stores or from a Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian ... goods store, unless you are in a shitty place in the middle of nowhere or in a poshy place where they do not eat anything that makes their bellies float. I wonder to which one of the two Wageningen belongs because there were no sauerkraut leaves there. However, since there was sauerkraut, I guess is the first option ... Anyway, if you cannot buy sauerkraut leaves you have two options. First is not to cook this kind of sarmi and second is to prepare sauerkraut yourself by letting lettuce ferment anaerobically in 20% salt solution. And now back to materials

Sauerkraut leaves
Mince
Rice
Black pepper
Red pepper
Bay leaf
Vegetable oil

Procedure

1. Mix the rice and the mince together with the black and the red pepper, the proportion between the first two depends on your own taste and on how many people you plan to feed with the sarmi.
2. Place one or two sauerkraut leaves on a flat surface, put some of the rice-mince mixture in the middle and wrap it with the leaves, putting the free ends on the bottom of the sarma (in Bulgarian sarmA is in singular, sarmI is in plural)
3. Put the sarmi very close to each other in a bowl for boiling covered with oil
4. Add the sauerkraut liquid and or  water enough to cover the sarmi. In the first case the sarmi will become more sauer, the taste will be much stronger.
5. Add red pepper and bay leaf.
6. Press the sarmi with something heavy, so they do not move while boiling.
7. Boil on a weak fire for a long enough time, it depends on the rice you are using, in any case let it boil for at least 40 minutes.

Results

Discussion

I think this dish is good for people who would like to lose weight and stay fit, because I have read that lettuce is one of the foods that ''burn'' stomach fat and I guess we all have heard about the famous lettuce soup diet, so if you use high quality beef, lamb, goat or turkey mince it must be very good for your diet. However, traditionally I prefer pork ... And if you serve it with freshly baked loaf of white bread you will be in heaven ...

Bon Appétit!

Turshia ... or fermented vegetables

Introduction

It's a way to keep vegetables eatable for a long long time no matter what the atmospheric condtions are. Morever, the vitamin content is kept the same and the taste is just great!

Materials

I. Green tomatoes
   Green peppers
   Small green hot peppers
   Carrots
   Garlic
   Bay leaf
   Black pepper
   Oregano
   Dill
   Salt
   Honey
   Apple vinegar
   Water

II. Cauliflower
    Carrots
    Green peppers
    Small hot green peppers
    Cucumbers
    Garlic
    Lemon
    Salt
    Sugar
    Honey
    Vinegar
    Parsley
    Bay leaf
    Black pepper
    Water

Procedure

1. Wash and cut the vegetables
2. Put vinegar that covers 1-2 cm of the bottom of the container where you are going to make the turshia
3. Put several full spoons of salt and two-three spoons of sugar (for a 5 l. container)
4. Add 1-2 spoons of honey
5. Add the vegetables
6. Fill with water till all the vegetable are covered by liquid.
7. Add the spices
8. Close the containers tightly and incubate for several week at a relatively sunny place.

Results

Discussion

Of course you may choose different combinations of vegetables and spices ... the result is always good. Anyone who would bring pork steaks and high quality rakia (Slivenska perla, Troyanska slivova, Burgas63 preferably) is welcome in 1-2 months to try the turshia together with me!

Bon Appétit!  

Fish with tomatoes

Introduction

I almoust made a fire in the kitchen but at the end it was OK ...

Materials

Some kind of fish, preferably sea fish fillet
Dill
Olive oil
Tomatoes
Oregano
Mustard
Water

Procedure

1. Heat some vegetable oil in a frying or grill pan and place the fish
2. Turn the fish every 2-3 minutes
3. Pour some dill and salt on each side of the fish
4. Take out of the pan when it is ready
5. Pour some mustard in the pan, add some water, mix and let it boil
6. Pour the mustart sauce over the fish
7. Spice cut tomatoes with oregano and olive oil and serve together with the fish

Results

Discussion

Very healthy unless you put too much salt ...

My flatmate's friend has collected oranges from the trees in the town Xativa and he has shared with us more than 20 kg of them ... Since the first day I came to Spain I have been wondering "Are these fruits growin on the trees on the sidewalks and in the city parks eatable or is it only a colourful decoration?" ... well now I know that they are indeed eatable and the orange juice is no comparable to anything I have drunk before!

Except of the 75 cm high fire in the kitchen everything else was good.

Bon Appétit!

Granny's potato dish

In Bulgarian [kartofena mandzha]

Introduction

When my mother was here we bought something white which we thought was tripe. However, it was not tripe but pork bones and below you may read what I did with the white bones ... something much better than with the white bone during one Halloween some time ago ...

Materials

Potatoes
Onion
Garlic
Olive oil
Roasted peppers from a jar http://nadi4ka.blogspot.com/2010/11/roasted.html
Pork bones
Flour
Tomatoe puree
Dill
Savory
Oregano
Black pepper
Red pepper
Bay leaf
Parsley

Procedure

1. Peel and cut the garlic, the onion, the roasted peppers and the potatoes
2. Heat some olive oil and fry first the garlic and then the onions
3. Add the roasted peppers and mix
4. Add 2-3 spoons of flour and mix till you get something more or less homogenous, no flour clumps
5. Add the tomatoe puree and mix
6. Add all the spices and mix
7. Add the potatoes and mix
8. Pour water enough to cover the potatoes
9. Add the bones and cook till it is ready, i.e. the potatoes are soft enough

Results

Discussion

Classics ... if you are vegan skip the bones. My plan for tripe in butter with garlic has been postponed but it was okay.

Bon Appétit!

Rice salmon salad

Introduction

The salmon leftovers had to be used somehow ...

Materials

Rice
Garlic
Olive oil
Salmon
Roasted peppers from a jar http://nadi4ka.blogspot.com/2010/11/roasted.html
Cucumber
Mayonase
Soya sauce
Black pepper

Procedure

1. Heat some olive oil and fry a peeled garlic clove
2. Add rice and mix well
3. Add water 3 times the volume of the rice and cook till the rice is ready
4. Take out of the fire, heater or whatever and mix with the sliced oroasted peppers and salmon and the chopped cucumber
5. Add a spoon of mayonase and mix well
6. Season with black pepper and soya sauce
7. Let it cool down to room temperature

Results

Discussion

Unexpectedly good!

Bon Appétit!

Sushi

Introduction

I should taste  it at least once in my life ...

Materials

Sushi meal kit
Salmon
Cucumbers
Anchoa in olive oil
Mayonase

Procedure

1. Follow the instruction provided by the kit manufacturer

Results

Discussion

Very easy ... Coming soon - the Balkan sushi - grape leaves sarmi ...

Bon Appétit!

Fish with avokado

Introduction

Something fatty, green ... and more or less healthy.

Materials

Fish fillet
Soya sauce
Olive oil
Avocado
Mayonase
Mustard
Garlic

Procedure

1. Soak the fish fillet in soya sauce overnight
2. Fry the fish fillet in heated olive oil
2. Take the fish out of the frying pan
3. If needed add more olive oil and fry the peeled and cut garlic clove
4. Add the chopped avokado and mix
5. Add mayonase and mustard, mix and smash everything with a fork ... the sauce is ready.

Results

Discussion

Except the mayonase, the white bread and the frying everything else is healthy.

Bon Appétit!