Russian Season

So our summer vacation is coming to its end. Someone whose name starts with S took only two weeks off work, although he could have taken more, and tomorrow we’ve got to start packing our bags to go back to Riga. We’ve spent two wonderful weeks in Slovakia with Stano’s family and friends. I had expected a sunnier weather though; it’s been raining since the beginning of the week, so Ivanka could hardly play in the garden. Last week, she spent hours and hours in the garden playing, picking currants and learning to walk - something she’s deprived of in the city.

Trenčiancky hrad - the Trenčin Castle

As always in Slovakia, I’ve been eating like crazy. Fruit, sweets, cakes, and megatons of delicious and fluffy multigrain-sprinkled bread. I’ve tried Žinčica - a fermented sheep milk drink that is left from making Bryndza cheese, and Parenica - rolls of mild string cheese, and Oštiepok - formed smoked sheep cheese that has been steeped in salted water. I’ve drunk fresh, full-fat milk that can be turned into creamy, rich home-made cottage cheese. And of course we’ve had Bryndzove Halušky by Stano’s Mom. Fianlly I had the time to take photos and to write down the recipe. Now I think it’s time to update our blog author info in the right sidebar of the site :)

Me by Krater - a mini lake of mineral water in Eastern Slovakia

Bryndzove Halušky is a staple of Slovak cuisine. That’s a food it might take you some time to get used to, because it’s very heavy. Halušky are small potato dumplings mixed with Bryndza cheese sauce and flavoured with bits of fried bacon. Something you need before a physically exhausting day in the field or on the farm. Halušky are traditionally served with Žinčica, Kefir or any other fermented milk drink.

To make Halušky, you will need a special perforated tool called Haluškaren. Now we’ve got one too, but before Stano has used a sheet of perforated cardboard that he had prepared himself :) Using some kind of a colander with large holes is a possible alternative.

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There’re always caraway seeds in my pantry these days - primarily for brewing Caraway drink, and we found out it’s such a versatile ingredient! We add caraway seeds to our roasted potatoes, our roasted fish and our Hasselback potatoes - and now to these salty breadsticks I baked using my favourite super-time-saving frozen puff pastry. Stano liked them so much that he agreed to help me with grating cheese and cutting dough for another batch :) These sticks are best served warm, especially in case you use 2 eggs as I did (the breadsticks are pretty soft and best eaten fresh out of the oven). If you want them crispier on the outside, use just one egg and simply brush them with beaten egg and then sprinkle cheese and caraway on top.

In this post I would also like to thank Ping of Ping’s Pickings for the Stylish Blogger Award she sent me. Ping’s Pickings is a new wonderful blog with neat and beautiful photos and delicious recipes such as Chiffon Cake with Pandan Topping, Egg White Biscotti or Eclairs. Go visit it now! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always loved long relaxed weekend mornings when I could sit back with a cup of tea and savour my breakfast. With a newborn around (and no more weekends for me), I reappraised the freedom of morning hours. The little one gets quite fussy during night and then sleeps deeply and serenely through the morning. Which gives me a chance to not only get done with the housework in the kitchen and bathroom, but also cook something simple for breakfast. These stuffed French toasts were inspired by a gorgeous Strawberry and Mascarpone French Toast recipe I’ve once seen online and cannot find any longer - I’ve googled for it today, but to no avail. If I ever find it (I should have it somewhere in my bookmarks), I will certainly add a link to it here. Anyway, I had a pack of “Creme Bonjour”, a cream cheese similar to Philadelphia in the fridge, plus some bananas (probably the only fruit I’m allowed to eat uncooked), so I thought I’d try to use these for some stuffed toasts, based on that recipe. And I loved the result! Cream cheese worked even better than mascarpone here, thanks to a hint of saltiness, which balanced out the perfumy sweetness of bananas. That was also very quick and easy to make. So, here is the recipe: Read the rest of this entry »

The idea of making mini omelettes with cheese filling belongs to Mom. She invented the recipe when we were baking Rhubarb Meringue Tartelettes and she had to use up a leftover fresh egg. She slightly whisked it with a fork, added a slice of cheese, and baked it in a spare baking mould. I didn’t taste this spontaneous omelette, but it looked good! So today we made a more sophisticated version of it – with salty crumbly caraway cheese inside and tiny chanterelles on top. Provided you have some cooked chanterelles in your fridge/freezer, these fine little omelettes are made in 30 minutes from start to finish. Nothing too complicated or expensive, and yet this will definitely surprise your family or guests.

Oh and by the way, I’ve had another bowl of wild strawberries today. Life is better than I expected :)

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Midsummer (Līgo/Jāņi) is probably the most favourite and significant holiday for Latvians. It’s celebrated on 23/24th June when the night is so short that there’re only a couple of really dark hours. It’s not as evident as the famous Saint Petersburg’s “white nights”, but still enough for birds to confuse day and night: sometimes you can hear them sing or make noise after midnight. I’d say it’s even a little bit disturbing that the sky almost never turns black in June – I keep waking up at night because of that eerie blue glow coming through the curtains.

On the shortest night of the year, everyone heads out to the countryside, drinks gallons of beer, barbecues, eats traditional caraway cheese (Jāņu siers, see picture), makes (or tries to make) bonfires and almost certainly soaks in the rain, because it typically rains on Midsummer. The cities become absolutely deserted! All guys named Jānis wear heavy oak leaf wreaths and all ladies named Līga wear wreaths of flowers/oak leaves. If you see an oak leaf wreath on a car – there’s certainly a Jānis in it! Oh and there’s also that ancient tradition of searching for the mythical fern blossom, which is believed to have magical powers. Actually the fern blossom quest means more than just that – to give you a hint, a lot of children are born 9 months after Midsummer night :)

Even though I don’t celebrate Midsummer, I couldn’t miss the chance to buy some of that special caraway cheese and use it for some crescent rolls. I first saw garlic crescent rolls on a Slovak Christmas table and copied the recipe from Stano’s Mother. With some tweaking and the addition of some fresh dill this could make a lovely Midsummer snack, I figured. And with caraway cheese these rolls turn into a truest Midsummer treat! They pair perfectly with beer, cider, and fresh vegetables, and they’re easily transportable, in case you’re going to have a picnic. For the garlic version, there’s a lot of garlic odour while baking, but ready crescent rolls are just slightly garlicky. And they look so plump and appetizing!

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This was our first attempt at cheesecake ever, so please don’t judge too strict. You know, things like cheesecakes, carrot cakes or pizzas might seem pretty ordinary for a lot of you, but they are not too common in home cooking in this part of the world, so this was quite a challenge for us.

So, this was our first experiement with a cheesecake. In fact we had a jar of strawberry preserves and two packages of Philadelphia cheese that I had bought at a discount and the idea of making a cheesecake was obvious. I checked Love My Philly and found a recipe for a cake that looked beautiful, mouthwatering, perfect!.. A little problem was that we didnt want a large cheesecake, because ever since we started this blog, everyone in the family has been continuously overfed:) We didn’t have a small springform pan so we had to use a regular baking pan instead. Yes I know a cheesecake should be round-shaped. So ours was… unconventional, to begin with :)

Another thing I’d change next time I cook this would be the crackers. The original recipe called for some Honey Maid graham crackers, but for some reason we thought chocolate cracker crumbs would be cool too. Which was a mistake, as the chocolate flavour turned out too overwhelming (so was the colour, in fact). I also overdid it with pressing the crumbs onto the pan :D the crumb layer looked thin in the beginning, but it kind of increased in volume in the oven and resulted in a too thick crust.

And yet another departure from the rules: a much thinner layer of batter. We just feared that it wouldn’t bake through, but this was a needless precaution – the cake baked through perfectly in an hour and 10 minutes. So, next time we’re also making it taller.

Despite the mediocre looks of our cheesecake, I can eventually rate its taste and texture very good. It was moist, airy, and creamy. The strawberry glaze added a note of freshness and fruityness (I think I’m falling in love with gelatine: it can turn ordinary things into shiny, colourful lolly-pops!). The chocolate cracker crumb crust… err… could be better :)

But we still have dozens of cheesecakes ahead of us, don’t we?
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