Dine At Home

Another salmon I`m not very good at cooking fish. My latest...

Fri, 31 May 2013 05:38:39 -0400

Another salmon

I`m not very good at cooking fish. My latest favorite was tilapia in egg whites and almonds (next time I make it, you`ll have a picture and a recipe). This time: the boring salmon with a more original seasoning.
Rub salmon filet (whole) with coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, brown sugar, and orange zest. Pour over juice of 1 orange. Bake in the oven. A bit of ginger would work as well; I chose not to add it in a hope that the kids would eat dinner.
Rice:
In a skillet coated with roasted sesame oil, gradually add and fry a chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic, bell pepper, and rice. Season with salt and curcuma, cover with water. With the lid on, simmer until rice is soft and the water is soaked.

Baiba

Spinach Soup Although it`s raining outside and you still need...

Mon, 27 May 2013 04:20:48 -0400

Spinach Soup

Although it`s raining outside and you still need gloves in the morning, the summer has entered our kitchen and dining room. This is the time for local asparagus, rhubarb, and green leaves, including spinach. I find fresh spinach rather blunt, and when overcooked, it does not look very appealing either. For me, the right way is just blanching it, like in this hearty yet fresh tasting soup.

Allow several hours to prepare it unless you have the stock ready. 30-minute rule does not apply until June, since I`m at home with a baby and have the time for cooking.

For the soup, you will need:

beef (with bones - a cut suitable for stock)

aroma vegetables and herbs: thyme, rosemary, garlic, onion, persil, carrot, celery stick

carrots

potatoes

spinach

a couple of eggs

1. Beef stock. Cover the beef with cold water. Bring to boiling, then discard the water. Cover the beef with fresh water and bring to boiling again. While it simmers, prepare aroma herbs and vegetables in a gauze wrap, adding some black pepper corns. Put the wrap in the simmering water, add sea salt. Continue simmering at least an hour, preferably more. In the end, discard the aroma wrap and lift out the beef.

2. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes. Add to the stock. Chop the cooked beef, add to the pot as well. While the vegetables are cooking, chop the spinach (discard the hard stalks). When carrots and potatoes are soft, add spinach and take the pot off the stove. The soup is ready; serve with boiled eggs.

Baiba

Eggplant casserole In the previous post, I complained about...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:01:32 -0500

Eggplant casserole

In the previous post, I complained about the prolonged season of hearty dishes.

And finally it has arrived: a sunny spring. It feels so good that I fast-forwarded a few months and served this casserole of summer vegetables and low-fat mozzarella.

Slice an eggplant lengthwise. Whisk an egg with salt and pepper. Dip each slice in the egg, then breadcrumbs, and fry in a skillet. In a casserole dish, layer slices of mozzarella, the eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and bell pepper. Sprinkle with chopped garlic, basil leaves, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Repeat the layers. I only had the eggplant and mozzarella twice. Bake in the oven and serve with fresh salad greens.
Reminds of august evenings, of vacation and late dinners on the terrace with friends.

Baiba

Chicken and bean stew Winter just wouldn`t go away, and hearty...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:57:00 -0500

Chicken and bean stew

Winter just wouldn`t go away, and hearty comfort food are still on the top of the list. This chicken and bean stew is really good: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1570643/spicy-chicken-and-bean-stew.

I almost followed the recipe this time. The exceptions are a can of chickpeas instead of 2 cans of butter bean, and lots of fresh bell pepper instead of 250 g frozen peppers. No coriander, served with rice and lamb`s lettuce.

Baiba

Potato dumplings with pesto and green beans Pesto potato salad...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:35:51 -0500

Potato dumplings with pesto and green beans

Pesto potato salad sounded a bit weird, though all the ingredients are among my favorites: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/06/pesto-potato-salad-with-green-beans/. I planned to go for the traditional pasta instead, but then it turned out Sandis already had pasta for lunch. What`s in between pasta and potatoes? Potato dumplings! Otherwise, the recipe is from the link above. I also added some salad leaves, as they were withering in the fridge. Crumble feta on top to make the dish more filling.

Baiba

Baking night The 7-year-old asked for cinnamon buns. I doubled...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:16:55 -0500

Baking night

The 7-year-old asked for cinnamon buns. I doubled the amount of yeast dough to make sweet potato calzones for the adults at the same time.

For the filling, you`ll need:

Sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in approximate proportion 2:1

Feta cheese

Rucola

Peel and chop the potatoes. Boil until almost soft. Mix with the crumbled cheese and rucola, and you`ll have the filling. I hoped feta would be strong and salty enough, but I suggest you add some nut oil and spices as well. Roll out the dough (you want it to be rather thin), fill the calzones and glaze them with a whisked egg. Bake in the oven until slightly brown and cooked through. Serve with salad greens. The filling is tasty also without any baking or crust, don`t discard the leftovers.

Baiba

Carrot soup I don`t use the printer very often. As I switched...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:55:04 -0500

Carrot soup

I don`t use the printer very often. As I switched it on yesterday, this recipe came out: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/01/carrot-soup-with-tahini-and-crisped-chickpeas/. A message from God? I swear I had never seen it before. However, the soup seemed rather simple and delicious, so I decided to try it out. Besides, it was an opportunity to use the leftover tahini dressing from the evening before. My chickpeas were tossed in curry powder instead of cumin, as it would be a little too much cumin for Sandis (he`s not a big fan). The roasted chickpeas is all you need to turn dull blended vegetables into a substantial meal with a kick.

Later on, I realized it must have been my sister struggling with the printer during her visit last month. In that case, thanks for the recipe!

Baiba

Lazy turkey salad I am ill, and have no energy for cooking. This...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:25:54 -0500

Lazy turkey salad

I am ill, and have no energy for cooking. This salad is a quick combination of what I found in the fridge.
Marinate turkey pieces in chili flakes, soy sauce, honey and roasted sesame oil for some 15 minutes. In the meanwhile, chop an onion, a bell pepper and prepare the sauce. For the sauce, mix tahini paste, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, and a minced garlic clove. Fry the onions, then add the pepper. Pour over some porto and saute a little. Set the vegetables aside, and fry the turkey. Serve on a bed of mixed salad leaves, sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds.

Baiba

Burgers Usually, I cook for the adults, and the kids have rice...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:37:33 -0500

Burgers

Usually, I cook for the adults, and the kids have rice or make a sandwich. Tonight, it’s the other way round. I made chicken patties, and Sandis combined the burgers.

Baiba

Hardly a few days since the last post, and already another...

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 06:46:56 -0500

Hardly a few days since the last post, and already another one…

Another curry with coconut milk

If you like nutty curries as much as I do, you have to try this one: peanut butter AND coconut milk. To round it up with more nuts, choose plain yoghurt with maple syrup, cinnamon and walnuts for the dessert.

For the curry (about 6 servings), you`ll need:

spring onions

pork, chopped bite-size, 500 g

red curry paste, 3 spoons

peanut butter, 2 spoons

brown sugar, 1 spoon

vegetable stock, 1 cup

low-fat coconut milk, 1 can of 400 g

deep-frozen cauliflower florets, a package of 250 g

palm hearts, a can of 400 g

juice of half-lemon

Fry the pork for 5 minutes to seal the juices. Add chopped spring onions and fry another minute. Add curry paste and peanut butter, then the sugar. Cover with stock and coconut oil, add the cauliflower, bring to boiling and simmer for some 10 minutes. Cut palm hearts, add to the sauce and heat through. Stir in lemon juice and serve with rice.

For one of the next posts, I`ll try out David Lebovitz recipes from his “Sweet Life in Paris”. A brilliant book, recommended by my sister who`s much more into desserts than me. Even if you choose to skip the dessert recipes, the book charms with its witty and accurate description of the Parisian lifestyle and some appealing ideas for non-sweet dishes. Breastfeeding a baby means a lot of time for reading:)

Baiba

There has been a long silence and very few posts with various...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:15:08 -0500

There has been a long silence and very few posts with various regularity for some while on this blog. Well… it will most probably continue to be so, as the meaning of regularity has reached a new level in our house. Since the beginning of January there are five of us. Needless to say, the young addition of the family isn’t too keen on haute cuisine quite yet… However, we will still eat, hopefully not too much junk, and will try to drop a line and a pic here now and then.

Thank you for being faithful. Cheers and enjoy!

Sandis

———————————————————————————

Coleslaw

I do like cabbage, but try to avoid mayonnaise. The baby is born, and there is no more legitimate excuse for unhealthy indulging. After a quick search for “coleslaw dressing”, I found this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1815,136162-235200,00.html. Blend mustard, garlic, apple juice, oil, an apple, honey, tabasco, vinegar, salt, and pepper. I used far less oil than in the recipe to save on calories. A tablespoon of pistachio oil and 2 spoons of olive oil seemed sufficient. Vinegar and tabasco was added more generously. So full of flavours, after you try this out, you’ll never come back to mayo!

Baiba

Holidays Two weeks off, a festive season with guests and...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:43:37 -0500

Holidays

Two weeks off, a festive season with guests and the last month of pregnancy: a valid excuse to indulge. I even baked a honey cake.

Tonight: a pork tenderloin in puff pastry and winter veggie curry with lentils, served with lettuce.

For the pork, you`ll need a piece of tenderloin, an onion, a package of puff pastry dough (not a healthy option, just for the occasion), salt, pepper, sugar, and thyme. Chop an onion and fry in some oil with sugar, salt, pepper and thyme. Spread over the dough. Fry the pork from all sides to seal the juices and wrap in the dough. Cover with foil and bake in the oven until cooked through.

Winter veggie and lentil curry: will work with any vegetables you have. I used carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, potatoes and celery root. Cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces. Chop an onion and a couple of garlic gloves. Fry each veggie (except potatoes) in a teaspoon of butter, then put in a pot and cover with stock. When boiling, add a couple of spoons of curry paste. Since I had red lentils that only need 10 minutes of cooking, I added them shortly before the vegetables became soft.

Happy New Year.

Baiba

Beef in orange sauce My first choice for beef filet...

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 04:53:24 -0500

Beef in orange sauce

My first choice for beef filet slices would be a slow braising with chopped fried carrots and onions, just as my mom did it. We usually had it in winter with boiled potatoes and pickles.

This time: a quick recipe and an Asian touch. Original recipe from http://www.cetrassezonas.lv/lv/receptes/austrumu_virtuve/recipe.php?id=47390.

You will need:

thin slices of beef

carrots

freshly squeezed orange juice

soy sauce

fresh ginger, grated

chili, fresh or dried

brown sugar

Fry the meat until just tender. Set aside. Fry the carrots. Add the orange juice and all the spices to the carrots in the pan or pot, add the fried meat and let simmer for some minutes. Serve with rice.

Baiba

Christmas feelingThe original idea of the blog was to promote...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:06:00 -0500

Christmas feeling

The original idea of the blog was to promote fast and healthy dinner ideas. However, I`ve been quite a lot at home lately which eliminates the need for “fast”, and pregnant, which has modified the concept of “healthy”.
One of Christmas time specials in the local grocery stores is the duck. Although the kids were not too enthousiastic (one thought it looked like a frog, and the other suddenly decided that eating animals and birds is immoral), me and Sandis enjoyed the roast.
3 hours before dinner, prepare the duck. Peel and quarter 3 apples, slice half an orange. Mix with salt, cinnamon, and cardamon, and stuff the duck. For the glazing, mix mustard with honey and rub into the skin. Cover with foil, and the duck can go into the oven.
After 2 hours (depending of the size of the duck), peel potatoes and turnips, cut into large chunks or slices. Mix some olive oil with salt and rosemary to coat the vegetables. Place in the oven, in one layer.
Serve with fresh black radish.

Baiba

Traditional Spare Ribs and Wine from Decanter What you see in...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:34:15 -0500

Traditional Spare Ribs and Wine from Decanter

What you see in the picture is nothing special - traditional spare ribs with bbq sauce, mashed potatoes and red beet. Some great food after a tiring hockey game. But the reason I wanted to post this photo is the item in the background. I recently acquired a wine decanter. And I’ll tell you something - if you fancy wine and don’t have a decanter, get one. Marques de Caceres Reserva Rioja 2008 tasted like never before. And you don’t have to remember to open the bottle an hour before consumption…

Sandis

Kürbis This year, we have been enjoying the Halloween period...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Kürbis

This year, we have been enjoying the Halloween period with all sorts of Kürbis dishes. The hard-flesh Hokkaido pumpkins, the mild butternut squash, the melon-like spaghetti squash - whatever is offered in the grocery store and farmers` stands.
The simplest way to enjoy cucurbita is roasting in the oven as a side-dish. Slice the pumpkin or squash. Crush a clove of garlic and/or rosemary and/or thyme and pepper, dilute with some oil. Cover the vegetable slices in the oil marinade and roast in the oven until soft. Serve with the main dish as side vegetables. Experiment with the spices, oils and cucurbita varieties.

Baiba

Meat ball soup Although most of the time I have simply given up,...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Meat ball soup

Although most of the time I have simply given up, there are still dinners when I try to offer the kids vegetables. Disguised in all possible forms. Believe it or not, there are actually children who eat them. In the neighborhood, not some starving third world region.
In the picture, you see one of my attempts. It`s been some time since the picture was taken, I cannot recall the precise recipe anymore. However, as with most soups, it`s the idea that matters, vegetables, spices and proportions are up to your imagination and fridge contents.
Fry a chopped onion and grated carrots in butter. Pour over water or stock. I use water, my mom`s preserved soup spices (from what I have guessed, the main ingredients are finely chopped mixed greens, garlic, onions, and carrots in salt), and pepper. Add bite size pieces or squash, potatoes, tomatoes (peal the skin off first), and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Blend the soup. Prepare meat balls: mix minced pork with an egg, pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of buckwheat flour. Heat the blended soup on the stove again, and add small balls formed from the meat mixture. When they are cooked through, the soup is ready.
The dish was half-success: one of the two kids liked it.

Baiba

Halloween approachingThe vegetable of October is pumpkin....

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:22:15 -0400

Halloween approaching

The vegetable of October is pumpkin. Tonight: in both stew and the sauce. We had a Sunday roast with a vegetable stew and a pumpkin/mango/chili sauce.
For the stew, you don`t really need a recipe. Take the vegetable roots you have and stew in the spices you like. It just cannot go wrong.
I used a slice of a pumpkin, some savoy cabbage leftovers, carrots and potatoes. Fry a chopped onion, chili, cumin and mustard seeds. Add bite-size carrots and pumpkins, fry for some more minutes. Pour over water to cover, let simmer. In 5-10 minutes, add potatoes and savoy cabbage. Salt and cook until soft.
Sauce: cut a slice of pumpkin into bite-size piecies. Roast in the oven until slightly brown. Place in a pot together with 1 mango, chopped, and a chopped fresh chili. Pour some water, add tumeric, and cook until soft. Blend.

Baiba

A fish pie.I`ve never used a ready-made dough before. Besides, I...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:31:00 -0400

A fish pie.
I`ve never used a ready-made dough before. Besides, I don`t bake much in general. Not that flour will kill you, but it`s not something I would eat on everyday basis.
However, here comes a fish pie from a ready-made rolled-in dough. A nice change among all the vegetable stews of lately.
You will need:
a package of dough
For the filling:
fresh plaice
spinach
3 eggs
some milk
ricotta
Cook spinach for 1 minute until wilted. Set aside. Layer an oven-proof dish with the dough. For the filling, first place pieces of fish. I used fresh, but I think it would have been better to fry the fish on a pan before putting in the pie. Salt the fish. Whisk the eggs with salt and pepper and a couple of tablespoons of milk. Mix in some tablespoons of ricotta. On the fish, spread the cooked spinach and pour over the egg/cheese mixture. Bake in the oven. Serve with fresh vegetables.

Baiba

Chicken in Orange Juice Bite-size chicken filet pieces are among...

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:29:00 -0400

Chicken in Orange Juice

Bite-size chicken filet pieces are among regulars in our house. This time I tried a new recipe for the sauce.
Ingredients:
Chicken filets, cut into bite-size pieces
A tablespoon or so of cornstarch
Orange juice, freshly pressed from 2 oranges
A tablespoon of honey
A tablespoon or 2 of soy sauce
Roasted sesame seeds (optional)
Preparation:
Cover chicken pieces with cornstarch. Fry them. When light brown and cooked through, pour over the orange juice, add honey, soy and sesame seeds. Let simmer for some minutes until the sauce thickens and sticks to the chicken.
Serve with buckwheat (roasted brown Russian type, bought from amazon) and fried bell pepper with caramelized onions.
Quick, easy and delicious.

Baiba