Thai red curry

Hello everybody! I am so excited to share with you!
I love curry! Red or green - I don't care I just love curry!

Here is the recipe!
1 shallot, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, minced (see instructions below) OR 3 Tbsp. frozen prepared lemongrass (available at Asian stores)
1-2 red chilies, OR 1/2 to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 thumb-size piece ginger, sliced
1 Tbsp. tomato paste + 1 tsp. sugar
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper (available in the spice aisle)
2 Tbsp. soy sauce, plus salt to taste
1/4 can thick coconut milk (or just enough to keep the blades turning) - reserve remaining for cooking the curry
2 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice

Preparation:
Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process well to create a fragrant Thai red curry paste. Note that it will taste very strong at this point, but will mellow when you add your ingredients plus remaining coconut milk. Put your favorite vegetables on a greased pan and pour curry paste and the rest on coconut milk.Stir, cover and let in simmer for 10 minutes! :-) That's it!

P.S. I used broccoli, corn, snow beans, bell peppers, mushrooms and shrimps

Grilled vegetables (simple marinade)

Hi ! :-)
Grilled vegetables are really tasty as they are but if you marinade them first...OMG!

So, my very simple marinade -
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, cut into wedges
18 spears fresh asparagus, trimmed
1/2 butternut squash, cubed
1 (1 pound) eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 red bell pepper, cut into wedges
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into wedges

In a large resealable plastic bag, mix the olive oil, parsley, oregano, basil, vinegar, kosher salt, pepper, and garlic. Place the onion, asparagus, eggplant, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper into the bag. Seal, and marinate 2 hours in the refrigerator, turning occasionally. And Grill them.
About butternut squash - after it was all covered with marinade, I just put all the cubes on a foil (with vegetable cooking spray). Preheated oven to 400 degrees and put the foil on a baking sheet in the oven for 40-50 minutes (or until tender)

Yummy salmon with potatoes and asparagus

Yumm!!!
I don't think I should comment on that, it was really delicious!

Ingredients for 2:
2 salmon fillets
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Bread crumbs

Just spread mustard on your fillets and coat them with the bread crumbs. Then put the on a greased foil and bake for 20 minutes at 400F

Potatoes -
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion, chopped
5-6 mushrooms, chopped
2 teaspoons salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Italian herbs
1 oven roast bag

Just put all the ingredients together in your roast bag, shake them well, and bake it in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

asparagus
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

asparagus is very easy to make -
put it on the preheated pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil. add garlic powder, salt and lemon juice. Sauté it 5-7 minutes!

That's it! :-)

Russian cabbage soup - Shchi

We (russians) usually make this soup when we are hangover :-) But! it's also a very good, easy and healthy recipe. It helps to lose weight and to cleanse your body.

So, super-easy!
You will need -
1 small cabbage head
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 onion
2 small potatoes
1 bell pepper
3 tbl spoons tomato paste
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper
water

What you do is chop everything, preheat a big pan, add olive oil, sauté onion, then add cabbage and after 5-8 minutes add all the other ingredients, remove heat, add tomato paste, stir, cover the pan and let it marry together.
In the big pod pour 5 cups of water (you can use vegetable broth) and add all the vegetables form the pan, salt, pepper to taste. Cover and let it boil for 15-20 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft). DONE!

There is a non-vegetarian recipe of this soup.
You gonna need beef (cut in pieces) and use beef broth instead of water. The steps are the same, but don't forget to fry (just for 1-2 minutes) your beef pieces.

Vegetarian chili in a slow cooker

it was so good that I'm not really sure if I want to add ground beef anymore.

1/2 cup olive oil
4 onions, chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 ounce) package firm tofu, drained and cubed
4 (15.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained
2 (15 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon liquid hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco™

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until they start to become soft. Add the green peppers, red peppers, garlic and tofu; cook and stir until vegetables are lightly browned and tender, the whole process should take about 10 minutes.
Pour the black beans into the slow cooker and set to Low. Stir in the vegetables and tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, oregano, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. Stir gently and cover. Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.

Home made Thai green curry

My husband and I love Thai green curry, so I thought - why should I go to a restaurant?! I can make it at home.
It appeared to be pretty easy to make, the most important part was the right ingredients!!!
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thai green curry...

Ingredients:
1 stalk lemongrass, thinly sliced, OR 3 Tbsp. frozen prepared lemongrass (available at Asian stores)

1 can coconut milk

1-3 Thai green chilies OR jalapeno

1 compressed cup chopped cilantro, leaves & stems

1 shallot, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic

1 thumb-size piece ginger, sliced 

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground white pepper 

1 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz to create a fragrant green curry paste . Set aside.

The next step would be vegetables. 

You can actually use all the vegetables you want....I used :

broccoli

cauliflower

bell pepper

whole green peas;

tofu cheese.

I also added shrimps and mussels.

I'm not telling you about the quantity of the vegetables or seafood, because when you pour your curry paste on a preheated pan, you will see how much of those will be enough for you. Some people like more sauce than vegetables, some people like less sauce....it's totally up to you!  But first you should let it boil, then turn the heat to Medium and start with putting the seafood, after you added seafood (it can be frozen), stir and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes and only then you can put all your favorite vegetables and tofu in there. After you see that this is the perfect amount of vegetables and seafood for your curry, stir everything, cover it and let it marry together for 10 minutes. That's all! it's ready to go!!!

I served it on a plate of plain white rice. I think it's the best way of serving Thai green curry!

Enjoy!!! :-) 

vegetable soup "russian style"

What can I say?
Vegetarian, healthy, delicious...

You can actually use meat of beef broth to make it, so I was using water and vegetables.
So, let's start :-)

Ingredients for 2:
2 clay pots
2 potatoes
1 onion
2 stalks of celery
3 portobello mushrooms
 2 carrots
1 bell pepper
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper
2 cups of water
1 green onion

*1 cup of all purpose flour
*1/4 cup of water


Start with chopping the onion and sauté it with a tbl spoon of olive oil, adding minced garlic cloves and chopped mushrooms, sprinkle salt and black pepper and sauté for 5-8 minutes. Chop the carrots, celery and peppers. Cut potatoes in cubes.
After all the cutting and chopping, put the layer of potato in the pots,  then a layer of carrots and onion-mushroom mixture, then celery and peppers. Finish with tomato paste (2 table spoons in each pot) and a cup of water in each pot. Don't forget to add more salt and black pepper.
If you want you can make a little "bread" lid. You just need 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water. Mix together in a bowl and cover each pot with it.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put your pots for 60 minutes.
Garnish with green onion before serving.

Zucchini cutlets and asparagus in peanut sauce

:-) "Zucchini cutlets" is a really Russian dish, so let's try to make it and if anybody tries to cook it, please send all your comments here :-) I'll be glad to answer any question :-)

For Zucchini cutlets:
2 zucchini (shredded)
1 onion (shredded)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
salt, pepper
So, just mix all of the ingredients together. Spoon the batter into a preheated pan with 2 tbl spoons of olive oil.
Fry every cutlet on each side. Be careful, the cutlets are very tender. :-)

For the peanut sauce:
4 tablespoons peanut butter
4 tablespoons hot water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

just mix all together.
On a preheated pan with 2 tbl spoon of olive oil put your asparagus and pour the sauce. Cover it and cook 10 min.
Enjoy! :-)

Mushroom and Potato casserole

Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes
1 onion
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
8 white mushrooms
2 pickles (not necessary)
salt, pepper

Shred the potatoes, add flour, salt and pepper.
Cut mushrooms, onions and pickles - mix them together.
On a  greased foil put layers - layer of potatoes, then mushroom mix and potatoes again. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, cover it with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Then remove the top layer of foil and put back in the oven for another 10-15 min.

If we were not fasting, I would add some ground beef in the mushroom mixture and I would put shredded cheese on top. But... LOL..It turned out good anyway. :-)

Irish cabbage with mushrooms

Yay! Happy St Patrick's Day!!!!
I couldn't resist and found one Irish recipe.
The original recipe contained bacon, so I decoded to replace it with mushrooms...Yummers!!!

1 head of cabbage
2 carrots
2 potatoes
3 cups of mushrooms
1 big onion
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can tomato paste (I used Diana sauce about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt, pepper

So easy! Just cut all the vegetables, put them on a preheated pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil on it.
Add salt, pepper and garlic powder, stir it very well. After that pour tomato paste, stir it again and cover.
Cook covered for 20-30 minutes on a low heat or until the potato is soft.

Bain taitneamh as do bhéil (pronounced: Bane tatniv os du veil) - Celtic Irish for Bon Appetite!

Texas style peppers

it's a really good vegetarian dish! We loved it!

Ingredients
1 can Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1-1/2 cups cooked rice
1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn, thawed
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 medium green peppers

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, beans, rice, corn, onion, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, pepper and salt. Remove and discard tops and seeds of green peppers. Fill each pepper with about 1 cup vegetable mixture. Place in a big pod and cook covered for about 40 minutes on a medium heat.

Delish salad with Tofu cheese

Hello everybody!
Well, I'm making this salad not for the first time...I usually make it with Feta cheese but however, we are fasting and it means no diary products. So, I decided to experiment with Tofu. It turned out great by the way :-)

The Ingredients
First of all put lettuce on a plate. I had a spring mix but You can use any lettuce you want. (by the way if you're using spinach...it's OMG!!! AMAZING!!! )
- Lettuce
- 1 small onion (cut it in rings)
-1 cucumber (cut in rings)
-1 bell pepper (cut in strips)
-1 tomato (cut)
-1 cup tofu cheese (cut)
-2 tbl spoons olive oil
-3 tbl  spoons glazed balsamic

Just put all the ingredients on a plate, top with Tofu cheese and sprinkle with olive oil and glazed balsamic. That's it!

Chick peas and avocado salad

Looks yummy, eh?

So, Ingredients -
1 big avocado
1 big tomato
1 small onion
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 long cucumber
1 can of chick peas
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt, pepper
herbs

Just chop 5 first ingredients, mix them with chick peas. In a small bowl mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt pepper to taste and you can add some herbs. I added Italian herbs.
That's it! pour the dressing on the salad and you can enjoy your super salad! :-)

Simply delicious eggplant :-)

Yumm!!!

What I had :
1 eggplant
2 tomatoes
1 bell pepper
1 small onion
1 garlic clove
some all-purpose flour
salt, pepper
dry parsley

What I did -
Cut the eggplant, roll every slice in salt and leave the salty slices for 30 minutes.
Chop tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic and fry on a greased pan for 5-8 minutes. Don't forget to add salt and pepper to taste.
After 30 minutes put 1 cup of flour on a shallow plate, take your sliced eggplant,  rinse every slice and dip it in the flour from both sides. Deep fry every slice on a pan. Put these golden slices on a plate and garnish with your tomato-pepper mixture. Add some dry parsley before serving.

Stir-fried shrimps with vegetables alla Mila

Simply delicious!

Ingredients:
12  shrimps ( I used the frozen ones but thaw them first)
1\2 cup of cauliflower
1\2 cup broccoli
1 yellow bell pepper
10 green beans
2 cloves of pressed garlic
1/2 tea spoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon crushed chili peppers
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp ginger root, grated
2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
 2 tbsp olive oil

Heat olive oil on a pan, add garlic, then shrimps. Sauté them a little bit (1-2 min), add onion powder and all the vegetables. Add say sauce and lemon juice, mix well, then add ginger root, chili and salt and stir. Cover it and let it simmer for 8-10 min. Done!
You can serve it on rice or noodles. Up to you!

Minestroneeee!!!!

Who doesn't like a good bowl of Italian minestrone?!
Well, I would never say no to that!!!
And here we go...Vegetable minestrone!!!

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

5 cloves crushed garlic

1 cup celery -- minced

1 cup carrot -- cubed

1 cup eggplant -- cubed (Or zucchini)

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (Or pea beans)

1 potato

1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes

1 cup of chopped green beans 

1 teaspoon basil

2 cups tomato puree

3 1/2 cups water or stock

3 tablespoons dry red wine

In a soup kettle, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until they are soft and translucent.

Add 1 tsp. salt, carrot, celery and eggplant.

(If you use zucchini, add it with the green pepper.) Mix well.

Add oregano, black pepper and basil.

Cover and cook over low heat 5-8 minutes.

Add green pepper, stock, puree, cooked beans, green beans and wine.

Cover and boil until the potato is tender.

Yummm 

Vegetarian cabbage rolls

I love cabbage rolls, in Russia we call them Golubtsi.
I Always thought that it was a Russian or Ukrainian dish but when I came to Canada I found out that Canadians are familiar with cabbage rolls...The name is different but the ingredients and methods are the same.
Well, I'm going to present a vegetarian version of this dish :-)

Ingredients:
1 cabbage
1/2 cup long rice (cooked)
1 tomato
2 stalks of celery
2 big carrots
1 bell pepper
100 g mushrooms
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes (or tomato paste)
salt, pepper

How to cook:

Mix rice, chopped celery, chopped tomato, chopped bell pepper in a bowl.
Chop carrots and onions, put 2 tbl spoons of olive oil in a pan, put there chopped onion and carrots, fry stirring until it's soft then mix in a bowl with other ingredients. In the same pan put chopped mushrooms, fry for 10 minutes with a dash of salt and pepper, mix with other ingredients in a bowl.
Mince 2 cloves of garlic in the same bowl, add some salt and pepper to taste. Leave the mixture for a bit.
So, Dear Cabbage...rinse it first and undress it very carefully, putting every leaf aside.
Bring to a boil a big pot of water and boil every leaf for 7 minutes, putting it aside to drain and cool after that.
And there we go....we have leafs of cabbage and our beautiful mixture! What we are doing next is...we are putting the mixture on every leaf and folding it like an envelope.
After all our little envelopes are  folded, we put a pan on a stove, we add 3 tbl spoons of olive oil and frying every envelope, so it's golden brown from both sides...then add crushed tomatoes (or tomato paste) to the pan, cover it, reduce heat to low and simmer it for 30-40 minutes.
Voila! It's ready to serve!!!

Not to be Boring rabbits... :-)

Well as I mentioned earlier my husband and I decided to fast. It means we can not eat meat, fish, eggs, butter, milk, chicken etc. So, we still can have some seafood and we decided what can be better than grilled stuff?!
And here we are...having delicious vegetables with seafood! Yummm
Pictures first...then I will write about the marinade :-)

Yummm!!!!
:-)
So, What I cooked were:
1 zucchini
1/2 eggplant
2 bell peppers
a pack of fresh scallops
6 calamaris
200 g cooked shrimps from the freezer
2 lemons
oregano
crushed red pepper
paprika
chili powder
salt, pepper
parsley
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoon dry white wine


I will start with Zucchini. it was a lemon marinated zucchini. I cut it really thin, put all the slices in a bowl, added juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, salt, pepper to taste, 1/2 teaspoon dry parsley and a tablespoon olive oil. Let it rest for 1 hour or so. Then just grill until it's done.
Bell Peppers and Eggplant - I just cut everything nicely...put everything in a bowl and pour 3 tablespoons olive oil and added Italian spices. Mix all the slices well, so it all marries together and grill right away.
Calamari
These bad boys turned out amazing!!!
The beginning is the same - rinse them, put them in a bowl, 2 tablespoon olive oil, add salt, pepper to taste. Then...add 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper and 1 teaspoon of chili powder. If you don't like spicy stuff just skip chili powder. Mix well, leave it for 20 min and grill.
Scallops 
 I had a problem with these little guys. Our closest store had only small scallops and I had to put them on the sticks, so first I put them in a bowl. Added salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons olive oil and lemon juice of 1/2 lemon. Then 1/2 teaspoon oregano and then I violated them with the sticks :-)
And the SHRIMPS ...as for me, I love shrimps, they are my fav! I didn't grill them this time, I took a good pan, put 2 tablespoons olive oil, minced 2 cloves of garlic in a hot oil, put all the shrimps in there right when the garlic starts smelling really nice. Added crushed red pepper and 3 tablespoons of dry white wine, then just kept stirring them until they had that wonderful golden brown color!
OMG!!!! You have got to try this!!! YUMMM!!!!!

Yummy vitamin smoothie for breakfast

Heeeyyy!!!
Well, My husband and I are fasting. So since now and for the next 7 weeks there will be no meat, eggs, milk or butter.
So! Super breakfast!

For 2:
8 strawberries
2 bananas
a handful of ice cubes
1 cup of orange juice
put all the ingridients in your blender and mix! That's all!!!!

Russian vinaigrette salad

-

5 potatoes
1 beetroot
2 carrots
1-2 pickled cucumber
1 can of canned peas
4-5 tbsp. shredded sauerkraut
2 tbsp. 3 % vinegar
1 medium-size onion
4 tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste

 -Boil the potatoes, beetroot, carrots. cut them in thin slices or (what's more traditional for this dish in small cubes (1/4-1/2"). Cut one onion and pickles and press the sauerkraut until the juice comes out. Put all the ingredients together, dress with the olive oil, vinegar and salt. Mix everything together!
You can serve it on croûtons or just in a salad bowl :-) Enjoy!

Delicious tarts

Oh well, I had 5 small tart shells, a couple of strawberries, blueberries and a couple of slices of pineapple. 200 ml of cream cheese and 2 tbl spoons of sugar
What I did - I baked tart shells as it says on the box, until they were gold brown. Mixed cream cheese and sugar together, put the batter in the tarts and just put the berries on top. Omg! it was delicious!! :-)

Russian crepes! Blini (russian)

1 cup of milk
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 large egg
2 tbl spoons or olive oil
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of backing soda with 1/4 teaspoon white vinegar (mixed together)
Butter

1 onion cut in half. Olive oil
Put a half of onion on a fork, it will be your device for greasing the pan. Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a small bowl, put your greasing device there. It's my grandmother's way to grease the pan every time before you pour the batter on the pan.

So! Mix all 7 ingredients together in a large bowl.. The batter should be very thin, almost watery, if it's not, add some water in it. Set the bowl aside and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Grease your pan with an onion on a fork device. Pick the pan up off the heat. Pour in a ladleful of batter while you rotate your wrist, tilting the pan so the batter makes a circle and coats the bottom. The blini should be very thin.
Return the pan to the heat. Cook the blini for 90 seconds. Carefully lift up an edge of the blini to see if it's fully cooked: the edges will be golden and it should have brown spots on the surface. Flip the blini over and cook the other side for 1 minute.
Transfer every crepe to a plate and grease each of them with a small piece of butter.
Stack them on top of each other and cover with the kitchen towel to keep warm.

The way we make them is - you can spread your favorite filling in the center of the blini and fold up all 4 sides, like a small burrito.
Fillings can be different - from fried ground meat to my favorite - boiled chicken+cheese+fried mushrooms.
Bananas and chocolate
salmon and cream cheese
jam

Whatever is good for you!!!!

Ratatouille with rice

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 small eggplant, cubed
 3 stalks of asparagus, cut in pieces
2  tomatoes
2 cups of tomato juice
3 to 4 mushrooms
1 teaspoon dried leaf basil
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
salt, pepper to taste

2 cups of rice + 4 cups of water

Preparation:
In a 4-quart Dutch oven or saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add eggplant; stir until coated with oil, add asparagus,tomatoes, mushrooms, and herbs; mix well, add tomato juice. Cover and cook over low heat about 15 minutes, or until eggplant is tender but not too soft.

Cook rice in water and serve vegetables on rice :-)