Late summer symphony of flavors for an afternoon snack

Figs are having a comeback in the season, so I wanted to share this beautiful combination of flavors that I found while flipping through Bon Appetit magazine few months ago. 

Warm grilled peach & frisée salad with goat's cheese dressing

This is another dish featuring PEACHES !! I love this salad.

Peach Galette

It is summer with too many fruit choices. My peach is slowly giving up to a second round of figs and apples. So I decided to make this classic but delicious and simple dessert before we say bye to peaches for this season ;)

An interesting way to cut a watermelon...

Steel-cut oats and quinoa breakfast

This is a recipe for breakfast that you can prepare the night before and leave it on the stovetop overnight to have it ready in the morning. 
It was inspired by this Bon Appetit's post. The unusual idea to me was adding a little bit of cardamom powder. Just a little bit to intrigue the senses. 
p.s. I also love to add carcamom powder to mango lassi. 

Baked Camembert

It is actually 'fried' rather than baked.  Because traditionally this melty and dreamy cheese dish is baked, I've decided not to change its name. Now, this should not be your typical everyday dinner idea. It is more a "reward" after a day of skiing in winter or after a long day of swimming in summer. 
The combination of camembert and blueberry jam is divine. 

Lemon Granita

I call this FIFA World Cup 2014 ultimate dessert (even though I made it for Father's Day for the first time)  It is so refreshing - a true summer quick treat perfect for bigger crowd.! You can even add some of your favorite alcohol  depending if your team is wining or loosing :)

Plum Clafoutis

Fruit tress are full of fruits in our garden: pluots, apricots,blueberries,figs.This means lots of fun for me in the kitchen these days! I am making apricot jam- by far my favorite jam. But I also tried my luck with this Plum Clafoutis.

"I need something sweet right now" dessert

It is a strawberry season! I invented this quick dessert the other night when I was craving something sweet yet refreshing. I picked some strawberries, big spoon of creme fraiche, a 1/2 tea spoon of cocoa powder and a drizzle of maple syrup (honey would be better -I just did not  have any at a moment)

Delicious and refreshing!   

Shrimp and Avocado Fresh Spring Rolls in Peanut Sauce

I love spring rolls! I also love that there is no frying/baking, just little bit of boiling involved in making these rolls.This means less mess in a kitchen and healthy food on a table. The rolls can be made ahead of time and are perfect fresh dinner for coming summer days. You can play around with your favorite greens too.

Chocolate Adzuki Bites

I knew about Adzuki beans for a while but never used it in desserts before. I was introduced to it by Japanese friend and liked it. I started reading about it more and found this great recipe. No flour, no bake, no eggs.
It takes little bit of planning because you need to soak beans. But other than that it is easy and the end result is a tasty and healthy desert. My kids liked it too. Bingo!
Here is the recipe:
http://keeprecipes.com/recipe/howtocook/chocolate-adzuki-bites

Enjoy!

Note:You can buy Adzuki beans in Japanese stores and Whole Foods has it too.

Healthy no bake coconut-lemon meltaways

I had no idea that paleo diet is so tasty! Well, no wonder, if you replace the flour with grounded almonds, sugar with honey, and don't use any artificially processed ingredients, you are bound to have a delicious treat! 
This was the first time I've made "paleo cookies" and my friend said that it was the best I've ever made. Hmmm... and I've thought nothing can beat canneles! 

Chia pudding with blood oranges and pistachios

Everywhere I turn either in stores or in magazines, I see 'the benefits of chia seeds'. All the pictures look promissingly delicious! So I decide to buy a bag, a huge one since there are no small bags of chia seeds to be found... That made me very happy, hoping it will bring a change to my breakfast oatmeal routine. The first time I've tried to make chia pudding was plain simply with almond or coconut milk, I don't remember exactly... but do remember a huge disappointment since I didn't like it at all. The flavor was simply missing! The big bag of chia seeds was sitting in the forgotten corner of my kitchen until yesterday when I was looking for something and found it again. This time I've made the pudding with regular milk and added fruits, nuts and a little bit of coconut sugar. It was the rebirth of chia seed pudding for me and will be in the makings again soon, especially the night before I know there will be a busy morning and no time for elaborate breakfast. That is when chia pudding will get me throuh it with its nutrients and energy.  

Ingredients: 

For one serving

• 1 cup of milk of your choice (I prefer regular milk)
• 4 Tbsp of chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp of coconut sugar
• fruit and nuts topping (my favorite combination is blood orange with pistachios)

Add chia seeds to milk, mix and store in the fridge overnight for best results. In the morning, add fruit and nuts for a healthy breakfast. 

Bon appetit,

Miki

Asparagus cigars

What a nice idea to eat and serve asparagus! I saw this on the Rachel Khoo's blog last week. Those of you who saw few of my previous posts know how much I love Rachel's recipes. I can't wait for her third book to be published! With asparagus being in season nowadays, I had to give this recipe a try right away. This is how it turned out, very pretty and tasty as well! Not at all soggy asparagus accompanied with the crispy puff pastry. I forgot to add cream cheese that was suggested in the recipe; not sure if the cream cheese would make it the puff pastry soggy. I don't think so, but please let me know if you try it. 

Here is the original recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/asparagus_and_puff_00402

Bon appetit,

Miki

Spring pea and ricotta gnocchi with pancetta

This is a wonderful recipe! Very tasty and great dish if you are having company over for a casual dinner. I made it already twice in less than a month. I also made it with dandelion and spinach instead of peas and parsley. I am not big fan of ricotta cheese in general but in dish dish it is absolutely heavenly. 
I was also happy that my kids eat it despite its green color.   

Note: I suggest you double the recipe and freeze it so next time you can have delicious dinner in no time! :)

Here is the recipe:
http://www.shafervineyards.com/foodwine/recipes/Gnocchi.pdf

Enjoy!

Cauliflower Couscous

Once in while I stumble upon a recipe that I have to make right away. This was one of them-I saw it last night and I made it for dinner tonight (I had all ingredients so that made it easier but I know I would do it even if it required a trip to a store :)

Happy Star Wars day!

May the 4th be with you, always! 

The force was very strong this morning while preparing breakfast, explained in this video. :) :)

Burned cake/Tourteau Fromager/Cheesecake, the French way

Rhubarb orange compote

I have never cooked with rhubarb before... and have only known this interesting red fruit? from D'Arbo jam in 'raspberry & rhubarb' flavor combination. 

Pickled Cauliflower and Mushroom Salad with Escarole

It is March! It is spring but you still have some of your preserved veggies from winter. Also, I happened to LOVE pickled cauliflower. This is how this salad was born and I have made it few times since using various greens instead of escarole (so far I tried arugula-in the picture and watercress and they both turned out great)

Impromptu mid-week dinner

It is one of those weeks that drags slowly... and even though it is Wednesday, 
Wednesday, it feels like Monday... and Friday seems soooo faaar away. Impromptu crepes came to the rescue this evening! I've had few Meyer lemons lying around, somehow there was a ricotta in the fridge, and a whipping cream (that I really shouldn't be consuming, but bought it only for a chestnut puree that I was craving for the other day)... Oh, I've remember why ricotta was in the fridge also (I don't like it too much though, it tastes bland to me), but I have nevertheless bought it to try out this recipe that I saw on Pinterest (with my eyes trained to spot anything 'Meyer lemony'):

Pie with sauerkraut

I love March. It is when Spring begins, it is a month during which many of my dearest friends have birthdays, it also symbolizes a new beginnig for me when I came to USA in March many many years ago... It was March when I moved to NY, also March when I came back to CA, ... In other words, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate during March, so why not celebrate Pi Day as well !? :)
This is the pie that I've made to mark the occasion. 

My friend Svetlana inspired this post with sauerkraut recipes she shared here on our blog recently. That is how I've decided to make the pie with sauerkraut using my mom's recipe. It is much easier than I've thought it would be! Try it! 

Cake is the only thing that matters

Have you read 'Hyperbole and a half'? I was identifying with the Subject on many occasions! Especially on the matter of eating the cake... and especially on the occassion when cake becomes the only thing that matters, really.

Just like the Subject, when I have a craving for cake, then it really is a CRAVING for cake! It becomes the only thing that matters and I don't have time to make some elaborate cakes because I NEED to have a cake NOW!

That is when I resort to making cookies that take less than 20min from start to finish. AMARETTI, yesss! 

Brine fermented cabbage with tofu and miso dressing

It is almost spring and I still have few heads of fermented cabbage to use before days start to warm up even more. This recipe is a fusion of  my two favorite cuisines: Serbian and Japanese.

Dolmas (Dolmades)

I love Greek cuisine! And Mediterranean in general. Here is the recipe for one of my favorite Greek dishes-Dolmas!

Ingredeiants:

20 vacuum packed grape leaves
1/2 short grain rice

4 table
spoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion,finely chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

lemon slices and fresh mint to garnish

Dashi (Japanese stock)

Ichiban Dashi

Ok here it is - Dashi! Umamstick ;) Udon, miso soup and Japanese food in general are so much loved in my family that I will be making this again soon and probably be freezing it.

I have got a kezuriki as a present from a very dear friends from Japan to shred  katshuobushi myself -how exciting-but you can, of course, buy dried bonito flakes from any Japanese grocery store instead. Ichiban dashi is used for clear soups and many other Japanese dishes which I am yet to try making. And Niban dashi you can use for miso soup.

"Vanilice" with a twist - recipe from 'Three Little Halves'

Recently, my friend's recipe was featured in Food & Wine magazine. How exciting! :) Having tried Sashka's recipes before and vanice being one of my favorite cookies, I was looking forward to trying out this recipe. The fact that I've made them twice since tells you all... Last time I didn't have pistachios at hand, so I've replaced them with almonds which worked very well. 

Hazelnut biscotti

It was raining a little bit today! :) Just enough to evoke the comforting feeling of cold outside and cosiness inside. In other words, perfect time to make some fresh bread and warmup the house. It would be nice to have the new cookbook from Tartine baker, Chad Robertson: Tartine bread, and put to test all these varieties of flour that I keep on buying and storing around the house. But I feel guilty of ordering the new Tartine cookbook before I have at least tried out a few recipes from the one that I already have, Tartine. This bakery is my tresure island of San Francisco and I was reluctant of trying to recreate their recipes at home, thinking it would be impossible to reach similar level of perfection. But I was wrong, the "kitchen notes" in their recipes tell you exactly what to 'look out for' during the process. 
I have opted to test making biscotti first, for two reasons. Firstly because the original recipe comes from Alice Waters who for me is the synonim of fresh, seasonal, home made recipes and invokes the most beautiful memories of Berkeley. Secondly because I have a visitor from Europe whom I wanted to surprise with home made biscotti that would be good with coffee while he is recovering from jet lag.  

Homemade Granola Bars

I was looking for a healthy snack for my kids and I came upon this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-granola-bars-recipe/index.html and decided to share on my kuhinjica:
I like all Ina Garten recipes and this one was no exception.
Note:I replaced apricots with dried prunes because that's what I  had on hand. So feel free to add/change nuts/fruits to what you like/have in your pantry. Enjoy your healthy snack!

Kugelhopf with prunes... as promised

The first snow of the season blanketed Europe... My sister sent me this photo to remind me of how it looks like to wake up to this beautiful white surprise :) That same day we got the first rainfall in California, and I was very happy! That very same evening, it was snowing in my kitchen. 

Red Quinoa with Blueberries

This recipe is a result of me wanted to add something healthy and quick to my kids breakfast menu (and mine as well). It is pretty tasty otherwise my kids would not eat it!