Roasted garlic cream soup

Enchanting flavor, divine taste hard to recognize what it is made of… it’s Real roasted garlic soup. Amazing strong aroma, but subtle delicate taste. After this garlic soup You can go to have a date straight away!
For cream-soup preparing basics look HERE.

Serves 6
4 big garlic cloves
Olive oil for seasoning
2 big potatoes
1 middle sized onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 spring thyme
150 gr grated cheese Ementaker or Gruyer
1,5 l. chicken stock

Preheat oven to 180˚C.
Cut off the upper part of garlic cloves like shown at the picture.

Place on a piece of aluminum foil, sprinkle with salt and olive oil. Wrap tightly into the foil and place in the preheat oven for 45 min.
Peel and cut onion into halves. Slice it. Preheat a 3l pot over medium heat with a tablespoon of butter. Add onions and a spring of thyme, and fry until onions are slightly carmelized. Take out the thyme spring.

Peel and dice potatoes. Rinse with cold running water.
When the garlic is done, take out of the oven, let it cool down for 10 min.

Then peel it or just squeeze it out garlic peel into a plate.  Do not lose any drop of the precious roasting oil.
Mash garlic with oil drops with a fork and add to the onions.

Pour over hot stock. Add potatoes and cook until done.
Withdraw 2 cups of cooking liquid from the pot, set aside and blend everything with a blender till the mass is smooth and well mixed. Add some of the liquid to adjust the consistency of cream soup.
Add  grated cheese and gently, over low heat bring soup to boil constantly stirring so the cheese incorporates into soup.

Turn off immediately. Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper.

Serve hot with a piece of crunchy bread!

Ukrainian potato pancake casserole

This is just a godsend for busy people. You can cook potato pancakes (dyruny) in larger quantities for breakfast, and then in the evening, or even better the next day evening, make a quick casserole. Very folklore and Ukrainian dish. (After making potato pancakes, let them cool down and then store in fridge in air tight container for several days).

Potato pancakes recipe You can find here.

If you do not have little pots, put everything into a heat-resistant dish and prolong the baking time by 5 minutes when the oven in on and another 10 when it is turned off.

Serves 4
12 medium-sized pancakes
600 g pork meat
2 medium onions
1 tbsp pork lard for frying
300 ml sour cream (preferably dense)
200 gr grated cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Slice pancakes into small strips, cut meat into cubes of approx. 2 cm, slice onion into half rings.

2) In a deep skillet, heat the lard, put the meat along with onions and fry, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until the meat is cooked through,. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 ˚ C.

3) When the meat is ready, add sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Stir, bring to a boil and turn off.

4) Divide sliced pancakes among pots. Dollop meat with sour cream sauce on top. Sprinkle everything with cheese.
5) Place in the oven, bake for 10 minutes at 180 ˚ C. Turn off the oven, but do not remove the pots for another 15 min.
Serve with pickles or sauerkraut!

Idea: You can add chopped mushrooms to the meat and follow the recipe.

Wiener Schnitzel with Potato Salad - delicious memories from Vienna

     Soft, thin Schnitzel meat, melting in Your mouth with a company of sourish  potato salad with smoked sausages… what a great meal to enjoy with a glass of good beer. It's "must do" in Vienna.

         

  Bohemian atmosphere,  hypnotizing music, interesting architecture - You have this all in old good Vienna!

 

City that makes You dream, city that makes You happier! City You want to be back to.... 

     Maria-Theresia beloved Austrian queen, Hubsburg dynasty, mother of Marie-Antoinette, she has been pregnant for 16 times!!! loved eating the same much as she loved making love:-)

   Vienna strikes with so many historical and cultural objects, side by side with modern life beating intensively in the big city...

  

Going back to the meal...

     Classic Wiener Schnitzel made of veal. I had really fine cuts of pork. And it worked really well! You can decide what You prefer. It is important to make it as thin as possible, but not by slicing it, but by beating …

     One more good thing about potato salad that You can make that salad even one night ahead and keep in closed tight container in the fridge till serving time. Then You can heat it up a bit, or serve it as it is – cold.

For 4

For Potato Salad:

600 gram potatoes

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 big onions

200 gram thin smoked sausages

2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

150 ml chicken stock

6 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

For Schnitzel:

4 pork or veal scallops beaten lightly till thin

3 eggs lightly beaten

½ cup flour

1 cup white bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

1 lemon for serving

For potato salad:

1)      Wash and peel potatoes. Slice them approximately 0,5 cm and Cook In salted boiling water till done.

2)      In the meantime peel onions, halve and slice them. Slice sausages (quite thick slices app. 1 cm). Heat a deep frying pan, add vegetable oil and onions, fry till softening. Add sausages and fry 2 min more.

3)      Drain potatoes. Add the to the onion-sausage mixture, and fry 2 min more. Add hot stock, mustard, vinegar, freshly ground pepper , mix it well and boil everything together for 1 min.

4)      Turn off  the heat, cover with a lid and set aside at least for an hour.

P.S. You can make it also a day before. Serve cold or lightly warm, as a garnish or separate dish.

To make Schnitzel:

1)      Place flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in 3 individual shallow dishes. Season scallops with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, shake off excess, dip into egg, and last dredge in breadcrumbs. Shake off excess of breadcrumbs. 

2)      Heat the oil in large shallow frying pan. Add 1 Schnitzel at a time to the pan, brown from both sides about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to plate lined with paper towels and keep it warm. Repeat with other Schnitzel.

3)      Cut lemon into 4 wedge.

Serve with one lemon wedge at a plate accompanied with potato salad! Perfect match for beer! Mahlzeit! 

Ukrainian potato pancakes

Crispy skin, soft in the middle, hot and fresh followed by a glass of cold milk… That’s the taste of my childhood I want to share with You…

For 2 persons

500 grams of potatoes

1 middle sized onion

1 egg

2 tablespoons of flour

Salt to taste

Vegetable oil for frying

1)      Peel potatoes and onions.

2)      You can make everything so much easier if You have a food processor. Just put all ingredients except of oil in it and blend. 

And You have potato batter. If not, then there is the traditional way:

Grate potatoes and onions at the biggest ear of grater. Then place grated vegetables in a bowl, mix in an egg and flour. Salt everything to taste. Mix very well.

3)      Pre-heat a frying pan. Add a dash of vegetable oil, just not too much. Drop a large spoonful of batter into  the hot pan and flatten it out a little, otherwise You’ll have problem to getting them cooked in the center before the skin in burnt. Do not overcrowd the frying pan and fry over low to  medium heat. Flip over when the skin starts turning golden brown underneath and fry 2-3 minutes more.

4)      Then fry another batch of pancakes. Serve with a glass of cold milk. Though my husband likes them with a spoonful of dense sour cream. Enjoy!

Dreamhost review

Potato mushroom thyme scented casserole with rustic cabbage salad

 

Simple, comfort dish with a hint of thyme, make You feel content and full.  Crunchy rustic cabbage salad make a good company for it. Enjoy!

For 4 persons as a light dinner

For casserole:

600 grams potatoes

Olive oil for frying

 1 tablespoon of butter

300 grams fresh mushrooms

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

½ bunch of lemon thyme (substitute with regular thyme, though aroma is not the same)

150 gr of grated cheese (Emmental or Gruyere are perfect)

Salt and pepper for taste

For salad:

400 gr of white cabbage

1 medium onion

4 cucumbers

7 tablespoons Extra virgin sunflower oil

2,5 tablespoons of lemon juice

Salt

1)      Peel and slice potatoes. Dice onion, chop mushrooms in bite size, peel garlic. Wash and pat dry thyme. 

2)      Cook potatoes in salted boiling water for 10 min. Drain. Pre-heat oven to 200 ˚C.

3)      In the mean time pre-heat a shallow frying pan. Add a dash olive oil and butter, when it stops bubbling add onions, press garlic in and cook till soft , then add mushrooms and whole branches of  thyme.  Cook everything together for 5 min, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and take out thyme branches.

4)       Place half of the potatoes on the bottom of casserole dish, then sprinkle with cheese,  then mushrooms, sprinkle with cheese again and again potatoes. 

Top casserole generously with more cheese.  Transfer casserole to the oven for 20-25 min. or until cheese starts turning golden brown. 

5)      In the meantime make salad. Wash cabbage and slice it thinly. Kitchen mandoline is a real helper, if You have one. If not, have some patience and work vigorously. Then place sliced cabbage into a salad bowl, sprinkle generously with salt and squeeze cabbage hard with hands. It will soften the texture of cabbage and make it more mild. Then peel the onion, halve and slice it. Wash and slice cucumber. You can peel it, but it’s optional. 

6)      Add onions , cucumbers, oil and lemon juice to the cabbage. Mix everything well. 

7)      Serve hot casserole with addition of cold crunchy salad!