Urban Gardening in Baltimore (Part One) - Arugula

I love my very first small urban garden. I love it so much that I can't wait to see it every morning when I wake up.

It's funny but even picking weeds around my veggies is so relaxing. So far so good... some leaf miners attacked my Swiss chard... First I was devastated and in shock, then I fought against those gross white worms and I beat them. I just cut off all damaged leaves and remove eggs attached to the back side of the leaves.

My garden is loved and organic, poison free.

Last summer when we were buying a house and when we saw our new house with a quite big backyard for a town house we made our mind. My husband and I said "that's for our kids to play", but we already thought about our future garden.

My neighbors think that I can feed the hungry people with my veggies but that's not true. Though I have plenty of stuff to make food for my family and to feel a little bit sustainable.

Arugula was the first veggie that I harvested. Very easy to grow. Great flavor. There are two recipes with arugula that I want to share: Pesto with Arugula and Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Pears.

In the next posts will be more recipes with stuff from my garden: Kale, Swiss Chard, Fennel, Zucchini, etc... stay tuned...

Pesto with Arugula

To get 2 cups of pesto you need:

5 cups of packed arugula
2 Tbs. fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 1/2 roasted pine nuts
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. lemon juice



Steps:
In a food processor put arugula, basil, garlic, roasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and salt. Pulseit for a couple of seconds until smooth. Add the olive oil through the top hole. Blend it until all oil is distributed. Add lemon juice if you wish.
You can keep pesto in the jar in the fridge for up to one week. Or you can freeze it in the ice tray for much longer.
Serve it with pasta, potatoes or in sandwiches.

Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Pears

You need for 4 servings:

4 cups arugula
1 firm pear, sliced
4 oz goat cheese
2 Tbs. chopped walnuts
for dressing:

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
Pinch of sugar


Steps:

In large bowl mix arugula and sliced pears. Toss in dressing. Top it with sliced goat cheese and walnuts.

Stuffed Dried Red Peppers and Trip to Serbia

From my last trip to Serbia I brought back dried peppers bought at a farmers market. I was never crazy about them before, but when I made them yesterday they were very good... actually, I can't recall anything so delicious I ate recently.


My first thought was how expensive it would be here, in the U.S... two bunches of them, 18 in total would cost quite a lot... The stuffing is similar to risotto with mushrooms, but a sweet, mild flavor and crispy texture of peppers gives the dish something very special. And, after all, they look so gorgeous assembled in the bake ware.


This is very important - eat them with crumbled Feta cheese.

You need:

18 dried red peppers
3 Tbs. olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, cut in small pieces
2 cups of vegetable broth
150g rice
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped


Steps:

Cover the dried peppers with very hot water in a large bowl. Leave them to soften for 2 hours.

In a large skillet heat the olive oil, saute chopped onions for 3 minutes, add garlic, and chopped carrot and celery. After 4-5 minutes, add mushrooms. Before mushrooms start to produce liquid add rice and stir until rice gets coated with oil, about 1-2 minutes. Pour in vegetable broth, reduce the heat and stir stuffing constantly for 15 minutes. Remove it from the stove and allow to cool down. Stir in chopped walnuts.

Preheat the oven to 395F (200C).

Drain the peppers and stuff them with rice stuffing. Arrange them in a baking dish, cover with an aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. When the dish is almost done remove the aluminum foil and bake for a few minutes to get a nice crust.

Have a look at photos from Serbia: bakeries, typical farmers market, Sunday family lunch and downtown of Belgrade.

Bread with Sesame and Caraway Seeds

Serbian Popular Desserts: Šampita and Krempita

Burek

Savory Pastry 

Farmers Market in Spring

Wild Dried Pears

Pasta

Honey

Serbian Farmers Market

Sunday Lunch

Sauteed Sauerkraut with Smoked Fish

Jelly Rolls

Sour Cherry Phyllo Pie

Sava River, Belgrade

Belgrade, Downtown

Belgrade, Downtown

People Enjoying the Beginning of Spring

Belgrade, Downtown

Egg Hunt Cupcakes

Last weekend we went with our kids to a traditional Easter egg hunt. They are just too little to get the idea of collecting eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny. But, I didn’t give up. To make my kids more excited about the event I even made Egg Hunt Cupcakes. I wanted my cupcakes to resemble the eggs hidden in the grass. I do not know how successful I was in doing that, but the children were happy to try them.

This quantity is enough for 12 medium size cupcakes.

You need:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Steps:
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Line muffin pan tin with paper liners.
In a bowl mix sifted flour and cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix the sugar, milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixture and stir it until you get smooth batter.

Pour the batter into cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. When they are baked remove them from the oven and place them on a rack to cool down.

In the meantime make buttercream.

You need for buttercream:

6 tablespoons (85g) butter
1 cup (225g) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Steps:
Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer. Put the buttercream in a pastry bag and pipe over the cakes.
For decoration use chocolate spirals and chocolate Easter eggs.

This recipe is featured in online magazine Mezze.

Roasted Lamb with Five Herbs (Parsley, Mint, Thyme, Garlic and Rosemary)

If you plan to make a lamb leg for the following Easter and kind of hesitate because it usually takes  several hours to be done, you should buy a piece of butterflied leg of lamb that can be done in 40-45 minutes. You can marinade the lamb with these herbs and leave it overnight in the refrigerator, or you can follow my method of preparation.

You need:

2 lb. butterflied leg of lamb
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon dried or fresh rosemary
Half of bunch fresh parsley
Half of bunch fresh mint
2 cloves garlic
2 scallions
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and black pepper


Steps:

Remove the meat one hour before preparation. Chop herbs, scallions and garlic, mix with olive oil, add lemon juice, salt and black pepper.

Rub the meat with salt and black pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Put it in the oven, on the middle rack, and broil it for 10 minutes each side. Remove the lamb from the oven and put the herb mix on it. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake it at 325F (170C) for 20-25 minutes to obtain medium rare meat. Few minutes before the lamb is done remove the aluminum foil.

Serve it with Tzatziki sauce and flat bread.


This recipe is featured in online magazine Mezze

Sautéed Chicken Livers in Wine

Yesterday when I saw chicken livers in Whole Foods, I bought them straight away. I think I haven’t eaten them for long time.

Chicken livers bring memories of time spent in the countryside where my grand parents lived. When my grandma wanted to make chicken she would go straight away to the chicken coop, pick an appropriately sized unfortunate chicken, kill, clean and roast it.

I loved to watch her clean the bird. She would put it in the big pot with hot water, remove all the feathers, and then take the inner organs from the chicken out… livers, heart, kidney and small egg yolks as unformed eggs. My grandma loved to grill all of them on a wood stovetop, which was really cool. I would say the whole experience had some primal touch.

Sautéed chicken livers are not bad either. You should put a lot of onion, some herbs and white wine. Serve it with Greek plain yogurt on top of toasted bread.

It sounds strange but I am crazier about chicken hearts than livers. In my home country, I used to make a dinner using at least 2 pounds (1 kilo) of them. Imagine so many hearts on your plate. How barbaric!

You need:

1 lb. chicken livers (it should be very fresh) whole or cut in half and patted dry

1 lb. onions, finely sliced

3 Tbs. olive oil

2 bay leaves

3 thyme springs

Salt and fresh black pepper

Handful flat parsley, chopped

½ cup white wine

Steps:

Prepare chicken liver, slice the onions. Heat the olive oil in wide sauce pan. Add onions and fry them until they turn light brown.  Add chicken livers, bay leaves, thyme, salt and black pepper. Sauté it on medium heat. Stir it every few minutes. At the end, when liver is done, after 15 minutes of cooking, add white wine and parsley. Serve it with yogurt and toasted bread.

Hungarian Veal Goulash with Dumplings

In a few days I am traveling to Europe and I can’t wait. No matter how happy I am to live in the U.S., I miss many things from my home continent. One of them is food… there are days when I crave so much stuff that can be tried only in Europe. I mean, I can make them here too, but it is not the same. For example, what Americans call veal meat, in my home country it is considered beef… which means the meat was from an animal too old to be called veal. I know it sounds terrible talking about meat that way, but I really enjoy my status of non-vegetarian. Real veal is very soft and tender, one of the best meat that you can possibly have. Too bad I can’t find it here… Anyway, my stews are good even with let’s say “young beef”, I only have to cook it a little bit longer.

Goulash is a Hungarian stew that is popular all over Eastern and Central Europe. It is always made with ground paprika and a lot of onions and of course meat. What it is really cool about this dish is having it with dumplings. Of course, you can have this stew with potato or noodles, but dumplings are the perfect choice.

Another traditional Hungarian dish, very similar to goulash, is paprikash. The only difference is using flour to thicken the latter. The paprikash recipe can be found here.

You need:

1 lb. veal for stew cut in 1- inch squares

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 lb. (2 large) onion, sliced

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cups water

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

3 bay leaves

3 thyme sprigs

½ teaspoon caraway seeds

1 celery stalk

Salt and black pepper

1/2 can (4 oz.)  crushed tomato

For dumplings:

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

5 tablespoons flour

Salt

Steps:

1. Slice the onions. Heat the oil in a medium pot and add onions. Sauté it until it turns brown. Add garlic.
2. Pour in 2 cups of water. Simmer onions for 15 minutes.
3. Add veal, paprika, celery, thyme, caraway seeds, bay leaves, salt and black pepper. Bring the stew to boil and lower the heat. Simmer it for at least 2 hours. The more you cook, the better the goulash will be. Before the meal is done add crushed tomatoes.
4. While the stew is cooking, make the dumplings. Beat an egg, add a tablespoon of water, salt and flour. Mix everything together and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.
5. When the goulash is done, drop the dumplings by teaspoon, one by one. When they start to pop up, after few minutes, they are cooked. My suggestion is to double the number of dumplings since the first day we ate them all.

Cake Pops for Baby Shower

 It's a boy!
Just a few weeks before the birth of her baby boy, a baby shower for my friend Richa was arranged. I got the task of making Cake Pops for this event. It turned out more complicated than I expected but the cakes were an absolute crowd-pleaser so it was worth it.

Cake Pops are so American… unusual shape for the cake and a lot of decoration. As a typical European girl I did not want to use a shortcut so I made everything from the scratch… no cake mix and canned icing. Also, decoration with weird colors was out of the question, I stuck to the classic one.
 
In Starbucks they sell cake pops under the name Petites. They cost at about $1.50 each. Using this recipe you can make around 70 balls, the same size as those in Starbucks, so that is quite a good value.

And they are quite tasty. Actually addictive. Recipes for the cake and icing were taken from the net.



The ingredients for the cake:

195g (1 ¾ cups) flour
85g (3/4 cup) good quality cocoa powder (Ghirardelli)
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
225g (1 cup) sugar
2 eggs
235ml (1 cup) milk
170ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
235ml (1 cup) boiling water

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Place the parchment paper in the pan. 
In a bowl sift flour and cocoa. Add baking powder and soda and salt. In another bowl with an electrical mixer beat eggs, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Then add the dry to the wet ingredients, spoon by spoon. Finally, stir into the batter boiling water. Pour the batter into the pan and bake it for 30-35 minutes.
When the cake is done take it out, and then place it on the rack to cool down completely.



In the meantime make the cream cheese icing.

Ingredients for the icing:
 
60g butter, at room temperature
225g (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
200g powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Mix everything with the electrical mixer on low speed.




Below are the most important stages in making cake pops. I took photographs of them to be easily followed.

1.    After the cake was baked and cooled

2.    and the cream cheese icing was made too,

3.    Crumble the cake with your hands and add it to the icing.

4.    Mix it well using your hands.

 

5.    Scoop the cake mix with an ice cream spoon to get the same sized balls, and roll the balls with the palm of your hands. Put them on the lollipop sticks. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for a few hours.

6.    Melt 350g of good quality chocolate (Ghirardelli) in a heatproof glass bowl over a pan with simmering water, as shown. I first tried white chocolate which was not a good idea because it was too transparent. So I switched to the dark one.

7.    Before we cover the entire balls with chocolate, dip the tops of sticks in melted chocolate and put them back in the ball holes. Return the balls to the freezer for at least 1 hour. This way, the balls won’t fall from the sticks when dipping into the chocolate.
Warm the chocolate. Dip each ball in the melted chocolate (cover it completely), and swirl it around and tap with one hand until the excess chocolate falls off. Place the chocolate balls with sticks on the Styrofoam, as shown.

8.    When the chocolate has cooled, swirl royal icing over the balls. You can decorate them in so many ways, this is my version.

9.    For the rest of decoration you need: Styrofoam, colored shiny paper, border, yellow flower and a blue ribbon for bows (because it is a boy), as shown.

My friend Ana has made chocolate mustaches on a stick. And if you think that cake pops are too complicated, then mustaches are right for you. I found them very sweet.

Below is the picture of Richa ... going through the things she got for her boy who will be born soon.

Cheese and Spinach Phyllo Pie

It is similar to Greek Spanakopita, but even better. Cheese and spinach make one of the most fabulous combos in pies. I use half of feta and half of cottage cheese to get a good balance of flavor. Although it is always better to use thicker phyllo dough, it is not easy to find it here in the U.S. When it is about making phyllo pies there is a rule - thin sheet phyllo goes well with sweet and thicker with savory pies.

On the pictures you can see how great feast I had… Cheese and spinach phyllo pie with dry smoked beef and kefir. I think this food  would help even Novak Djokovic recover immediately after his epic match with Rafael Nadal on Australian Open. Btw, what a great finals, what a great victory!

You need:

1 package of phyllo dough – if it was in the freezer move it to the fridge overnight, and then it has to be out of the fridge for 2 hours

For the first filling:

3 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sparkling water

1 tbs. baking powder

1 tbs. salt

1 cup plain yogurt

For the second filling:

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 cup cottage or ricotta cheese

2 bunches of fresh spinach

Steps:

Make the first filling – mix eggs, yogurt, oil, sparkling water, salt, baking powder and flour.

Make the second filling – combine cottage cheese, crumbled feta cheese and spinach (cleaned, washed and chopped).

Preheat oven to 395F (200C).

Divide all phyllo sheets by 4 to get the same number of layers that you need for each roll (you will have four rolls). You have to work fast with phyllo dough. Cover it with wet cloth, otherwise it will dry out.

Spread the sheet of phyllo dough and brush it with the first filling. Put over the next sheet and repeat. If the phyllo dough is too thin, brush every second sheet. The last layer brush with the first and spread the second filling. Roll the dough and transfer to the greased baking pan.

When you have all four rolls in the pan, pour the rest of the first filling over them. Place baking pan in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes until the top gets golden brown color.

Allow to cool down a bit before you cut it.

Serve it warm with kefir.

You can find my other savory phyllo pie with mushrooms here.

Čupavci Cupcakes - Reinventing Traditional Dessert

When I did some research about the funny-named Serbian cake, Čupavci, which means Messy Hair Cake, I was very surprised to realize that almost the same dessert exists in Australia under name Lamingtons. To be honest I don’t have any clue how it came about, I can only guess they were created separately in completely different parts of the world.

I always had the idea to make Čupavce as cupcakes. It is very difficult to control their cube-shaped form; baking them in a muffin pan makes things much easer. And, I just like to play with different cuisines, in this case European and American. Fortunately, I found a really good recipe for sponge here and the outcome was super delicious.

Make small cupcakes and try to buy or grind coconut as it is in the pictures. It will give an elegant look, almost like snowflakes topping the cakes. I used European shredded coconut that is different and there is not sugar in it.

You need for 24 small cupcakes:

for the sponge:

3 eggs

½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil

280g all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (150g) white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup (100ml) milk


for the frosting:

5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter

1 oz (30g) white sugar

2.5 oz (75g) semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup heavy whipped cream

1/2 package of unsweetened shredded coconut


Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 355F (180C). Place the cupcake liners on a baking sheet. No need to grease them.
2. With the hand mixer beat the egg whites. Add sugar, spoon by spoon. Then add the oil and half of the flour (sifted and mixed with baking powder), vanilla extract, egg yolks, milk, and finally the remaining flour.
3. When the batter is well mixed, fill the cupcake liners to the very top. Put in the oven to bake about 16 minutes (this works for my oven). If toothpick comes out clean, cakes are done.4. While the cakes are baking, make the chocolate frosting. In a small sauce pan melt the butter and add the sugar, chocolate and whipped cream. Allow the frosting to cool down and become slightly thick.
5. Dip only tops of the cakes in the frosting (soak up as much as possible), and then roll over the shredded coconut.