Food and Crafts for All Occasions

The King of Pancakes: Dutch Baby

Dutch baby is an amazingly versatile, super delicious and astonishingly easy to make oven-baked hybrid of pancake and popover. It can be made sweet or savory and topped before or after baking with all sorts of tasty things. It’s good for breakfast, br/lunch or dinner and is suitable for both everyday meal or special occasions.

Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Double Rub

When it comes to roasted chicken, for me nothing beats Cornish game hens. These little meaty and succulent birdies have much better flavor and texture than a regular chicken. And because of their smaller size, they cook much faster as well which make them suitable for a weeknight dinner. Especially, if you make some preparations in advance.

Pork Shoulder Roast

This pork roast works equally great as an entree right after roasting or the next day cold on sandwiches.  It is very flavorful, super tender and unbelievably juicy.

As a rule, pork shoulder has lots of intramuscular fat (and this is what makes it juicy), but it also contains big knots or strips of connective tissue, which needs to be taken care of or the meat will be too tough to eat. The secret of roasting shoulder is cooking it for a long time at medium low temperature until the connective tissue has broken down and the fat has melted, making the meat succulent and tender.

Marinated Green Beans, Vietnamese Style

This is not a traditional Vietnamese recipe, but rather my play with Vietnamese ingredients. Quite a successful play, I should say. These beans turn out really mind blowing: slightly sweet and tart, and spicy, and savory, and packed with umami.

Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp with Almonds and Rolled Oats

Here’s one more delicious dessert to make with nectarines and blueberries. Hurry up while the nectarine season still lasts! It’s almost almost over!

My nectarine crisp is not super sweet and has a nice crunch that comes from rolled oats and almonds. You can whip it up in 5 minutes and cook in 20, which makes it a perfect weekday dessert. Put it in the oven before you sit to have dinner - with cooking and cooling it will be ready right about you’ve finished your meal.

Vanilla, Lemon and Honey Semifreddo

Semifreddo is an Italian dessert that literally translates as half(semi) cold(freddo). What it really is, is ice cream without ice cream machine. It is frozen and it has the same smooth, creamy, airy texture, though it’s done using absolutely different technique than ice cream.

In fact, the method* of making semifreddo is very much the same as for mousse. So, you may say that semifreddo is frozen mousse. Whereas in ice cream light airy texture comes from ice cream being churned, in semifreddo it comes from the ingredients being whipped before combined together. In my recipe, I separately whip all three major ingredients – cream, egg yolks, and egg whites. The result is a super light semifreddo.

Super Topping: Baked Nectarines and Blueberries

To continue on nectarines and blueberries, here’s the simplest recipe you can cook with them and it makes an awesome topping for ice creams, semifreddo or yogurt parfait. I myself can eat them plain, especially when they are still slightly warm. So make sure to cook plenty - I guarantee you will find yourself sneaking them in your mouth right from the baking dish again and again, so delish they are!

Puff Pastry Tarts with Goat Cheese, Blueberries and Nectarines

Here’s another delicious recipe for the nectarine and blueberry combination. And almost as easy to make as the clafoutis if you use a store bought puff pastry.

Nectarine and Blueberry Clafoutis

Now is the season for my all-time favorite fruit combination: nectarines and blueberries. I like it anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Raw and cooked. In tarts, pies, crumbles, clafoutis, roasted with honey and goat cheese or baked and used as a topping for ice cream or semifreddo.

Romancing the Potato: Roasted Potato Wedges

I’ve already posted one roasted potato recipe here. This time, it’s different potatoes, different cut and different presentation.

Roasted potato wedges can be served as a finger food which together with a great bold flavor makes them an ultimate crowd pleaser. And given that they are no hassle to make, they please a cook no less. Just get nice long and relatively thin potatoes - Yukon or, which is even better, small Russets - and you’re good to go.

I love my potato wedges spicy and herby, served with a cooling sauce like tartar. On the other hand, you can go light on spicing potatoes and put some hot pepper into the accompanying sauce instead, your call. Either way, it’s a winner.

One Potato, Two Potato: Smashed Potatoes 2 Ways

One:

And two:

My husband is a huge – huuuuuge - fan of potatoes. Loves ’em spuds. All types. All ways of cooking. Well, some more than others, but ultimately – any. Fried, sautéed, boiled, roasted. Mashed and smashed. Grated in latkes. Grilled on skewers. As a side dish as well as in soups and salads. The more the better.

So, I cook potatoes quite often. And if you’re crazy about them too, I have some good recipes for you. Today it is smashed potatoes. Two ways. A traditional one, where you roughly mash skin-on boiled potatoes. And a relatively recent one, where you boil whole small potatoes, smash them by pressing each one flat and then roast of fry them till the crispy exterior.

Smoked Trout Dip

This dip is another delicious use of smoked trout. My husband raves about it every time I make it.

Have it on warm toasted bread. Some thinly sliced radishes on top will give a nice touch.

Green Salad with Smoked Trout, Poached Eggs, Potatoes and Asparagus

This has been one of my favorite salads lately. Sort of a version of Niçoise salad with smoked trout instead of tuna and poached eggs instead of boiled ones. My greens choice for this salad is a mix of frisee (I love ’em bitter!) and Asian greens mix (not to be confused with Asian salad mix!) which includes mizuna, pak choi, baby tat soi and other fancy and very tasty herbs.  If you cannot find Asian mix in stores, go for Spring Salad Mix or something like it.

As for the trout, you can smoke it yourself or buy it in a store. Trader Joe’s carries quite delicious and inexpensive smoked trout. If you want to smoke trout yourself and are a happy owner of a Green egg grill, follow the instructions given here for salmon. The only difference with trout would be that you would need much less salt and shorter time to cure it in the fridge since trout fillets are much smaller and thinner than salmon. For the same reason, the cooking time will be shorter too. Shoot for 45-50 min.

Japanese Style Spicy Baked Prawns

Have you ever tried baked spicy mussels in sushi bars? They use Sriracha infused mayo and garnish the mussels with flying fish roe and sesame seeds. I’m a sucker for these things. And I like the recipe even better with prawns on a half shell. Not your traditional Dynamite prawns, but super delicious and cute looking, too.

Roasted Potatoes

This is such an easy and super simple recipe that I never actually thought of putting it on my blog. But then everybody who tried these potatoes at my house loved them a lot and asked me for the recipe, so I decided to finally post it here.