Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Tuna Poke

Poke (POH-kay) is a Hawaiian chopped raw fish dish that is usually served on top of boiled rice. When on Hawaii, we can live on poke only (well, add fresh fruits, too!). Poke is ubiquitous there – you can find it in restaurants, in supermarkets, in special poke cafes.

Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese, Herbs and Lavender Infused Honey

While figs are still in season, hurry up to make this easy and delicious recipe. It makes a great light dessert and an amazing finger food party dish.

4th of July Feast (last minute recipe): Corn and Jalapeno Dip

Here's a superfast and simple hot dip recipe which is a perfect choice for 4^th of July feast. Raving reviews are guaranteed and the total damage on your side is about $10 and less than a half hour of cooking time with only 5 minutes involving your active participation – the rest is done by the oven.

Salmon Roasted under a Grainy Dijon, Soy Sauce and Mayo Glaze

This recipe is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Everybody raves about it. Even my most picky gourmet friends find it amazing, despite the use of such an unpopular ingredient among foodies as mayonnaise. I learned this recipe many years ago from my mom-in-law and since then it was one of my favorite salmon preparations.

Tomato Bisque with Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

Despite being a huge fan of soups in general, I've always felt indifferent toward cream soups. Mostly because of their quite monotonous, smoothie-like texture with nothing to chew on.

Ruby Red Rosemary

Recently, I tried a quite interesting cocktail in "Eureka!" where we stopped for a quick lunch after shopping at the University Village. The drink featured a mixture of gin, ruby red grapefruit juice and rosemary simple syrup spiced with bitters and served on ice. The waiter was very kind to share the recipe, which I couldn’t help tweaking a bit here and there to bring it to a perfection. Unlike in the restaurant, I serve it straight up so it it's not getting diluted by melting ice while you sip it.

Amazing Chicken and Broccoli Patties

Despite not so glamorous appearance, these patties have one significant merit: they are very delicious. Anyone who tried them thought they were amazing. There is something very pleasing in the combination of tender chicken meat with a bitter- sweet broccoli, sharp garlic and earthy fenugreek - all chopped, mixed together and fried like pancakes. Which means quite easy to make since you skip the whole "forming the patties" step.

Rich and Airy Chocolate Mousse

This mousse is everybody's favorite. It's so light and fluffy and creamy and velvety and melting in your mouth and so deliciously chocolaty, it will make you go 'wow' and squint your eyes until the last bite.

Hearty Kale and Bean Soup with Italian Sausage

This simple soup turned out a great hit at our recent Society lunch. I've never heard so many ravings about a soup before, and being a devoted soup lover myself I'm happy to share the recipe.

To my taste, kale and beans are a perfect match. Red kale and fava beans in puff pastry turnovers. Sautéed green kale and garbanzo beans as a side for grilled sardines. This time it is green kale and cannellini beans in a soup with mildly spicy Italian sausage.

Baked Eggs, aka Shirred Eggs, aka Oeuf en Cocotte

When it comes to breakfast, Ilya's and mine first choice is always eggs. Simply boiled – hard-boiled to eat with mayo or soft-boiled to spoon out. Sunny side up or over easy on a bed of slowly sautéed onions. Scrambled with hot peppers and ham. Poached in spicy tomato sauce, Shakshuka style.

Today I'd like to share with you another favorite recipe of ours - baked eggs (sometimes also referred to as shirred eggs). In France, this dish is known as oeuf en cocotte. Everything sounds so much cuter in French, doesn't it?

Mussels in Tomato Sauce with Jalapeno, Cream and Madeira

Every time we go to Taylor Shellfish on Melrose ave (Capitol Hill) to binge on shucked oysters and a glass of cava/beer, we usually buy several pounds of fresh mussels on the way out. Taylor Shellfish carries the best mussels in Seattle and supply them to many local restaurants. These mussels are absolutely perfect – large with plum and meaty flesh.

Sharlotka, an Easiest Ever Apple Pie

 

This simple apple pie was a great hit in Russia in late 80s and 90s. It take minutes to put together and about an hour to bake, so it would be a first choice when one was pondering what to make for dessert. It seemed like everybody was baking this pie nonstop. It was ubiquitous.

Nokedli or Spaetzle, Super Simple Homemade Pasta

Nokedli (Hungarian) or Spaetzle (German) is a free-form pasta made from a thick batter that is grated into boiling water through a special nokedli/spaetzle maker or pressed through a colander.

Prawns Sautéed with Paprika, Garlic, Lemon and Parsley

This super simple way to cook prawns is one of my favorites. They can be served as a hot appetizer along with crusty bread to dip up the sauce or tossed with spaghetti or linguine for an entrée.

Tomato Season: Two Favorite Salads

Tomatoes are my most favorite veggies and the only edible plant (besides cooking herbs) that we grow in our yard. We don’t have much of a planting space around the house, but whatever little we have Ilya turned into very tall raised beds. Which is perfect for tomatoes because, as those of you who grow tomatoes know, the deeper you plant tomatoes, the larger the root system, and the larger the root system, the larger the tops of the plants. And the larger the tops, the more tomatoes you’re going to harvest.

We usually plant cherry and grape tomatoes simply because Seattle summer is quite short and other kinds may not have enough time to mature and ripen to perfection. Our cherry tomatoes always turn out great and taste like little sugar bombs, as our neighbor and friend calls them.