Tag Archives: recipe

“Mangal” Salad

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This is traditional Azerbaijani salad. I made it during the Azerbaijani food week.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3-4 small eggplants (or 1-2 large eggplants)
  • 5 tomatoes
  • 2 red bell peppers
  • 1/2 hot pepper
  • 1/2 red onion
  • fresh basil to taste
  • fresh cilantro to taste
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
 “Mangal” Salad

Wash and fully dry eggplants, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Grill them until tender. Ideally, the vegetables for this salad have to be cooked on a grill (or a mangal, which is a Caucasian type of grill) but home oven will do too. I baked them for 30 min in an oven preheated to 375F (tomatoes might be done faster so keep a watch on them). Let them cool. Peel skins and cut the vegetables into small cubes. Put them in a strainer and squeeze to remove excess of juices. Transfer them to a bowl.

Wash, dry and finely chop basil and cilantro. Also finely chop onion, garlic and hot pepper. Add everything to the roasted vegetables, add vinegar, olive oil, and salt (to taste). Mix and transfer to a serving bowl. Let stay in a fridge for 30 min. and enjoy.

Apple Bread Pudding

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This pudding is our (my husband’s and mine) favorite dessert. Kids do not eat it because it has different textures (apples and bread) combined in one dish. My kids are still at the stage in their lives when they prefer simple tastes. Something like: “Apples are fruit, cakes are pastry, and therefore they cannot be mixed together.”

Well, enough of that, here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 2.5 – 3 medium apples sliced and cubed (I usually cut 3 apples but give some of the slices to my kids to eat, so this is why 2.5 apples. Also I don’t peel apples but for a creamier texture peeled apples are preferable.)
  • 4 cups of white bread, cubed (I actually don’t measure bread I just make sure that bread to apple ratio is 6:4
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cups of brown sugar
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1 cup of cream (can be substituted for half & half to cut some calories)
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar (can use vanilla extract instead)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons of rum
  • 1/4 cup of raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Combine raisins with 2 tablespoons rum and set aside. Prepare apples and bread i.e. cut and slice them. In a large bowl mix apples, bread and rum soaked raisins. In a small saucepan combine milk, cream and butter. Heat it on the medium heat until the butter is melted. Add vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract). Pour over bread and apples. Carefully stir the mixture to distribute moisture equally between bread cubes.

Transfer the mixture to an oven safe dish (I use 8×8 oven safe glass dish).

In a small bowl, beat eggs with cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of rum. Pour it over the bread-and-apple mixture making sure it is evenly distributed.

Put in a preheated oven and bake for about 40 min. Serve hot or cold with vanilla sauce.

To prepare vanilla sauce, in a heavy small saucepan combine 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/3 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar. Bring to gentle boil and continue cooking until it reduces a little (for about 5 minutes) steering constantly. Enjoy over apple bread pudding.

Mongolian Pancakes: Gambir

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Mongolian pancakes (Gambir) are simple and very tasty. They are made from a very basic dough that consists of flour and water which is very easy to make. However, I usually do not have time even for that simple recipe so I found a shortcut.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pack of Dumpling Wrapper dough (can be found in any Chinese store)
  • 4 tblsp of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of melted unsalted butter
  • Oil for frying

Brush top and bottom of each sheet of dough with butter. Sprinkle a little sugar on the surface of pancakes. With a knife make two small cuts at the center of each pancake (this needs to be done in order to avoid blisters). Add a little oil to the frying pan and cook pancake (both sides) on moderate heat until they become a little brown and crispy.

Wrapper dough

Defrost dough

Gambir

Fig Salad With Roasted Walnuts

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I was doing roasted fig salad when I was cooking the British Virgin Islands food. I slightly modified the original recipe so it is time to write it down or I’ll forget it.

Fig Salad

Fig Salad with Roasted Pecans

Ingredients:

  • 16 fresh figs (the number of figs really depends on the size of your party)
  • 1 bag of spring mix salad (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s)
  • 1/2 cup of Gorgonzola cheese
  • 1/2 cup of whole walnuts or pecans (I prefer pecans)
  • 1/4 cup of Olive Oil
  • 2 oz Balsamic Vinegar

Roast nuts in 350 degree oven for about 3-4 min (make sure they are not over roasted).

Wash and pat dry figs. Cut each fig into four parts. Assemble salad leafs on a shallow plate and arrange figs on the top.

Mix Gorgonzola, olive oil and vinegar in a small saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil. Mix until all ingredients blend. Let it cool a bit and pour over figs and salad. Add walnuts on the top.