I recently visited a fellow cooking enthusiast, and she made the most amazing and delicious lunch I had in a very long time. There was a light, summery salad made with spinach, prosciutto, mozzarella and peaches. Little pancakes with cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. Grilled herb marinated scallops and tiger shrimp. Spaghetti with lightly cooked vegetables. And there were tiny pastries with eggplant and tomatoes. (There were three different desserts as well!!!) It was the first time she made those pastries and she used the recipe from some cookbook, but the actual dough didn't work too well. It was extremely crumbly and a bit sandy. My friend was really upset about it, but the filling of those pastries was absolutely delicious. So, I got her recipe for the filling and I used the other dough recipe that I knew would work. The result was really good! Juicy, tasty, garlicky filling wrapped in thin layer of tasty pastry. I made a simple dip for those little pies: equal measures of mayo and yogurt cheese mixed with minced garlic and cilantro. Perfect combination!

filling recipe adapted from carina-forum

makes eight medium (12 cm) pies

Pastry

• Unbleached all purpose flour -500ml (2 cups)
• Salt -2.5 ml (1/2 tsp)
• Water - 60 ml (1/4cup)
• Maple Syrup - 15 ml (1tbsp)
• Canola oil - 125 ml (1/2 cup)
• Oil for brushing

Filling

• Tomatoes - 250 g (2 medium)
• Eggplant, cut into 2cm cubes - 500 g (1 medium)
• Onion, chopped - 1 medium
• Cilantro, finely chopped - 1 tablespoon (my store didn't have fresh cilantro, so I used one frozen cilantro cube)
• Garlic, minced - 1 clove
• Cumin - 1/2 teaspoon (I didn't use it)
• Tomato paste - 1 teaspoon (forgot to use it)
• Olive oil, salt, pepper

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

- Heat some oil in a large pan and saute the onion until it's soft.
- Add the cumin and cubed eggplant to the pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to boil. Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds.
- Remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and drop them into cold water for 2 minutes.
- Peel the tomatoes and chop them.
- Add the tomatoes to the eggplant and cook for another 10 minutes until the eggplant is cooked.
- Add the minced garlic into the mixture and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cilantro, salt and pepper. Let the filling cool.

- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, combine the water and honey.
- Add the oil.
- Pour over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork until flour is just moistened.

- Roll out the dough to 3-4 mm thickness.
- Cut 12 or 8 cm circles, put some filling in the middle and fold the circle in half to create a half-moon shape. Press the edges together with a fork.
- Put the pies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Brush the pastries with milk, eggwash, or oil.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until the dough is baked through and golden brown.

I saw this idea quite some time ago in a cookbook. I really loved the picture and wanted to recreated for some time, but all the spoons that I had didn't work. So, just recently I got a set of very lovely spoons that I figured would be perfect for this shot. First, I thought I'd wait until I make some chocolate dessert and then take this picture, but I was bored and the little spoons were so tempting. So, I decided to just go ahead and have fun with some cocoa powder.

I really liked the result, but I wanted to try something else. I wanted to drop a spoon and take a picture the moment it falls in the cocoa powder and the cocoa flies everywhere. That didn't work out at all. I couldn't get the shutter speed fast enough even with higher ISO and exposure compensation. But the main problem was dropping the spoon and clicking my remote at the exact moment of the spoon getting into the cocoa. Yep, that was (or wasn't) fun. As a result my whole place was covered in cocoa powder, it looked like there was cocoa snow. My table, my tablecloth, floor around the table, tripod, camera, spot light with an umbrella and, of course, me - we were all covered in a fine layer of cocoa powder. It wasn't fun to clean up, but it was fun working with it and a bonus - my place now smells like chocolate!!!

and one more... having fun with dypitchs...

I think I found a new food addiction. Well, I still have about five avacados on my counter, but my newest addiction is this Yogurt Cheese or as it is called in Middle East - Labneh. I now use a little different method, I wrap the yogurt in a lot of cheese cloth and then hang it over a deep bowl for a couple of hours. Those few hours are enough to drain the yogurt and get a nice, soft, creamy and tangy cheese. This time it's paired with peppery arugula (my other new favourite food), salty prosciutto and roasted and caramelized asparagus. Beautiful combination for a very tasty sandwich.

recipe adapted from carina-forum

• Bread
• Yogurt Cheese (or your favourite cream cheese)
• Arugula
• Prosciutto
• Asparagus (+ olive oil, salt, pepper)
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
- Wash asparagus, snap off the woody ends, arrange the spears onto a baking sheet, lightly cover with olive oil, salt, pepper and roast for a few minutes until they are cooked to your liking.
- Toast the bread.
- Spread some cheese onto a bread, lightly salt it.
- Arrange a few arugula leaves on the cheese.
- Wrap prosciutto around cooked and still warm asparagus.
- Place the wrapped asparagus on top of the arugula leaves.
- Ground the pepper on top.
- Enjoy!

And I am back again with my favourite ingredient - avocado. This time it's paired with my new favourite - arugula. Well, I used arugula before, but only recently I fell in love with this fresh, peppery, a little bitter, spicy and even a tiny little bit garlicky green. It has the most refreshing and complex flavour that I found in any lettuce, cabbage or other salad base ingredient. It's absolutely amazing and it pairs just wonderful with buttery avocado. I really think it's a match made in heaven: buttery avocado and spicy arugula... mmm... The salad is very easy with no real proportions, but it's really really good.

recipe very literately adapted from carina-forum

• Arugula
• Avocado
• Thyme
• Oil (olive, sunflower, or even avocado oil)
• Freshly squeezed lime juice
• Sea salt
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper

I'd like to confess. I have an addiction. I have a problem. Well... I actually have two problems and two addictions. One - cook books. Two - food photography props. I guess both of those things go hand in hand together. It's getting a little ridiculous because I literally don't have any more places in my condo to put any of these things. I mean I have a choice, I either buy more props and books or I have a comfortable place to sleep.

But the thing is that there are so many wonderful cook books that I'd like to have. I love just leafing through them during long dark winter evenings. I like discovering new recipes that I missed the first time around, I like remembering my favourite ones when I look through the books again and again. It's a journey through time. I look at the pictures and I remember what I was thinking and feeling the first time I looked at them. I remember how I felt when I cooked some of the things. It's my life, my love, my memories and I can't deny myself the pleasure of discovering new books, new recipes, new authors, new wonderful pictures. How can I?

And what about the props? I can't shoot food using the same plate over and over again. It's not even about using the same prop, it's about which foods go well with which dishes. Yes, I need different flat plates for salad and yes I need multiple bowls in different shapes and colours. I need all of them and more. Each time I go to a store, I see possibilities. This little dish would make a perfect creme brulee vessel. And this colourful bowl would go so well with risotto. And this... and this... Pictures form in my mind and dance around filling me with joy and eagerness to go home and cook and take pictures. Yes, I've never used this plate which I bought a year ago, but I will, of course, I will.

The pictures are terrible. It was overcast outside and it's quite dark in my apartment, and I had no choice but to use the internal flash. But if you'd like to see my food photography props, my cook books... my treasures, then

I saw this recipe in the latest issue of Everyday Food magazine. Well, it's not even a recipe, just an idea, but what a wonderful and easy idea. One ingredient, a little bit of patience and you get a perfect homemade cream cheese. Mix it with fresh chopped thyme, spread on a soft slice of dark rye bread, sprinkle with lots of flaky fleur de sel, freshly ground coarse black pepper and arrange a few spicy arugula leaves on top - it's a piece of heaven, better than any dessert or chocolate. It's light, tangy and refreshing from the use of yogurt, perfect for easy summer snack. Give it a try, mix it with garlic and fresh herbs, sun dried tomatoes and olive oil, chives and roasted red peppers - the possibilities are endless!!!

recipe from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart (june 2009)

• Greek or Balcan style yogurt - 1 big tub

- Place 2 layers of cheesecloth in a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl.
- Add the Greek yogurt and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
- Top with a plate that is at least 1 inch smaller than the inside of sieve and weight with a heavy can.
- Refrigirate for 24 hours for Yogurt Spread or 48 hours for Yogurt Cheese.

Comments

- After 48 hours there was still a lot of liquid left in the yogurt, so I let i drain for another 24 hours and then I actually squeezed quite a lot of liquid by hands.
- I think the better way to do it, would be to wrap the yogurt in the cheesecloth and not put it inside the sieve, but actually hang it somewhere. It'll drain from its own weight. That's the way we do cottage cheese in Russia and it only takes a few hours instead of a few days.
- However, no matter which method you choose, the result is absolutely amazing!!!!

In case if you were wondering what was that green thing in the background in my Homemade Tortillas post, it was Avocado Hummus. Since I am currently addicted to avocados, I just knew that I had to try this recipe when I saw it. I can't say that I like hummus very much. I mean I can eat it and enjoy it, but it's not something I usually crave. This recipe was a bit too much on a hummus side for me, so I think it would be better with a little less chickpeas and a bit more avocados. So, here's my less hummus-ey version, but all the ingredients can be increased or decreased based on your personal taste.

recipe adapted from carina-forum

• Chickpeas, drained and rinsed - 1/2 to 1 can (add more or less depending on your love for chickpeas and desired taste)
• Avocados - 2 small
• Tahini paste - 1 tablespoon (optional)
• Lemon juice - 2-3 tablespoons (to taste)
• Olive oil - 2 tablespoons
• Water - enough to thin the dip to the desired consistency (3-5 tablespoons)
• Salt, pepper

- Process all the ingredients except for te water in a food processor, until they become very smooth.
- Add some water to thin out the dip to the desired consistency.
- Season to taste.

It took me not once, not twice, but three times to figure out a secret to making those tortillas. And the secret is... ta-da... flour!! Yep! Just plain old flour and those tortillas need a lot of it and I mean a lot!!! The first time I made them I thought I'd go crazy from rolling them. The tortillas stuck to the rolling pin and to the surface, they refused to even resemble something close to a circle and they just wouldn't become thin at all. It was a nightmare. Sure, they tasted good, but the effort just wasn't worth it. Then I tried it the second time and... same result. It took me about two years to get over the drama of making those tortillas and I thought that maybe, just maybe, third time would be a charm and finally I was right. And it turned out to be so easy - just put lots, lots, lots of flour while rolling them. I think I used way more than a cup of flour for the surface and the rolling pin. The tortillas finally were very thin and they even remotely resembled a circle. So, yes, it's worth it. They are amazingly tasty, light, soft and crispy at the same time and buttery.

You can easily make a vegan version of these and actually the original recipe was vegan and it called for shortening, but I don't use that ingredient in my cooking, so I substituted it for room temperature butter, but feel free to use non-hydrogenated margarine for a vegan treat.

recipe adapted from The Big Book of Bread by Anne Sheasby

for 12 tortillas

• All-purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups (plus a lot more for rolling)
• Salt - 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
• Butter, room temperature - 3 tablespoon
• Warm water - 2/3 cups

- Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
- Lightly rub in the butter.
- Make a well in the center, then add enough water, mixing to form a soft dough.
- Knead the dough lightly for 1-2 minutes, then cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions.
- Roll out each portion on a heavily floured surface to form a very thin round.
- Brush out the excess of flour from the tortilla.
- Heat a large non-stick pan until very hot, then add a tortilla and cook for 1.5-2 minutes or until the surface starts to bubble and the underside is speckled brown.
- Turn the tortilla over and brown the other side for about 30 seconds.
- While the tortilla is cooking, roll out another round and repeat.
- You might need to brush away some burned flour from the pan in between cooking the tortillas.
- To re-heat, wrap them in foil and place in a preheated oven at 180C (350F) for about 5 minutes.

I decided to participate in a Homemade Tortillas Challenge on What's Cooking? site

I love, love, love Harry Potter series and I am not ashamed to admit it. There's something about this universe that J.K. Rowling created. Yes, it's very dark at times, but it's still kind and bright at the same time. The magic just pulls me in and each time I read those books (so far I read them all twice), I don't want to let them go, I don't want the adventures to stop. I really love reading, and I spent my childhood and youth reading a lot of wonderful books, but somehow, although I liked them and reread some of them a few times, I never had an urge to reread a book right after finishing it. But after I turned the last page in the last Harry Potter's book I could only do so much to stop myself from picking up the first book again.

Surprisingly, food is actually a prominent subject in those books. Starting with the first time Harry met Hagrid and they had sizzling, plump, juicy and slightly burnt sausages. Oh, my, just typing those words makes my mouth water. And what about the famous feasts at Hogwarts?

"He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs."

And although I try not to eat that much meat now and I recently tried being a vegan for a few weeks, it makes my stomach growl. It's a carnivore heaven.

And then there are desserts.

"When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclair and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding..."

I am not too familiar with British cuisine, so the first time I read about Treacle Tart I didn't think too much about it. But it is Harry's favourite dessert, so I read about it again and again and at some point I looked this word up in a dictionary. I was disappointed - apparently English-Russian dictionary translated the word as molasses and what's so tasty about that? I mean it's a great ingredient for a ginger bread, but for a tart? And only a few months later I accidentally saw a recipe for a Treacle Tart in one of my books and it turned out that despite the name, it's actually made out of Golden Syrup. It took me a long time, but I finally made it and... I can see why it's Harry's favourite!

It's a coincidence that I have two avocado posts one after another. I actually made that guacamole about six weeks ago, but only got around to posting it two days ago and now another avocado recipe is coming right away. I was thinking of waiting a few more posts before blogging about this one, but it's too good not to share. The weather is getting warmer here in Toronto, it's ok to not even wear a jacket now and then, and this soup is just a perfect lunch to cool off in the middle of a suddenly warm day. It's light, it's refreshing, it's delicious, creamy, luscious and filling soup, that's extremely easy to make. I just bought a bag of five small avocados and used one for this dish, so I think I'll be making it four more times in the near (very near) future. It's basically two ingredients: avocado and kefir, which is kind of like a Russian version of drinking yogurt, although not quite like it. You can usually find it in an organic section of almost any supermarket or you can substitute it by buttermilk or very thin plain yogurt.

recipe adapted from carina-forum

• Avocado - 1 small
• Red onion - 1 tablespoon chopped (1/4 small onion)
• Lemon juice - 1 to 2 tablespoons
• Cilantro - 2 tablespoons chopped
• Kefir - 200 ml (or more)
• Red pepper flakes - 1/2 teaspoons
• Salt, pepper