Cooking together!

The Japanese plum wine Choya Honey Umeshu

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:10:00 +0000

Not long ago I've written about japanese plum wine Choya Umeshu Kishu Herb. Today I'll complement the "wine story" with another great product:
As you can see, it is yellow plum wine Choya Honey Umeshu.

It is made on the basis of plums with the addition of honey, that's why it tastes differently: more sweet and viscous. Plums appear to be white or yellow and not red as in Choya Umeshu Kishu Herb.

Salad-cocktail of chicken with pineapple

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I like chicken salads with sweet taste. Here's another one.

We shall need:

3 medium boiled chicken fillets
4 apples
4 Bulgarian peppers
250-300 grams of canned pineapples
mayonnaise

Traditionally, here's the step by step cooking process:

1. Prepare diced chicken cubes.
2. Make diced Bulgarian pepper.
3. Open canned pineapples.
4. Make diced pineapple cubes, like in the picture below.
5. Make diced apple cubes.
6. Have all mixed.
7. Add the mayonnaise, mix all and carefully lay on a plate.
Salad will be light (low calories) and very tasty :-).

Bon appetit!

Fish Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:30:00 +0000

While browsing the Internet I stumbled upon very cool fish pie. The original can be found here.

For the dish we will need these igredients:

1 kg (2.20lbs) of potatoes
400 g (0.89 lbs) of fish (cod, trout or salmon is recommended, I took what turned out in the shop - Alaska pollack)
200 g (0.45 lbs) of frozen green peas
160 g (0.36 lbs) of cheese "Cheddar"
1 glass of milk
butter
sunflower oil

Here is what we will do with all these ingredients, step-by-step:

1. Grease the bottom and the sides of the baking form with sunflower oil. You can do this either with fingers or use special brush. Put filleted fish there.

2. Pour milk on fish fillet so it is about half covered, then salt and pepper.

3. Peel the potatoes and put them in the saucepan. Oven must be heated up to 180 degrees centigrade (356 F).
When potatoes begin to boil put the fish into the oven (make sure, that it has required temperature).

4. Put the frozen peas into a saucepan and cover them with water. Add a some salt and put them on the hob - low heat will do. 20 minutes there will be just fine.

5. While waiting for the peas we can grate the cheese.

6. When 20 minutes are up take the fish out of the oven and drain off the milk into the glass. Using fork tear the fillet into pieces. Rise temperature in the oven up to 220 grades centigrade (428 F).

7. Wait when peas start to boil. Then get them from the hob and drain water off.

8. By that time potatoes will be ready. You can drain water off and hold it on the hob for some time, hence remnants of the water completely evaporate. Add butter to potatoes, salt and pepper. Then add part of the milt and thoroughly mash it. In my case, all the milk was required to make them very smooth and creamy. In your case not all milk may be required - so do not hurry to pour all milk. The goal is to have smooth and creamy potato mash.

9. Add peas to potato mash and mix carefully.
Be careful don't mash up the peas.
10. Put potato mash with peas on top of the fish and spread it evenly using the fork.11. Sprinkle the shredded cheese.

12. Put the dish into the oven and leave it there for 20 minutes. Check later if pie is baking evenly. Turn the dish around if it is brown on one side. After 10 minutes you should see something like this:

Bon appetit!

Sweet noodle soup

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:29:00 +0000

The weather recently was rather cool so I decided to cook noodle with milk. The package of milk appeared to be spoiled, though shelf-life date hasn't come yet. By that time noodles were almost ready. After short thinking process with my husband, we decided to cook the dish he knew from his childhood. I tried it only once it was a year or two ago. Maybe on that time we had similar situation with milk;-)

So, here's the description step-by-step:
1. Cook short and thin noodle. 2. Get fruit-berry compote from the closet (or supermarket). It can be with cherry or plum. It has to be red and taste sweet and sour altogether. 3. Put cooked noodles into separate deep bowl. 4. If compote is too concentrated, it is better to dilute to the desired consistency. After that fill the noodle with it. The above described actions will lead to medium heated soup. Depending on the season and your mood it can be made cold or hot. To make it cold just cool down noodles and compote. Being cold it is the best in the summer heat. On the other hand to make it hot all components must be warmed.

Isn't that simple and easy?

Bon appetit!

The Japanese plum wine Choya Umeshu Kishu Herb

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:00:00 +0000

On the last weekend my husband and I visited my Mom. We were greatly surprised because at that day my parents had wedding anniversary :). Everyday life has such a high speed pace that I completely forgot about it.

But it is not that I want to share with you. In one of the supermarkets parents bought Japanese plum wine for the holiday. It looks like this:

Title: Choya Umeshu Kishu Herb
Alcohol: 12%

I managed to get some information from the manufacturer's web site Choya.

Choya Umeshu Kishu Herb - is a unique Japanese wine from plum (Ume) fruit that has a lot of curative properties. Plum fruit is unusually rich in minerals, fruit acids and vitamin C. Moreover, according to Japanese folklore, Ume reduces fatigue and gives quiet sleep.

The recipe of making wine from Ume plum was discovered by Japanese people near four hundred years ago and from that time Umeshu is considered to be the national drink of the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun . Thanks to perilla (perilla - aromatic plant used in Japanese cuisine) it has red color and delicate mix of exotic flavor and a pleasant taste.

The very company Choya, formed in 1914, at the moment, took a leading position for the production and worldwide distribution of plum wine Umeshu. Choya Umeshu production doesn't use any artificial dyes and additives, it is made of best fruits, gathered and processed manually during the day.

I want to add that the wine is very pleasant, has a delicate, slightly sweet flavor with the scent of plums and herbs. It is recommended to drink it chilled or even better with 2-3 cubes of ice in the glass to make it have even more delicate taste.

Well, you may want to try a plum. Don't be so fast! They have a lot of alcohol in them :-)

Bon appetit!

Chicken salad with mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:12:00 +0000

I learned this recipe from my coworker a year ago. However, at that time I didn't memorize it and marvelous recipe was lost. Couple of days ago we were talking about salads and I asked her about this salad recipe.

At this time odds were on my side, don't forget about some chicken fillet in the fridge.

Here we go! The recipe is the following (for 4 portions):

3 boiled chicken fillets
0.5 kg pekinese cabbage
0,750 liter of pickled mushrooms
250 grams of solid cheese "Suluguni"
0.5 of loaf or 2 packing crackers, preferably without taste
mayonnaise

And now, step by step:

1. Making crackers. You can do so as I did before - cut the loaf into cubes and place into oven. Or the way I did this time - toast chopped slices of bread with toaster, cut into cubes and dry them out in the microwave. The result of my work is presented below.

2. Slice pickled mushrooms into smaller pieces. They can be put into the salad as is. If mushrooms are too spicy, you can fry them a bit on sunflower oil.
3. Cut then chicken into cubes.
4. Cut pekinese cabbage.
5. Cut hard cheese into cubes.
6. Mix all components.

7. Add the mayonnaise, mix again and the salad is ready.

The salad has original and unusual taste. Give it a try!

Bon appetit!

Chicken salad with grapes and pine nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:19:00 +0000

Recently I bought some chicken fillet. You'd better hold on! :) There will be a lot salads and not only from chicken.

For a long time I wanted to make a salad at home that I had tried in one of the Kyiv restaurants. What's so special about it? It has an interesting taste formed with chicken, grapes, pine nuts and other tasty ingredients.

We'll need:

2 boiled chicken breasts (it's about 350 grammes in raw weight)
4 Bulgarian peppers with average size
200 grammes of hard cheese (with sweet taste is more desirable)
2 apples
a small bunch of Muscat or Kis-mis grapes
4-5 spoonfuls with pine nuts
4 spoonfuls of grape or apple vinegar, or lemon juice can do
mayonnaise

And now in the following order:
1. Dice the chicken.
2. Chop Bulgarian pepper so it looks like straw.
3. Cut the peel from apples off and dice them.
4. Slice grapes into 4 parts and remove pits if any.
5. Slice hard cheese into cubes.
6. Mix all ingredients together, splash with vinegar, add mayonnaise, add pine nuts, and mix thoroughly.
7. And voila! Salad has sweetish taste. It has enough calories to feed a male. That is for granted ;-)
Bon appetit!

Either macaroni po-flotski or spaghetti bolognese

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:41:00 +0000

I was thinking a lot how to name the post. That is because my spaghetti differs from macaroni po-flotski and at the same time doesn't follow the exact recipe of spaghetti bolognese :). Nevertheless here is what I've got.

As usual I was cooking spaghetti with sauce. I do not recommend buying dry sauces from paper bags in the store. All these sauces have a lot of food additives. It is better to take already made sauces (without preservatives) for cooking.

Well, we'll need:

250 grammes of minced meat (a mix of beef and pork)
300 grammes of pasta for spaghetti (Italian are desired)
75 grammes of cheese
tomato sauce(with spices)
Italian sauce with olives (Heinz)
butter
pepper, salt and basil

It's time for detailed description:

1. Put minced meat on the pan, break the lumps, add tomato sauce and Italian sauce Heinz, butter, spices. If you want to make the sauce more liquid, you can add more tomato and Italian sauces or butter. You can also add some water.
2. Lead it to boil then reduce fire and cover the lid. Meat should be completely fried and soaked with juice. The process should take near 10-15 minutes. It is necessary to stir the sauce slowly from time to time.

3. By that time we boil the water for the pasta and put spaghetti into the pot. Then we cook until spaghetti is ready.

4. Grate cheese.

5. Put boiled pasta on the plate. 6. Then, on top of pasta we put our sauce. 7. Sprinkle with cheese on top. 8. Basically the dish is ready to eat, but I prefer cheese to be melted. That's why I put the plate for a minute or so into the microwave. Bon appetit!

Salad "Vitaminous"

noreply@blogger.com (Inna) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:34:00 +0000

I visited my mom last weekend and she gave me a large bunch of celery:) At the same moment I have got an idea what to do with it.

You may ask what could be done with that celery? Well, because I had already been familiar with celery (I was making another salad with it, separate blog post will be devoted to it) the solution appeared rather quickly - it was salad!

By the way, do you know that celery is one of the strongest aphrodisiacs? It is recommended for men along with parsley!
Some additional information about celery can be found here and here.

I have to warn you: do not bring or throw celery on Stamford Bridge stadium, especially when "Chelsea" is playing!!! It is forbidden.

Ok, I'm done with introduction:-). We can continue on the salad recipe.

So, we'll need:

4 carrots
4 apples
3 stalks of celery (35 centimeters each)
2-3 table spoons of olive or sunflower-seed oil
salt to taste

Now, I'm going to explain how to make the salad with more details:
1. Wash celery stalks and chop it in thin pieces as it is shown on the picture.

2. Clean up the carrots and grate them in the way you do this when cooking the soup.

3. Wash the apples, rind and have them grated.

4. Then mix all ingredients and flavour with olive or sunflower-seed olive and salt. For this salad it is better to use olive oil, because sunflower-seed oil gives bad after-taste.

And here's what you get - a very delicious salad:

This celery salad is juicy and spicy and because of apple it has sweetish taste.

Bon appetit!