Dumplings

My grandmother used to cook the most delicious dumplings in the whole world. But I can't remember the last time when she made them. So I borrower her recipe and tried to cook dumplings on my own.

P.s.I've already created a twitter account. Check it out here!

Dumplings(about 55-60 pieces)

Ingredients:

dough:

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

2,1/2 cups wheaten flour

pinch salt

filling:

250g beef mince

1 tablespoon marjoram

pinch pepper

pinch salt

Instructions:

1.Take a bowl, combine the beef mince and spice(marjoram, pepper, salt) and place this mixture in to a refrigerator until you make a  dough.

2.In another bowl, beat the egg and salt, pour the milk in and whisk for a few minutes. Add the flour spoon by spoon until it becomes too hard to mix with a spatula. Then knead a dough(about 10-15 minutes). If it's necessary, add some more flour, as we need a paste not to be sticky.

3.Divide a batter into two or three balls and roll each of them. The dough leaves shouldn't be thicker than 3mm. Then make circles by using, for example, a glass or a cup. The diameter of every circle should be about 7cm. Put half tablespoon of prepared beef mince in to each of the circle and shape them into the form how you want the dumplings to look like. (In the pictures you can see how I made them.)

4.Take a pot, pour some water in and simmer it. Add a pinch of salt and then put the dumplings in to the boiling water. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Then strain the dumplings off and place them in to the plates. Flavour with some tablespoons of the cream.

YUUUUMMI!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Today I was at the school. It was so strange to enter that building and not to see any familiar faces(I mean classmates, as I finished school last year). That place was my second home for four years and now I come there just as a guest. I'm not a part of that community anymore. Jeez, I've never thought I'll feel such a nostalgia related to the school, to all the memories.

But you know, it was sad just at some first minutes. A little bit later I hugged one of the best teachers I've ever had and from that moment I couldn't stop smiling. It was so great to visit my english teacher. And of course, I baked some chocolate cupcakes for her.

We spent a cosy afternoon drinking tea, tasting those delicious muffins and talking about everything. It seemed that I was sitting next to my friend, but not a teacher. And it doesn't matter that she's much older than me, she has some special character features which makes you feel that you know her for ages. She told me about her daughter's youth, about the time, when she was my age, about her failure in one music high school's admission exam and also about her success in passing another exam at another music high school just a few hours after her first misfortune. This story and every word that she said encouraged me to reach my goals, to achieve what I want so bad. So I told her about my future plans, what I'm going to do in the next few months period. I told that I'll take one of the most important exams in the beginning of the spring and she agreed to help me to prepare. And I'm so thankful, that I don't even know how to describe.

I genuinely admire her as a person.

And now I'm really very busy, I have so many tasks to do. The whole book of readings similar to those which may be included in the examination. And of course, some novels that I can't wait to start reading. I've just finished one of Jodi Picoult books - 'Mercy' and 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' written by Louis de Bernières is waiting for me.

Oh, and the recipe:

This one belongs to Beata Nicholson, who's writing her own blog http://www.beatosvirtuve.lt/blog/. She's also a host of her own TV broadcast - 'Beatos virtuvė'('Beata's Cuisine'). And I think that she's a marvelous cook/chef!

Chocolate Cupcakes(12 pieces)

Ingredients:

100g dark chocolate

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons cocoa

3 eggs

3/4 cup white sugar

pinch vanilla

3 tablespoons cream

1,1/2 cups wheaten flour

1,1/2 teaspoons baking powder(I used baking soda)

Instructions:

1.Take a pot and melt the chocolate and butter, add some spoons of cocoa.

2.In a bowl beat eggs, sugar and vanilla thoroughly and then pour a chocolate-butter-cocoa mixture in. Mix once again. Add the cream and flour and whisk for a few minutes.

3.Heat the oven to 190 degrees(Celsius). Take a cupcakes pan, put the lined paper cups in. Then fill those cups with a batter until the top edges. You may also insert some chocolate chips or squares in the middle of each cupcake. Bake about 30 minutes.

YUUUMMI!!!

Home-made Noodle with Béchamel and Veggies Sauce

I will never buy noodles anymore, because home-made ones taste thousands of times more perfect and they are really simply and quickly made.

Home-made Noodle with Béchamel and Veggies Sauce(4 servings)

Ingredients:

noodle:

4 cups wheaten flour

4 eggs

pinch salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

sauce:

1/4 cup butter

1 leek

1 carrot

pinch salt

pinch pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil

1, 1/2 tablespoons wheaten flour

2, 1/2 cups milk

some grated cheese

Instructions:

1.Take a bowl, combine flour and eggs, add salt, one tablespoon of the olive oil and knead a dough for about 15-20 minutes. If a paste is still sticky, add more flour and knead once again. Then roll some dough leaves(very thin ones, 1-2mm), cut them in to narrow and long stripes. Take a pot, pour some water in and simmer.

2.Sauce making process: Cut vegetables(a leek and a carrot) in to small pieces. Melt the butter in a frying-pan, put chopped veggies and spice in and fry until they get soft. Add the flour, pour the milk in and fry for another 10 minutes, slowly and carefully mixing the sauce with a spatula. Take the frying-pan from the heat and add some grated cheese.

3.When the water simmers, add one tablespoon of the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Then put rolled and cut noodle in to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes(not longer). Strain the pasta off and place in the plates. Put some béchamel and veggies sauce on the top. You may also flavour a dish with some grated cheese(according to your taste).

YUUUMMI!!!

Cocoa Cupcakes with Banana Frosting

Cocoa cupcakes - the easiest thing to make when unexpected guests arrive.

But it's not very easy for them to wait until I take all these pictures, hahha. You know that feeling when you see steamy muffins on a rack and smell that wonderful scent, but you can't bite and taste them.

Cocoa Cupcakes with Banana Frosting(24 pieces)

Ingredients:

cupcakes:

2 cups water

1 cup cocoa

3 cups wheaten flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2  teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

frosting:

2 medium-size bananas

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions:

1.Boil two cups of water, add cocoa, wait until it melts. Then take a pot from the heat and place it in a refrigerator.

2.Take a bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until a batter becomes fluffy. Then mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and pour this mixture in to the paste. Whisk for a few minutes. Add melted cocoa and beat once again thoroughly.

3.Heat the oven to 180 degrees(Celsius). Take a cupcake pan, put lined paper cups in it and fill three quarters of each of them with the batter. Bake about 20 minutes. Then take muffins out of the oven and while waiting until they get cool, prepare a frosting.

4.Banana frosting making process: Mash bananas, add lemon juice, vanilla and milk and beat for 5 minutes. Then put confectioners' sugar, spoon by spoon and slowly whisk until the mixture is creamy. Frost cupcakes and flavour them with some chocolate chips.

YUUUMMI!!!

Brown Curd Cake

It's the third curd cake that I'm baking, but it's kind of similar to this one - the first which I tried.

To be honest, I could say that this brown curd cake tastes perfect, there's no need to say anything else.

And that smell of cocoa when you take the cake out of the oven.

Mmmm, love it!!!

Brown Curd Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1,1/2 cups cocoa

1,1/2 cups white sugar

pinch vanilla

3 cups wheaten flour

1, 1/2 teaspoons baking powder or baking soda

500g curd

4 eggs

Instructions:

1.Paste making process: Take a pot, melt the butter, take it from the heat and put in the cold place until it gets cool. Then add cocoa, vanilla, 3 cups of white sugar and mix everything thoroughly. Combine wheaten flour with baking powder/soda and put them in the pot, where melted butter and other ingredients are. Knead the pastry for more than 10 minutes. Then place the pot in the refrigerator and keep it there while you prepare the curd filling.

2.Curd filling making process: Beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar, then add curd and whisk the mixture. In another bowl froth egg whites and put them in the curd filling. Mix for 5 minutes.

3.Heat the oven to 180 degrees(Celsius). Take a cake pan, put half of the pastry in it, then pour curd filling in and then the left batter. Bake about 1 hour.

YUUUMMI!!!

Noodle with Bolognese Sauce

Have you ever heard about 'Mystery shopper'?

I've been looking for a job for several days and I saw an online advert called like this.

I had no idea what it was, but it sounded interesting, so I checked one company's website which had announced this ad.

There was plenty of information that I needed and even a codex that people willing to become a mystery shopper have to sign.

Should I apply for this kind of job(actually I think that it's not a serious job at all, but it could be a great opportunity to try something new out and to have more activity)?

And of course, the recipe:

Noodle with Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:

1 noodle pack(about 500g)

500g beef mince

2 onions

3 cloves garlic

400g mushrooms(I used chanterelles)

3-4 spoons ketchup

a few laurel leaves

olive oil

pinch salt

pinch pepper

pinch other spice(basil, marjoram and ect.)

Instructions:

1.Chop vegetables(onions and garlic cloves). Take a frying-pan, pour some olive oil in, add chopped veggies and fry until onions and garlic get a golden colour(it takes about 10 minutes).

2.Put the beef mince  in the same frying-pan and fry for another 10 minutes. While waiting, chop mushrooms. Then add them, ketchup, a few laurel leaves and other spice to a beef-onions-garlic mixture. Put a frying-pan's top on and stew for 30-40 minutes.

3.Take a pot, pour some water in and simmer it. Add oil, salt and noodle and cook(about 20-30 minutes). Strain the pasta off.

4.Put the noodle in the plates and then some spoons of the sauce. You may flavour this dish with some grated cheese(parmesan!)

YUUUMMI!!!