Fruit Dumplings with Cottage Cheese and Butter

Strawberry Version

If you ask any adult Czech living abroad what childhood foods they miss the most, the Fruit Dumplings will be at the top of a list, no doubt. My mom was a master in making these and when I came to Canada every summer I dreamed about them. When she visited us for the first time it was this recipe that I just had to have. The version here is slightly modified because European ingredients are bit different but taste is the same.

There are several types of dough used for fruit dumplings. Some regions use dough made with potatoes and flour, others use cottage cheese and flour and some combine cottage cheese, boiled and riced potatoes and flour. I like to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and just use plain flour.

 Ingredients for the Dough

1/4 cup milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 egg yolks or 2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

1 pint strawberries, hulled, washed and halved.

 Process

In a bowl, mix together milk, water, vanilla extract and eggs.
In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast to combine.
Slowly add liquid contents from bowl through the feed tube and mix till dough doesn’t stick to work bowl, about 45 seconds.
Since the flour moisture content varies you may have to adjust the ratio of liquid to flour by working in more flour if too wet or adding more water if the dough doesn’t form a ball.
Place the dough in clean, lightly buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in warm and draft-free place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

 Assembly

Punch the dough down and roll it out on floured board. You can roll the dough into 12-by-16 inch rectangle and cut it into 12 four-inch squares or roll it into a cylinder shape about 2” diameter, 18” long and cut into 12 disks about 1-1/2” wide and then flattened into pie shape that is 4” diameter. I did the later because I find it easier to make a ball with round disk instead of square.
Lay 2 strawberry halves into center of each disk, enclose the sides and roll it into a ball. Make sure that all the seams are tight and strawberries are well enclosed.
Place each dumpling on floured baking sheet, cover with towel and let them rise for 10 minutes.
In 4-quart pot, bring 3-quarts of lightly salted water to a bubbling boil. With a large slotted spoon, carefully place 4 or more dumplings (depending how wide your pot is) in the water. Partially cover the pot and once dumplings come to top, gently boil for 4 minutes. Turn dumplings over and cook additional 3 minutes.
Remove dumplings to large platter with a slotted spoon and immediately open each with 2 forks or prick them in several places with sharp needle to release the steam.
Repeat the process with remaining dumplings.
To serve, place 3 dumplings on preheated plate, top with cottage cheese, dribble melted butter on top and as an option, sprinkle sugar on top.
These dumplings are also popular when filled with pitted plums.

Salmon Poached in Brown Butter

With Creamy Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Asparagus

Even though fish is the main ingredient in this dish, it is definitely not a diet meal. First of all, the salmon skin is quickly fried and crisped up in mix of grapeseed oil and butter, more butter is added and flesh side of fillet is slowly poached till almost done. Then you have the potatoes that are mashed with 35% cream, 3.25% milk and mayonnaise. Yes, mayonnaise. I usually use sour cream but I didn’t have any, so out came the mayo jar. Man, I have really pigged out on this one! But, was it ever so creamy and supper delicious!

I served the salmon with steamed asparagus tossed in brown butter, lemon zest and a slice of lemon.

Salmon Tartare

I was a little bit surprised when looking over my salmon recipes (17 posts!) that I didn’t publish recipe for Salmon Tartare, one of the simplest and fastest way so serve a salmon. There are as many versions of Salmon Tartare as there are cooks. It is pretty much almost-anything-goes with one important exception: just like anything Tartare (basically raw protein) it has to be absolutely fresh. To be on a safe side and also to make it easier to chop I freeze my overnight and then let it partially de-freeze in refrigerator till I can chop it with my cleaver.

 

Ingredients

Salmon fillet, skinless and boneless, about 6 oz.

1 Tbs. capers, chopped

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Lemon juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 Avocado, chopped

1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt or to taste

Furikake for garnish, optional

Cucumber slices for serving

Slice the fillet into 1/4” slices, place in sandwich bag and freeze overnight. 1 hour before preparing the Tartare, remove salmon from freezer and place in warmest part of refrigerator. Cut the fillet slices into 1/4” julienne and then into 1/4” cubes. Place chopped salmon into mixing bowl.

Add chopped capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, chopped avocado and sea salt.

Mix with fork till well combined.

Serve on slices of cucumber and garnish with Furikake (optional).

This is very quick and healthy snack.

Ratatouille and Pork Sausage.

I had some homemade pork sausage on hand but not enough for meal for 2. I could have used it in a pasta sauce but since I have so many Oriental eggplants I had to incorporate them somehow. Since it is one of ingredients in French Ratatouille I had decided to improvise something new (I have never seen a recipe similar to what I came up with).

Again, there is not much of a detailed recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Butter ovenproof dish and spread raw pork sausage, store bought is fine, into 1/2” layer.

Next, lay down row of eggplant, than tomatoes, zucchini, followed by white onions, more tomatoes and more eggplant, all sliced. This is basically layer of Ratatouille. The veggies were seasoned with sea salt and about 2 tsp. of “Herbes de Provence”. (To mix your own “Herbes de Provence” I have included recipe at the end of this post.)

Since it didn’t look like there is enough substance I peeled and sliced Yukon potato and covered vegetables with overlapping potato slices. I lightly salted potatoes and sprinkled olive oil on top. In order for vegetables and meat to heat evenly I covered the top with parchment paper and then aluminum foil. (The paper prevents salt from interacting with aluminum and burn holes in the foil.) Place the dish on baking sheet and bake on middle oven rack for 45 minutes

Right from beginning I was going to top the veggies with slices of Provolone cheese so after 45 minutes raise the temperature to 450 °F, remove dish from oven, remove the foil and paper and cover potato slices with layer of cheese. Put back in oven and bake another 15 minutes or till cheese starts to bubble.

To serve, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Cut across the rows of vegetables with sharp knife into 2 portions and serve on preheated plates with slices of crusty French baguette.

This is a definite “will-make-again” meal.

Herbes de Provence

Ingredients

2 tablespoons dried savory

2 tablespoons dried rosemary

2 tablespoons dried thyme

2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 tablespoons dried basil

2 tablespoons dried marjoram

2 tablespoons dried fennel seed

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together. Store in an air-tight container.

Pork Tenderloin Shish-Kebab

In my kitchen one of the best uses for pork tenderloin is kebab with lots of vegetables and grilled on medium hot BBQ. In this version I used flat bamboo skewers (only kind I use lately). As you can see in picture bellow the order of ingredients was pork, smoked bacon, Cremini mushroom, white onion, red pepper and zucchini. This I repeated 3 times, finishing with pork so that veggies will not fall off while turning on the grill.

I grilled them for 3 – 4 minutes on each side for a total of about 15 minutes. Tenderloin becomes very dry if overcooked. During turning is where the flat skewers come so handy. All sides were basted with hickory BBQ sauce and kebab was served with steamed rice, as usual. Also, as I always do when using bamboo skewers, I laid piece of aluminum foil under the exposed ends of skewers to prevent them from burning.

I used only half of pork tenderloin and it was enough for 2 people.

Salmon Tartare

I was a little bit surprised when looking over my salmon recipes (17 posts!) that I didn’t publish recipe for Salmon Tartare, one of the simplest and fastest way so serve a salmon. There are as many versions of Salmon Tartare as there are cooks. It is pretty much almost-anything-goes with one important exception: just like anything Tartare (basically raw protein) it has to be absolutely fresh. To be on a safe side and also to make it easier to chop I freeze my overnight and then let it partially de-freeze in refrigerator till I can chop it with my cleaver.

 

Ingredients

Salmon fillet, skinless and boneless, about 6 oz.

1 Tbs. capers, chopped

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Lemon juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 Avocado, chopped

1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt or to taste

Furikake for garnish, optional

Cucumber slices for serving

Slice the fillet into 1/4” slices, place in sandwich bag and freeze overnight. 1 hour before preparing the Tartare, remove salmon from freezer and place in warmest part of refrigerator. Cut the fillet slices into 1/4” julienne and then into 1/4” cubes. Place chopped salmon into mixing bowl.

Add chopped capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, chopped avocado and sea salt.

Mix with fork till well combined.

Serve on slices of cucumber and garnish with Furikake (optional).

This is very quick and healthy snack.

Tomato Sauce

I have to admit that until two weeks ago I have never made or tasted pure tomato sauce. I have made hundreds of tomato sauces but they always had at least celery, peppers, onions and garlic in them. This was my very first time that I have made tomato sauce from my very own tomatoes with absolutely nothing else: no salt, sugar, onions, peppers, garlic or any other vegetables. Just tomatoes, slowly simmered for 4 hours (in this case) and then run through the food mill with the finest plate (1/16” holes). What a revelation it was! Mind you, I did make tons of sauces before using store bought tomatoes plus other veggies but since I have never grown paste tomatoes like Roma I had no opportunity to make basic sauce of my own. Now, I am hooked. Right after I have tasted the sauce I started Googling for San Marzano Lungo tomato seeds that have the reputation as the best paste tomato. Yup, I bought some and now my plans for veggie garden is going through some changes, at least in my mind, that is. My plan for next year was for only 3 tomato plants: one of each “Sweet Baby Girl” (cherry), “Magic Mountain (size and shape of large strawberry) and “Margherita” (Roma). Since San Marzano is meatier and dryer than Margherita I have decided to go with 4 Marzano instead and the salad tomatoes stay the same, 1 of each.

There is not recipe here as far as I can see.

Cut tomatoes in half and then half again, put in pot, cover, and start the simmer. Stir tomatoes every so often to help them release juice but keep cooking it covered. After 3 hours I removed the cover (I never used pressure cooker locked cover) and let reduce to fairly thick consistency, stirring more frequently. Never let it burn!

When there is very little liquid visible at surface it is time to run it through food mill. I don’t know about any other substitute for food mill besides China Cap strainer (Chinoise). (Now we are talking hard labor here! I used Chinoise when I went to George Brown College’s culinary arts courses back in 1970’s and we had to make all sauces by hand, no food mills and no food processors, just large Chinoise. It is not fun!)

Food mill removes the seeds and tomato skin.

I started with 4 quarts (4L) of tomatoes that gave me 4 cups (1L) of thick sauce.

Since it was 30 °C outside I have decided to make the sauce on my BBQ side burner so I won’t heat up the house. Unfortunately, the BBQ burner doesn’t have too much of a heat control plus if I run it low the wind can blow off the flame. Compromises. Also, towards the end of making the sauce, when the sauce thickens, it is very easy to burn. Because it is much more likely to burn in thin bottom pot I have decided to use my pressure cooker pot because it has very thick bottom. It all worked like a charm.

When done, you have a great basic tomato sauce to be used for many other sauces.

My first sauce was simple spaghettini sauce where I sautéed onions, eggplants, celery, red pepper, garlic (lot of it), hot pepper flakes and oregano for 15 minutes, added the tomato sauce and simmered for 30 minutes on low. Done, no straining or mashing, I like some texture in this sauce.

It looks like I might buy some Roma tomatoes at our farmer’s market to make some more sauce, it is that good!