miercuri, 16 noiembrie 2011

grape leaf rolls (Romanian Sarmale)

Ingredients:
- 40 pickled grape leafs;
- 1/2 kg hashed  pork meat;
- 6 onions;
- one big cup of rice (i use basmati);
- salt, thyme, sweet paprika, pepper;
- tomatoes sauce (3 - 5 spoons);
- one dried dill stick;
- one litre of bortsch - probably it`s hard to find this out of East Europe or Russia, so you can try to use one lemon juice mixed with water.

First, the  onion will me minced and fried in a bit of olive or sunflower oil. When the onion is almost done you  must add salt, thyme (i like it with a lot of thyme), one tea spoon of sweet paprika and a bit of water. Let it to fry another 5 minutes. Then add the cup of rice, mix it well with the fried onion. At the end add the tomatoes sauce, simmer all  another 2 minutes and it`s done.



Meanwhile the grape leafs must be prepared, so let them a couple of minutes in cold water.




After the onion and rice mix gets colder it must be put over the hashed pork meat and all must be mix very well together.


Get a grape leaf, put some of the composition in the middle of it and roll it.


After the rolls are done they must be put in a pot. On the bottom of the pot put a couple of grape leafs, then the dried dill stick and after that the rolls. Mix the bortsch (or the lemon juice and water) with 2 spoons of tomatoes sauce and a bit of salt and pour it on the rolls just to cover them. Leave it to simmer 1 and a half hour.

Brownie

I found this recipe on another blog, it was for slow cooker but i used the oven and it was just yummy.

Ingredients:
- 4 eggs;
- one cup sugar;
- half cup cocoa;
- half cup melted butter;
- one package chocolate pudding;
- one cup flour;
- half cup of milk;
- 200 gr greek yoghurt or sour cream;

       We need a mixer. The mixer will be on at the medium speed all the time, while we`ll add gradually all the ingredients in the mixer`s bowl.
        So, first we will put the eggs, mix them 5 minutes, then gradually we add the cup of sugar. We mix the sugar 5 to 10 minutes until the sugar will be dissolved. Then we add the cocoa, the chocolate pudding, the yoghurt (or sour cream), the melted butter, the milk and in the end, after all those ingredients will be well mixed, we`ll add, gradually, the flour.
        We let the mixer on another 5 to 10 minutes so the flour will be well incorporated.
         After it`s done we  pour it in a crock pot and bake it in the oven around 30 minutes - 45 minutes (depending what kind of oven do you have).