Red onion marmalade (confit d'onions)

I didn't notice how this month passed so full it was on everything and especially on cooking. We kept receiving guests and cooking for them, visiting friends and cooking for them, giving cooking classes and doing guess what there... While packing after one of those classes we found a bowl of sliced red onions left uncooked for some reason. Quite a large bowl of crisp red onions, which are now in season. That's how the time came for me to try making French onion marmalade. And I'm so glad I did.

Baked camembert with thyme and lingonberry jam

This is a stunning guilty pleasure. Not only it tastes as good as classic fondue. It also is three times easier to make. You unwrap a wheel of camembert cheese and stick it into the oven. Once you take it out all you need to do is deep your slice of baguette in. But if you are feeling more sophisticated than that, you add some sweet and sour jam, some thyme or rosemary and the whole thing gets romantic.

Simple and amazing 30 minute jam

It looks like after many years I am moving to a different way of making jam. I used to prefer the long way, which takes over a day and produces the classic varenie. However once I had a kilo of leftover apricots I didn't want to bother with, so I tried this simple 30 minute jam. Like varenie, that jam  kept intense apricot flavor and aroma very well, while the texture was like jelly, marmalade and thick syrup at the same time, so it would almost hold its shape. In one week all I made was gone and since then I'm addicted.

Babbo's eggs (poached in tomato sauce)

I love poached eggs overall, but this particular Italian way of making and serving them was a great finding for me. I learned it in London from Katie Caldesi and since then I keep making it as a breakfast, appetizer, light lunch or dinner. Somehow the tomato sauce complements the egg really well and brings is up to a balanced meal. Moreover, poaching an egg in tomato sauce doesn't involve any stress associated with poaching eggs in water.

Seafood paella

I have serious emotional attachment to seafood paella since I first tried it in Barcelona. I had it many times in restaurants before I finally visited a Catalan cooking school. That was double luck: the paella we made at school was even better than those really good ones I tried before. Simultaneously I figured out how to make it. The recipe performed really well both at our family kitchen and at our Moscow cooking classes for half a year and it feels like a good time to share it.

Home made strawberry jam (varenie)

For the second week already Moscow markets are full of strawberries. These are the first summer strawberries from Krasnodar region. Farmers are saying that this year they had record +35C temperatures in May and the strawberries came very early. They smell of summer and of my childhood. I just finished making the first portion (around 4 kg) of jam (varenie) and it feels like it is just the beginning.

Very British: pearl barley and cheddar risotto

This dish might truly surprise you. I never thought that one could get such a bursting flavor and such a lovely texture from pearl barley. The idea came from a British cooking class I took in London couple of weeks ago. I'm saying "risotto" here to refer to the technology of cooking a grain, which makes it creamy, and I don't mean to heart anyone. Anyhow my risotto loving family said this one totally counts.

Thai green curry from scratch

While I was living in Singapore and Thailand my favorite thai food was always green curry, not tom yam or phad thai. There were whole weeks when I kept eating it day after day, craving for it, hunting and traveling for it. The best green curry I had in Bangkok - at a little thai restaurant across the street from Holiday Inn. We came there by chance, a happy one (I know now) because we missed our flight from Cambodia to Singapore.

Proper French onion soup

I always loved the French onion soup and for some reason couple of day ago I got obsessed with making it myself. I mean that full blown version where you start from making brown stock (which cooks for 5 hours), then you caramelize onions for 40 minutes etc. There was something so fascinating about this whole process of making it slowly and properly. The result tasted better to me that what I got to try in restaurants so far. I must have got really biased during those 5 hours.

Sticky toffee pudding

Couple of weeks ago I entered a phase of heavy craving for dates. It's hard to explain, but I just can't help eating them. Some days - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Weird, but those dates which look the most messy and jammed, as if a bear stepped on them, seem to be the tastiest. Anyhow, that day I woke up determined to make a proper sticky toffee pudding - soft and moist with gooey butterscotch sauce and melting ice-cream on top. Another idea was to give a class at Pinch about it, it didn't work. But the pudding itself! I can't find words strong enough to describe its beauty.

Homemade Italian dinner with Leo and Natalia: pasta fagioli, spinach lasagna and peperonata

Leo is an Australian, living in Moscow for several years. We've been friends for a while but only recently I found that he loves cooking. I'm still wondering how I deserved such a present, but last week Leo and his lovely wife Natalia invited me for a home made dinner. It turned out that Leo's grandmother was Italian from Naples region and she taught him many Italian recipes.

Spanish hot chocolate

Our first meeting in Pinch of Cinnamon club was about making churros with Spanish hot chocolate and I was just amazed how good a topic these two were for a short and friendly cooking class. All this chocolate melting, piping out pastry, deep frying and then (very important!) eating is just a lovely little feast. So if you are in search for interactive cooking ideas, consider this one.

I already explained making churros in detail, so now is the turn of Spanish hot chocolate. While churros do take some time to make, the chocolate can hardly take more than 15 minutes. Unlike the French and Italian versions of this drink, Spanish chocolate in normally thickened a little by corn starch. So first you make something like milk kissel and then you add chopped chocolate and mix it in as it melts.

Spanish hot chocolate (vegan version possible)

serves 6

1 liter of milk (substitute for soya milk to make the vegan version)
2-4 table spoons corn starch (depending on how thick you prefer the chocolate)
3 table spoons sugar (or to your taste)
200 g bitter sweet chocolate, 70-75% coco (chopped)

In a small bowl combine the corn starch with 50 ml of cold milk. Pour the rest of the milk into a medium pan, add the sugar and bring to the boil. Take off the heat, pour in the corn starch while whisking. Return to low heat and bring to boil. The milk should thicken a little.

Take off the heat and add the chocolate. Wait for 30 seconds (this will let the chocolate melt), then whisk together till you get a smooth glossy chocolate.

Serve the chocolate hot or warm. To me it is most convenient to eat (with a teaspoon) rather then drink. It is a perfect pair for churros.

Related:

Spanish churros
A magic cup of cinnamon hot chocolate

Barcelona food: a personal guide

Escribà pastry shop in Barcelona

Dinner at EspaiSucre dessert restaurant (Barcelona)

A walk around La Boqueria Barcelona market

Barcelona Catalan cooking class at Cook&Taste

Cañete Barcelona tapas bar

Gelonch New Catalan restaurant in Barcelona

More Gourmet travel guides

Quince marmalade

That's the second autumn when my mom made quince marmalade. Last year the stocks lasted till late winter. It suddenly became so deeply imbedded in the family eating that we can't imagine our mornings without it any more. Sometimes we have it on toasted bread with fresh cheese, other times - on its own with tea. When I started inquiring it turned out that this marmalade comes from hispanic cooking and the particular recipe - from an amazing mama-fenix - Russian food blogger living in Barcelona.

Cooking buckwheat

Buckwheat is one of my favorite grains and something I closely associate with home and Russia. It has a lot of character. When cooked properly it is absolutely delicious on its own. No adds or toppings are necessary. In this sense it is similar to rice. The right way to cook it is nothing complicated, but it really makes a difference.

Home made apricot jam (varenie)

Apricot jam (varenie) is something we make at home every summer since I remember myself. I am a crazy apricot lover always waiting for the season to start after the long winter. However as soon as August is over apricots are gone again. The apricot jam is an attempt to keep them with me till the next summer and I must say it works. With its mind blowing aroma and deep flavor it's like little magic in a jar.

Pasta with home made pesto

I was shopping in Bahetle today and while searching for spinach I found a pack with fresh basil. It was just impossible to tear my nose from these fragrant leaves, so the pack came with me. My new food processor got delivered just today and that was a brilliant chance to see it in action. I was going to make fresh pesto.

The perfect vanilla sauce

If I had to pick one favorite dessert sauce it would definitely be creme anglaise. With its intense vanilla flavor, its thin and light structure it is just a perfect complement to many of my favorite sweets, especially fruit cakes and crumbles, chocolate fondant and muffins. I like it so much that it became my habit to make it.