Pascha (Russian Easter cheesecake)

This coming Sunday everybody in Moscow is going to celebrate Easter. I was never religious, but Easter for me is a good old family tradition. And above all it's about food. I do not go into egg decorating affair, which is popular around here, but I have to have kulichi and pascha. Kulichi are special yeast fruit cakes and pascha is a kind of dense cold cheesecake. Together they produce a wonderful festive breakfast. Pascha tastes very fresh and complements the warm soft cake as a delicious spread. I do not bake my own kulichi every year, but pascha I always make myself. I do think it deserves to be made more often than once a year. It only takes half an hour but tastes really special.

Turkish baked halva (sicak helva)

Before I came to Istanbul I heard about sicak helva - a kind of custard made of crushed tahini halva mixed with cream and baked. The dessert is traditionally eaten after a fish main as it removes fish aftertaste completely. The idea really resonated with me, so the evening we did visit a fish restaurant I was more concerned about my dessert than about my fish main. I ended up loving it and cooking it at home. It turned out to be very practical in Moscow, as tahini halva is very common around here.

Baklava

It seems that I found something strong enough to heal a broken heart, which is almost magic. I only made baklava a couple of times and I'm not going to pretend I know everything about it. There are people who learn to make baklava throughout their lives and hopefully I'll once have good talk with one of them. But right now I can say for sure that you can make it very well from the very first attempt and enjoy both the making and the eating just extremely.

Carrot halwa

Carrot halwa was the first Indian dessert I got to try. Since then I tried many more, but it remained my favorite (not sure whether it is a coincidence). It is something comforting, warm and sweet. Something rich and mild. Something I'd never expect from the carrot. Like in English carrot cake it works in some magical way here.

Moroccan mint tea and stuffed dates

I absolutely adore Moroccan mint tea. After a tagine dinner there is nothing better than this hot and aromatic lightly sweetened drink. You pour it (in an ideal world from a silver pot into colored glasses) and sip it throughout the evening. It relaxes you and makes you smile. Moroccan meal doesn't really need a substantial dessert to follow it. However once I tried these dates stuffed with pistachio marzipan along the mint tea and it turned out that these two really work magically together.

Chocolate and cherry birthday trifle

I love the idea of English trifle. It is a perfect stress free dessert, where you layer moistened cake slices with fruits, jam, custard and cream, choosing all the combinations as your mood suggests. You let it sit in the fridge for a bit and dive in. It's perfect if you are feeding many people as you can easily make a lot of it. And if you assemble it in a glass serving bowl you get double pleasure.

Spanish churros

Have I said already how much I love churros with hot chocolate? I first tried them in Barcelona at a Christmas fair. I was standing there on the snowy Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes holding a paper cone of long hot and crispy sugary doughnuts in one hand and a plastic cup of thick dark majic in the other hand... and had no spare hand whatsoever.

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.

True Australian Pavlova

Couple of weeks ago I got really lucky on LiveJornal. An Australian working in a pastry kitchen shared her Pavlova recipe with me. Since then I was eager to try it and finally did.

Italian spicy custard

I came across this dessert when I worked in a Moscow Gastronom cooking studio. For the Italian class the trainer proposed to make two varieties of panna cotta. The first one was a classical jellied sweet cream served with fruits and fruit sauce. The second turned out to be a delicious spicy Italian custard.

Delicious sabayon

When I'm depressed I often start hard core baking. That's exactly why a couple of days ago I found myself in front of my favorite confectionary book. I was looking for something that would keep me busy for at least half a day. Le Cordon Bleu Dessert Techniques is a perfect source of ideas for such an occasion.

Pull me up (all time tiramisu)

Tiramisu is my second contribution the Valentine's day celebration. The first was Valentine's sparkling strawberry cocktail I published yesterday. I'm making tiramisu like in those good old times when I was working in a Moscow cooking school organized by Gastronom magazine. I wish once I went back to this job.