20x20 cm baking pan

4 large slices

500g cottage cheese

½ sachet vanilla sugar

½ sachet baking powder

50g butter

1 yolk

3 tbsp semolina

50g raisins

+butter & flour -> baking pan

A new day, a new recipe. This was apparently brought into our family by one of my mother’s friends. The truth is that both my grandmothers and my mother used to bake this cottage cheese cake pretty often. Here’s how—

Mix the well-drained cottage cheese with the vanilla sugar and the baking powder and leave it rest in a bowl overnight.

The next day, boil on a steam bath (I have an item from Ikea which is of real help) on low-medium heat, stirring continuously. You will notice that the cottage cheese thins and then thickens (like vanilla custard – it took 10 minutes in my case). Mix in the butter, the yolk, and the semolina, stirring well.

After removing the mixture from the heat, add the raisins and bake in a buttered and floured baking pan, in the preheated oven, at 140°C, for 15 minutes.

The cake will be very moist (resembling the texture of pudding), but it is very tasty and filling! Even if you end up keeping a couple of slices in the fridge, warm them before savouring them. J

tavă 20x20 cm

4 porţii mari

500g brânză de vaci

½ plic zahăr vanilat

½ plic praf de copt

50g unt

1 gălbenuş

3 linguri griş

50g stafide

+ unt & făină pentru tapetat

O nouă zi, o nouă reţetă. O prietenă a mamei a fost cea care, se pare, a adus această reţetă în familia noastră. Adevărul este că şi la Bod (la bunici) şi la Braşov (acasă), prăjitura cu brânză de vaci se făcea des. Vă redau reţeta în continuare.

Se amestecă brânza de vaci bine scursă cu zahărul vanilat şi cu praful de copt şi se lasă la dospit peste noapte.

A doua zi, se fierbe în aburi (eu am o sită de gătit la aburi de la Ikea de ceva timp şi m-a ajutat mult) pe foc mic-mediu, amestecând mereu. Mai întâi veţi observa că se subţiază, apoi se va îngroşa (ca o cremă de vanilie – la mine a durat cam 10 minute). Atunci se adaugă untul, gălbenuşul şi grişul, amestecând bine să nu se taie.

După ce se ia de pe foc, puteţi turna stafidele în compoziţie, apoi coace la 140°C într-o tavă tapetată, în cuptorul preîncălzit, timp de 15 minute.

Prăjitura va fi foarte moale (textură asemănătoare unei budinci), însă atât de gustoasă şi hrănitoare! Vă sugerez, chiar şi dacă mai păstraţi câteva bucăţi în frigider, să le încălziţi înainte de a le devora. J

400g blueberries

400g sugar

100ml water

juice from half a lemon

I’ve told you before: this year – this summer, actually–, I’ve had a love story with blueberries. Marcel bought the last blueberries at the market a while ago; I used them for Pavlova and crema catalana, but I still had 400g left. Even if they were wild, the blueberries kept well in the fridge until I found a use for them.

An old recipe of my Mum helped.

It goes like this—

Clean and wash the blueberries well.

In a bowl, alternate blueberry layers and sugar layers and add the water.

[You can now leave the bowl in the fridge for 7-8 hours.]

As a fast version, let it immediately simmer, on low heat, and squeeze the lemon.

Remove the foam. When the texture is syrupy, remove the bowl from the stove (it took 45 minutes in our case).

Pour the jam into jars after it cools. We got 2 small jars (250ml) and a half.

Place the jars in a cool environment.

Our blueberry jam turned out delicious!...

...and it goes great with papanaşi (I tested it)! :P

400g afine 

400g zahăr

100ml apă

sucul de la o jumătate de lămâie

V-am mai spus, anul acesta – vara aceasta, mai bine zis – am trăit o poveste de dragoste cu afinele. Ultimele mi le-a luat Marcel din piaţă acum ceva timp, le-am mai folosit eu la Pavlova, la crema catalana, însă au mai rămas 400g. Chiar dacă erau de pădure, s-au păstrat bine în frigider şi le-a venit şi lor rândul.

Mai ales că am găsit o reţetă mai veche a mamei, care ne-a ajutat.

Ea zice aşa—

Curăţaţi şi spălaţi bine afinele.

Aşezaţi-le într-un vas în straturi alternative cu zahăr, adăugaţi apa.

[Puteţi lăsa vasul la rece 7-8 ore.]

Ca variantă rapidă, puneţi la fiert imediat, la foc mic, apoi stoarceţi lămâia.

Îndepărtaţi spuma formată şi, când siropul este legat, luaţi vasul de pe foc (la noi a durat 45 minute).

Puneţi dulceaţa în borcane când s-a răcit. Nouă ne-au ieşit 2 borcane mici (250ml) şi jumătate.

Păstraţi borcanele la rece.

Aşa de bună a ieşit!...

Merge de minune cu papanaşii de casă (pe testate)! :P

My weeks are tough. I work so much that I cannot stick to my daily chores (the recipe should have been published yesterday). To top it all, today’s my name day (which nobody knows about), but I made a cake and a pizza, to keep things festive. J 

And I recall Iran. I miss Iran, I miss my friends there, I miss the taste of this mirza ghasemi... I miss wandering around – I have travelled through Romania this year, but I wish to do it worldwide, without restrictions. I wish to be able to hug anybody without asking if he(she) allows me to.

Each trip to Iran had a certain warmth about it. I haven’t found this warmth anywhere else but at home.

This dish from northern Iran (around the Caspian Sea) saved me on many days, while I was trying to navigate through the labyrinth of non-vegetarian lunches and dinners.

I liked it so much the first time that I tried it (I was in Masuleh) that I congratulated the chef and I asked for an extra portion. Our waiter told us how to prepare it and I wrote down the recipe knowing that I’d surely use it someday.

Mirza ghasemi is not hard at all to make.

For 4 portions, you’ll need

4 eggplants

3-4 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes

(Marcel insisted to add 1 onion to the mix)

1 large egg

salt

+olive oil for frying

Smoke the eggplants. Let them cool and clean them.

Start frying the garlic (cleaned and cut into pieces), then add the tomatoes (cut into pieces) and the thinly-cut onion (and fry everything on medium heat for about 5 minutes). Add the cut eggplants and a pinch of salt (and fry for 5 minutes more).

When the ingredients are well done, break the egg and mix well.

Serve warm.

This is an appetizer, but I also served it with rice or fries. You could also spread it on a slice of bread or a flatbread.

The flavour is fantastic! At least from a culinary perspective, we do travel.

My last memory connected to mirza ghasemi is its cooking by a dear friend met on Qeshm Island – he was from the north, I was craving mirza, he knew that I wasn’t going to find it anywhere, so he cooked it... and Marcel happily helped him. 

P.S. The eggplants were from a close friend of mine. J