Quince Conserve

1 kg peeled and cored quince

600-800 g sugar

1 cup water

1 lemon

1 vanilla bean

100 g roasted and skinned walnuts (or whatever nuts you prefer)
 

Slice the quince. Bring water with sugar to the boil in a large saucepan, stirring frequently, add the quince and boil on low heat for 5 mins. Remove from the heat and leave standing for 12 hours. Then again bring it to the boil, cook for 5 mins on low heat and leave for 12 hours. Zest and slice the lemon. Bring the conserve to the boil, add the lemon (zest and slices), nuts and vanilla, cook for 10 mins. Pour while hot into warm sterilised jars and seal.
 

Today's good news. Thanks to my friend Lena who brought this yummy strawberries straight to my place

Sushi Rolls

  And I made sushi rolls with salmon, avocado and cucumber for dinner today.

Onigiri With Salmon

  I watched "Kamome Diner" several days ago and the movie inspired me to try to make onigiri. Well, I don't claim to be a great onigiri maker (the process is quite easy though) I just tried, but  I must admit that it tasted not so bad.

Chocolate Peanut Brownies

Chocolate peanut brownies, my mom made some time ago. Very delicous!

New Year Cookies

  I found some pictures of ginger cookies we decorated a couple of years ago for the New Year. We used white and chocolate icing and coloured sprinkles.

 

Pasta With Broccoli And Pickled Sheep Cheese

100g uncooked pasta
200g broccoli florets
100g diced pickled sheep cheese
some rocket
salt
pepper

It's an extremely easy recipe. You need to boil pasta in salted water but don't overcook it. Meanwhile fry broccoli florets for about 8-10 minutes. Then put pasta, cheese, salt and pepper into the frying pan with broccoli, add some water (if needed) and cook for a couple of minutes. Add rocket right before serving.

Grilled Salmon With Herbs And Pear And Pineapple Salad

Here's the second dish of the food project in collaboration with Sous-Chef Kirill Ryumshin.

100g filleted salmon

Chopped tarragon, coriander, parsley, dill (about 2g each)

1 tsp lime juice

White pepper

Salt

Salt and pepper the salmon, sprinkle it with lime juice and coat with herbs. Grill until ready.

For salad

½ pear

15g pineapple

2 segments grapefruit

2g chopped coriander

2g chopped peppermint

½ tsp lime juice

1 slice lemon

Cut out the pear's middle to make a cup, slice its pulp and the pineapple. Add lime juice, coriander and peppermint and mix well. Put the mixture into the pear cup, decorate with peeled grapefruit and lemon.

For sauce and decoration

½ puréed mango

15g balsamic vinegar

½ lemon

3g sugar

1 sprig of thyme

For sauce mix mango purée and vinegar.

Decorate the dish with grilled sugared lemon and thyme sprig

Tomato Soup With Crab and Lemongrass

It's a collaboration project with Kirill Ryumshin who is a Sous-chef de Cuisine. He decided to cook a kind of posh soup as a starter.

So here it is: tomato soup with crab and lemongrass

2 crab claws
1 tiger shrimp
50g salmon
30g sweet pepper
20g shallot
5g chopped parsley
100g peeled tomatoes
¼ lemongrass
½ chili pepper
1 bamboo leaf
20g butter
Black pepper
Sichuan pepper

Boil the crab claws and remove the meat. Fry the shrimp and salmon with butter sweet pepper, shallot and lemongrass. Add tomatoes and stew several minutes, add crab broth. Add spices, parsley and chili just before serving. Decorate the soup plate with the claws, bamboo leaf with crab meat on it.

About Albanian Cuisine and Eni Turkeshi

  Some time ago I made an interview with my Albanian friend Eni Turkeshi which was published in Chief magazine (I'm a photo editor of it). Eni is a visual artist and also she runs a food blog Yummania
 Eni gave us several recipes from her blog: Stuffed Peppers, Spinach Rolls and Hasure. I tried to cook hashure and then made several photos of it. And I must admit it was very delicious so many thanks to Eni for the pleasure of eating this dessert. OK, original Eni's ricipe for 4 persons:
  
300 gr special for hashure wheat
100 gr sugar (brown sugar would be ok too)
black dried grape
dried fig
gratered orange peels
hazelnuts,nuts,almonds
cinnamon,cloves
pomegranate.
   Preparation proccess: The wheat is left to boil.After it has boiled the water is changed and the wheat are put to be boiled again.Afterwards sugar,choped dried grapes and figs ,gratered orange peels, hazelnuts, nuts and almonds are added and left to be boiled under low fire.It is left until the wheat is cooked enough, yet crispy when chewed.Pour ashure on bowls and add over the cinnamon, cloves and pomegranates.
Better serve it while cold.It is much better.