How to cook basic polenta or Romanian mamaliga, creamy or sturdy. I suppose most of you have at least heard of polenta, but to tell you the truth, I know lots of people who actually never tasted polenta. If you happen to have a Romanian or Italian friend, I am pretty sure you got to taste mamaliga or polenta at least at their house, if not, well, it is time you do. MAMALIGA OR POLENTA RECIPE What is polenta? Polenta is a dish made from coarsely ground cornmeal. Some water and some salt, a little bit of cooking and you're done. You have an excellent, healthy and delicious meal. You can have mamaliga or polenta as a side dish for other dishes with sauce or it can be a meal in itself with some cheese and yogurt/creme fraiche/ sour cream on the side. And the possibilities of making a main dish using polenta are endless. You can make casseroles, you can grill it, you can bake it, you can make cake, you can make polenta chips and so on. It goes well with any kind of meat, any kind of vegetable or dairy product. ...
Turkey bone broth made from the leftover turkey carcass or other bones. This healthy and easy to make bone broth makes the basis for countless delicious soups, sauces, and gravies. HOW TO MAKE BONE BROTH? Turkey bone broth is the kind of stock I make most of the time. I am able to buy turkey at a farmer in the village, so we really eat a lot of turkeys. But what to do with the bones, it would be a shame to throw them all away? The simplest answer is to make turkey stock or, even better, turkey bone broth. What is bone broth? Bone broth is made by slowly cooking the bones, bits of meat, and connective tissues of animals for a long time. It can be made from turkey bones, chicken, beef, pork, lamb or game. I often use the bones of our Christmas ducks or geese. Bone broth versus stock There is a little bit of confusion between stock and broth, I don't always use the terms accordingly myself. Broths are normally made by boiling pieces of meat, while stocks are made by simmering the bones. I prefer making stocks as they are...
Learn how to make semolina dumplings for the famous Romanian chicken soup with semolina dumplings or supa de galusti. How to make semolina dumplings? Post three in the Broths and Stocks Series is the chicken stock, probably the most popular stock there is. It is definitely my favorite stock, nothing can ever be so good and comforting as a good chicken soup made with homemade chicken stock. And the best things you can eat with your chicken stock are the Romanian semolina dumplings. Everyone, whoever had anything to do with Romania, must know the famous Supa de galusti. I can imagine it to be the most commonly cooked dish everywhere in Romania, every child grew up eating this on a regular basis. A really simple and good chicken stock, a few carrots, and the semolina dumplings, it doesn't get any better when it comes to soup. Few and cheap ingredients and lots and lots of flavor and goodness. One of those chicken soups for the soul, I would say, definitely for any Romanian soul on this planet. How to make chicken stock from scratch The way I make this chicken stock is very similar to the...
The second post in this broths and stocks series is a light beef broth made with beef meat and bones and lots of vegetables. As I mentioned in “Roasted Vegetables Broth”, the first post of this series, a broth is the liquid resulting after simmering vegetables and some meat. The main differences between a broth and a stock is the use of meaty bones in the first case and less meaty bones in the second and the time of cooking. This beef broth was cooked for only two hours. The result is a very light, delicate broth, perfectly suited for a nice, clear soup with some other ingredients added to the final product to make it more filling. I like to add lots of vegetables when making broths, not only the typical carrots, celeriac and onions, but also leeks, tomatoes, parsley roots, bell peppers and garlic. I think the more you use, the tastier the soup. I often keep the green parts of green onions or scallions (that people usually discard), wash them well and throw them in the soup. Broccoli or cauliflower stems are also a great idea, if you have any leftovers. And as most of the vegetables...
February! Already! And a new begin here at Where Is My Spoon. Why? I needed a new idea, something to renew my energy and motivation, something to challenge me more in the kitchen, to give me the possibility of learning new things on a more regular basis and to be able to share them as well. Why now? Well, I have been thinking about the need of bringing something new to my blog for a while now, but didn't really know what. There were many things, ideas going in and out of my mind, some things about which I spent an hour thinking and then again things that occupied my mind for weeks at a time. I felt the need of finding a new direction, a new focus or better said A FOCUS, I often felt that my blog was a bit about this and a bit about that and I wanted to give it a bit more structure, not only for the readers but also for me. It was not always easy for me to pick a recipe I want to publish, because I wasn't always sure what fits at what moment and so on. What? I have decided...
Perfectly oven roasted chicken thighs, a basic recipe for baking chicken thighs in the oven. OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS I think you would agree with me that chicken thighs or drumsticks or chicken in general is something that most children like. Soft, tender meat, not much fat, crispy skin when everything goes well, some potatoes and veggies on the side and my children couldn't be happier. Me too, actually, I love chicken as well (probably the main reason why I could never go vegetarian, although we don't eat a lot of meat generally). Chicken is comfort food for me, something that reminds me of long gone school days, when my grandmother would still work full-time. I used to come home from school at about midday, I would open the door and smell the wonderful chicken my grandmother had cooked for me before she had left for work. I only had to heat it up a bit (although I ate it lukewarm or cold quite often) and ate it with bread and sliced tomatoes most of the time. There was no better after school meal for me during those times... And it is pretty much the same with...
How to preserve cherries - the easiest way of preserving cherries, either sweet or sour, in a low sugar way: only 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar (to taste) per jar. We have a lot of cherries this year. In comparison to last year when we didn't have any. Two years ago we had even more than now, but I think the three years before that was also bad, either nothing growing, worms inside, or birds eating them all. Fast forward to July 2018. We never had so many cherries as we have this year. I've made 17 large jars of preserved cherries, made cherry butter, countless cakes, and desserts and the tree is still heavy. People normally preserve sour cherries this way, but I have been preserving my sweet ones like this for years now. But just that you know, sour cherries can be preserved exactly the same way, you might want to add an extra tablespoon sugar in that case, but it is not mandatory. The canning is easy and quick, the only thing a bit annoying about it is – again- pitting the cherries. I bought this cheap cherry stoner a few years ago and I've never regretted...
How to roast peanuts and make peanut butter. An easy and reliable method for the best roasted peanuts and creamy or chunky peanut butter. How to roast peanuts Peanut butter is a wonderful thing. So, why not learn how to roast peanuts in the oven and make peanut butter at home? It is so much better, cheaper and healthier than any jar you could possibly buy. Peanut butter is something I've discovered as an adult, I didn't grow up with it, but ever since making it for the first time, I almost always have a jar of it in the fridge. The first time I had it was while I was a student still living in Romania and had only known peanut butter by name, from all the American movies and series in TV. I used to know an American girl working in Romania and she had some which she had brought from home. I was curious and I tasted a teaspoon of it and found it absolutely disgusting. So bad that I refused to taste it again for more than 10 years. It was sickeningly sweet and weird and of a strange, unknown consistency. Then as I started reading...
