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Mekici 

~ Radina Stefanova ~ Leave a comment


Mekici (мекици, mekitsi) is traditional Bulgarian breakfast. The best description is deep fried dough. It’s very similar to the doughnuts, but less sweet and even a bit sour as it is made with yeast. 

Mekici are traditionally served generously coated with icing sugar and accompanied by jams, white cheese and even as a substitute for bread. 

My variation guarantee you the traditional taste, but is super easy to make. I used a ziplock plastic bag for the rising of the starter and it turned the best mekici I ever made. 

Ingredients:

For the starter

– 2 cups warm water

– 11 g dry yeast 

– 1 tsp sugar

– 1/2 tsp salt

– 1 cup all purpose flour 

For the dough 

– your starter 🔝

– 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 

– 1/4 oil 

– extra oil for frying 

– icing sugar to serve

Preparation:

Start by making your starter. Mix the ingredients together and zip the bag. Let it double in size. It took mine around 15 minutes. You know it’s ready when big bubbles appear. Transfer to a big bowl and add the rest of the flour. Start gently mix and neat with your hands. When is nearly into shape add oil so you can easily form elastic, yet firm dough. In a small pan add about 1 finger oil and heat on low. Take small pieces of dough and flatten with hands. Fry each side until golden (1-2 minutes). Serve with icing sugar. 

One pot teriyaki chicken 

~ Radina Stefanova ~ Leave a comment


I love a good teriyaki recipe. To me this is a very hearty, yet super flavorful meal. It doesn’t really require too many ingredients or techniques, so give it a go. 

Ingredients 

500 g chicken breast thinly sliced into chunks 

1 cup low sodium soy sauce 

1/2 cup honey

1 big onion chopped into big chunks 

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/3 cup white vinegar 

2x thumb size ginger cut into chunks 

1 chopped garlic clove

1 tsp black pepper 

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Handful chopped spring onion 

Handful chopped coriander 

1 tbsp corn starch 

Preparation 

Mix all the ingredients (without spring onion, coriander and corn starch), add 3 cups water and cook on medium heat for 40-50 minutes or until the water is almost gone. Taste and add more soy sauce if needed. Mix 1/3 cup water with the corn starch and pour into the teriyaki to thicken the sauce. Serve topped with coriander and spring onion. 

Spicy chicken tacos with mango and coriander salsa 

~ Radina Stefanova ~ Leave a comment

This isn’t your traditional tacos recipe. There is no cheese, no sauce, no peppers. But there is spicy chicken breast with flavorful mango salsa. It’s so bright it reminds me of the beach and sour margaritas. 

Ingredients: 

  • 1 pound chicken breast 
  • 1 tsp turmeric 
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes 
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika 
  • 1 tsp cumin 
  • Salt and pepper         

For the mango salsa:

  • 1 big ripe mango
  • Handful spring onions 
  • 1 lime
  • Handful of coriander 

Preparation:

  • Cut the chicken into cubes. Add the spices and oil. Roast for 20 mins at 220 degrees. 
  • Chop the salsa ingredients and season with lime juice. 
  • Warm the tortilla bread for couple of minutes in the oven. 
  • Serve the bread with chicken and top with salsa. 

Photogenic avocado on toast

~ Radina Stefanova ~ Leave a comment

There are probably only few things  in life more photogenic than avocado… Actually not! In the world of food blogging, avocado is a super star. It`s healthy, delicious, great eating raw and super photogenic. In fact so many people admire the avocado that they recently opened a whole restaurant serving only avocado recipes. So here it is my post for a healthy breakfast, that will also look amazing on your instagram feed.

Ingredients for one:

  • 1 slice of sour dough bread
  • half avocado,or one avocado if you are greedy like me
  • few slices tomatoes
  • alfalafa
  • toasted sunflower seeds

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Cornish pasty with leftover Christmas turkey

~ Radina Stefanova ~ 4 Comments

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Happy Christmas to all! I hope you had an amazing time with your love ones.

Christmas in our house was truly great. On 24th we celebrated with traditional Bulgarian dinner, and on 25th we had traditional British food. I do this for second year now and it works great for our family and guests.

For the traditional British dinner I cooked bacon wrapped turkey, sausage and cranberries stuffing, loads of roasted veggies and of course Christmas pudding. Since the bird was almost 6 kg we end up with great amount of turkey meat on the next morning. Tom came up with the idea of using it for traditional Cornwall pastry-know as Cornish pasty. The dish itself was born in the 15-16 century, but its popularity grows in 18th century when the miners and farmers wives would prepare this easy to carry and store meal stuffed with Sunday roast dinner leftovers. The shape and size was perfect to keep them full through the entire day at work.

The Cornish pasty dough is flaky and buttery puff pastry, but for mine I quickly made this simple dough as I needed a simple solution on a boxing day. For the filling I used finally chopped leftovers, cranberry sauce and bread sauce.

Ingredients (for three big pasties)

For the dough:

  • 500g white self raising flour
  • 200ml warm water
  • 2 tbs dry yeast
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 5 tbsp oil

For the filling I used the leftovers of:

  • roasted turkey
  • swedes
  • parsnips
  • potatoes
  • stuffing
  • cranberry sauce
  • bread sauce
  • milk for brushing the pasty

Preparation:

  1. Mix the water with yeas and sugar and set aside for 10 minutes
  2. Add to the flour
  3. Add salt and oil and form a nice soft dough
  4. Let it rest for 30-40 minutes or until double its size
  5. Chop the leftovers into tiny bits
  6. Divide the dough into three parts
  7. Roll each part into thin circle
  8. In one of the sides add the leftovers with some cranberry and bread sauce
  9. Close the dough in a crescent  shape and brush with milk
  10. Bake for 30 mins on 220 degrees.

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Homemade pumpkin latte

~ Radina Stefanova ~ Leave a comment

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Preparing this festive drink takes less time than you think. It is way more flavorful from the the one in Starbucks and of course will save you loads of $$$. In my recipe I used pumpkin pure from the leftovers of one pie, but you can easily substitute it with canned pumpkin.  Try it today and add as much as whipped cream you want- Christmas is near anyway!

Ingredients: (per cup)

  • 2 tbsp pumpkin pure
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp caramel syrup
  • 1 shot espresso
  • 150 ml condensed milk/ or regular milk
  • 3-4 spoons of whipped cream

Preparation:

  1. Stir the pumpkin and cinnamon in your favorite mug
  2. Add the sugar, caramel and coffee
  3. Finish by adding the milk and top with cream

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Crepes Suzette

~ Radina Stefanova ~ 3 Comments

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What a better way to return to your blog after months of absence! Since my last post from August my life changed beyond believe! Tom set a beautiful ring on my finger and we announced my pregnancy! Our little girl is on her way and we are so excited to welcome her on April next year.

During the last months I had to get used to with living  life totally different of what I know. All the changes of my body and well known morning sickness really stop me from cooking and blogging. The biggest craving was, and still is -gummy bears and fresh watermelon slices, and there isn`t much to blog about it 🙂 But being 6 months pregnant now, I am finally ready to return with some delicious recipes.

My come back recipe are these crepes Suzette! Thin as a lace and soaked in delicious orange sauce, they can give great start of your morning. The preparation might take some time, but the result will surprise you and your loved ones. While Tom was dusting our new garden I managed to make everything ready and have few snaps before we can dig in. It took me longer than I expected, but waking up at 7am definitely did the job, so we had enough time to have the garden clean, cats entertained and the breakfast photographed and eaten.

For the recipe I did my search here and there in Internet. But again I end up changing everything as per my liking and still keeping the original recipe and taste. Try this crepes next weekend and let me know how did they go.

Ingredients: (for 10-12 crepes)

  • 300 g white flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 500-600 ml milk (it depends how big the eggs are)
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 1 tbs oil

For the orange sauce:

  • 200 ml fresh orange juice (I used 2 oranges)
  • 50 ml fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp orange zest
  • 1 tbsp lemon zest
  • 150 g butter
  • 100 g sugar
  • 1 tbsp Grand Marnier
  • 1 tbsp Cognac

Preparation:

  1. Start with mixing well the ingredients for the crepes.
  2. Preheat your pan and oil it using a paper tissue
  3. Bake each crepe for 15-20 seconds on each side.
  4. Fold each crepe as shown on the photos
  5. For the sauce start with melting the butter and sugar together
  6. Once doubled its size add the zest and juice and stir well for 3-4 minutes
  7. Add the alcohol and stir for another 2 minutes on low heat
  8. Dip each crepe into the sauce and arrange into a serving plate.
  9. Finish the crepes by dusting with icing sugar before serving

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