Club Sandwiches

Imagine perfect sunny sunday. Your friends are coming over. Perfect easy snack for that type of days is Club Sandwich. Here is my favorite:

Ingredients:

Bread for toasting (3p)
Sour cream

Tomato Sliced in Rings
Turkey breast (2 slices)
Emmentaler cheese (2 slices)
Preparing:

Take first piece of bread and spread some sour cream on it. Place one slice of emmentaler cheese on it, then one slice of turkey breast and one tomato ring. Spread some sour cream on top of second piece of bread and place it on top. Sour cream side up.Put slice of turkey breast on, then tomato and slice of emmentaler. Last piece of bread goes on top. Make sure to follow the correct order. 

Put your sandwich in the preheated grill toaster for a minute.

Serving

Cut sandwich diagonally in four pieces so it look like triangle piece of cake. Place it on the plate with some lettuce and let the party begins:)

Serbian Burger

Always when you want to buy mincemeat, select piece of fresh meet that you like and ask butcher to grind it for you. Every butcher will do it for you. That way you will know exactly what are you eating in your burger. I usually use beef. And here is my healthy burger for two person:
Ingredients:
Beef Mincemeat 300g
Egg
Onion (Chopped)
Bread Crumbs
Tomato
Kajmak (Check the ingredient section for explanation)
Somun (Village bun)
Preparing:
Put mince in the bowl, add an egg, chopped onion, tbsp of bread crumbs and season it with salt and pepper. Mix everything well by your hands. If mixture is two moist add some more bread crumbs. Mixture should not be too dry or too wet. Split it in half and make two burgers of it using your hands. Heat the grilling pan. It is very important that your pan is warm when placing burgers in. Don't pour olive oil in the grilling pan this time oil the burgers thinly. It is very important that your pan is warm when placing burgers in. Grill your burgers on each side for couple of minutes.
Serving:
Spread kajmak in the buns, place your burgers in the burger village bun spread some onto burgers too and place tomato ring on top. Steam some young potatoes for couple of minutes, strain it, place it in the oven with chopped (cumin, salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic), spread some olive oil and bake it for 20 minutes at 200C and serve it on a plate with burger. If you like place some green onions and enjoy on Serbian way :)

Caesar Salad

My recipe is developed from the original, bit with slight changes. I adjusted it to my own taste. Here is my version of it:

Ingredients:

Chicken breast (Grilled) 200g
3 Slices of Bread
Garlic
Lettuce
Egg
Sour Cream
Lemon
Mustard
Dill (Chopped)

Parmesan
Olive Oil
Preparing:
Chicken
First take chicken, season it with salt and pepper and grill it in the grilling pan. After grill, leave it to rest on the cutting board.
Croutons 
Chop the garlic. Cut bread into small 1cm cubes. Heat the pan. Olive oil in the pan for couple of seconds. Put garlic in, then bread cubes. Stir it quickly and season with salt and pepper. After few minutes when it gets golden brown color, take it of the heat place it in the plate to cool down.
Dressing
Take bawl, break an egg, squeeze some lemon juice in and whisk it. When you make it creamy start adding some olive oil slowly, while still whisking. Add two tablespoon of sour cream, one tablespoon of mustard and season it with salt, pepper and chopped dill. Stir it a bit.
Wash the lettuce, chop it by your hands and place it in the large bawl. Pour Dressing in. Slice chicken and add it in. Add Croutons. Leave some croutons and few slices of chicken a side for the decoration. Mix the salad slightly, and finish with shredded parmesan cheese.
Serving:

Serve it fresh!!

Srki's Shumadia style beef steak

Ingredients:
Beef steak 250g
Kajmak 50g (check the ingredients section)
Mushrooms (Heads 5p)
Young Potato 200g
Garlic
Rosemary
Olive Oil
Green Beans 50g
Honey
Walnuts
Lemon
Butter
Preparing:
Cut potato into medium size chunks and put into boiling water. Warm up the pan for meat well. Chop the rosemary with salt and pepper and season the cutting board (spread it all over the cutting board). Give your beef steak a good massage with olive oil, then roll it on the board so all the seasoning stick to it. Pour some olive oil into the pan and place the beef steak in. Turn it over couple of times immediately. That will prevent loosing shape of your meet. Turn it over for couple of times during cooking to make it brown on the out side and pink and soft from inside. Check the beef cooking trick in video section for recognizing if you steak is rear, medium rear, medium well or well done. While cooking beef place some mushroom heads in the same pad and cook them on both sides. Meanwhile your potato should be cooked. Check it by stubbing it with the knife, strain it and leave it a side so all the steam evaporates from it. That will make it soft on the in side.  Warm up the other pan pour olive oil in, place potatoes in with some lot of peeled garlic, rosemary, lemon crust, some butter and season with salt and pepper. Fry it and stir from time to time to get golden brown color.
When the beef steak is done, place it on the plate, cover it with allow foil to rest. After a while slice it onto 1cm tick slices. Meanwhile blanch green beans, pour table spoon of honey on it, some olive oil, season with salt and pepper, squeeze some lemon and mix it with smashed walnuts and salad is done. Fill mushroom cups with kajmak and decorate it with some parsley.
Serving: Spread one layer of kajmak onto the plate and place beef steak slices on top of it. Mix one tablespoon of kajmak with all the juices that remain from the meat and pour it on top of beef slices. Place green beans salad and potatoes a side. And enjoy Srkijev sumadijski biftek :)

24kitchen contest

Hello every one, I am very glad to inform you that I was on the 24kitchens contest at 19/05/2012. I was honored to prepare my recipe called Srkijev Sumadijski Biftek (Srki's Shumadijan style Beef Steak) in front of one of the most famous chefs in the world Rudolph van Veen. This recipe made it at the top 5 recipes out of 2500 and made me very proud :)
Here are some photos to share with you, recipe is coming later on, you should definitely try it!

Lasagna

Ingredients:

Beef mince 300g

Onion 1p (medium size)

Garlic 1p

Carrot 1p (medium size)

Tomato Juice 100ml

Tomato 2p
Red wine 100ml
Milk
Butter 125g
Flour 25g
Cheese 400g
Lasagna pasta 250g

Preparing:
Bolognese sauce:

Chop onion and grate carrot. Pour some olive oil into preheated pan. Onion and carrot in. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and put chopped garlic in. Stir it for few minutes to sweat. Make hole in the center of the pan, where the heat is high and add mince. Stir the mince for few minutes till its done. Pour red wine in and cook it for couple of minutes, cut tomatoes and place them in as well as tomato juice. Stir it and when its cooked, remove from the fire and pour some milk to cool it down. Stir and leave it.
Bechamel sauce:
Melt butter in the pan and add flour. Stir quickly onto medium heat to create something that looks like dough paste. If your pan is heated too much, feel free to remove it from the heat. Pour 100ml of milk and stir it quick. Take whisk and whisk it well till mixture is homogenize. Add 100ml of milk again and whisk. After creating homogenize mixture again, season it with some salt and oregano. Pour 100ml of the milk one more time, stir it until it become hot and add 300g of cheese. Stir it well and remove from the heat.
Take lasagna plate and pour half of bolognese sauce in. Place lasagna pasta on top of it. Pour half of white sauce on, and place lasagna pasta again. Pour rest of the red sauce, another layer of lasagna pasta and finally rest of the white sauce. Place some grated cheese on top and spread some oregano. Bake it in the pre-heated oven at 200C for about 25 minutes. When its done, take it out from the oven, let it rest for 3-4 minutes and it will be easier to cut.

Serving:

Cut the cubes and place it on the plate while it's still hot.

Kajmak

Kajmak, is Serbian national creamy diary product, but it originally came from Turkey, while Balkan was under Turkish empire. It is similar with cheese but in fact it's totally different. The traditional method of making kajmak is to boil the milk, then cool it down. While cooling, milk fat will create solid layer on the surface of the milk. Take it off, place in the bawl and season with salt. Every next time you cook the milk add layer on top of the other and salt it. Leave it in the fridge for few days and your Kajmak is ready to use. Kajmak has a high percentage of milk fat, usually about 60%. It has a thick, creamy consistency and a rich taste. Once you try it, you are gonna fall in love with it. We usually eat it for breakfast with some good ham (prsuta), Karadjordjeva steak, etc. Kajmak is almost always produced in the traditional way, in private households, and can be bought only in open markets rather than in stores or supermarkets, commercial production is low and not of as good quality.

Healthy Burger

Always when you want to buy mincemeat, select piece of fresh meet that you like and ask butcher to grind it for you. Every butcher will do it for you. That way you will know exactly what are you eating in your burger. I usually use beef. And here is my healthy burger for two person:
Ingredients:
Beef Mincemeat 300g
Egg
Onion (Chopped)
Bread Crumbs
Lettuce
Tomato
Ementaler Cheese
Preparing:
Put mince in the bowl, add an egg, chopped onion, tbsp of bread crumbs and season it with salt and pepper. Mix everything well by your hands. If mixture is two moist add some more bread crumbs. Mixture should not be too dry or too wet. Split it in half and make two burgers of it using your hands. Heat the grilling pan. It is very important that your pan is warm when placing burgers in. Don't pour olive oil in the grilling pan this time oil the burgers thinly. It is very important that your pan is warm when placing burgers in. Grill your burgers on each side for couple of minutes.
Serving:
Place your burgers in the burger bun with ementaler cheese, lettuce and tomato ring.
Whenever you can try to avoid french fries. If you really like it try not to exaggerate.

Calzone

Ingredients:

White Flour (500g)

Yeast

Tomato Juice

Ketchup

Ham (150g)

Cheese (if you cant find mozzarella, use some easy melting cheese ) (300 g)

Mushrooms (I prefer champiñones) (150g)

Oregano

Cream Fresh

The Calzone Dough:

It is the same dough as pizza dough!

Start with pouring small bowl with 300ml of hot water (not warm). Put half of yeast (25g/2) in. Add pinch of sugar and pinch of flour. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to react and grow. Sugar and hot water will help yeast grow faster;)

Sift flour in the bawl or on the clean table, whatever you are comfortable with. Make a hole in the middle and add prepared yeast in the center. Season with salt but around on the flour, not on the yeast. If you put salt directly on yeast, it can stop your dough grow later on. Mix it with a spoon until you mix everything up and then start working with your hands. Knead the dough well to create gluten until you make it homogeneously and not much sticky. While kneading add some flour if needed to get perfect texture of your dough. Once you are done, make ball of it and spread pinch of flour on the top, cover it and live it for about 30 minutes on warmish place to grow. Meanwhile you can prepare and cut everything for the topping, shred cheese, cut mushrooms etc. After 30 minutes re-knead your dough and split it for two calzonas. Take baking pan and cover it tick with an olive oil. Spread your dough in the pan and form it very, very tick and round (aprox 20cm radius each). Turn your oven on to pre-heat on 220 degrees celsius.

The Topping

Mix tomato juice with a spoon of ketchup in a cup. Add some salt, pepper and oregano and mix it. Spread it on the dough. Then put on some ham and mushrooms on one half of it. Next one is cheese, and cream fresh. Spread with some oregano on top of it and and fold empty half on top of the topping. Bring the edges together with your fingers to avoid your topping drain out. Bake it in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes on 220 degrees celsius. 

Serving

Place it on the plate, spread some cream fresh on top, some shredded cheese and ketchup while still hot. Enjoy!

Russian Salad

After the fall of Napoleon, the Russian court found the French court a few chefs, including Olivier Henry, who has left future generations several memorable dishes. One day he came out to the emperors table with a salad made ​​of finely chopped vegetables and various meats, dressed with mayonnaise. The salad was delightful to everyone, and then, in honor of its creator, in 1860s called "Salad Olivier." Olivier was proud, and gave recipe to everyone. The trick is that the French call this a Russian salad (salade russe), although a cursory listing of French books with recipes that are revealed by this name hides salads that have about the same as their ingredients, called French salad.
By very different tale, Russian salad was created by a certain Lucien Olivier (whether a relative of one of Napoleon's chef nowhere specified), the chief master of the renowned restaurant "Hermitage" in Moscow, served the guests salad, which soon became his trademark. Method of preparation has been a closely guarded secret. At the turn of the 19th the 20th century, one of the auxiliary Oliviers chefs tried to reveal the secret. While Olivier (I, as usual) was prepared for salad dressing, they invited him to come out and then Ivan Ivanov, his assistant, analyzed the recipe. Ivanov was soon joined in the competitive restaurant "Moskva" where he made surprisingly similar salad, and then even sold the prescription labels, and placed the salad into history. That was a "French" salad as now today.
Ingredients:
Chicken (boiled) 300g
Ham 200g
Eggs (boiled) 5p
Potato 5 midsize
Pickles 5 midsize
Carrots 4 midsize
Peas 300g
Mayonnaise 250g
Preparing
Cut potato, carrots as small cubes. Take the pot and bring water to the boil. Add potato, carrots and peas in and boil it for 10 minutes. After its done boiling take it out and leave it to cool down. Meanwhile boil the eggs well and cut them as small cubes after cooling down. Cut ham, chicken and pickles also as small cubes. Mix it all together in a big bawl with mayonnaise. Keep it in the fridge till serving.
If you want to make mayonnaise yourself (which i highly recommend) check the tips, or video section for instructions.
Serving:
Just place bawl on the table and bon apetit:)

Texas Style Pizza

In America people love pizza. Miami, New York, Dallas,San Francisco, Washington, L.A. there are lots of different pizzas everywhere to satisfy taste of everyone. Here is my version of something I ate in USA. Very rich flavor, very spicy, southern style! Texas style pizza:

Ingredients:

White Flour (500g)

Yeast

Tomato Juice
Chili Pepper (cut or powder)

Ketchup

Ham (100g)
Pepperoni

Cheese (if you cant find mozzarella, use some easy melting cheese ) (300 g)

Mushrooms (I prefer champiñones) (150g)

Oregano
Corn
Red Paprika
Jalapeno

Olives

The Pizza Dough:

Quality Dough is very important! Some people think that it is difficult to make, but it is not. It only requires practice. Avoid buying pizza dough, make it yourself, it is easy!

Start with pouring small bowl with 300ml of hot water (not warm). Put half of yeast (25g/2) in. Add pinch of sugar and pinch of flour. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to react and grow. Sugar and hot water will help yeast grow faster;)

Sift flour in the bawl or on the clean table, whatever you are comfortable with. Make a hole in the middle and add prepared yeast in the center. Season with salt but around on the flour, not on the yeast. If you put salt directly on yeast, it can stop your dough grow later on. Mix it with a spoon until you mix everything up and then start working with your hands. Knead the dough well to create gluten until you make it homogeneously and not much sticky. While kneading add some flour if needed to get perfect texture of your dough. Once you are done, make ball of it and spread pinch of flour on the top, cover it and live it for about 30 minutes on warmish place to grow. Meanwhile you can prepare and cut everything for the topping, shred cheese, cut mushrooms etc. After 30 minutes re-knead your dough. Take baking pan and cover it tick with an olive oil. Spread your dough in the pan and form it very, very tick and fold the edges in. Turn your oven on to pre-heat on 220 degrees celsius.

The Topping

Mix tomato juice with a spoon of ketchup in a cup. Add some salt, black pepper, oregano, chili pepper and mix it. Spread it on the dough. Then put on some ham. Next one is cheese, then pepperoni and on top of it mushrooms, olives, red paprika, jalapenos and corn. Spread with some oregano on top of it and bake it in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes on 220 degrees celsius. 

Serving

I usually cut it in 6 pieces after taking out from the oven and just simply put it on the table while still is in the baking pan. Pizza on the table disappears in few seconds anyway :)

Stirfry No2. Pineapple Chicken

Ingredients (per  person)
Chicken breast fillet 100g
Pineapple 50g
Brussels sprouts 10p
Mushrooms 100g
Red pepper 
Chili Pepper or Jalapeno
Carrot
Ginger 
Splash of soya sauce
Curry
Cooked Rice 50g 
Preparing
First cook the rice: Clean the rice, measure it , put it in a strainer and wash it with cold water. Put it into the pot. Take 1.5 times more water (75ml) and pour it in the pot. Always use cold water. Season it with salt and pepper. Feel free to add any of the seasoning you like extra (but before cooking). Put the lid on and bring it to boiling asap and turn it down. Let it sit for 8-10 minutes, the steam will do the magic. Once you put the lid on, don't lift it until its done cooking and steaming. Rice will absorb the water and double its size. After steaming these 8-10 minutes lift the lid, stir it carefully and it is ready to serve :)

Meanwhile stirfry:
Everything should be prepared before putting in a wok, because once you put it in a wok, it is done in a couple of minutes.
Chop veggies, pineapple and mushrooms into pieces. Cut chicken into thin stripes 1x3cm, and season it with some salt, pepper and curry. Warm up the wok well and pour some olive oil in it. And game begins! Put chicken and stir quickly for about a minute. Add the veggies, mushrooms and pineapple, stir it for a minute or two. Add splash of soya sauce and stir for a bit. 
Serve
Serve stirfry in a large plate on top of the rice with chopsticks.
 

There you go, healthy and tasty meal with lots of veggies!