Pilaf in Instapot

From Wikipedia:

Pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth. In some cases, the rice may attain its brown or golden color by first being sautéed lightly in oil before the addition of broth. Cooked onion, other vegetables as well as a mix of spices may be added. Depending on the local cuisine, it may also contain meat, fish, vegetables, pasta, and dried fruits.

Pilaf and similar dishes are common to Balkan, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, Central and South Asian, East African, Latin American and Caribbean cuisines. It is a staple food and a national dish in Afghan, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangladeshi, Balochi, Bukharan Jewish, Cretan, Indian, Iranian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Kurdish, Pakistani, Swahili (Kenyan, and Tanzanian-Zanzibari), Uyghur, Uzbek, Tajik and Turkish cuisines.

You can use chicken, beef or lamb (prefer) for this dish. I used meat for stewing this time. It's very easy to cook and fast as well.

You will need

1 pound of meat of your choice (cut to bite size pieces)

1 middium to big size onion (dices)

1 big carrot (shreded)

3-4 sweet baby peppers (optional) - cut to rings

1 cup of jasmine rice

1.5 cup water

Spices

1.5 Tbsp of Vegeta (sometimes it's hard to find at stores)

1 Tbsp of seasoning salt

1 clove of garlic

Salt and pepper

Sometimes I use a specific spice for this dish when I have it. I can't buy it at the regular grocery store. You either need to go to the European market or you can get it off here.... but it's worth it!

Directions

Put your meat (cut to bite size pieces), shredded carrots (use the large holes on the cheese grater), diced onion, cut peppers to your pressure cooker.

Add all spices except salt, pepper and garlic. Add 1 Tbsp of oil. Turn pressure cooker on and press sautée. Cook on high temperature for about 15 minutes mixing from time to time. Turn the sautée option off. Add water and rice and the rest of the spices.

Don't dice, cut or don't do anything else to the garlic - just put the whole thing in - don't worry, you breath won't smell bad. ;)

Cook on manual (high pressure) for 17 minutes, natural release.

Enjoy your dinner or lunch!

Homemade Yogurt in Instapot

When I got my Instapot, I didn't know anything about it, and particularly the yogurt option (I'm still learning, btw) - just that you have to make yogurt for 8 hours. I said I'm not crazy!!! I thought maybe it uses pressure - super low- but pressure for 8 hours! The idea of leave it running unattended didn't make me very comfortable. Later I learned how it all works. And that yogurt option keeps your ingredients on a certain temperature.
So I've decided to make yogurt today.

You will need

• 1 Gallon 2% Milk
• ¼ Cup yogurt with active cultures (I used Mountain High low fat Plain)
• ¼ - ½ cup sweetener (optional)
• Cheese cloth or milk bag

Directions

Pour your gallon of milk to the Instapot. Close the lid. It doesn't matter if you put the pressure vent into a venting position or not at this point. (Or at any point in the process, for that matter.)

Press the YOGURT button and press ADJUST right away. Screen will display BOIL. 

Leave it alone for about an hour. Then you will hear it beep. Don't miss it! Screen will display yogurt. Now you need to turn off your Instapot and cool off the milk to room temperature. Remove the pot from the Instapot. If you are in a hurry - you can fill your kitchen sink with some water and put the pot with the milk in it for some time to let it cool off faster.

Then once it's the right temperature, add 1/4 cup of yogurt. Mix with the wisk. Put it back to the Instapot. Push the yogurt button. The incubation process will start. Your Instapot will beep and it will take 8 hours. It will count up. So you should have 0:00 on your screen.

In 8 hours all you need to do is drain it using cheese cloth or milk bag, just like I showed you with the cottage cheese recipe.  I would recommend the milk bag, because it was kind of inconvenient and messy with the cheese cloth.

Let it hang in it for an hour.

The yogurt I made wasn't sweet. I like to add berries, jam or granola. 

If you want - you can add sweetener -1/4 to 1/2 cup.

Note: You need to add the yogurt to start the incubation process.  If you prefer, you can use a powdered yogurt starter as well.  You can find a starter on Amazon here.

STORAGE

I use an Ikea KORKEN glass jar. 1.9 qt. If you don't have an Ikea close by, you can order the jar from Amazon here, sold by Ikea. These jars are smaller than what I used, but you don't have to store this whole amount in one glass jar. You can see on the picture how much I made off this recipe.

If you are going to try it please leave feedback how you liked it. I also have a Pinterest board for this blog. Follow me and you will never miss a recipe!.

Oladi

So for those of you who read my post about homemade cottage cheese, you know that you will have about a gallon or more of liquid leftover from that. And I said I'd share a recipe you can use that liquid in. So here we go! We call them Russian pancakes but they don't taste like pancakes at all. Their real name is Oladi (Оладьи). The recipe I got was in Russian so I had to convert everything into cups. From this recipe you will get A LOT of oladi. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot!! I didn't need that much but my pile was growing and growing! :) So if you have a small family, cut the recipe in half.

You will need.
4 1/2 cup of your liquid from cottage cheese (I guess you can substitute with buttermilk, but I can't guarantee anything here)
Approximately 4 cups of flour (the dough needs to be thick- not too liquidy, but also not too thick).
3 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1.5 tsp of baking soda.

Directions
If you are using liquid that's left over after the cottage cheese - warm it up, but do not boil. Add sugar and salt. Mix it. Add to flour. Then add baking soda. Mix well.

Preheat your frying pan with some oil. Fry until bubbly on each side.

I spent around 30 minutes total on this recipe.

Russian Potato Chicken Bake

This is a recipe I remember from my childhood. My mom was making it with different combinations of meat (lamb, fish, beef). Today I'm going to be using chicken breast. The smell of this dish when it's baking will make your neighbors' mouths water. It smells so good, and it tastes so good too!

You will need

5 medium size potatoes

1 chicken breast

1 onion

1 cup shredded cheese (you can use any but cheddar is better)

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes (wedges or cubes as you prefer).

Cut the chicken into small bite size pieces.

Use a 13x9 oven safe dish (do not grease). Put your cut potatoes first, then the chicken - shake some salt and pepper.

Now that you've got some space on your counter, cut the onion into rings and add to the potatoes and chicken. Spread the cheese all over the dish to cover it.

Lastly, add mayonnaise. I use a silicone spatula to spread it (just like frosting for the cake). It doesn't have to cover all the ingredients completely. 

Bake uncovered at 375°F for 50 minutes.

 

Homemade Cottage Cheese in Pressure Cooker

Today I managed to make cottage cheese, but some people may call it farmer's cheese. I'm still not sure what the difference is. (If you know the difference, please leave a comment below!)

Growing up I saw my mom making it all the time, and it tasted so good, but I also remember the process of making it was so complicated that I even didn't want to try to participate or ask her to teach me how. But these days we have better technology, so we have so many kitchen gadgets.  Again I used my pressure cooker and just 2 ingredients to make my home made cottage cheese. The recipe I have is from one of my favorite groups on Facebook about Instapot and recipes you can make in it. Most of them are Russian recipes, and they're fast and simple to cook.

So here we go!

You will need

1 gallon of whole milk

Approx. 1 1/2 qt of buttermilk

Yes, that's it!

Directions

The original recipe says put it on warm for 2 hours - that didn't do much for me.

Maybe it depends of what kind of milk and buttermilk you have, I don't know. Anyways, after 2 hours I turned it on yogurt (which keeps it between 96.8° and 109.4° F) for 7 hours, and then it's done. Drain it through the cheesecloth (I got mine at WinCo for $2.50, or you can always find it on Amazon).

Hang it on the faucet to drain for 1-2 hours.

After that you can enjoy your home made cottage cheese.

P.S. Keep the liquid that's left from draining the cottage cheese. I have a great recipe of something you can make with it that I will be posting in a few days. You can store it in the fridge. Also you can substitute it for milk in any recipe.

Correction 3/5/2017: I said that the "yogurt" setting was the same as the "keep it warm" setting.  Not quite.  The two settings use different temperatures.  I've corrected that mistake above.

Baby Omelettes

First pressure cooker recipe today! And it's my favorite meal of the day- breakfast! It's fast to make and you can add your favorite options: spinach, feta cheese, bacon, tomatoes, peppers, etc. It only takes a few minutes to prepare and 7 minutes in the pressure cooker. I enjoyed this recipe, and so did my daughter! Believe me, I will be making this recipe again, and now you can too!

Here is the recipe:

3 eggs
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Add whatever you want to this.  I added turkey bacon, baby peppers, and Monterrey Jack Cheese.

Mix the eggs and milk together until well blended. Add your spices. Pour the mixture in silicone egg poachers (you can get them here off of Amazon).

Add 1 cup of water to your pressure cooker. Place the poachers on a rack in the pressure cooker (I have an Instapot and used the included rack).

Close the lid. Cook on manual, high pressure for 7 minutes. Quick release.

I ate two of them to satisfy my morning hunger. You can eat them with strawberries, as I did, or you can substitute your own choice of sides.

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Today I want to share my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found it about 4 years ago and have been using it since. Homemade chocolate chip cookies are a favorite in our family, so it's always good to have a recipe in the back pocket to pull out. Here we can whip up the dough in our KitchenAid, put the dough in the oven, and voila, cookies! My husband says they're the best cookies he's ever had!

You can't fail with this recipe unless your child will add a "secret" ingredient to it while you're not watching, or if you mess up the temperature. I like it because it's simple, fast, and has a minimum of dirty dishes.  And of course, it's cookies!  Yummy cookies!  I managed to make them while having a newborn and a preschooler so ...you can do it ;)

  

I also tried it with white chocolate and cranberries, and they also turned out just fine.

Here's the recipe:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup backed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups chocolate chips or white chocolate chips
Optional: 1/2 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 375° F

Combine all sugars and butter in a stand-up mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In the measuring cup with flour, pour the salt and baking soda, mix together, and add to the mixer.  Add flour with the baking soda and salt to the KitchenAid.  After you mix the mixture in the mixer, stir in chocolate chips using a wooden spoon (I do this so I don't burn my mixer). Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 9 minutes (this time may depend on your oven) or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Carrot cake

Made it first time and wasn't expecting too much. But it was super delish! And healthy, I guess because it has a whole POUND of carrots in it! It's sweet, but at the same time, it's a way to trick your kids into eating vegetables. ;-)

Here is the recipe



2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs, room temp
1 1/2 C. granulated sugar
1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 C. veg oil
1 lb. carrots, peeled and grated (tiny tiny!)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat the oven to 350. Lightly coat a 9 by 13 cake pan with veg oil spray.  Whisk the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. Whisk the eggs and sugars together in a large bowl until frothy and the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 2 mins. While whisking, slowly add the oil until the mixture is thoroughly combined, about 1 min. Whisk in the flour mixture til no streaks remain. Stir in the carrots. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until center of cake is done, 40-50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack about two hours.


 Cream Cheese Frosting8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 T. sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 C. powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla with an electric mixer til combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix til smooth.
Or you can use this

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=677753373225338482#editor/target=post;postID=3380414281172579936;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=17;src=postname

Cherry nobake cheesecake

It's easy to make and very delish

You will need
Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup margarine, softened

1/4 cup sugar

or you can just buy it

 

Filling

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

1 (12.5 ounce) can cherry pie filling (or

other filling of your choice)

 

Directions

 

 

.1	Mix together graham cracker crumbs, margarine, and sugar in a bowl until well incorporated and crumbly. Press into a pie plate, going up the sides as much as possible.
2.	Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth and spreadable. Whisk whipped cream into cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour cream cheese into prepared crust. Smooth the top with a spatula, and refrigerate until firm, about 4-5 hours. Spread the cherry pie filling over the top, and refrigerate until serving.

Anastasia's rice

My recipe. Just made up yesterday.

You will need.

1/2 cup uncooked rice

1 big tomato

1 onion

1 can of mushrooms

1 2 cups of cured ham 

Salt, paper and seasoning for your rice. 

Directions. 

Cook your rice. (I cook it in a rice cooker) 

Cut your onion and tomato to a bite pieces and cut the ham to a long ...don't know how to describe it ... pieces maybe? See picture below.

Sauté veggies, ham and mushrooms with salt and pepper, you can also add some soy sauce (optional). 

Mix with cooked rice. And it's ready. 

Potato ham soup

My favorite ham potato soup. I found this recipe in a Weight Watchers book.  It's very easy to make, doesn't take a lot of time, and very delish.  Both my kids like it, and that's saying something, since my son doesn't like to eat healthy food! ;-)

You will need

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes 1/3 cup diced celery 1/3 cup finely chopped onion 3/4 cup diced cooked ham 3 1/4 cups water  2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules Directions 1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper. 2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes. 3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste 5 tablespoons butter 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups nonfat milk

Anastasia's broccoli salad

I don't know where I found this recipe or maybe even made up but I love it and even my toddler eats it.  Healthy and yummy. And very easy and fast to make.
You will need
3-4 cups of cooked broccoli (frozen or fresh) I'd say frozen tastes better for some reason
1/4 cup bacon crumbs
1/4 cup cranberries or  raisins
Red onion as much as you'd like (I know some people don't like it), I usually use a little bit less than 1/4 cup
1/4 cup grated cheese (any kind) I use Cheddar (optional)

Dressing
3/4 cups of mayonnaise (sometimes I use 50/50 - mayo and sour cream)
2 Tbsp of vinegar
1,5 Tbsp of granulated sugar 
Mix everything in a salad bowl and add dressing right before you serve it.

I tried to make this salad with hot broccoli and it also was very yummy.

Curried chicken

I love this recipe!! And so does my family! Pretty easy and doesn't take too much time.


You will need.

1 apple - peeled, cored, and chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 tablespoons butter 3 teaspoons curry powder 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup      Directions   Saute onion and apple in butter. Add soup, heavy cream, all spices. It will be your curry sauce.  Place the chicken and mushrooms in an 8x12 inch baking dish and cover with the curry sauce. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Preheat the oven to 350 F, bake your curried chicken for 30 minutes covered with foil and 20 minutes without foil. I usually serve this dish with pasta but it can be served with rice too.

1 cup heavy cream salt and pepper to taste 8 chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces 3/4 cup fresh sliced mushrooms 1 teaspoon paprika

My chicken salad

You will need

• 1 whole chicken (shredded or cubed)
• 1-2 stalk celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1/2 cup raisins
•  4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced or 1/4 cup sweet onion cut into 1/4-inch dice 

Directions
Bake chicken, let it cool off. Cut into small pieces or shred it (Tip: put the chicken in a bowl and use a mixer on medium speed, and it will shred the chicken for you)
In a mixing bowl, toss together the chicken, celery, scallions and raisins. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add mayonnaise (I add 50/50 sour cream-mayonnaise)

I've been having weird food cravings recently and I really wanted chicken salad in taco shells. We tried and we loved it! So yummy!

15 minutes pizza

First I want to say it not like regular pizza. Dough tastes different but still yummy.
You will need
Dough

• 4 TB flour
• 4 TB sour cream
• 1 egg   
• a little bit of salt

Mix everything together, put in the frying pan, add pizza sauce and your favorite toppings and fry over a low heat 10 minutes. And it's ready!

Homemade Bisquick mix

6 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

Directions:

1
Sift flour, baking powder and salt three times into a large bowl.
2
Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3
Store mixture in airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 months.
4
Use whenever your recipe calls for "Bisquick mix".

My favorite recipe of apple crisp.

Ingredients

4

medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)

3/4

cup packed brown sugar

1/2

cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2

cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats

1/3

cup butter or margarine, softened

3/4

teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4

teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cream or Ice cream, if desired 

 

 Directions

 

 

• 1 Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with shortening.
• 2 Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients except cream until well mixed; sprinkle over apples.

3 Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Serve warm with cream.

 

 

 

 

Whipped cream cheese frosting

My favorite whipped cream cheese frosting! So delicious! I could just eat it with no cake LOL
Here is the recipe
16oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream, cold. Higher the fat content, the better
Beat the cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks, then add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture and quickly and briefly beat to combine. Do not over beat.
Using this recipe you will get enough frosting for 2 13by9 inches cakes. So A LOT!

Marshmallow treats

Couple friends asked if I can post a tutorial on how to make those marshmallow treats I made for baby shower. Here we go.
You will need

• Cookie/lollipop sticks/ paper straws (found at Michaels)
• Marshmallows
• White chocolate melts (found at Michaels)
• Food color (found at Michaels)
• Sprinkles and other food decor

First you need to prepare your marshmallows.
 Cut a small slit...don't poke! Insert paper straw /cookie stick. Then put them to a frizer for 15-20 minutes.

 Meanwhile, melt the chocolate melts (I'd recommend double boiler). Add food color (I planned make them blue and pink but my son "helped" and it turned out blue and purple :-)) Then dip your frozen marshmallows in your chocolate (as fast as you can).And then roll in sprinkles or whatever you have (coconut, etc)
And they are ready!! It took 20 minutes to make them.