Layered Liver Cake

Layered liver cake, dish of traditional Ukrainian cuisine, is often served as appetizer on various celebrations, in fact I tried it first time on a wedding.

For this recipe I used chicken liver, but beef liver will work good as well.

Carrots and onions stuffing can be skipped all together - it will decrease cooking time and reduce amount of mayo to be used (since layers will not need that much mayo to stick together). However carrots go great with liver.

How many layers you get from this amount of ingredients depends on the size of the frying pan you use. I think 11” frying pan is the best - not too big not too small. The ideal amount of layers for this recipe is about 12; if you get more split them in half and assemble 2 cakes.

Oven-Roasted Herbed Redskin Potatoes

I think any kind of potatoes can be cooked this way, however red skin ones are the best here. You can take big potatoes and slice them in smaller wedges or smaller ones and cook them whole or sliced in halves.

Vary amount of herbs as well as herbs themselves to your taste, in additional to rosemary, thyme, oregano you can use parsley, dill, black pepper, etc; I would just advise to keep rosemary in - it goes great with potatoes.

Over-roasted herbed redskin potatoes can be a no-meat dish on itself or you can accompany a meat entry with it as a side dish.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Cheese Recipe

These campari tomatoes stuffed with fresh quark cheese, chopped greens and garlic can be nice addition to any celebration table or a cookout: they look festive, taste good and can be easily eaten with fingers.

If you can’t find quark cheese (sometimes called farmers cheese, or fresh white cheese, or tvorog in russian) it may work with feta cheese, but I like it more with quark.

Seeds and pulp from tomatoes as well as top parts - once removed - are not needed for this recipe. You can discard them, or use in some other dish.

Many kind of stews and soups would only benefit from fresh tomatoes. I used seeds and juice from this batch to marinate a nice ribeye steak.

Georgian Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki)

This is traditional Georgian recipe (and I mean Georgia as a country, not the state). It takes a bit of time and inspiration to cook, but it totally worth it.

Even though it is time consuming, with a bit of organization it can be a fun activity to do for whole family together.

I never been a big fan of lamb meat, but these dumplings taste the best made of it. However you can always substitute equal amount of beef and pork mix for lamb meat.

Eggplants with Tomato Basil Sauce and Parmesan

Eggplants fried in flour and egg coating are good on their own as a no-meat main course, appetizer or snack. But they can also be served as a side dish.

Tomato sauce with basil and garlic is a good addition to fried eggplants; it adds a bit of spiciness to plain taste of eggplants.

And parmesan goes great with that combination too.

Tomato and Basil Sauce

This light tomato based sauce will add a hint of mediterranean cuisine to any dish.

It goes great with fried or grilled vegetables (e.g. zucchini and eggplants); seafood (mussels and shrimps) and meats; it also can be served as pasta sauce.

Sweet tomatoes are the best fit this recipe. If you prefer to remove seeds, choose pulpy tomatoes, it will be easier.

Ukrainian Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream Dressing

This simple salad with tomatoes and cucumbers is very popular in Ukraine, and I don't see any reasons why it wouldn't be liked in any other country which grows tomatoes, cucumbers, dill and sour cream with onions and garlic.

As opposite to summer salad with tomato and cucumbers with vegetable oil based dressing, this one uses sour cream and mayonnaise.

If you are trying to cut on calories – use mix of sour cream and low calorie yoghurt, or just yoghurt as a base for dressing, but, believe me, this salad tastes the best with real sour cream.

Duck Stewed with Potato and Eggplants

I love duck meat. And other day we were lucky to find a couple of duck breasts in Market District opened recently near by (nice store by the way).

So, I got them, also eggplant and some potatoes, and cooked this nice dinner.

Any duck meat will work just fine for this stew, I was just lazy to remove bones.

Russian Lenten Mushroom Soup

This soup doesn't include any meat, it is based on mushrooms and have vegetables (carrot, parsley and celery roots, potato) as well as pearl barley.

Such kind of mushroom soup is very popular in Russia. Various kind of mushrooms can be used in this recipe, but I must say fresh or frozen porcini are the best tasting ones, if you can find them, of course.

If you are not trying to follow Great Lent rules - my advise is don't skip on sour cream, 1 tablespoon of sour cream to the bowl of mushroom soup not only adds nutrients, but also gives the soup its unique rich taste.

Cheese Balls Appetizer

Cheese, clove of garlic, a bit of mayo, shredded coconut and about 20 mins of time it is all you need to prepare cheese balls appetizer.

Cheese goes great with wine. So cheese balls are great for wine tasting or wine party.

Cheese balls are finger food and can be served as is or on crackers.

Chicken Pilaf

An easy tweak to classic pilaf recipe – chicken instead of lamb – will make this dish to shine all different colors. Chicken require less time to cook, it is more lean so, let's say it is more healthy and also faster to prepare :)

Using whole chicken is an option, but in this case you probably need to bone it first (unless you like to chew on bones).

Take boneless thighs, if you don't like to spend time removing bones. Chicken breasts can be used as well, but may end up being too dry – mix them up with some other parts such us thighs or so.

Another trick to this recipe is using cast-iron pan, ideally round one. It makes rice to cook more evenly which is more important part – get soft not overcooked rice.

Veal Roast with Mustard and Garlic

This veal roast is a good choice for romantic or family dinner. Meat can be prepared for cooking in advance, like a night before, and then roast day after. That will make meat even better marinated.

I think veal is the best for this recipe, but since veal is hard to get and can be quite pricey - beef can be used as well. If you choose to cook beef – increase roasting time a bit.

Veal roast can be served warm straight from the oven, as one piece or spiced into portions. It also tastes good cooled down.

Boiled Potato with Sour Cream and Garlic

There is no easiest way to cook potato than boiling. You get tasty and nutritious dish fast and with literally no hassle: just clean it, put to the cooking pot, bring to boil and wait.

Young potato boiled skin on tastes especially good when dressed with several spoons of sour cream, seasoned with chopped dill and minced garlic.

If you don't have young small potatoes, use red skin ones, or any others. Clean potatoes before boiling, for young potatoes washing will be enough, old potato may need to be peeled.

French Onion Soup

I absolutely love this tender onion and cheese soup with a light hint of spices and dry white wine. It is very good choice for home dinner party or romantic dinner just for you two.

You can prepare most of the steps in advance (from step 1 to step 9), then pour soup to the bowls, add bread and cheese and put them to the oven right before serving. That will save you a bit of time and ensure every meal comes fresh and warm at the right time.

My advice would be to use home prepared broth, cooked with good quality beef, carrots, onions, parsley and celery for this soup. If you need some hints on how to prepare beef broth, follow these instructions.

Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables

Several weekends ago, when I asked Yuriy what should we prepare for dinner, I got an answer – lasagna, and I was intimidated a bit - I never prepared lasagna before. So I spent some time in internet researching recipes and found several I liked. I've combined them, added some touch to my taste and prepared this lasagna.

This was my first attempt to make lasagna. And main challenge for me was to properly prepare noodles: according to the instructions on the pack they required boiling before using. I've added 2 tablespoons of oil to the boiling water and was boiling them layer by layer and it totally helped to prevent noodles from sticking while boiling.

This lasagna turned out perfectly: balanced combination of meat and vegetables (just how I like it), noodles were very tender, it was totally worth all the time I've spend boiling them, getting out of water and trying arrange them in the pan.

Potato Roast with Vegetables

Summer is here and summer is a perfect time to enjoy vegetables it brings along.

Bell peppers, eggplants, potatoes roast together with olive oil based dressing with garlic and herbs can be a perfect dish on their own as well as a side dish to meats or poultry.

Once veggies are all sliced and mixed with dressing (can be prepared in advance), it takes about an hour to roast them in the oven.

Roasting doesn't require much of attention, just stirring from time to time. So I consider this dish easy to prepare.

Ketchup and Mayonnaise Mix Sauce

This is the easiest recipe for simple cocktail sauce which makes a great addition to boiled shrimps, or fried meat or chicken main dishes. I even serve it as a side sauce for russian meat dumplings (pelmeni).

You can vary amount of each ingredient to taste: if you like ketchup taste more – add less mayonnaise; add more garlic if you want to make sauce more spicy; also fresh parsley can be replaced with cilantro.

Pork Roast with Garlic Recipe

Pork roast by this recipe usually turns out juicy and flavored. It is nice dinner dish, can be served warm or cooled down; leftovers are good for sandwiches.

It takes about an hour to cook from beginning till end. It is very easy to prepare recipe. Apart of main ingredients, which are mainly pork and garlic, you will also need a sheet of cooking foil.

Tastes good accompanied by dry red or rose wine.

Eggplant Rolls

I don't have much to say about this recipe, it mostly says for itself: eggplants and tomatoes - main ingredients – are good combination and garlic doesn't make it any worse.

This recipe isn't much hassle to prepare and ingredients don't cost much; so you can easy get to advised 5 servings of vegetables per day and even enjoy it.

Eggplant rolls taste better while fresh, so prepare them right before serving.

Baked Spicy Chicken

It is chicken time! And I think, one of the easiest ways to prepare various parts of chicken (or even chicken in a whole!) is to bake them with some spices.

Baked Spicy Chicken dish is great for the dinner: its cooking doesn't require much of attention, which gives you time to take care of other important things :). However you will need to start cooking it in advance to let chicken soak in the sauce.

So let's mix up some spices, garlic, mayonnaise, pour it over the chicken and bake it all together.

Pork Pilaf

Typical Pilaf (plov, pilav) is prepared from rice and meat, and seasoned with spices. It is a dish, various recipes of which can be found in Middle Eastern, Central, South Asian and East African cultures, from where it was borrowed to various cuisines: so now dishes similar to pilaf can be found in every country recipes list.

Having roots on the East, original pilaf usually being made from lamb or mutton. However, I believe, it can be made pretty much of any kind of meat: beef, pork, chicken, duck, whatever you prefer.

I am not the big fan of lamb, so I usually prepare pilaf with a pork meat (which is a step away from the original recipe, but I like it). Feel free to replace pork with any other kind of meat you like and create your own pilaf recipe (you may also need to adjust the cooking time accordingly as different kinds of meats requite different time of preparation). Treat yourself to a delicious meal with a hint of orient spices!

Fried Zucchini With Garlic

Zucchini itself is low in calories and contains useful amounts of folate, potassium, manganese and vitamin A. Garlic is also very health-giving ingredient. And they both are combined in this fast to do and easy to do recipe.

Fried Zucchini with Garlic is very good on its own as a snack or an appetizer, however it is also perfect for poultry and meat entrees as a side dish.

Reduce amount of garlic if you are worried about a breath, but I really advice to keep garlic in, this dish isn't so tasty without it.

Tzatziki Sauce

Tzatziki (can be spelled as tzadziki or tsatsiki) is yogurt and cucumber cold sauce of Greek cuisine.

It can be served separately as a dip or with meat entrees as a sauce. It is perfect addition for the gyros or souvlaki.

Fast Salted Salmon

Even though it is called fast salted it still requires at least 12 hours to be ready for eating. So it is good idea to start preparing Fast Salted Salmon an evening before you are planning to put it on the table.

Due to the big amount of oil it is good to be served with simple boiled potatoes and bread.

Ham Rolls With Carrot Stuffing

Got people coming over in a 20 mins and got nothing to bite? Make a ham rolls stuffed with fresh carrot & garlic salad.

Easy and fast! Tastes better when accompanied by beer and TV.

Fresh Carrots & Garlic Salad

And again carrots with a lot of vitamin A and carotene. The best way to keep those nutrients from “dying” while cooking is to eat them fresh. And garlic can't spoil it anyhow.

Enjoy Fresh Carrots & Garlic Salad as an healthy addition to your meat meals.