Ah, this is one of my favorite breakfast foods when I was growing up. If you like pancakes you would definitely like this recipe. Wikipedia has this as well, for those who wants to learn more about roots of this dish: Sirniki

Here is what you will need:

• One pound of Farmers Cheese (you can also use ricotta, but make sure to add lemon zest if you do)
• Two egg yolks
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of California raisins (they are naturally sweet and no additional sugar is needed)
• 1/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• About 1/4 cup of Organic Sunflower Oil

Get a stainless steel bowl and put the Farmers Cheese inside:

Add eggs yolks:

Add raisins:

Add vanilla extract, flour and mix with the fork:

Now warm up a 12″ non-stick skillet with sunflower seed oil, or any other cooking oil you like. It needs to be neutral in taste:

Next step is what I use for efficiency as this is a breakfast dish and I often need to have it done quick. I use 3 tablespoon sized ice-cream scoop to measure each pancake:

The pan needs to be on low heat and you need to cover it with the lid. About 5-8 minutes later you can check on the progress and if the bottom side of pancake is brown you can flip them over with the spatula:

Close the lid again and wait until the other side is brown (about 4-5 minutes). Prepare a plate covered with paper towel to make sure all excess oil is absorbed:

Serve with a sour cream, or honey or maple syrup. Enjoy!

This is a lazy morning crepes recipe that will require only a Blender and a Crepe Pan. Here is the list of ingredients you will need:

• 3 duck eggs (or 4 chicken eggs)
• 1.5 cups of whole milk
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons of Kerrygold Butter

Procedure:

My blender has measuring scale on the side, so adding 1.5 cups of milk and then 1 cup of water is easy:

Next add the eggs, salt and flour:

Next melt the butter and add it on top

Next is very important. Don’t use the “blend” function, use the “pulse” mode for 1 second about 4-6 times and stop and walk away. Literally leave the blender for about 20 minutes, or better yet if you can put it into the fridge do it.

After those 20 minutes heat the crepe pan on medium heat and pouring directly from the blender onto the pan tilting it so that it spreads over in thin layer:

After the top is no longer wet, flap the crepe over:

And here is the result:

Enjoy!

This dish is very popular for our Sunday breakfast and kids love it. This is essentially a cheese filled bread similar to the one made in Georgia as a national dish (Wikipedia article here: Khachapuri)

Our family version doesn’t use yeast and the cheese filling combines three cheeses together which produces a more complex flavor and kids love it. You will need:

For Dough:

• 500 grams of full fat greek yogurt (if you don’t have yogurt try 50/50 sour cream/buttermilk)
• 1 duck egg (or two chicken eggs)
• 80 grams of melted Irish butter
• 1 teaspoon of himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon of soda
• 600 – 650 grams of flour

For Filling:

• 1 pound of crumbled feta cheese
• 1 pound of shredded mozzarella
• 1 pound of Farmers cheese (tvorog or ricotta)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 egg
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro(or dill)

I usually start the night before to make sure the dough has time to fully rest in the fridge. Get a stainless steel bowl and measuring scales. Yes, scales are important because in this recipe the weight of “wet” ingredients needs to closely match weight of the flour.

Start from getting yogurt weighted in the bowl. Put the bowl on the scales and zero it out so that when you add yogurt you know exact weight you are putting in (to spare the need to subtract the bowl weight every time):

Next add the egg, salt and melted butter:

Next add the tablespoon of soda and flour by weight to match “wet” ingredients above:

Mix well, use your hands. Dough might be a little sticky but it’s ok:

Cover it and put it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Next start with the filling. Make sure all of the “hard” cheeses are grated or mash them with the fork, even the crumbled feta to get a consistent structure:

Add an egg, garlic and chopped cilantro:

Cover and put into the fridge as well.

Next morning or just a little bit later (give the dough 30 minutes or so to fully develop) cut the dough into eight parts:

Roll each part flat (not to thin), put a good portion of filling inside and bring the remaining dough over and close it like in the picture:

next roll it with the dough roller to make a flat (about half an inch thick):

Warm up cast iron skillet surface to about 420F. Put the bread on the surface (no oil or butter is needed!), set the burner on small, cover with the lid and let it sit dutch oven style for about 5 minutes on one side, then flip it over, cover with the lid and let it sit another 3-4 minutes.

You can cook other ones as well, or cover each one with plastic wrap put into the fridge to make later. They stay fine in the fridge for about two days.

Enjoy!

In effort to preserve family recipes used at our home we’ve started this blog. The first post is about our favorite Banana Bread. It came to live by accident and it turned out to be very good and reusable over and over again. So here it goes.

Ingredients you will need:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 peeled over ripe bananas
• 1 duck egg or 2 chicken eggs
• 3 tablespoons of Myers’s Rum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon himalayan salt
• 4oz Irish butter
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Before you start turn on your oven for 350F so it has time to warm up.

In a stainless steel bowl peel bananas

Pour over the rum and vanila extract and mash with fork

Add the pine nuts

And mix well

Next, add the duck egg (or two chicken eggs)

followed by salt, soda and baking powder

Mix to incorporate egg , and then and all of the sugar, rasins and flour

Melt butter in the microwave safe container for 30 seconds and pour over the flour

Mix slightly, just enough to see the flour incorporated

next, prepare your baking dish, I use loaf form

Lined up with parchment paper like so

Pour your batter into the form

And put into the already heated oven at 350F for exactly 50 minutes. It will look like this going out

Cool for about 15 minutes on a rack. And then slice and enjoy!