Green Crepe Pinwheels

When it's windy and snowy outside, these green crepes packed with fresh herbs look especially cheerful and bright.

Blog's Category: Hors D'oeuvre, Perfect Breakfast, Vegetarian

Intro

I loved the idea of these crepes right away as I spot it on one of the Ukrainian food forums. Just throw a LOT of fresh dill and parsley into a basic crepe batter and, voila, green crepes are born. When cooked, roll them up in a special way, and you've got neat and sexy hors d'oeures for your party. Aren't they beautiful?!


What is it?

Plain crepe batter, spiked with a generous amount of chopped fresh herbs and green onion, is used here to make tender, naturally green, crepes. Basted with garlic infused butter and cleverly rolled into cute wheels, it's a treat that could suit a king.. really :)

Taste Description

They are wonderfully tender and, as you can imagine, herbaciously flavorful. Fresh herb's aroma is not assertive but rather softly overwhelming, calmed with melted butter. This butter, gently infused with garlic, adds another dimension to both, texture and taste. Wait a minute - don't toss away garlic slices you used to flavor butter. They make an awesome tiny chips - fun for your teeth and taste buds.

How to Serve

They definitely needs to be served warm. If they cool down before your serving time, cover them with dump paper towel and warm up in a microwave.

Green Crepe Pinwheels

For about 20 small 2" pinwheels:

• 2 tbs finely chopped fresh dill
• 2 tbs finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3 scallions, green parts only, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 5 tbs flour
• 1/4 tsp soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1tbs sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 5 tbs butter
• 5 garlic cloves, sliced

- In a large bowl, combine flour and soda.

- In a separate bowl, mix eggs with salt, sugar, black pepper and half of milk.

- Add egg mix to a flour mix. Stir. Add remaining milk and olive oil. Stir nicely until smooth.

- Stir in chopped herbs and green onion.

- In a skillet, melt butter and garlic slices on a lowest heat until garlic slices are golden brown and crispy. Do not allow garlic to burn, but rather cook it in a butter slowly, without sizzling. It can take 10-15 minutes. Drain garlic infused butter into a small bowl. Reserve garlic chips for garnishing.

- Using a non-stick 8-10 " skillet, cook crepes.

- To assemble pinwheel, cut each crepe, basted with a garlic infused butter, in half. Starting with a straight edge, roll each half into a tube and then roll each tube into a wheel.

- Serve warm, sprinkled with a garlic chips. Enjoy!

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IN PICTURES

After washing, I get rid of excess of water by placing my herbs on a bowl, flipped upside down. For some reason it works better for me than placing them in a sieve. BTW, always wash your herbs in a bowl filled with water rather than using strainer or sieve. It's a guaranteed way to get rid of sand and soil particles.

..finely chopped parsley.. don't forget to get rid of tough stems first.. use only leaves..

..chopped dill..

This time I decided to get rid of that "knot" sitting on a top of yolk. For some reason I see it often in Japanese cooking videos.. I guess, I need to do more research on a subject :) Supposedly, it's where all bad stuff [cholesterol] is hiding..

cutie

Mixing, first, soda with a flour has its own sense - acidic flour activates base soda, kitchen chemistry I guess :)

Add flour mix to egg mix, or vice versa.

Incorporating milk in two batches has its own reason too - it's much easier to make smooth butter when it's thick. Then you just need to thin it out with remaining liquid (milk in our case).

..here goes remaining 1/2 cup of milk.

..and you have a smooth, velvety batter now. Of course, you could have use your noisy blender but making batter with whisk by hand has such a nice therapeutic effect :)

Make your garlic infused butter on a very low heat. It shouldn't sizzle, it will foam quietly for a some time until garlic becomes golden brown.

garlic chips per ce

now tilt a skillet under different angles to fill all surface with a thin layer of batter.

..flip!

baste with a garlic infused butter

 

 

 

 

 

Pozharski Kotlets

These unbelievably tender juicy and crispy, all-in-one, chicken patties should be named Angel's Burgers, Chicken Patties from Heaven or something like this. Try to make them and you will see what I'm talking about..

Blog's Category: International, My Staple Food, USSR-era Recipes

Intro

Pozharski Kotlets is a classy traditional Russian recipe. I heard about it since I remember myself and in-fact our family recipe for everyday chicken patties we call "kotlets" are pretty similar to Pozharski Kotlets. Similar but not the same.

As always, after thorough research on a subject, I come up with this authentic, stupendously simple recipe I've got at one of my favorite Russian Cooking show "Obed Bezbrachiya" (loosely translated as "dinner of the bachelor".. there is also some word play taking place there which would mean, on the other hand "vow not to marry", celibacy in other words). The host of a show is funny though very knowledgeable chef. Here is the link to this show (sorry, it's in Russian) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9IUZqHYMxo.

The legend says, that century or two ago, Russian tsar, traveling somewhere not too far from a Moscow, requested his favorite veal cutlets from the owner of a local tavern. The owner of tavern, with a last name Pozharski, being out of veal, served wickedly delicious chicken patties. Tsar was impressed with those cutlets so much that commanded to cooked them for him for the rest of his life.


What is it?

Distinctive feature of these patties is that there is not that much ingredients in it. Forget about spices and other fillers that usually goes into these type of meat patties. Big no-no to an onion or garlic too - surprising, right? But be careful - the less ingredients, the more precise you have to be in execution.

Taste Description

Wonderful tenderness and juiciness of kotlets is shocking. Along with a crispiness of a tiny bread cubes on outside, it presents the perfect combo we all love in our food. Flavor is a pure and delicate chicken flavor, not supressed by anything strong such as garlic or onion, and just lightly supported with black pepper aroma.

How to Serve

Serve hot or warm. It pairs perfectly with mashed potato or steamed vegetables.

Pozharski Kotlets

• 5 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 loaf of soft white bread, not sliced
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2-1 tsp black pepper
• flavorless olive oil for frying (or ghee)

- Cut off bread crust and use somewhere else (make croutons, for example). 

- Dice one half of bread into tiny cubes and toast them in oven until they are beige in color. Set aside.

- Slice other half of bread into thick slices, place them into bowl and pour milk and water over it for soaking. Set aside.

- Grind chicken breasts into a large bowl. Squeeze soaked bread a little bit and add it to a ground chicken. Add salt, pepper, heavy cream and mix all together by hand for about 5-10 minutes, very thoroughly, until mix becomes somewhat sticky.

- To form patties, drop about 2 tbs of chicken mix into the bowl with baked tiny bread crumbs, then flip it to coat other site and shape it carefully in your hands into almond shaped patties.

- Fry on a medium heat, on a skillet with a generous amount of oil until golden.

- Transfer into oven proof dish and finish in a preheated to 375F oven for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes

- As a "less-fuzz" version I can suggest using panko bread crumbs in place of homemade bread cubes. Also you can break half of loaf into pieces and process it into fresh bread crumbs, then dry them out in a oven and then use it for coating.

- Don't be tempted to add onion, garlic or your favorite seasoning into these patties. I know, they will be yummy anyway but they won't be Pozharski Kotlets and you will never know what they are :)

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IN PICTURES

The worst in nutrition, white, soft as cotton ball, bread is the best for this recipe :( :)

Half of a loaf goes into the patty mix and other half used for coating.

Mixing has to be done by hands. If your chicken is too cold, heat soaked bread and cream in a microwave to get it warm. It will make mixing more comfortable for your hands.

Do not overcook your bread cubes for coating. They has to be dry and light in color.

Do not throw away bread crust you cut off a bread loaf. To make croutons, dice them, drizzle with olive oil, some salt, pepper, paprika or other seasoning and baked in an oven until golden. Use for your salads or soups.

At the right - croutons made off bread crust; at the left - tiny bread cubes we will use to coat Pozharski Kotlets.

Bread cubes stick pretty nicely to patty mix.

They brown up very quickly, so don't use a high heat.

Finish in an oven.