Slovak Foods Recipes

Pigs' trotters with ginger and vinegar, Last year, I posted a recipe for Pig's trotters with vinegar which I got by interrogating my MIL for her secret recipe. I never cooked this traditional Cantonese food myself because MIL made the pig's trotters often. There was usually a pot of it on the back burner. Sadly, MIL passed away last month and in, the process of clearing out her kitchen, I found half a dozen bottles of the special vinegar she used. I decided I would replicate her recipe. Then I unearthed a twenty year old slow cooker, unused, in its original box. I am a fan of the pressure cooker and never cooked with a crock pot. But the pig's trotters have to be simmered for hours and it seemed a good idea to use a slow cooker. I discovered that the slow cooker is the perfect pot for cooking pig's trotters. Just plug it in and let it cook all day long. The pork skin becomes soft and tender and the bones have fallen off. There is nothing to do on...

Baby cuttlefish salad How many people can go to the market and just buy what is on the list? Not make any impulse buys? You can! What is your secret? Whenever I am in a supermarket I always come home with impulse buys. I see the cooking demonstrations and generally end up buying something. So when I saw stir-fried cuttlefish, guess what, I bought a package. But I don't regret that impulse buy. The baby cuttlefish comes all cleaned and ready-to-go and it is so easy to whip up a salad or stir-fry. Now I keep a package in the freezer for quick meal. The salad I am making is based on the Vietnamese Squid Salad, Goi Muc. Well, cuttlefish and squid belong to the same family. Ingredients: 1 lb of baby cuttlefish, thawed 1 cucumber, shredded Garnish: Chopped peanuts Dressing: 2 tablespoons of freshly-squeezed lime juice A few cloves of garlic, minced A teaspoon of sesame oil A teaspoon of sugar Some crushed black pepper Half a cup of chopped cilantro Chopp...

Stir-fried noodles with vegetables, Chap Jae I bought a package of sweet potato vermicelli mistaking them for mung bean vermicelli or glass noodles. I never noticed this type of vermicelli before and didn't know how it was eaten. No problem. I googled and found that it is cooked in a similar way to the glass noodles. In fact, there is a well-known Korean dish called Chap Jae that is stir fried with vegetables. I made Chap Jae and it turned out very well. The noodles are firmer and have more bite than the glass noodles. Everyone loved the dish. In future, I'll be buying sweet potato vermicelli on purpose rather than by accident. Sweet potato vermicelli, called dang myun in Korean. Here is my version: Ingredients: A 14 ounce package of sweet potato vermicelli A quarter pound of beef, thinly sliced 2 shitake mushrooms, sliced, if using dried, soak in hot water to soften 4 dried cloud ear mushrooms, soaked in hot wate A bunch of spinach, washed 2 cups...

Lemon granita Lemons are one of my favourite fruits. I love the colour, the smell of the flowers, leaves and fruits. I don't think I've met any food made with lemons that I didn't like. Lemon meringue pie, lemon bars, lemon tarts, limonada, are all my faves. I love the smell of lemons. I buy soaps and lotions that are scented with lemons. Considering my fondness for lemons, I'm a bit puzzled that I never painted any rooms lemon yellow. Here is a charming conceit, lemon granita served in frozen, hollowed lemons, which I adapted Wolfgang Puck's recipe: Ingredients: 6 lemons 4 cups of water Sugar, to taste 3 sprigs of lemon balm or thyme 2 tablespoons of limoncello Method: Clean and wash the lemons. Cut off the top 1/4 of the lemons and shave a bit of the bottom so they can stand. Try to keep them level. A couple of mine listed a bit. Use a sharp, thin knife (I used a boning knife), to cut the flesh of the lemon. Be careful not to cut th...

Lunch on a tray I read that Dolly Parton eats 5 bites for a meal. I couldn't manage that. It would be too much trouble trying to figure out which 5 bites I wanted. The South Beach Diet allows for a varied diet and, with some planning, one can have tasty meals and not worry too much about portions. My method for portion control is the 2 saucer plan. I eat two saucers of food for lunch and it is enough and very tasty. My South Beach Diet-friendly meals are quick and easy to prepare. They are mostly Asian-inspired salads. Since I have been participating in food blogging events I have done a bit of Thai and Korean cooking and find that these cuisines are ideal for SBD. I have collected many saucers and plates for samples. I am a potter and I buy bits and pieces of china as design and colour references. Anything that catches my eye. These are my swatches. This turned out to be very handy for food blogging and the South Beach diet. I buy them in multiples whenever possible ...

Korean Mung Bean Pancakes, Bindae Duk I never heard of Bindae Duk until I saw a recipe in a magazine. Then, you know the way it is, when one becomes aware of something, all of a sudden, the name keeps cropping up. Friends were raving about Bindae Duk. I was in a mall and saw Bindae Duk (fake plastic food) in the display case outside a Korean restaurant. Bindae Duk is Korean comfort food and after I made them, I understood why. These little pancakes are crispy, soft, spicy and very tasty. They are cheap and nutritious and so easy to make. Mind you, they cannot be whipped up on the spur of the moment, the beans need to be soaked, preferably overnight. Here is the recipe for Bindae Duk: Ingredients for about 15, 3-inch pancakes: One cup of hulled, split mung beans, soaked in cold water overnight 2 cloves of garlic, minced Salt and pepper to taste Half a cup of kim chi 2 tablespoons of sesame oil 2 or 3 green onions, shredded 1 king oyster mushroom cut into...

9 cups All purpose Flour, sifted 1 tsp Salt 2 cups Milk, Scalded 1 cup Crisco 1 cup Sugar 1 lg cake of Yeast 4 Eggs The Filling: Mix following together. Finely grounded Walnuts or Poppyseed with sugar and a little milk, or purchase prepared poppyseed, nut, Lekvar(prune), or apricot spread from the store. Preheat oven as mentioned below. Sift flour and salt together. Scauld milk in pot, then place Crisco in the milk and let it dissolve and cool. Mix sugar and yeast together and let them stand until yeast ferments and melts into the sugar (apx 30-45 minutes). Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with hands to form into dough. Cover with a white towel or cloth. Set in a warm place away from drafts. Let rise until it is double in bulk, about 2 hours. When not sticky, place on a clean lightly floured table and roll out dough 1/8"-1/4" thick with a rolling pin and into a 12"-15" by __?" rectangle. Cover the dough rectangle with pollyseed, grounded walnuts, ...