Cook Like a Star - Barefoot Contessa (Smoked Salmon and Egg Salad Tartines)

I found the recipe at Food Network - Barefoot Contessa  Salmon is a frequent ingredient in our menu here. Smoked salmon and egg salad tartines were really delicious. I didn't modify the recipe. I prepared the tartines following exactly the original recipe of Ina Garten. The only thing I added was a radish batterfly garnish. And yes, I reduced the ingredient's quantity.

The recipe source here

Ingredients 
8 servings

• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon good mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoons whole-grain mustard ( I ground it)
• 1 tablespoons minced fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 ground black pepper
• 8 slices French bread 
• 8 slices good smoked salmon

Directions

Boil the eggs. Peel them and chop.
Transfer the chopped eggs to a bowl and add the mayonnaise, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Combine lightly with a fork.

Toast or grill the bread. Lay 1 slice of salmon on each piece of bread, spread on the egg salad, then garnish with a sprig of dill. I used a radish garnish.  Serve at room temperature.

 Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten recipe

The day before I made a vegetable carving arrangement for my class and carving tools presentation. It consists of pumpkin, cucmber, carrot and daikon.

The recipe is linked to Cook like a Star blog hop event organized by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids).

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1. Sakura Blossoms. 2.Food Stories Award

I've been out of blogging for a while by some reasons. My younger brother got sick in hospital. He needed blood transfusion. We asked relatives and friends to be donors to help him. Moreover I found out that I have a rare blood type... I was out of order because of all the situations. 

Thanks heaven my brother is getting better now. 

It's Sakura blossom season in Sakhalin. Japanese people say that the short sakura time is like a woman beauty. Fades quickly. I can't agree with the statement. Today we have good cosmetic treatments to stay younger ;)

Sakura trees in Yuzhno city streets

Chekov monument in front of the Sakhalin library

Sakura by my office building

Apple tree blossoms

I carved Sakura soap.

Sakura soap

Food Stories award

I was nominated for the  Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling by my blooger friend CJ (Food Story). Now I have to share a random thing about myself. Well the thing is the following:

I have never had iPhone.

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Update on The Samsung Global Blogger Contest

I have good news!
I passed through the Samsung Global Blogger audition contest to the second round!
First of all I thank all my readers and friends for watching and supporting me in this activity.

Now I am on my second task with making a report about a sport event in my hometown.
You can watch my video report here at the SGB page

http:// samsungglobalblogger .r u.msn.com/videos/3867

The video will be judged by a team of the independent judges, but you can yet help them to pick up a best one by supporting the participant :))

A video report should meet the following criteria:
i. News sense - have they told the story well and effectively? Have they aimed it at the right audience? Have they taken an interesting angle?
ii. Good presenting skills - exhibiting a passion for the subject matter, confidence and energy in front of the camera and a sense of what looks good on camera
iii. The skill exhibited in producing the video, including elements such as location choice, camera skills, etc.
iv. Editing skills - length of video, pace, use of voiceover, etc.

After watching my video I understood that I MUST go to London to improve my accent to sound more british :)

I would be happy to get your opinion about the video. Critic is welcome as well. 

THANK YOU!!!

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Huckleberry Tart With Apple Rose Garnish

Huckleberry tart

I found this easy recipe of the berry tart at TheScootaBaker

Roll out a sheet of puff pastry. Spread berries on the sheet surface and fold the edges like on the photo. I used frozen huckleberry sprinkled with sugar powder.

Fold the edges of the sheet

For the tart garnishing  I made roses of apple.
Quarter and core an apple. Slice it as thin as you can. Now you need to blanch the slices in the syrup.
Take 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 cups of water, bring to the boil. If you want to change a color of apple add a few drops of food coloring (or some berry juice). Boil for 5-7 minutes and take out to drain.

Lay the slices out to get a strip as on the picture.

Roll the strip up and form a rose. Do not roll it tightly, let the rose open its nice petals :)

Roll the slices into a rose

Set the apple roses on the tart and enjoy your baking!

Linked with:
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/

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Ikebana Arrangement with Bell Pepper Flowers

Last week was fuul of events. Crazy Hand Made exhibition, Samsung Global Blogger contest and Sogetsu Ikebana school opening on Sakhalin island. 

My readers know that I attend Ikebana class. That's my hobby. Last week our school moved to the building of Sakhalin State University. To celebrate this event we showed a live demo on making ikebana. 

My Ikebana teacher allows me to experiment with materials. I usually add fruit and vegetable carving details to my ikebana arrangements. This time I carved flowers of bell peppers. I was doubt if that was a good idea to combine the free style and the traditional japanese art. But my inner voice said "Just Do That!" :) 

Ikebana with flowers carved of bell pepper

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Lazy Pelmenys. Russian Food Recipe

The 1st of May was a holiday in Russia. I took my time to make a photo recipe. I recalled the recipe after reading Veggie Cheese Roll-ups at Kathleen's blog Step by Step in the kitchen. 

The recipe I'd like to share is a quick edition of the famous russian Pelmeny called Lazy Pelmeny.

I am not skilled in making a dough. But this time I succeed it to my surprise. 

For dough you need:

2 cup of flour,

1 egg,

1/2 cup of water 

salt

Volcano :)

I am mixing the dough and it seems to me a pleasant work :))

Prepare meat mince, add garlic and spices

Flat the dough

Spread the mince on the dough flat

Roll it up and cut into small parts

Add a sauce (water, mayonnaise, paprika or any spice)

Bake it for 30-40 minutes

Eat pelmenys with a mustard, pickles and sour cream. I love them with japanese vinegar gignger.

In March I hosted Flavour of Russia Event in my blog. Check it up and have a happy cooking!

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How To Vote At My Conest Video Page

My friends ask me how to vote for my contest video at Zooppa page.
There is a screenshot of the video page.

You need to do the following things:
1. Go to http:// zooppa. com/ads/samsung-global-blogger-on-zooppa/videos/garnishfood-blogger-about-the-olympics to watch the video.
2.There is a bar on the right of the video (I marked it with a red arrow on the screenshot). Click that and log in with a password or your Facebook account.
3. When you are logged in you will see a rating bar on the right of the video. Choose 5 and you are done! :)

Your comments are encouraging and so important to me!

Thanks for your support!

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Make You Food Sportish While The Olympics 2012 In London

Dear friends!

I was invited to participate in Samsung Global Blogger contest as a russian blogger. They are looking for a passionate blogger to report on the Olympics 2012 in his own unique manner.

I made a short video in my garnishfood style :) You can watch it at the contest page. If I win and go to London I will make reports on food, people, the games and other things that my camera will be focused on.
 I have a chance to meet you, my Facebook&blogger friends from Britain in real for talking and carving!
If you fancy the idea please watch my video and vote me!
In order to vote the video you are requested to sign up.

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Easter Dinner

You might  heard that Russian Easter was celebrated on the 15th of April, the last Sunday. I have posted some pictures of our Easter food at my Facebook page. Today I'd like to give more details about it.

The main Easter food in Russia is Kulich or Easter cake. Kulich is a pastry with raisins. The cake on the picture below is not my baking. I bought it at a shop. Mine was the decorative part. Several months ago I purchased a special plate to display Easter food. The plate has cells for eggs which help to arrange them nicely around the plate. I have a few ideas of using this plate in a routine life. 

By the way have you seen my Food Wonder Tree? :))

Kulich and easter eggs

Roasted chicken garnished with carrot flowers. I used a carrot curler to do the flowers.

Apply some salt and spicies onto a chicken skin and inside the chicken and leave for 2-3 hours. Set a chicken in a roaster and bake in a middle fire for 2 hours.

I recieved a photo from my friends with thier Esater cooking. They had a lot of baking (click the photo for a closer look):

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Edible Easter Crafts At Primary School

I have been asked for a carving lesson at a primary school for 8-9 years old children. 

In order to make the lesson interesting I made a short presentation about carving art with pictures and live demonstration on how to create funny edible crafts. After that we made fruit easter bunnies together with kids.  I found the fruit bunny recipe easy for kids. Even 5 years old children can do it with a little help of adults. 

It was a fun and interactive lesson. I think the photographs of the lesson show how happy all of us were. 

Check up another Easter Bunny out of orange

Fruit carving lesson at a primary school

Together with kids and fruit bunnies

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Watermelon Carving Lesson

The weekend last week I was engaged for a group lesson on watermelon carving. The lesson was held at Claudia's house, a lady that I met at the Crazy Hand Made Exhibition in February. 

That was our second meeting with the group. At the first lesson we carved flowers and garnishes of vegetables. The ladies had been captured by carving art and asked me for a watermelon class. 

Here are the photographs of our carving meeting.

awaitng for the guests

carving process

we carve roses and leaves in watermelons

Marina with her watermelon

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Fruit Carving Arrangement For Purple Theme Wedding

I made this fruit arrangement for a themed wedding decorated in purple color. I decided to use a purple vase to stay connected with the theme. That was a good idea and the tranparent vase fit the interior harmonically.

Choosing a carving pattern was the next challenge for me. I though that the vase should be the main emphasis of the display. So I decided to avoid carving traditional wedding patterns like hearts, birds etc and fixed on  the gorgeous design I saw at Miho Morita website, my soap carving teacher in Tokyo.

In my point of view purple color is difficult for fruit display. I mean there are no fruits in purple color (apart of grape and plums which are more black than purple). So I was satisfied with the vase idea. That was looking great in real and in photographs too.

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Pumpkin Snowmen Update

I have news about my Pumpkin Snowmen.
I loved to say that my snowmen were alive because they had been made of natural materials. Now I confim my words by showing you the photographs. You see that the snowmen made new snowmen :) The pumpkins gave  birth to new pumpkins. The seeds sprang in the warm and wet environment inside the pumpkin. I think that is beautiful!

I extrated the seed and planted them into a plastic box. I hope they will survive untill June then I can move the plants to the garden. It is still winter here in Sakhalin. It is snowing and cold up to May. Usually it gets warmer by June.
I wish to have the pumpkin babies for my next pumpkin projects!

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Flavours of Russia Roundup (Weekly Update)

There is the last week of the Russian Flavours Event March 2012 on my blog.  I am still open to your recipes of russian food. You can send them to me up to the 1st of April 2012 to my email selen15367@yahoo.com or by dropping your link to the comment bar.

Add a russian flavour to your kitchen!

 
In order to get some ideas of Russian cooking please visit the websites:

http://www.russianbites.com/
http://everydayrussian.com/

http://www.food.com/recipe-finder/russian,vegetarian

http://www.ifood.tv/network/russian_vegetarian/recipes

Here is a weekly Roundup post with the recipes I have got during March.

Sharlotka (Russian Apple Pie) by Nayna (simply.food)

Buckweat blini (russian pancakes) made by Greensleeves (chezmaximka.blogspot.com)

 A recipe and interesting remarks about russian tastes.

Honey cake with prunes and soured cream by Greensleeves (chezmaximka.blogspot.com)

There are many variations of the russian honey cake. Check up one of them at Greensleeves blog.

 Pirojki made by Nayna (simply.food)

Detailed method on making pirojki with vegetable filling.

Russian Salad by Nayna (simply.food)

A famous russian salad with beetroot, potato and .. check up the recipe!!

 Dried Fruit Kompot by Amy (Food Corner)

Kompot is a drink can be boiled with dried or fresh fruits and berries.
I make kompots with fruit carving leftovers as ananas corers, apple and orange cuts.

Green Pavlova by Helen (fussfreeflavours.com)

Pavlova cake is not a traditional Russian cuisine. But the story of the recipe is connected with Anna Pavlova, a famouse Russian ballet dancer. So I have added the Pavlova cake to the Event :)
A few years ago I made a papper collage of a dancing ballerina. You can see it at my Facebook album.

Piroshki with eggs and onion (a recipe of mine)

Small stuffed pies baked by myself for a weekend.



The recipes are sent to "Flavours of Russia" Event 
originated by simply.food
guest host by Garnishfood Blog

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