Moment from Murray market

I love markets, my favorite time of the year

Attack of Tasty Killer Tomatoes

It is growing good this year.

From our backyard

Ukrainian style pork roast

This is very popular and very simple way of cooking a pork roast in Ukraine and not just Ukraine, but Russia and Belarus as well.

The sweetness of natural pork here is being complimented by sweetness of a carrot and aroma of garlic.

So, that is  all you need for the roast

Pork  on a bone ( I prefer fat shoulder, but any fat part will do) 

Few cloves of garlic 

1 medium carrot 

Salt and black pepper

The pork itself should be on a fat side. The fat will melt down and give flavor to everything, plus I cook the roast to a higher temperature and longer, so the fat roast will be moist.

All you do is :

Cut the carrot and garlic in small pieces 

Make slits on the side of the pork and stuff every slit with piece of garlic and carrot. Plus, there will plenty of places on the roast you can put the garlic and the carrot. Any type of openings you can stuff : I put some under the fat , that will stay on  and melt.

Rub nicely with salt and black pepper and just a little bit of vegetable oil.

Cook until done, I cook it to 185 F.

About 45 minute before end I add some raw sliced potatoes in the pan.

Enjoy

Tarator – cold yoghurt soup

Do you like a Tzatziki sauce?  Well, imagine it is a soup, I mean really cold soup.  Balkan countries prepare it for hundreds of years; it is really refreshing when it’s 100 F outside. I prepare it every summer

So, what do you need?

2 large cucumbers or 1 English cucumber

1 can of yoghurt

3-4 stems of dill

1 clove of garlic

Walnuts (you will be adding them in the end, so it’s up to you how much)

1 oz. of ether olive, vegetable oil, but the best sunflower oil (this is what I use)

Ice cold water

Salt

Sweet paprika - you can do without it, but it counter -acts the sourness of the yoghurt if you add it in

Clean the cucumbers from skin and seeds, you can ether slice them really fine or grind them to little pc's.

Cut the dill really fine

Chop the clove of garlic, if you can do almost paste like – the best

Mix cucumber, salt, oil, garlic and dill

Mix yoghurt with ice water 3:1, mix really well until smooth

Add the mixture of cucumber, oil, garlic, dill and salt, mix well.

Check for salt

Put in refrigerator overnight. If you do not have time to cool it overnight, just reduce cold water and add some crushed ice to it, it will melt into yoghurt and make it cold

Before serving, mix one more time until it’s smooth.

Serve in a dish the way it is, but you can add crushed walnut and sweet paprika in moderation

Fried Chicken livers with fresh Vidalia Onions

You know, the Vidalia onions are so good raw.  They do not have this pongee aroma of regular onions, so you can eat them as they are, just sliced with a little bit of salt.

This is a recipe from Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian sweet onion was similar in taste to Vidalia .

There was a snack bar right in the center of town, where this dish was served.

So, this is what we need for 2 people

1 pound of chicken livers ( organic preferably)

½ of large sweet Vidalia onion sliced

Salt and black pepper

Frying oil – I use vegetable oil

Fry the livers in oil with salt and pepper until done and put in a dish.  Put freshly sliced Vidalia over  it.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you add cold beer to it, you will enjoy it even more!

Simple classic - Beef fillet with asparagus

I usually buy this type of meat cut around special holidays:  Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day. Most of the stores run specials on fillets, dropping prices from usual $15.99-$17.99 per pound to $7.99, sometimes even to $6.99 for 2 fillets in a package.

I boil the asparagus in salted water for a short time, and put it  in an ice water.

The beef fillet is pan fried  on medium heat and in the end to brown - on higher heat, sometimes I even add butter (this helps to brown it faster) 

May 10 is National Shrimp Day in the US. Here is my Shrimp Cocktail

Really simple

1. Steamed shrimp

2. Shrimp cocktail : 50% ketchup to 50% horseradish. Its really strong. You can change up to your liking, by reducing the horseradish

Enjoy!!