Fast lentil soup

All we need is
For vegetarian version:

2 cups of dry lentils
1 cup of sliced onions
1 stick of celery ( chopped)
1 little carrot ( chopped)
few cloves of garlic

A little bit of yogurt (plain)


Boil the lentils without salt in water until almost done
Fry the garlic, onions, celery and carrots, add a little bit of  salt and black pepper. You can add cumin, but not much.

When lentils are cooked, just pour the fried vegetables into the lentils. Mix well. Cook until lentils are done. Let the soup stay for a about 10-15 min. for aromas to mix.
Serve hot.
When the soup is in the serving dish , put one table spoon of yogurt on the top.

You can turn it into a lentil and sausage soup by adding into the fried vegetable  mixture a little bit of your favorite smoked salami. I add  Polish kielbasa, andouille sausage or smoked chorizo.
 
So you will get something like this:

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

Happy Valentine's Day

Valley of Fire, Nevada

Heart Shaped Rock formation

Positively Good Morning

Oven baked chicken wings with simple pesto from parsley, garlic and vinegar

Super bowl is today. The Chicken wings are popular item. This is the way I do them.

Really simple way.

Just baked them with salt, black pepper and vegetable oil until done and GBD ( Golden, Brown and Delicious).
By american standards I cook  them longer in order for them to become crispy.

The Pesto is simple: combine parsley, vinegar, salt and garlic in a blender - that's all. The amount of garlic is up to you.

Put the pesto over the wings while they are hot, this way the vinegar will go into wings better.

The vinegar cuts the fat of the chicken wings, makes them lighter

Enjoy!

Year of the Horse

All Right!!

Bryce Canyon , horse ride!