Hello!!

Russian week going well. Seems this time I planned more dishes than I needed for the week so I am gonna continue for a few more days to use up the ingredients I have bought. These are the dishes I made in the last few days. On Saturday night we had a lovely American couple who brought us home made chocolate chip cookies. I cooked the Iranian Zereshk polo, Joy made two Indian vegetarian dishes. I also made the beef straganof from our Russian week. I didn't take pictures of those obviously coz it's kind of vain to do that in front of your guests but I must say that Beefstraganof was awesome in my taste! finally achieved tender meat! I think the bashing of the meat was key! It was Jamie's recipe (http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/recipes-view.php?title=beef-stroganoff-1). 

Thank god I do sports otherwise I would have been one big fat Shirin with all this eating!!

Wednesday

Salad Olivier

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/515406

Thursday

Chicken Kotleti

 http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/main-course/chicken-kotleti/

Friday

Salmon Coulibiac

This felt wierd. rice in puff pastry! but it looked good and tasted okay. Just need some wet and juicy side..yogurt, cream or something

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/756634/salmon-coulibiac

Creme Caramel

Nothing to do with the Russian week. Just the desert for our Saturday dinner. I think the best creme caramel I have made so far. Somehow I nailed it this time. 

Recipe: secret :)

Planning the Russian week was a bit more challenging than the other ones. Finding the recipes that worked  took longer. But I am happy with the result. These are the dishes I have made so far.

Sunday

Plov

http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/main-course/plov/

Monday

Pirozki stuffed with cabbage and eggs

The house smelled great when I was baking these. Aryan liked this very much and took it to school in his packed lunch next day! really good picnic food.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/traditional-russian-pirozhki/

Tuesday

Borsch 

The color of this hearty soup is just delightful. Just cheers me up! Absolutely loved it. have loads left so welcome to pop in for some leftover :)

Hot and sour soup and chicken wrap with hoisin sauce were out last two dishes in our chinese week. Sorry couldn't take pictures. Our little Arvin has caught chicken pox so I am not as organized as I should be. Still managed to plan next week's food. We're heading to Russia!  Aryan chose Russia so he can scratch off a big area on our map. he has no clue! bet he won't be happy about all the cabbage and beetroot dishes. :)

The great thing about Chinese food is that it's very quick! I did not end up spending hours in the kitchen like with some of the other countries. They are great for sharing as well. This Chow mein was a bit too plain for me and Joy we I love my food rich and spicy but the boys loved it. Now we have just one more dish to go... a Duck wrap.. with hoisin sauce. I have to start thinking where to head next. Any ideas?

Tuesday

child friendly Chow mein :)

 Thursday

My very first attempt at dumplings! not bad! you can actually buy dumpling sheets from Chinese stores. they are nice and easy. Tasted great with sweet chilil sauce and Soy sauce. yum...

Here are the dishes I made in the last three days. My favourite is the Chinese braised beef one-pot. It was really simple, straightforward and the result was absolutely delicious. Loved it. Can't believe Aryan is eating this stuff!  I was really looking forward to cooking Pork in black bean sauce but it wasn't like the take away ones :) Was surprised as the recipe was by a Chinese chef so expected it to be really good but it was pretty bland. Joy helped me out with that one as I was knocked down with a terrible toothache. In the end he actually added a lot of stuff which made it a lot more tastier.... Today spent the afternoon cooking a few dishes for the next few days as won't be able to cook tomorrow.. dentist appt. and more pain probably.. But cooking, climbing, painkillers and my boys get me through :)

Monday

Chicken with sweet and sour sauce (fiery!! too hot for Joy even!)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/291608/sweet-and-sour-chicken

Tuesday

 Braised beef one-pot with Pok choi

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9646/chinesestyle-braised-beef-onepot

Wednesday
My favourite take-away dish

Pork in black bean sauce
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/porkinblackbeansauce_67795

4

Chinese Spring Rolls

Finally... I am back! not 100% though... still suffering from toothache. Food and cooking are not as much fun at the moment but I am determined not to let that stop me this week. I have done my planning and shopping. This time I visited the small Asian store on Lee high road to get a couple of ingredients. The Chinese lady was very helpful and I found all I needed.. So after a weekly shop from Sainsbury's, I headed back home and started cooking my first ever spring rolls. They were really good actually! Didn't take me long either. The spring roll sheets are not as fiddly as I thought they'd be. These ones are with chicken.

                                http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandvegetables_89282

Revisiting China

Finally ready for next week's foody adventure. I am gonna go back to China coz I think we didn't do China properly! Last time I just used ready made sauces and stuff from Sainsbury's... This time round, I'll try more authentic stuff and hopefully get my ingredients from a Chinese store....need to plan my dishes now... Suggestions please?! You never know! You might get a chance to taste them :)