Homemade Tomato Soup

Homemade Tomato Soup

This is Macedonian version of simple tomato soup, great for the summer and also for every season.

Recipe:

1 kg tomatoes

2-3 tablespoons olive oil (or any kind of oil)

parsley finely chopped

2-3 cloves minced garlic

2-3 eggs (you can skip the eggs, if you don't like eggs)

salt and pepper

optional:

few basil leafs

oregano

or some other spice that you like

Cut the tomatoes into four vedges. Grind the tomatoes into the pot. If you find this hard, you can peel them and blend them into blender. Than add them to the pot. Put the pot onto medium heat and bring the tomatoes to boil. Cook the tomatoes with open lid until 1/3 of the consistency is boiled down. Add the oil, garlic, parsley salt and pepper (and any spice that you like) and cook this for another 5 minutes. If the soup is too acidic for your taste add a spoon of sugar (although in Macedonia we don't add sugar). Beat the eggs in a bowl. Turn off the heat and add the eggs. Stir them

so they can cook. You can garnish this with parsley, garlic bread croutons or whatever you like.

Bon Appetit:-)

Turli Tava

This is a popular Macedonian dish, peope's most favorite in the summer, and extremely delicious. Not very easy to make

but sure it's worth it.

Recipe:

600 gr (or more) pork or beef meat (boneless) or chicken breasts or thighs (boneless). Cut it into medium sized pieces. (bigger than bitesize)

500 gr potatoes peeled and cutted into small cubes

500 gr tomatoes cutted into cubes

500 gr eggplant peeled and cutted into small cubes

500 gr bell pepper cutted into small pieces

4-5 okras cutted into circles

200 gr rice

1 large onion finely diced

water

oil

salt and 8-10 peppercorns

parsley

If you want this in vegetarian variation, leave out the meat and start with onions and potatoes.

Preheat the oven to 250 C degrees.

In a medium deep baking pan add the oil and the diced onion and stir. Lay the pieces of meat on top and bake this 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes stir everything and bake 5 minutes. After 5 minutes add the cubed potatoes and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir everything and bake 5 more minutes. Then add the peppers and bake for 10 minutes. After that stir everything in the pan and bake 5 more minutes. Add the eggplant and the okras and bake 10 minutes. Than stir everything in the pan

and bake 5 minutes. Now add the tomatoes, rice, salt and peppercorns, parsley and stir everything. Add the water until the content of the pan is almost covered. Bake for 20-30 minutes more or until the rice is cooked.

The preparation is little boring but when you try this, you'll see that it's worth it.

Enjoy:-)

Spaghetti And Ham

I made this meal because I had one package of spaghetti and I wanted some fast meal.
This is extremely fast.
Recipe:
1 package spaghetti
200gr ham (or any smoked meat will do) - if you want, you can replace the meat with some vegetables.
250gr double cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice and zest from 1/2 lemon
200 gr yellow cheese (any cheese that melt will do) grated
salt, pepper, vegeta

Cook the spaghetti, and while they cook make the sauce. Slice the ham in very thin pieces and fry it on little oil.
After 5 minutes add the double cream, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper, vegeta and the cheese. Add the cooked spaghetti and stir.
Garnish with a little more grated cheese on top. Enjoy this fast and easy meal:-)

Pudding Cake

If you want some easy and fast, but delicious dessert, than this pudding cake is great for you.
I know that in the picture it looks kind of ugly, but I didn't had patience and I've cut it when it was still warm:-)
When it's firm it looks pretty.
Recipe:
1 liter milk
2 packages pudding powder (any taste, you can actually make 2 different puddings so that your cake will be colorful)
14 tablespoons of sugar (if you want you can use less)
2 small packages of ordinary biscuits (if you want you can use some other biscuits
If you like you can use some fruits (if you use pudding with fruit taste), or you can add coconut shreds, or chocolate...anything you like. This cake is versatile.
In a deep pan or cake shape, place one layer of the biscuits. Crush some biscuits to fill the gaps.
Cook the pudding according to the package instructions. After it's done you can add into it fruit or whatever you like.
Pour 1/3 of the pudding. Than place another layer of biscuits, and again pudding. It should be 3 layers biscuits, 3 layers pudding, starting with the biscuits and finishing with the pudding.
There's no need to soak the biscuits into liquid, they'll soak the excess liquid from the pudding.
Let it cool then place it into the fridge and let it cool until the cake is hardened. You can garnish it with beaten double cream, fruit or whatever you like.

Creamy Chicken

This meal is another variation from meals with double cream. The double cream is great stuff. It can blend with anything and it gives richness to the meal.
For this recipe you'll need:
500gr chicken meat chopped in small pieces
1 medium onion or couple of spring onions
250gr double cream
zest of 1 lemon or I'll think 1/2 orange will do too
salt, pepper, vegeta
50-80gr oil
You can add some other vegetable as well.
Fry the meat and the onions on heated oil. Than add lid on and let it simmer 10-15 minutes.
Add salt, pepper, vegeta and the zest, than add the double cream. If it's too thick, add some water.
Close the lid on again and simmer it for 10 minutes.
Eat this wonderful meal with pasta, potato mush or whatever you like. Enjoy:-)

Zucchinis/Courgettes With Light Sauce

This is extremely easy and light meal, and it's great in summertime.
Recipe:
2-3 zucchinis/courgettes
200-250 gr sour milk
100gr corn and 100 gr ordinary flour mixed together
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
dill finely chopped
salt, pepper
oil for frying
Cut the zucchinis/courgettes in 1/2 cm circles (you can peel them if you like, but it isn't necessary just wash them well and dry them).
Coat every circle in the flours and fry them in very hot oil. When they're fried, place them onto kitchen paper towel, to soak the excess oil.
Mix the sour milk with the garlic, dill and salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the zucchinis/courgettes. Enjoy this light summer meal.

Pileski Paprikas

Pileski paprikas (Chicken and paprika) is a meal which isn't very old-style. It's actually modern meal.
It's one of my favorite meals, and that's why I'm going to share this recipe with you.
Recipe:
500gr chicken breast (but I think any part of chicken will do, but boneless and skinless) chopped in small pieces
maybe 500gr water (but again it depends how thick you want the sauce). Another good idea is to use water in which the pasta has cooked.
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 tablespoon of paprika
zest from 1 lemon, and the juice
200-250gr sour cream or double cream
50-80gr oil
salt, pepper, vegeta
parsley
1 package of any kind of pasta, or you can eat it with rice, mash potatoes...or whatever you like
In saucepan heat the oil, than add the onion and the meat fry them for about 5 minutes and then place a lid on and simmer it
10-15 minutes until the meat is cooked and tender. Add the flour, cook it 1 min and then add the paprika and quickly add the water.
Add the zest and the juice from the lemon, salt, pepper and vegeta. Cook it with the lid off for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce is thick enough for you.
Stir occasionally because the flour tend to stay on the bottom the first couple of minutes. When it's done, add the sour cream or double cream and add the parsley.
Pour the sauce over pasta, rice or whatever you like. Enjoy:-)