Spring is Here!
Steamed Shrimp with Mango Chutney and Young Coconut
Sweet, slightly chilli chutney with an addictive coconut hint in the same bite with old bay seasoned steamed shrimp, what can go wrong?
The chicken is roasted to perfection and the garden vegetables are packed with flavor. It’s so delicious I made this recipe 2 weeks in a row.
Octopus with Mushrooms and Potatoes
The spicy taste of potatoes is pleasantly mixed with the hearty flavor of saute mushrooms and freshly cooked octopus.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
Nutty Goat Cheese Bites
Soft goat cheese is mixed with aromatics, rolled in nuts and served with honey on the side.
1 lb soft goat cheese
1 /2 tablespoon sumac
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1/2 tablespoon dry oregano
1/4 cup pistachios, finely ground
1/4 cup almonds
In a mixing bowl place the soft goat cheese and add the sumac, lightly toasted sesame seed and the dry oregano. Mix well until get a homogeneous texture.
With a spoon shape it to a smooth oval. Roll each piece in shaved almonds or crushed pistachios. Serve it with honey and pomegranate syrup on the side.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
April Issue Sneak Peek
Download MAZA from the iTunes store and get the upcoming Spring Issue.
Country Bean Salad with Roasted Eggplants and Cherry Tomatoes
Tartine with Asparagus and Cheese
Salmon with Aromatic Couscous
Spring Arugula Salad with Fennel and Blood Oranges
Cream Soup of Mushrooms and Leeks
Country-Style Mussels
Chicken Liver Spread
Home-made Lasagna with Ragu Bolognese
| Home-made Lasagna with Ragu Bolognese |
- FOR LASAGNA DOUGH
- We followed Lidia Bastianich Middle-class Not-quite Golden Pasta recipe from “Lidia’s family table” Cookbook. We made the dough by hand and rolled it by machine to #8 thickness.
- FOR BECHAMEL SAUCE
- We followed Lidia Bastianich recipe from “Lidia’s family table”
- FOR RAGU ALLA BOLOGNESE
- 1.5 ground pork
- 1 large Spanish onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 cans plum tomatoes
- 1 medium size eggplant, peeled and cut to ¼ pieces
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, diced
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat brown the ground pork for 30 minutes.
- In a large Dutch oven over medium heat cook the minced onion and garlic until it gets translucent color. Add the eggplant and cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Pour in the plum tomatoes, wash out each can with ¼ cup water and return the water to the mix. Add 1teaspoon salt, the thyme and basil and let it cook for 3 hour while stirring occasionally.
- In a very large pot in boiling salted water cook teach strip of fresh pasta until al dente and transfer it to a pod full with iced water to cool for a minute. Once chilled place the pasta strip on a flat surface.
- Heat the oven to 350F.
- Coat the bottom of the baking dish evenly with 1/2 cup sauce. Drape the pasta strip the length of the dish, covering completely the bottom and extend over the sides by 4”. Pour ½ cup sauce, drizzle 1/4 béchamel sauce and sprinkle 2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese on top and layer in the same way at the previous strips by in the opposite direction. Pour ½ cup sauce, drizzle 1/4 béchamel sauce , sprinkle 2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese on top and layer with pasta dough this time without extending the ends. Repeat the same until you reach 1” from the top of the dish. Fold the extending pasta ends and evenly cover with both sauces and generously top with shredded Parmesan.
- Place it in the oven and bake it for 40 min.
- Let it rest for at least 15-20 minutes before serving.
La Rocca Style Octopus with Potato Salad and Jamon Serrano
| La Rocca Style Octopus with Potato Salad and Jamon Serrano |
- 2 lbs octpus
- POTATO SALAD
- 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns – freshly grounded
- 2 fresh thyme springs
- 1 fresh rosemary springs
- ?1 fresh oregano springs
- 2 medium garlic cloves, peeled
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Apple vinegar or the juice of fresh lemon?1 spring scallion
- ½ medium size red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon freshly sliced parsley
- 2 tablespoons jamon Serrano, cut to small pieces
- In a medium size pot place the potatoes and the herbs. Bring to boil. When start to bubble lower the heat to simmer and boil until tender. Remove them from the hot water. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the skin off. It’s much easier to do it before they cool down completely. Cut the potatoes into 1” cubes and transfer them to a glass salad bowl.
- In a small cup mix kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, vinegar and, thinly sliced red onion, 1 tablespoon freshly sliced parsley and 2 tablespoons jamon Serrano, cut to small pieces.
- Add the vinaigrette over the potatoes and with a spoon mix gently until all potatoes get moist.
- In a large size pot bring to boil salted water. When start to bubble add the octopus, cover with the lid and let it boil for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to simmer and boil it for another 20 minutes. Timing is critical, so have you timer on once you start it. Remove the octopus from the hot water and cut it to small pieces as desired. Serve it over the potato salad.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
Tuna Tartar Recipe
| Tuna Tartar |
- 1 lb tuna, sushi grade
- zest of 1/2
- 1/2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon red hot paste
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cups minced scallions, white and green parts
- 2 ripe Hass avocadoes
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Cut the avocados in half, remove the seed, and peel.
- Mix with the finely chopped scallions and pinch fresh ground black pepper.
- In a mixing bowl, toss the diced tuna with the sesame oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, red hot paste. Season with salt if need it.
- Serve in a combination with seasoned chopped avocado.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
Seafood Risotto, Venetian Style
| Seafood Risotto, Venetian Style |
- RISOTTO
- 1-1/2 cup Arborio rice
- ½ sweet onion, minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves only
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup shrimp aromatic broth
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
- 1 tablespoon red hot pepper, thinly sliced
- AROMATIC SEAFOOD BROTH
- Shells of 16 shrimp
- 12 Manila clams
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup white wine or Prosecco
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ sweet onions, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- To make the aromatic shrimp broth first clean the shrimp with cold water, then peel the shell.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced sweet onion and garlic and cook until soft, about 3minutes. Pour the white wine and mix well. Add the shrimp shells, clams and the heavy cream, lower the heat and gently simmer until the clams open completely. Preserve the clams in a bowl. Run the broth through a sieve and set a side the aromatic juice.
- In a medium size saucepan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion for 2-3 min. Add the rice, pinch of salt, freshly ground black pepper and thyme. Cook until rice gets translucent. Lower the heat and gradually add the water, ¼ cup at time and stir with a wooden spoon. When the water is absorbed, start adding gradually the aromatic broth ¼ cup at time. Stir the rice all the time until creamy and dense. Before stirring the last ¼ cup add the shrimp and let them cook in the creamy risotto.
- Place the steamy risotto in a serving plate and arrange some clams on top. Add fresh dill and thinly sliced red hot peppers just before serving.
Stuffed Cabbage Leaves
I come from a country where to expand your apartment, terraces have been glass-enclosed and converted to kitchens, walls are demolished to make the space as big as possible. This is the magic of the creative mind in a concrete matchstick building. Welcome to Bulgarian home cooking.
12 pieces
½ lbs ground pork
½ lbs ground veal
½ cup rice, rinsed
1 carrot, shredded finely
1 plum tomato, shredded finely
1/2 sweet onion, diced to small pieces
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, diced
2 tablespoons fresh dill, diced
Marinated cabbage leaves
3/4 tablespoon salt, or to taste
½ tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Heat I tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan. Add the diced onion sauté for 2 minutes.
Add the rice and cook for 4-5 minutes, until translucent. Add the shredded carrots and tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes, then add the ground meat with the rest of the herbs and seasonings. Cook it while stir it until get to a homogenous mixture and the meat is half cooked. Transfer it to a plate and let it cool.
Take the marinated cabbage leaves from the jar. Squeeze all the liquid from them and cut the little top stems if there are any.
Place one cabbage leaf with the shiny side down, veiny side up. Depending how big the leaf is, add one tablespoon of the rice mix at the bottom center. Roll the leaf once from bottom to top, then fold the sides and the roll it again.
Repeat the same with the rest of the ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large size Dutch oven arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves very tightly and add cold water just enough to cover them. Cover it with a lit and cook it in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Once ready take the lid off and cook for another 10 minutes, just enough the top of the leaves to get medium gold-brown finish.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
MAZA February Hits the iTunes Store
Seafood Risotto, Venetian Style
The first shrimp risotto I tried was at Harry’s bar in Venice. I can still recall the creamy velvety texture lightly infused with the delicate seafood notes, melting seductively in my mouth. In my take I added it some clams as an extra playful touch.
It’s a tradition to have home made salumi with the first snow. Every family shares different recipes and there is always a secret ingredient. This recipe is my family’s trade mark.
Oven Roasted Wild Flounder Fillets with Vine Tomatoes
What I like about this recipe is how easy, healthy and elaborate, yet balanced this dish is.
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
MAZA: 144 Recipes Later
This January marks the 16th issue of MAZA Cooking Journals – the first food magazine designed exclusively for the iPad and iPhone. Natalia has passionately developed and presented 144 delicious home-made recipes out of a small Soho kitchen to bring delight and nourishment to the busy urban foodies.
While the New York Times laments the end of the dinner party we’ve been busy bringing people back to the real essence of food: health, community and well-being. We’ve always enjoyed having friends over for dinner despite the modest size of our city apartment. There are the ‘welcome back to the city’ parties, farewell parties, ‘new significant other’ parties, and of course, Anthony Bourdain screening parties.
It was during one of those long dinner conversations when the idea of a cooking magazine came up. We looked around and all the food magazines we found were relics of the print era – enormous size, plastic-looking meals, banal and recycled recipes. They were completely unsuitable for the busy, iKitchen lifestyle of the New Yorkers. Print magazines wouldn’t fit in your small kitchen, you couldn’t email yourself the ingredients and finally the end result would look miles away from what appears as sterile-looking magazine food shot.
So we decided to create MAZA – a digital-only magazine app designed exclusively for the iPad. Each month we’ll publish 9 new recipes, beautiful food photography and celebrity chef interviews. Natalia set out to go through her treasured family recipes looking for inspirations and I sat down to design and develop the iPad software.
Today MAZA has been downloaded more than 15, 000 times and we’ve reached the number one spot on ‘What’s Hot‘ in the Food & Cooking Newsstand section on the iTunes Store. We’ve been overwhelmed with the level of interest and we’re committed to making MAZA Cooking Journals the best cooking magazine out there.
There’s lots of exciting news coming ahead. We’re releasing a free Bulgarian Home Cooking issue which features our favorite meals and desserts. We’re redesigning our website to make it easier to browse and search our free recipes. Last but not least we’re updating our app to improve Newsstand delivery and subscription management.
Also stay tuned for the upcoming February Issue to learn how to broil langoustines with fennel and cook the perfect chimichurri-sauce steak. Yummm!
MAZA is a monthly food and cooking journal. Download the magazine app for your iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store.
