After not visiting my blog for a while I was a little embarrassed that people were visiting it to look for Russian Food because that was the title of one of the posts, probably because they were looking for recipes. To kind of make amends I have acquired another guest writer and who has kindly provided some recipes. Thanks Lera and Lera’s mum!
Borsch
Borsch is a signature dish of Ukranian and Russia cuisines, but generally speaking Ukranians prefer a very hearty version – they use speck, which is ground down with onions and added to soup just minutes before removing it from the stove. My mum’s version is light, particularly because she doesn’t fry the vegetables before adding them to soup (as a doctor she thinks it’s healthier and preserves more vitamins), and this version can even be vegetarian. Get a big pot (5L) and and a piece of veal brisket, pour cold water to fill the pot, place meat and bring to boil. After the first boil, the meat should be rinsed with running water and the stock goes down the drain – the first stock extracts pesticides and other harmful substances from meat. Fill the pot again and cook for 1-1.5 hours. After the stock is ready add some salt. Borsch can now be cooked. (For vegetarian borsch skip this part). The order in which you add different ingredients is crucial, as for example adding tomatoes before potatoes adds acid which doesn’t allow potatoes to get cooked. Take one medium to large size beet root (depending on the desired sweetness of borsch, usually after cooking it a few times you know the amount of ingredients, everyone I know measures with eyes), clean, peel and cut into straws, add to the stock, let simmer for 7-10 minutes (until beet root gives part of its color to the stock) and add 1-2 small chopped onions (if you are making vegetarian borsch at this point add 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil), let simmer for another 5-7 minutes. After that add shredded fresh carrots (2-3 medium size ones) and cubed potatoes (3-4 big ones would be good, potatoes are good in borsch), leave simmering for another 5-7 minutes while you are peeling 3-4 big tomatoes. Shred, mush or roughly chop tomatoes and add them to borsch, leave simmering for another 3-5 minutes (tomatoes add acidity so it’s important to add enough fresh tomatoes, if after tasting borsch seems too sweet still, some people add tomato paste, all to taste). After tomatoes have been simmering for 3-5 minutes, add chopped capsicum, or even several small ones, simmer for another 3-5 minutes, taste the salt and sweetness/acidity, make adjustments by adding more salt or tomatoes if needed and then add a good portion of fresh thinly chopped cabbage and some fresh chopped parsley or dill (or both). After the cabbage is added, turn off the heat, cover the pot with a lid and let stand for another 5 minutes – don’t simmer borsh with cabbage as it will turn soggy; cabbage should stay crispy. Pour borsh into a deep bowl and put sour cream on the table – a tablespoon of sour cream makes it tastier. Store pot with borsh in the fridge and it’s believed that borsh is best the second day.
Eggplant/Aubergine
Homestyle eggplant: slice big eggplants into 1cm-thick circles, fry with a bit of olive oil, arrange each slice on an equal circle of ripe sweet tomato and top with crushed garlic and thin layer of mayonnaise, sprinkle with chopped fresh dill. For a healthy version put the eggplant slices on an oiled baking sheet and bake until soft, then arrange eggplant on top of tomato slices, top with garlic and 1:1 mix of sour cream/yogurt and mayonnaise, sprinkle with chopped fresh dill. Also adding crushed garlic to mayo helps to save some time.
Potatoes
Best summer dish: new potatoes! Boil the potatoes, drain the water, add plenty of butter and let it melt under the lid, transfer to a plate and sprinkle with lots of chopped fresh dill. For a herbier taste add the dill together with butter in a pot with hot potatoes and let stand with lid on for several minutes. Sour cream on top will make it truly Russian.
Russian pancakes
Russian pancakes: every household has it’s own recipe, but I prefer crepe-like paper-think yeast-free pancakes, and my mum’s recipe is the best in the world for this. They can be stuffed with all kinds of things, but also can be served plain, accompanied by caviar, smoked salmon, sour cream, condensed milk, homemade jam, honey, melted butter for dipping. You will need 1L of fresh milk, 5-6 eggs, 2-2.1/5 cups of plain flour (depending on flour, you will need less or more of it), a pinch of salt, some white sugar (lets say 1 tbsp) and 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (or other vegetable oil), melted butter for covering the pancakes. Pour 500-600 ml of milk into a mixer bowl, crack eggs, add half of flour, salt and sugar, combine on low speed until there are no more lumps of flour visible, add the rest of flour and mix again. The batter at this point should be thick and a bit stretchy. Start adding milk and mixing everything together until you have no milk left. At this point the batter should be the consistency of liquid sour cream (that’s the comparison we use in Russia, and liquid sour cream may sound like an oxymoron, but the Soviet sour-cream was 10% fat at best and very liquid). Add 1tbsp of oil and mix again – oil in batter prevents pancakes from sticking to the surface of a pan. Heat the flat non-stick pan (the best pancakes come from a thick cast-iron pan, but it requires extra oiling between the pancakes, for which traditionally a piece of pork fat was used, but I recommend wrapping some clean cotton cloth around a fork, in Russia we use drug-store bandage, and dip it into olive oil, shake off the excess and use it to lightly oil the pan). Oil the pan using your hand-made kitchenware and pour a ladle of batter in the middle, turning the pan to swirl the batter around and allow it to cover the pan. You will see how the surface bakes through and at this point use a wooden spatula to lift the edge of a pancake, then use spatula and your fingers (caution!) to grab it quickly and flip. Wait until cooked and then put on a plate, wait until it’s cool and taste before you make another pancake. If you are making pancakes to stuff with meat, fish, cheese-ham, mushrooms or other savory stuffings, you will probably not need to any any more sugar. Taste saltiness, sweetness and thickness, make adjustments by adding more salt/sugar and check if you need to ladle out less batter to make thinner pancakes. Keep baking on a pan and cover each pancake with a thin layer of melted butter (pour 1/3 or less of a tsp on the edge and rub around, the middle tends to stay soft and moist even without butter) before putting another one on top of a pile. The ones that are not finished can be kept in a fridge for 2-3 days and reheated in a microwave.
For stuffed pancakes you can skip buttering, or use less butter. Generally after stuffing you need to turn them back to the pan to just heat through and let the flavours blend, but this doesn’t work with smoked fish, caviar and fruit stuffings. Stuffings can be: ground meat+rice, cooked through and seasoned to taste; mushrooms and cheese with parsley, dill or other fresh herb of choice – cook the mushrooms, add shredded cheese, mix together, stuff the pancakes. If you fry them again or reheat in a microwave, the cheese will melt and the taste will be amazing. Hard-boiled eggs, mixed with fresh chopped spring onions (also makes a traditional stuffing for pies) fish and rice, cooked and seasoned fresh fruit, with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top (apples with raisins and a dash of cinnamon are good, some fresh strawberries and sugar, too.
Forgot to say about pancakes – the pan should be big! about 24-26 cm in diameter – that’s how we eat pancakes, smaller ones are Olad’yi.
