Food I love.. eating or cooking

[molly35ru]

Churchkhela (also written churchkhella, Georgian: ჩურჩხელა, Russian: чурчхела) is a traditional sausage-shaped candy originating from the Caucasus, mainly Georgia, and also common in Russia and Turkey. In Turkish it is called pestil cevizli sucuk, literally walnut sujuk because of its sausage shape.

Churchkhela is made of walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds or raisins sewn onto a string, dipped in thickened white grape juice and dried in the shape of a sausage.

[Sculpto]

Thanks Molly!  That sounds lovely!  I want some!  HAHHA.. I never saw it in St P or for sure I would have tried to buy some and taste it. 

I saw this at the Georgian cafe also but I didn't try it.. it looks delicious. 

[SANDRO43]

I saw this at the Georgian cafe also but I didn't try it.. it looks delicious. 

Looks like a bruschetta, but given the source, unlikely it is . Are those pomegranate arils (seeds) on top?

[Sculpto]

they certainly are Pomegranate seeds.. quite a lovely looking dish.

[Sculpto]

this looks rather nice..

[Daveman]

The Hamburg-based pen manufacturer is Montblanc - single word .

When I was an IBM Systems Engineer a LONG time ago, one of my customers - then a producer of carbon paper - was also their official distributor for Italy. I was able to buy from them a solid-silver set of pen, pencil, and ballpoint pen for a high but comparatively reasonable price .

Ahhhhh,vintage Montblanc (the name does actually come from the mountain as I'm sure you know) pens rock.  Once they became a name brand merchandise vendor (wallets, watches, etc etc), the quality of the pens as actual writers has declined. More of a status symbol now I think.  I guess I have around 10 to 15 in the collection from various years of production.  Of course, ball points and roller ball pens are at the mercy of the 'refill' in terms of writing, but the fountain pens, while beautiful, don't really write to optimum performance until tweaked by a nib meister.  Plus the term "Precious Resin" just completely cracks me up.  Next time I pass through Munich, I'm going to pick up the final missing piece of the Boheme Doue Ligne series (gotta buy it in Germany, just because.. heh) but that's really the only new pen with which I am impressed.  Some of the Writer's Series , e.g. Agathy Christy, can be quite beautiful and insanely overpriced, but they are still not writing instruments worthy of the Mb name compare to the vintage pens.

My favorite modern pens are the Italians - Aurora, Omas, and Stipula...

And now to get back on topic.. fountain pens are fabulous for writing out recipes! 

[Gator]

Churchkhela (also written churchkhella, Georgian: ჩურჩხელა, Russian: чурчхела) is a traditional sausage-shaped candy originating from the Caucasus, mainly Georgia, and also common in Russia and Turkey.

I saw it in many Sochi shops, yet I don't rememeber it in Crimea.  It is somewhat tasty, and makes a KoolAid visual statement.

Health hazard?   It hangs in the open air, and customers (particularly kids) handle most of them to select the best, perhaps sneezing on them if they are ill.  I suppose one washes them, yet many people buy them and eat them on the spot.  Is swine flu pronounced as swinkaflu in Russian?

[SANDRO43]

Once they became a name brand merchandise vendor (wallets, watches, etc etc), the quality of the pens as actual writers has declined. More of a status symbol now I think.

As most other producers did . Nowadays, who could survive manufacturing only quality pens, since VERY few people use them?

IIRC, the last time I did was in 1984-5, on the paper provided by a London hotel I was staying at (I wanted to impress with my worldliness ), for a letter to a very pretty cello player that I fancied in Milan. Alas, she was already engaged to a lead French horn in La Scala's orchestra, so nothing came of it - they married shortly thereafter, IINM .

http://www.danilostagni.it/biography.htm

[Sculpto]

MINESTRA DEL SEDANO (Italian Celery Soup)
For those who have no orchestral engagements or who prefer something a little more hearty, try this version. The core ingredients are the same - it's still celery and rice - but the experience is totally different. 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 3-4 bacon slices, diced 2 tablespoons tomato paste 2 bunches celery, cut in 1/2" slices 1 qt. hot stock or broth salt & pepper 1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Heat oil in large saucepan. Add onion and bacon; saute until onion begins to brown. Stir in tomato paste and celery. Cook 5 minutes,stir occasionally. Gradually stir in stock or broth. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir rice into soup/ Simmer 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Pour into tureen or serve in individual bowls; Sprinkle cheese over the top.

This is my project for today. 

[Ranetka]

Pelmeni for Sculpto:
500 g of plain flour + 2 eggs + 200 g of cold water + half tea spoon of salt. Mix together, you should be able to roll dough to be thin (may be 3/5 mm or so), should be able to strech it well. The result should be elastic, easy to strech, easy to roll dough. Dust you hands with flour while doing it, the dough should not be sticking to them.

filling : equal parts of beef and pork mince, or equal parts of beef, pork and lamb mince, grated or finely chopped onion, I'd say 2 onions for 500 g meat. Generally the fatter the mince the better. Meat and dough roughly equal weight.

For the actualy process of making the right shape pelmeni look at youtube or just make them like simple half-moon parcels. (put filling on the centre of a cirle of dough, bend in the middle, press sides together)

Froze pelmeni before cooking. If you do not do that all flavour will go into stock and you will not get this nice hot meat stock (can I say juice?) inside.
Put pelmeni into salted boiling water, stir to avoind sticking to the bottom of the pan. wait till they rise to the surface and then cook for about 3/4 minuits. Taste to avoid errors :-)

Ready peleni should be : soft dough, thinner the better, juicy meat with nice hot stock inside.

[Ranetka]

There are loads of receipes for pelmeni. I like mine the best

[OlgaH]

I boil pelmeni with herbs and spices. Stock and pelmeni have flavor.  

[Daveman]

Pelmeni for Sculpto:
500 g of plain flour + 2 eggs + 200 g of cold water + half tea spoon of salt. Mix together, you should be able to roll dough to be thin (may be 3/5 mm or so), should be able to strech it well.
filling : equal parts of beef and pork mince, or equal parts of beef, pork and lamb mince, grated or finely chopped onion, I'd say 2 onions for 500 g meat. Generally the fatter the mince the better. Meat and dough roughly equal weight.

Froze pelmeni before cooking. If you do not do that all flavour will go into stock and you will not get this nice hot meat stock (can I say juice?) inside.
Put pelmeni into salted boiling water, stir to avoind sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook for 3/4 minuits after they rise to the surface. Taste to avoid errors :-)

Ready peleni should be : soft dough, thinner the better, juicy meat with nice hot stock inside.

Mmmmmm, that 's food porn...    thanks for posting..I've been looking for a recipe I can follow.. man I love Pelmeni... but, I top it with smetana and about a spoonful of ketchup mixed in ...  :evil:

[OlgaH]

equal parts of beef, pork and lamb mince

I like it, and also with elk's flesh.

[OlgaH]

I top it with smetana and about a spoonful of ketchup mixed in ...  :evil:

Try to mix with cocktail sauce instead of ketchup Also if you visit Russian food stores look for Adjika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjika

[Ranetka]

Warning, water quantiy may vary depending on the flour, mix well, it can be hard work, do not put all the water at the same time, the longer you mix and roll the daugh more elastic it will be which is good.

[Sculpto]

Thanks Ranetka.. I will try it next week.

Meanwhile I have been in a food coma all day. the Celery soup came out fantastic.. of course I didn't follow the recipe.. this is how I did it..

two huge yellow onions diced and saute.. threw in 12 SMALL POTATOS, 4 of each color.. yellow, red and purple.. cut up a gigantic celery.. it gave close to a kilo of raw celery.. threw that in.. let the whole thing cook until the liquid from the celery and onions covered all the stuff in the pot.. then added one glass of filtered water and brought it up to a boil.. once boiling I tossed in a whole brick of thick cut bacon and let the whole thing cook covered until the bacon rendered down.  The celery was absolutely tender and picked up a touch of sweetness from the bacon.  The potatos were like silk and completely savory and the onions simply had melted into the liquid.. sweet liquid onions.. but of course.. picking out the bits of bacon was the real treat.. so I guess it was really bacon celery soup.. and it wasn't really soup it was sop and if I had been really ambitious I would have baked a small loaf of bread but I was lazy today. 

Anyway.. I wise enough to freeze a lot of it.. I had two bowls.. lol.. delicious!  now I am craving something sweet... Awesome day.. perfect food for a cold San Francisco summer day. 

[Gator]

I discovered that Russian food tastes 500% better if a pretty RW makes it for you.  The RW who visited me made a huge dinner of pelmeni for my sons and me.  Plenty left over, and we still are eating it.  Some photos:

[OlgaH]

Nice, Gator. Interesting shape of pelmeni

Usually pelmeni shaped like below.

[SANDRO43]

Usually pelmeni shaped like below.

That shape is...suggestive .

[Sculpto]

my "step family" was Italian.  Christmas dinner was obviously a HUGE deal.  The step grandmother and aunts would go into the kitchen for two or three days to make raviolis.  They made enough ravioli for several months as long as they were kept frozen.  I actually have a hard time eating ravioli at cafes because they are never good enough.

So last year I was on this store bought pelmini trend but I got bored with cream real fast so I tried a lot of different things instead.. one I liked a lot.. i chopped up some roma tomato.. fresh basil and tiny litlte mozzarela balls and a splash of olive oil.. hahaha.. ok I know I am gonna catch hell from two nations for that one..

[SANDRO43]

So last year I was on this store bought pelmini trend but I got bored with cream real fast so I tried a lot of different things instead.. one I liked a lot.. i chopped up some roma tomato.. fresh basil and tiny litlte mozzarela balls and a splash of olive oil.. hahaha.. ok I know I am gonna catch hell from two nations for that one..

Sounds like pelmeni+insalata caprese . Have you ever tried mozzarella in carrozza (mozzarella in carriage)?

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrM6hI1rF9Q[/youtube]

[Sculpto]

that looks delicious Sandro..

and yes.. pelmini in caprese.. yum!

there is a big grilled cheese movement going on here in SF.. there are at least two grilled cheese places that have opened recently and are busy.. I haven't been yet.. here is the classic..

I make them with all kinds of bread and all kinds of cheese.. so.. I guess even Americans get stuck in tradition sometimes.. lol.

Now I really gotta go.. see y'all next week.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTCkNkfmRY[/youtube]

[Tim22]

I don't know about you guys but I have a sweet tooth so whenever I'm in Russia I like tasting their cakes. One of my favourites is 'Praga' cake. It's a delicious chocolate cake - obviously it's only called 'Praga' or Prague cake in Russia! On a visit to the Czech Republic I didn't see it anywhere - in any cafe!

One thing about Russian sweets is that they are sweet and I mean really sweet. When I get home and try cakes here they don't seem to have enough sugar after there!

The only sweet cake or something close to it that we can get in the UK is batenburg!

I particularly like sitting in the cafes around the centre of Moscow and the ones near Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg and enjoying a large sweet piece of cake with cappuccino. Anyone share my experience??

[Olga_Mouse]

I particularly like sitting in the cafes around the centre of Moscow and the ones near Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg and enjoying a large sweet piece of cake with cappuccino.
Anyone share my experience??

Sure!
Chocoladnitsa or Coffee House?