Russian Cuisine and Recipe Exchange

[LEGAL]

OK listen up! Russian cooking 101. When you put potatoes in borsch the potatoes absorb the beet juice and the color of the potato changes.   also yams are orange .Olga and I are going to start a new topic under the married section called Russian Cuisine and Recipe Exchange. I think we will all enjoy exchanging recipe's.


LEGAL

[KenC]

Olga,
I am enjoying your food photos a lot.  I am 100% Russian but after a few generations here, some of the Russian traditions and foods are just a memory.  Daknack talked of a gelatin dish that I think my dad prepare.  He made it from pigs ears and feet with carrots and I believe celery.  Chilled in the fridge in a bowl but flipped out and cut like a pie.  We ate it with vinegar on top.  Any ideas what this dish is called?

Your photos look like gourmet preparations to me.  I had been to a couple of very good Russian restaurants that served food like that.  One was the Russian Bear in the Detroit area and the other was the Russian Tea Room in NY.  I believe the Tea room is now closed.  One of my babushkas told me there was a hopping club in Detroit called the Russian Bear in the 40's! 
KenC
(I didn't want to detour Deknack's T/R so I sent this as a PM, but now this thread has opened so..)

[LEGAL]

Many members of this site have visited Russia and of course ate Russian food. Olga and I have noticed some guys are showing interest for Russian cuisine and have some  questions about Russian food. This would be a good forum to share everyones  likes and dislikes  according to their own experience. We can exchange recipes, dinning experiences in cafe's, restaurants and food shops from differant regions of the FSU.

Jelly meet: is it tasty or not?
The Russian name of jelly meet is holodets. It is  rich stock chilled in the fridge with different spices, vinegar, carrots, celery, eggs and of course with pieces of meet   The recipe of this dish can vary from region to region and from Sheff to Sheff. Holodets can be cooked with stock from pork, beef or chicken. You have to use for stock not only meet but bones and  cartilages too.
Holodets is the best meat appetizer with Vodka, It can also be serves hot as meat soup.

Olga & LEGAL

 

[Kuna]

This is a FANTASTIC idea... LOVE IT! 

I recently started trying to duplicate some of my mothers dishes like Holupkis and Pirohis but I'm not convinced they're as good YET!

I'll be watching this thread as it evolves... 

Thank you!

Kuna

[TexasBoar]

Head cheese!!! 

*shudder*

Haven't seen that since I was a lil' kid in Iowa . . . 

~Boar

[KenC]

Olga,
Holodets was the word I was looking for.  Yes, it was tasty.  Our version of it looked a lot like you first photos minus the eggs and was always made with pork as I said.

I made a big roaster of stuffed cabbage Sunday as your photos and posts got me thinking about "comfort food."  Lena eats them with mayo (yuck), but she loves my cooking.

Our family also made blini a little different than Lena's does.  Her pancake rises and is almost as thick as American breakfast pancakes.  My family made the pancakes like a thin crepe and stuffed with a cottage cheese mixture.  Her blini are stuffed with ground beef and some delicious mixture of onions and seasoning and are to die for.  Her chicken cutlets are yummy too.

I love cooking for my In laws when they are here.  It drives my MIL crazy because she thinks it is her job to do while here.  They liked my blini, but it is not what they were used to and never could be considered a main dish as their's is.  They loved my traditional American Thanksgiving dinner I prepared for them in August and smuggled a pan of my lasagna back home to share with Lena's Babushka!
KenC

[Vaughn]

 Just a quick note about Blini, pronounced Blee-NEE for those who haven't heard the spoken word. Pancakes, Russian style. Very popular and served on the street with sour cream during Масленица, the holiday recognizing the advent of springtime. In 2007, Maslenitsa runs from February 12-18 - if you plan to be in the FSU, it's a hoot of a holiday week, with outdoor festivities, music and vendors lining the lanes - all preparing blini in
freezing temperatures.

 When I sampled my first homemade stack of real Russki blini, I instantly was taken back to my 50's childhood, when my Swedish grandmother, Anna, would serve up stacks of thin moist pancakes -dubbed "plattar", virtually identical to the Russian variety - except served with lingonberries instead of sour cream. My sisters and I would consume many dozens in a sitting, recalling some fairy tale about pancake consumption, whose name I've long forgotten.

 Blini are a great way to be introduced to FSU cuisine. 

Edit: My memory's not completely toasted - I came up with the name of that old tale:

And then they all sat down to supper. And Black Mumbo ate twenty-seven pancakes, and Black Jumbo ate fifty-five but Little Black Sambo ate a hundred and sixty-nine because he was so hungry.

from Little Black Sambo
        by Helen Bannerman, 1899

[LEGAL]

KenC,
I'm not surprised Lena eats some food with mayo I like mayo too   as many Russian women.
My blini are very thin and soft. Robert likes it with jam   I like cook pork-beef cutlets and I prefer to cook it in oven. One day one of our guest, a film editor, who works for Robert, ate 6 cutlets and it was good compliment to my cuisine  
Ask Elena about olad'i. It is easy to cook and very tasty you can eat it with jam, honey, sour cream.

Olga

[LEGAL]

Vaughn YES YES YES! The first time I ate Blinni was in Saint Petersburg, stuffed with caviar. I remember the freezing temperature  out side  Peters fortres.  Words cannot describe the magnificent view and great feelings of a beautiful Russian winter afternoon.  Understanding Russian history is to  enjoy there food at the same time. I prefer sour cream with jam on my blini mmm . Olga more blini I am getting hungry.


LEGAL

[Vaughn]

Olga,

 My wife was extremely surprised (and pleased) to find this "plattpan" in the kitchen when she arrived....



I'm getting hungry just reading this thread.

Слюнки текут!

[LEGAL]

Just a quick note about Blini, pronounced Blee-NEE for those who haven't heard the spoken word. Pancakes, Russian style. Very popular and served on the street with sour cream during Масленица, the holiday recognizing the advent of springtime. In 2007, Maslenitsa runs from February 12-18 - if you plan to be in the FSU, it's a hoot of a holiday week, with outdoor festivities, music and vendors lining the lanes - all preparing blini in
freezing temperatures.

 

[LEGAL]

This is a FANTASTIC idea... LOVE IT! 

I recently started trying to duplicate some of my mothers dishes like Holupkis and Pirohis but I'm not convinced they're as good YET!

I'll be watching this thread as it evolves... 

Thank you!

Kuna

Kuna,
I guess holupki it is golubtsi. Am I right?

Olga.

[Kuna]

Kuna,
I guess holupki it is golubtsi. Am I right?

Olga.

In-deedy-do!   

Those little suckers REALLY bring back childhood memories...

[Michelangelo]

Pigs ears?  That is what I ate for supper?

I'm thinking of sneaking out tonight for a hamburger :-) LOL

[KenC]

Anyone make a dish Lena calls chicken pluff?  Lots of shreaded carrots in rice with rasins and cubed chicken breasts with a very healthy amount of garlic.  mmm  mmm
KenC

[Jet]

Olga,

 My wife was extremely surprised (and pleased) to find this "plattpan" in the kitchen when she arrived....



I'm getting hungry just reading this thread.

Слюнки текут!

Vaughn,

Where did ou find that little devil? I NEED one of those!
Lil brought something similar along w/ her from Russia, but we never could get the thing to work as it had an integral electric heating element (like an elect. skillet). she does them in a low sided frying pan, but it's a pain.

[jb]

Yes, Etna makes a mean "Ploff".  Very healthy...

[groovlstk]

Ken,

I think the dish you're referring to is plov, it's currently my fave meal that my fiancee makes. It's a bit spicy which isn't very common in Russian meals, but man it sure hits the spot on a cold night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plov

[KenC]

That's it Groovster only Lena uses chicken instead of lamb.  The bite comes from the garlic.  It is a hearty meal too.
KenC

[Vaughn]

Where did you find that little devil?

My sister found it in an ethnic kitchen supplyhouse in
South Jersey, but they're available online...here's a few:

http://www.cooksite.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/product-id/721065.html

http://giftsofnorway.stores.yahoo.net/swpapan.html

[Jet]

Thanks Vaughn!

[prince_alfie]

Does anyone have any good Russian dessert recipe?

[LEGAL]

Recipe of Mannik (pie)

1,5 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
0,5 tsp soda or 2 tsp baking powder
1 cup manka (special flour) 

Mix well and put it in baking pan greased with vegetable oil. Bake mannik at 325-350F until ready.
Serve with cream or jam.

You can get manka in Russian store 

[Kuna]

I finally got around to making Solyanka last night....

DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
2 litres of beef stock
300 g ham cut into small cubes
4 pickled cucumbers (Small cubes)
1 onions (diced)
2 tbl sps tomato puree
1 tbl sp capers
3 tbl sps butter (I only used 1 tblspoon butter and added some olive oil)
6 Olives
100 g sour cream

Directions:
Saute the onion in butter and a little olive oil until translucent. Add the tomato puree,  a quarter of the stock and braise.
Add the pickles and boil for 20-25 minutes.  Add a little more stock if too much evaporates.
Add the meat (boiled or roast beef, ham, veal, kidneys, tongue, sausages can be used), capers, olives and a bay leaf. Add the remaining stock and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes. Salt to taste.
Put 1/4 slice of lemon (peeled) in each plate and top with a spoonful of sour cream. Sprinkle with minced parsley or dill.
Enjoy!

(I adapted my recipe from a few I found on the Internet...)

Oh, I know a REAL chef would have tidied the plate before taking a pic but it smelled so go I couldn't wait!   

[SANDRO43]

Saute the onion in butter and a little olive oil until translucent.

Are you sure about using BOTH butter AND oil simultaneously ? I am asking because in our cuisine the two are never used together for sauteing or frying.