Russian Borsch

Here is the recipe of the most classic Russian recipe: borsch.

Every Russian family knows how to make one, but everyone has something different. My recipe has a little more complications than some others do, but everyone, I'm not kidding, everyone always eats it all and asks for more. This meal is the most popular among my friends and family comparing to anything else I cook.

You need:

Beef and/or pork with bones (1-2 lb.)

Beets (1 large or 2 small to medium)

Carrots (2-3 small to medium)

Cabbage (a half of small to medium cabbage-head)

Onion (1 medium to large)

Tomato (1 medium to large)

Red or Yellow bell pepper (1/2 to 1)

Potatoes (3 medium sized)

Spring (green) onions

Dill, parsley

Garlic, Whole black pepper, Cloves, Bay leaves, Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Vegeta (a mixture of spices from Croatia and Poland), Khmeli-suneli (Georgian mixture of spices), vegetable or sautéing bouillon cubes (Knorr).

Fill a half of saucepan with water and bring it to boil. Add bay leaves (3-4), cloves (10-15) and whole black pepper (10-15 peas). Add meat. I like a lot of meat in my borsch, so I used 1.8 lb of beef and about 0.7lb of pork. Both with some bones. Bones make the taste of soup richer.

When water is about to boil, make sure to pick all the foam. It doesn't make soup taste worse, but clear bouillon is simply better and more appetizing. Boil at low to medium power for the next 40-60 minutes. Longer is better, so if you have plenty of time make your broth even richer by boiling it longer.

Cut onion into small pieces. Sauté onions until they are lightly golden.

Dice from half to whole bell pepper (I used a half) and add it to onions.

Peel and shred carrots. Add them to onions and peppers.

Peel and shred beets. One medium to large or tow small to medium beets should be enough. Accidently I had tree quite large beets and used them all. Sautee' vegetables for some time and take care of the broth.

Meanwhile, when meat and broth are ready, take the meat and spices out of the bouillon. I drained the bouillon to another dish and then placed it back in the saucepan.

Shred cabbage (I used a half of one medium-sized cabbage-head) and add it to the bouillon. I like very soft fully cooked cabbage in my borsch, but some people like it a little bit crispy. If you prefer it crispy, add it much later. If it looks like you don't have enough bouillon, add some water.

Dice tomatoes and add them to sautéed  vegetables. Continue cooking until tomatoes are soft. Some people prefer to take the tomatoes' skin off by rapidly placing them in the hot water. I just cook them and then a little bit mash them in the vegetable mixture. After tomatoes are softened, take the vegetable mix off the stove.

Peel potatoes and cut them in the bite-sized pieces. Add them to the broth. Add spices: garlic (fresh or powder), pepper, paprika. I use Vegeta, which is a mixture of spices and dried vegetables that you can find in any Russian grocery store. If you can, give it a chance, try it - you'll love it. It is already salty. I also put one cube of Knorr sautéing bouillon (which is also salty) and khmeli-sunel(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmeli_suneli - see what's in it and use any or all of this spices in your borsch, be creative!), you can also find it at the Russian grocery store - most big cities have these stores. I don't add salt, because my condiments have enough of it.

While your cabbage and potatoes are cooking, take care of the meat. Cut it into bite-size pieces. Then add it to the soup. Most housewives don't do this step. They just leave whole pieces of meat in their soup. I prefer to have even portions of meat in every plate I serve.

Add sautéed vegetables to the soup.

When potatoes are ready add chopped green onions, parsley and/or dill. I love dill in my borsch. Unfortunately, this time I only had green onions. Turn the stove off, cover saucepan with the lid and let it stay for additional 5 minutes - greens (onions, parsley and dill) will be ready.

Serve with sour cream and pumpernickel bread.

Enjoy!

Ala

Pumpkin Casserole

This is a recipe of my second experiment with pumpkin. It is not a traditional dessert, but it can be a nice side dish for your chicken or fish (anything that is not too heavy) or a meal by itself.

You need:

Pumpkin (I used 1 medium sized tiger pumpkin and 1 medium sized golden squash)

Milk (about 1.5 cup)

Flour (1 tablespoon)

Butter (2 tablespoons)

Panko breadcrumbs (to your taste, depending on the sized of the baking dish)

Swiss cheese (depending on the size of the baking dish, I used about 6 oz)
Salt

Clean the pumpkin from seeds, peel and cut in cubes. Ones again I had two different types - tiger pumpkin and golden squash. You can use regular pie pumpkin.

Sauté pumpkin in one tablespoon of butter.

To make the sauce:

Melt one tablespoon of butter on the pan, add one tablespoon of flour. Sauté until golden. Add 1.5 cup of milk. Cook for 5-20 minutes. Add salt.

  Layer pumpkin in the baking dish.

Add milk sauce.

Cover with shredded Swiss cheese.

Cover cheese with panko breadcrumbes.

You can sprinkle a little bit of melted butter on the crumbles.

Bake at 350-400 F for about 40 minutes or until cooked.







 You can make some variations with this meal. Add sugar in the milk sauce and do not add cheese and you'll get sweet pumpkin casserole! Or substitute Swiss cheese with parmesan to add it more flavor.

Enjoy!

Ala

Fall's Favorite: Pumpkin.

There are many meals that can be done with pumpkin. Today I decided to try two different recipes that I found on the Russian Web sites. I have never cooked anything with pumpkin before, so this was totally new field for me. First recipe is a pumpkin and raisins dessert, and second one is pumpkin casserole. At the end I enjoyed latter one more. In this post I'll share the firts recipe:

Pumpkin with raisins and cream desert

You'll need:

Pumpkin (I used about a pound)

Cream (Half and half), amount depends on the baking dish size.
Raisins (about a half a cup)
Sugar (to your taste)
Butter (1-2 table spoons)
Vanillin (to your taste)





Clean the pumpkin from seeds, peel and cut in cubes.
Mix cubed pumpkin with sugar and vanillin. Use natural, not artificial vanillin for better taste. Artificial vanillin gives a bitter taste to your meal. I used about 5-6 tablespoons of sugar. Let the pumpkin with sugar stay for several minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the baking dish (or dishes). Spread butter on its buttom.




Layer pumpking and raisins in the dish.

Cover pumpkin and raisins with the cream. Pour crem to the point when there are still some pieces shown.

Place in the oven. Cook at 350-400F for 40-50 minutes.

On the pickture you can see how it looked after I took it out of the oven. I carefully took the creamy film off.

Serve cold.

Enjoy!

Come back to our site in the couple days to check pumkin casserole recipe!

Ala

For you, baking fans!

One of my favorite baking Web sites is http://www.joyofbaking.com/ 

It has it all: recipes, useful tips and hints and very, very appetizing pictures!

Remember short bread cookies I recently tried to bake? I found very useful tips at JoyOfBaking.com, such as:
If you substitute half a cup of flour with cornstarch, cookies will be more delicate and tender. If you substitute 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour with rice flour, your cookies will have nice crunchy texture. I tried to use some cornstarch and added a tablespoon of orange zest (to make it I took an orange and grated its peel on the very fine hand grater). Cookies came out perfectly delicious!

Check them out and bake, bake, bake!

Ala

Chicken and Carrots Salad

I'd like to share the recipe that everyone loves. It is Russian style again. It means that there are some calories in it. But only in mayo, which is not that bad.

What you need for this salad:

- Carrots
- Onions
- Chicken (white or dark meat or both)
- Dried prunes
- Mayonnaise
- Salt
- Pepper or garlic powder to your taste

As always, I'm not trying to convince you, my dear readers, in any better way of making the meal. I want you to know all the variations that you can choose from.

First, chicken, carrots and onions need to be prepared.

Poach chicken for a little while in salted water. I usually use chicken legs and a little bit of chicken breast meat and let it simmer for about one hour. When chicken is poached for a while its meat peels off easily from the bones. I don't use only white meat, because it tends to be drier than dark one. But you can always use it! You don't have to boil chicken for a long time if it's only boneless breast. Look here for some info about boiling chicken breast: http://www.commoncookingquestions.com/?p=125 - find remember, take chicken breast out as soon as it turns from red to white inside. Don't overcook it, it'll get dry.

Cut cooked chicken in bite-sized pieces.

Boil carrots. Variations that exist here are:
  * I peel carrots first and then boil until cooked. Just poke them and make sure they are soft inside.
  * Some people boil carrots first and then peel them. Theoretically, it is supposed to be easier to peel a cooked carrot, but, personally, it takes me longer to do so.
  * Some people grate raw carrots and then sauté them. I don't use this way because it is harder to grate raw carrots then cooked carrots if you use hand grater and because you need to use some amount of oil or butter, which make the salad heavier. If you have food processor with a grater attachment and prefer to cook carrots this way - go ahead and do so!

Grate cooked carrots.
Chop one large raw onion and sauté it until golden.
Cut prunes in halves (or smaller pieces). I usually wash prunes beforehand and, if they are not soft enough, I let them soak in the water for about 15-20 minutes.

Mix grated cooked carrots, chopped chicken, sautéed onions, prunes and mayo. Add salt to you taste. I usually add some powdered garlic. Use some pepper if you want.

This is mostly chicken and carrots salad, but onions and prunes add some unforgettable taste to it. Don't add too much of them. For a pound of carrots and pound of chicken I used one large onion and a handful of prunes.

Enjoy!

Ala

Quick and Tasty Stir Fry Chicken

Ingredients
1 Skinless, boneless chicken breast per person
Italian Salad Dressing
Frozen Bag of Stir Fry Vegetables
1/2 C Uncooked Rice per person

Cut chicken breasts into strips or bite sized pieces.  Set aside.  Put vegetables in glass or microwave dish.  Heat in microwave for 2-3 minutes.  In saute pan, place chicken and 1-2 Tablespoons of Italian dressing.  Cook chicken until it is white in color.  Add vegetables and heat through.  Cook rice according to directions.  (I use minute rice, equal parts of rice and water and a pat of butter.  Add chicken boullion for more flavor.  Cook in microwave for 3 1/2 minutes. Serve chicken and vegetables over rice.

You can get creative with this recipe by adding water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, sprouts, snow peas, mushrooms and a little soy sauce.  Change the flavor a little by adding sweet and sour sauce.  The basics are easy---then have fun experimenting a little.  Posted by PAR.

Passion Fruit Mousse

Delicious and very easy to make!

You'll need
1 can of sweet condensed milk
1 can of table cream
1 cup of concentrated passion friut mousse
1/4 cup of water
1/2 envelope of non flavored gelatin

Put the gelatin and the water in a cup and microwave it for 15 seconds until the gelatin is completely melted.
In the blender add the condensed milk, the teble cream, the juice and the gelatin.
Blend in the fast mode for 2 minuts.
Let it cool, decorate it your way and enjoy!

You can use any concentrated juice with this recipe, coconut and pineapple are delicious too!

Shortbread "Serpentine" cookies recipe

Today I tried to make cookies from this Web site: www.say7.info. If you speak Russian – go ahead and try some recipes there, whatever I tried work well for me. If you don’t speak Russian, all you can do just look at the pictures and read my recipe trial post :) .

These shortbread cookies turned out to be very tasty and delightful. But I’ll need to work on presentation a little bit more. Baking is not my strong quality, so if I could make it, anyone can do it too.

You need:

- 8 oz (1 cup, 2 sticks, ½ pound) sweet unsalted butter
- 1 cup of granulated sugar or 1 3/5 cups of powdered sugar (7 oz. or 200 g.)
- 1 teaspoon of vanillin or 2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3.5 cups of all purpose flour (15-16 oz., 420-450 g.)
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 tablespoon of cocoa



Leave butter at room temperature until fully softened. Mix butter with sugar and vanillin. I didn’t have powdered (confections, icing) sugar and used regular one. I used artificial vanillin, which is not the best choice. It leaves bitter aftertaste sometimes. It is better if you find natural vanillin for most of the meals, but synthetic one worked well for me in this recipe.


Add 2 eggs, mix well.

Add flour and baking powder, make dough. You can substitute baking powder with baking soda and vinegar mixture. Instead of 1 teaspoon of baking powder you’ll need ½ teaspoon of baking soda which must be mixed with some vinegar.




Divide dough in two equal parts. Stir cocoa into one part.

Roll out light (yellow) dough into a square. I put some olive oil on the cooking surface before rolling out dough. It might be a good idea to use foil or parchment paper, because dough came out pretty sticky.

Take aluminum foil, cut it in dough’s square size, and then place chocolate dough on it and roll dough out.






After chocolate square is ready, place on the top of vanilla one and put foil away.

Make a roll. This was not the easiest task for me because dough was not firm and was too sticky. This step must be done patiently and carefully. I messed something up and my cookies didn’t come out as pretty as they should. But they were tasty ones!

Place the roll into freezer for 10-15 minutes. I placed it first on the foil and then on the cutting board.

After dough had firmed a little, cut it in about ½ inch (1 cm.) slices. Place on a cooking sheet. Make sure you use parchment (baking) paper or slightly oil cooking sheet beforehand.

Bake cookies for 15-20minutes at 350 F or until browned.

Cool the cookies or serve them warm with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!






Ala

Recipe: Russian "French style meat"

Here is the Russian recipe I’d like to share with you. I just want to warn you before you go on reading through it that Russian kitchen is pretty rich. You’ll find a lot of recipes with mayo, butter or fatty pieces of meat. But the meals are very good and delicious! You don’t have to eat them all the time, but you can indulge yourself sometimes, right?
The recipe of baked under mayo and cheese meat we, Russians, used to call “French meat”. Don’t be fooled by the name. This recipe has nothing to do with French kitchen. This is probably because in native Russian kitchen sour cream, not mayo is often used (yes, famous Russian salad Russians don’t consider to be Russian: )). And there is not a lot of cheese in the original Russian recipes.
For this recipe you can use any type of meat, chicken or even fish. Most popular is pork, some use veal, some chicken. Meat will be tender and juicy and absolutely delicious. Try it!
 This recipe has a lot of variations. Besides different types of meat some may add potatoes, mushrooms, zucchini or bell peppers. You can pick any type of cheese you like, but I would recommend choosing medium or sharp one.

For 5-6 servings you need:

-2 lb. of lean pork

-3 medium onions

-8 oz. of shredded cheese

-About 2 cups of mayonnaise

-Salt

-Pepper

I bought thin sliced lean pork chops. If you have regular ones, you’ll need to cut them lengthwise.

Tenderize each piece of meat with meat tenderizer.

Put salt and pepper to your taste and place meat on a tray slightly oiled beforehand.

Slice onions in a half rings.

Spread onions on the top of meat evenly. This is a step where variations exist. Some people put onions on the bottom of a tray, others add thin sliced potatoes, or mushrooms, or zucchini, or bell peppers. Whatever you like more and think that will go really good with your meal - just add it and see how it goes. Or just try simple and well-tried by me way.

Cover meat and onions with cheese. I picked Colby Jack mix.

Cover cheese with mayonnaise. Mayo doesn't let cheese to burn too fast, thus it is better when it covers cheese, not the other way. But you can find plenty of recipes that tell you to spread mayo first and then cheese. So, you can do it either way. Just remember: I'm sure my way is a better one :)

Cook in the oven for about 40-45 minutes at 375 F. You can set the oven at 350 F and cook for one hour, or set it at 400 F and reuce time a little. Longer cooking time will make meat more tender.

Serve hot with your choice of side.

Enjoy!

Your Ala