Tag Archives: DIY

Layered salad with chicken and prunes

In Russia you can find large variety of salads, especially with mayonnaise dressing. Such salads are little bit heavy and could nourish you easy, especially during winter time.

Despite the fact that they’re tasty, better to cut down mayo dressings and replace it with sour cream or yogurt.

The below wonderful salad could be served not only for a family dinner, but for any festive occasion. It consists of simple ingredients, tastes good and deserves to be in your cooking book 🙂

Cucumber salad1

Ingredients

  • 2 medium chicken fillet
  • 12 prunes (dried plums)
  • 200 g mushrooms (champignons)
  • 1 onion
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Dressing

  • 150 g sour cream
  • 1 tsp plain mustard
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt, pepper

Put the prunes in a cup and cover with hot water, let stand for 30 minutes. Remove stones and cut prunes into pieces.

Boil the chicken, let cool, then cut it into small cubes.

Boil the eggs for 10 minutes. Shred the cucumbers and cooled eggs.

Cut the onion and mushrooms, fry together with 1 tbsp olive oil until golden-brown; set to cool.

Mix ingredients for the dressing.

 Layers

  1. Prunes
  2. Chicken fillets
  3. Spread 1/2 dressing
  4. Mushrooms with onion
  5. Spread 1/4 dressing
  6. Eggs
  7. Spread the remaining 1/4 dressing over eggs
  8. Cucumber

Done! Let the salad stand for 1 hour and you can enjoy! 🙂

Cucumber salad-2

Georgian Salad

The weather leaves much to be desired here (in Dubai), and the sun is all day long. Today is 47C (117F)!!!! and needless to say, how hot it is 😀

So I’ve started enjoying salads for dinner pretty much. I know what you could think: salads are boring! Be creative! Upgrade your small salad to big entree and add extra meat or beans to make it more hearty.

The below salad is named Georgian or Tbilisi, after the country, which cuisine offers various meat dishes with herbs and vegetables.

We need 300 g of baked (or boiled) beef meat;

1 can of red beans;

2 yellow or green bell peppers;

1 red onion;

1-2 cloves of garlic;

seeds of 1 pomegranate;

juice of 1 lemon;

olive oil;

khmeli suneli.

First, I need to explain what khmeli suneli is. It’s a Georgian spice mix, which can be used in any dish, it gives nice flavor to beef stew, goulash or hearty soups. You can buy it at any Russian store or DIY 🙂

In equal parts (all ingredients are dry):

-dill

-parsley

-coriander

-crushed bay leaves

-marjoram

-chili pepper- much less~2%

Next ingredients are not necessary, but you can put them as well:

-fenugreek leaves or seeds

-basil

-mint

-savory

-saffron ~0.10%

Cut the red onion into half moons and keep it in a hot water. Meanwhile cut the meat and peppers into cubes.

In a serving bowl, combine together meat, peppers, beans (without liquid) and onions.

In a small cup, prepare the dressing-mix olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic and spice mix (khmeli suneli). Pour it over our salad, mix well and let stand for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, black pepper and salt.

 

Bon appetite!

Kournik – Russian chicken pie

Hello, dear foodies!

In Russia we really do like pies, to bake and to eat! 🙂 And I’m not an exception. 🙂

Kournik – the festive pie which used to bake for weddings. It was shaped like a dome, interlaid with thin pancakes and stuffed with various fillings: boiled chicken, fried mushrooms, rice, eggs and etc. Nowdays, preparing of the pie is left for weekends. But there is the simplified version of it, which Russian women cook during working-days. 

 Hope this simple and tasty pie can turn into a family favorite!

So, we need

For pastry:

260-300 gr plain flour

150 gr sour cream

150 gr butter

1 egg

pinch of salt

Kournik-1For filling:

2 chicken breasts

2-3 potatoes

1 onion (big one)

a few small cubes of butter

1 egg for brushing

salt and pepper

Mix the flour, pinch of salt, soft butter, sour cream and egg together in a bowl. Then you need to work on a surface – mix together to form a soft pastry.

Shape the pastry into a ball and cover with a towel. Meanwhile, cut the chicken and onion into cubes and grate potatoes.

Kournik-2

Divide the dough into 2 parts, one should be smaller- will be the lid (upper part) for our pie.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry until it’s roughly the size of the pie dish.

Spread the potatoes in an even layer, season with salt and pepper

Kournik-3

then the chicken with onions, season with salt and pepper

Kournik-4Kournik-5

Then put small cubes of butter over filling (for juiciness).

Kournik-6

Roll the remaining pastry out – to cover the pie.  Pinch the edges to seal.

Kournik-7Kournik-8

Make a small hole in the center of the pie (use your forefinger) and be imaginative-decorate 🙂

Kournik-11Brush all over with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 1 hour (190-200°C or 380-400°F), until golden.

Kournik-12Serve with hot tea or cold milk. Enjoy! 🙂Kournik-13

*I used 28cm baking dish;

**Were used 3 chicken breasts and 2 potatoes;

***And don’t throw pastry’s leftovers! Make a small pie, using leftovers of the pastry and potatoes!

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