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Draniki

Draniki – thin and round potato pancakes, are often pan-fried and served with sour cream. The word ‘draniki’ originates from the verb ‘drat’ (soft t), which means grate, rub. It was originally a common breakfast, and today we stick with this tradition, but in some restaurants it’s served all day long. Draniki are so beloved and popular in our country, that not even every Russian knows, that it is Belarus dish.

Potato was brought to Russia in the end of 17th century, when it was served as an exotic dish only at royal banquets, and potatoes were sprinkle with sugar, not salt and pepper as nowadays. At that time in Belarus, potato had been known for 80 years. Today potato became the main vegetable in Belarus, and now over 200 potato dishes are known.

Similar potato pancakes can be found in many countries, like hash browns in the USA, kartoffelpuffer in Germany, Swiss rösti, or Jewish latkes, and etc.

This is a simple recipe that is easy to prepare and produces great results! 🙂 Enjoy!

Draniki - Russian potato pancakes

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

4 large potatoes

1 egg

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

2-3 Tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped (or 1 1/2 tsp dried)

a good pinch of salt

a good pinch of pepper

2-3 Tbsp sunflower oil, for frying

sour cream, for serving

Preparation

Peel potatoes and grate (using medium or large holes of a box grater), transferring to a bowl of water. Soak potatoes for 10-15 minutes, then drain well in a colander, and squeeze grated potatoes with hand, extracting as much liquid as possible.
Transfer potatoes back to a bowl and stir in egg, salt, pepper and dill. Add flour and mix until well-coated. The mixture should be wet and thick (not soupy!).
In a heavy-based or iron skillet heat the oil until hot, but not smoking. Place the large spoonfuls of the mixture into pan, pressing down and spreading into cm/inch rounds with a fork or spoon. Reduce heat to moderate. Brown draniki on one side about 5 minutes, turn over and brown on the other. Let drain on a paper towels.
Serve warm with sour cream or raw.
Draniki are also good with creme fraiche, herb cream cheese and ricotta.

The remaining draniki can be kept in a refrigerator up to one day. Reheat in a 160C/320F oven, about 10 minutes.

Salad with sauteed vegetables

I want to thank all for your lovely comments on my previous post!

What’s the weather in your country? What do you do to stay chilled? Hiding at home, eating ice cream all days long or chilling near the swimming pool with a cocktail..;) In Dubai almost everybody is hiding inside houses, malls.. Moreover, it’s Ramadan, to drink or eat in public is prohibited until the sunset.

I’m trying to eat more balanced and healthful meal this month, like the below salad. It’s summery and..just eat the salad, man! 😀

Salad with sauteed vegetables

Servings: 2-3
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Aromatic herbs make it so good and appetizing! Eat as is or with grilled sausages.

Ingredients:

2 zucchini/6-7 baby/~600g

2 medium apples, juicy and sour

6 cherry-tomatoes or 1 large tomato

1 red onion

1 clove of garlic, smashed

zest and juice of half lemon

1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 dried

2-3 Tbsp parsley/coriander/mint, finely chopped

salt, white pepper to taste

1-3 Tbsp olive oil

Cut the onion and slice into half moons. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the onion until tender.
Chop the tomato and apples, add to the pan along with garlic and thyme, mix and sauté for 2-3 minutes more. Discard the garlic, put the vegetable mixture in a bowl, set aside and keep in a warm place.
Slice zucchini, add it to the frying pan along with lemon zest and sauté on a medium hit until tender. Add more oil if needed.
Add the veg mixture into zucchini, mix and heat for 1-2 minutes.
Put all the veggies in a big serving bowl, add mint and/or parsley, salt&pepper and squeeze lemon juice. Drizzle some extra olive oil over the salad, if desired.

Enjoy!

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Syrniki

Syrniki are fried pancakes, which are made from cottage cheese and traditionally garnished with a sour cream. They are very popular and widely-cooked not only in Russia, also in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. The word ‘syrniki’ is derived from Russian word ‘syr’ which means cheese.

The main ingredients are cottage cheese, flour, eggs, sugar, sometimes raisins and vanilla. Commonly syrniki are eaten for freakfast, but could be served as a dessert.

You can find a great variety of syrniki recipes, in one you should add one egg, in another three, in third just few spoons of flour or semolina flour, and etc. Finally, it doesn’t matter which recipe you’re using, just adjust it to suit your own taste.

TIPS:

Flour and sugar. One adds only few tablespoons of flour, in such option, might be difficult to shape syrniki and turn them over during frying, as they will be soft, but at the same time tender and creamy. Amount of sugar is totally depends on your preferences.

Filling. Raisins and vanilla are most popular ingredients for the syrniki filling, but you can go further – add cinnamon, dried apricots, plums or cherries, lemon or orange zest.

Dressing. Sour cream, jam and sweet condensed milk are the most favourite toppings for syrniki. If you neither like the one nor the other, make berry or chocolate sauce, or just dust it with icing sugar, or pour over some honey, add dulce de leche…

You can fry syrniki on a moderate heat in a frying pan for 5 minutes on each site or until golden-brown (using few tablespoons of sunflower oil). I propose you the recipe of an oven-baked syrniki, which is much better and healthier, as you don’t need to use oil.

Russian Syrniki

Servings: 3-4
Time: 30-40min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

Cottage cheese, 500g

Eggs, 2

Sugar, 2-4 Tbsp

Flour, 50-80g

a pinch of salt

Semolina, 2 Tbsp

Vanilla sugar or extract, 1 tsp, optional

Raisins/sultanas, 50g

Preparation:

In a small bowl or mug, put raisins, cover with warm water and let it soak, meanwhile you do all below steps. Optionally, you can add a tablespoon of cognac, brandy or rum along with water for an extra flavor. Then pour the water out and wipe raisins.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla together and beat well until pale color (use hand whisk or electric mixer).
Add flour, semolina, salt, raisins, and combine well.
Shape beautiful syrniki -about 5cm/2inch in diameter and 1cm/0.5inch wide.
Arrange syrniki on a greased baking tray and bake in preheated 200C/400F oven for 20-25 minutes or until nice golden color.
Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.
You can keep all remaining syrniki in a fridge, and reheat them next morning.

Syrniki are so delicious that I could eat them every other morning. Cooking of syrniki is highly recommended as alternative to regular pancakes! 🙂

Enjoy! ❤

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Goat cheese must be the most controversial cheese. One does like it, another hate. What about you, dear reader? Do you like goat cheese or its odour is too pungent for you?

Whatever you goat cheese stance, I suggest you to try it! May be you will find you earthreal cheese! 🙂

I couldn’t find a good goat cheese, when I lived in Russia, there was no any variety even in supermarkets. You could find the goat milk, which was sold by farmers in the countryside, but usually only milk, they didn’t produce any goat cheese. There were plenty of soft and hard farmer cheeses but made from cow milk. Thus many people haven’t try goat cheese. Of course the situation has changed now.

I was amazed how many goat cheeses are sold in Dubai: fresh, soft and creamy, aged, etc, which are brought here from Europe (usually from France).

Once I watch a food-show and chef made a salad with mini cheese balls, covered with parsley. I liked the idea.. After several days I created my own appetizer to impress my guests.

It looks like a gourmet appetizer, and it’s certainly good if you don’t want to hang around the kitchen for hours. 😉

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Servings: 5-6
Difficulty: easy
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If you want to make it ahead of time, you can roll the balls and roast beetroots 1 to 2 days beforehand.

Ingredients:

150g soft goat cheese (I used honey-flavoured)

1 Tbsp cream cheese

a pinch of sea salt

1/3 tsp white or pink pepper, freshly ground

1-3 Tbsp walnuts, finely chopped

1-3 Tbsp fresh thyme, sage, flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1-2 small beetroots

1-2 small tomatoes

Dressing:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1/2 tsp liquid honey

Method:

Wash and clean beets, cover with a foil and bake in preheated oven 200C/400F for 30-45 minutes, depends on the beets’ size.
Cut the beets and tomatoes into equal circles, and arrange them on a serving plate.
In a bowl combine goat and cream cheeses along with salt, pepper and walnuts. Spoon cheese mixture and form into balls (you can use table or teaspoon, depends on a size of your choice).
Gentle roll the balls in herb mixture, coating well. Place onto vegetables.
Serve immediately (with fresh arugula or young chard leaves, if desired), or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Optionally, you can make a dressing and pour over cheese balls and salad.

TIP: You can add 1-2 fresh or dried finely chopped figs into the cheese mixture.

I’m bringing this dish over to FF tonight! Hopefully, someone has brought a good bottle of wine.. 😉 And don’t forget to bring the good mood to the party!

ENJOY!

Chocolate Cake with mascarpone cream

I do like sponge cakes, they are easy, simple and scrumptious! 😀 This one is absolutely worth making, the base is flavoured with coffee and chocolate, which can be your favourite – dark, milk or cherry-flavoured, for en extra twist add vanilla. You can use only mascarpone for the cream, add cherries or some ganache into the filling. The possibilities are endless!
What can I say about the cake. A light, moist sponge bursting with juicy strawberries and a creamy filling – a perfect teatime treat! 😉

Chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

Servings: 10-12
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If you’re not coffee-lover just leave it out, and replace with water or juice.

Ingredients for 20cm/8inch round cake pan

CAKE:

4 eggs, yolks and whites separated, at room temperature

100g white sugar (you can add 150-200g to suit your taste)

150g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp non-sweeten cacao

3 Tbsp dark chocolate, chopped finely-almost powdered

40ml/2 Tbsp coffee, brewed and chilled (or coffee/chocolate liquor/amaretto)

1 tsp vanilla extract, optionally

50ml olive or sunflower oil

30ml/ 1 1/2 Tbsp water, cold

1/2 tsp lemon juice

CREAM:

120g whipping cream

50g icing sugar

80g mascarpone

50g hazelnuts or/and almonds, chopped finely

30-50g chocolate, strawberry-flavoured/dark or milk

100g strawberries, chopped, optionally

GANACHE:

100g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

80-100ml cream, double or 20-30%

Preheat oven to 355°F / 180°C. Butter cake pan, line it with baking paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except for the sugar.
In a small bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until the mixture is pale. Add oil, coffee, water and stir well. Set aside.
Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry.
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt and lemon juice until soft peaks form.
Slowly incorporate egg whites into batter until just combined.
Pour into your greased dish and bake for 34-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Coll completely. Cut cake into two layers.
To make the cream, whip the cream and icing sugar for 3-4 minutes or until foamy (Be careful! Don’t overbeat!). Add mascarpone, chocolate and nuts, and combine. Optionally, you can stir in some fresh berries.
Spread the cream evenly over one cake layer, top with the second one.
To make the chocolate ganache, bring cream to the boil in small saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth.
Spread the ganache over the cake, decorate with berries or chocolate.
Refrigerate cake 3-4 hours or overnight before serving.