Tag Archives: holiday

Happy Women’s Day!

March 8, 2014
milkandbun
15 comments
blog, Blogging, flowers, holiday, My Life, photo, photos, Russian tradition, weekend, Women's Day

Today is ‘The International Women’s Day’ in Russia. It’s not widely celebrated in the world as far as I know but it’s similar to the Mother’s Day in Europe and North America. Traditionally men buy various gifts and flowers for close relatives like wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and also female colleagues. Flowers, such as tulips and mimosas, are associated with the upcoming spring and one of the popular gifts across the Russia along with perfume and chocolates.

Meanwhile, it’s Fiesta Friday by Angie, which I enjoyed a lot last time and met so many lovely bloggers. And I’m bringing these beautiful flowers to you and FF.

I wish all ladies very bright day, many flowers around, happiness and joy! 😀

Russian pryaniki – gignebread

Today is Christmas in Russia. I wish wonderful and magical day to all Orthodox Christians!

Pryaniki were ones of the favorite treats in Rus’ (old name of Russia). The name was given for it’s spicy aroma and taste. They are similar to gingerbread cookies, but often made more thick.

Pryanik was the symbol of holiday, because ingredients weren’t cheap and used daily. It’s been baked for the Christmas, Easter, weddings and birthdays. There were quite a lot ceremonies and traditions about pryaniki.

In 9^th century, first pryaniki were called “honey bread”, they were baked from rye flour with honey and berry juice, honey contained the half of all mixture. Later wild flowers and spices were added in a pastry.

In 7-8^th centuries, when exotic spices were brought from India and Middle East to Russia, pryanik was named “pryanik”. Spices for pryaniki were called “dry perfume”, among which black pepper, orange and lemon zest, mint, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, anise and clove were most used and favorite.

In 17-19^th centuries, baking of pryaniki was widely-spread craft. In every area people baked their special pryaniki according to traditional recipes; preparation’s secrets were passed on from one generation to another.

Ingridients:

For the pastry:

100-120 ml honey

300g flour

1 tbsp butter

1 egg

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp spice mix*

50ml water

1 tbsp cognac, brandy or vodka (optionally)

For the frosting:

1 egg white

150g icing sugar (powedered sugar)

*Spice mix:

1/3 tsp powdered coriander

1/3 tsp cinnamon

1/6 tsp nutmeg

a pinch of cardamom

a pinch of clove

a pinch of allspice

Honey and water heat in a pot (turn the heat off before the mixture begin to simmer). Take the pot away from the heat, add half of the flour (sifted) and mix intensively until smooth.

Cool the mixture until room temperature.

Then add the egg, cognac, spices, soda and the remaining sifted flour. Mix the pastry well during 15 minutes; it should be soft and tender.

Roll out the pastry in 5-6 mm/2 inch sheet and cut out any shape you like.

Bake in preheated 200C/400F oven for 15-18 minutes.

While the pryaniki are cooling, prepare the frosting. Beat well egg white, add sugar and beat again untill smooth. Put the ready frosting in a bag and decorate the pryaniki.

Enjoy with a cup of hot tea or a glass of milk. 🙂

Keep the pryaniki in a box, it can be stored during long time.

Slow-cooked beef with fruits

In Russian language, we have one word “tomlenie”, which is similar to the word “stewing”, but has a significant distinction. Tomlenie is a slow-cooking process of meat, fish or vegetables in Russian petch (oven/stove, have a look at the pictures of traditional Russian petch here and here).

Nowadays traditional Russian ovens can be found only in out-of-the-way places (villages and provinces, located in the remotest depths of the country).

It’s considered that, slow-cooking in the common oven is close to the “tomlenie” process, but the real taste and aroma of dishes prepared in Russian petch unfortunately couldn’t be done anywhere else.

Let’s try to prepare the closest dish.

First of all, we need a clay pot with a lid.

Be patient! Stewing will take several hours.

Don’t worry! During this time you don’t need to check or mix the dish every 10-20 minutes, thus you can have a break and watch your favorite movie, and even prepare a side dish. 🙂

Beef with fruits

Difficulty: easy
Print

If you don’t have clay pot-use casserole.

If you don’t have a lid -cover the pot with foil.

Replace cherries with cranberries.

Omit the sugar.

Spice the meat with 1/3 tsp of crushed cardamom, it brings a nice interesting note.

You can add 2-3 tbsp of dry red wine for the better taste (after the frying meat).

Ingredients to feed 4 people:

Beef, cut into 2-3cm cubes – 700g/1lb

Golden onion – 1 big, sliced

Pitted prunes – 150g/5 oz

Cherry fresh or frozen – 150g/5 oz

Sunflower or olive oil for frying- 1 tbsp

Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Bay leaves – 2

Whole black peppercorns – 8-10

Salt, pepper – to taste

some parsley, chopped

Method:

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion for 5-7 minutes, add beef cubes and fry until slightly browned.
Sprinkle the meat with sugar and cinnamon.
Put the meat in a clay pot, add boiling water (just to cover the meat), bay leaves and peppercorns. Season with salt and pepper.
Don’t forget to close the pot with a lid! 🙂
Transfer to a preheated oven, 200C/400F, for 2 hours.
Check the quantity of the liquid, and add some more water – if desired (the meat always should be in the broth).
Reduce temperature to 180C/380F and return to the oven for a further 1 hour.
Add prunes and cherries (no need to defrost), check the seasoning and return again to the oven for 30 minutes.
Switch the oven off and leave the pot in it (until the oven is still warm).
Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

The good garnish to such meat is a buckwheat porridge, mashed or boiled potatoes. It could be served with broth; in a clay pot or on a serving plate.

Enjoy the holiday dinner! 🙂

The little tiny Holiday cookies

Christmas and New Year are definitely my favourite holidays. Hustle and bustle time. Snowing outside, everybody is in rush, searching presents and gifts for the loved ones. Unfortunately in the UAE I can’t feel such wonderful emotions in full, but I can bring the festive mood and flavours to my home by baking some winter treats.

These little cookies are so rich in chocolate, that could give little more warmth for the family tea-time. Adding some spices-cloves, cinnamon or cardamom and a small hazelnut or pistachio inside is also great! 😉

And if you pack them in a little Xmas box – it might be amazing gift for a friend.

I’m pretty sure that better to double the amount of the ingredients, so you don’t need to cook it twice!