Tag Archives: Russian food

Coconut Cheesecake (flourless)

Hello guys! How are you doing these crazy days? Hope you stay home, safe and healthy. Sometimes I forget about this coronavirus situation, that I stay home not because it’s quarantine and lockdown but because I decided to bake something and spend time home… I’d love to drive somewhere and discover a new coffee shop and sit there over a cup of aromatic flat white… I miss the beach, I miss paddling in the sea I want to go to the nearest supermarket without wearing face mask and gloves, and buy a freshly baked bun there and eat it on the way back I want to go to the park with my little one and run and play with a ball there… I miss everything, I miss the world. Sigh.

I hope this will end soon somehow, and we will able to do whatever we enjoy doing.

A few months ago I’d wrote that this cake with sweet dried cherries will be tastier… but today, today everything is different. I know it’s difficult for someone to come by to Russian tvorog but if you’re lucky to find pure one – use it, better 5-9%. I make tvorog myself: boil a large quantity of plain yogurt (or 3%-kefir/soured milk). As another great alternative for tvorog, Bulgarian and Cypriot cottage cheese works well, or Ukrainian is much the same.

Moreover, if you don’t have enough coconut flakes, keep them to sprinkle the cake top, or even don’t use it at all, and use plain white flour in the cake batter. Now you can see – that this cake recipe is very simple and can be adopted very easily. Don’t miss this incredible and tasty cake! Hope you will make it soon. Stay safe guys!

Coconut Cheesecake (flourless)

Servings: 4-5
Time: 50-60min
Difficulty: very easy
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*dried cranberries are also good

What you’ll need

400g tvorog/cottage cheese

70g white sugar

4 egg yolks

2 tbsp dried cherries, optional*

1-2 tbsp dried pineapple cubes, optional*

100g unsweetened coconut flakes

4 egg whites

a pinch of salt

How to make it

Whisk tvorog with sugar and egg yolks.
Fold in dried fruits, if using, and coconut flakes.
In a separate bowl, slightly beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks. Carefully fold into batter.
Line the baking tin with paper, grease and pour in the batter.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 40 minutes.
Allow to cool in the tin for some time and transfer to the serving plate. Sprinkle with some coconut flakes, if desired.

Enjoy!

Russian Cabbage stew with mushrooms

What is y our comfort winter food? Is it roasting chicken or meaty stew? Or maybe you are making lots of sweet pies during cold days? Everyone has their own preferences and favorite dishes that warm you up when outside is cold, and undoubtedly, such food should be warm, aromatic and delicious.

For me, one of such winter dishes is stewed cabbage. The recipe is very simple, easy to cook and affordable. White cabbage is not expensive, and nowadays available all year round. Continue reading →

Blini spiral pie

February 23, 2017
milkandbun
11 comments
blini, blini pie, blog, Butterweek, cooking, food photo, food photography, food styling, photos, pie, Russian cuisine, Russian food, Russian pie, spiral meat pie, spiral pie

Maslenitsa or Butterweek is going on in Russia right now. It’s a winter festival, saying goodbye to the cold winter days and greeting the warm and sunny spring. During this week people prepare and eat lots of blini. For breakfast blini can be served simple and quick with melted butter and sugar or some homemade jam, for lunch – again blini, and for the dinner, especially when the whole family is getting together, is really nice and festive to serve the delicious salmon pie or this one – soft, aromatic and nourishing spiral meat pie.

Blini and the filling can be prepared a couple of days ahead, so you can assemble the pie whenever you have the time or just before the dinner. Succulent stewed cabbage, tasty beef and aromatic dill along with coriander and parsley make the filling truly wonderful! Moreover, blini will be soaked in a mixture of sour cream and eggs, that adds extra moisture and taste.

Maslenitsa is a very kind and light time, each day has a special meaning according to old tradition. For example, Wednesday is called “Gourmand”. On this day huge tables and stalls were settled on main squares, where people could drink hot honey-based sbiten and aromatic tea, enjoyed gingerbreads, fresh buns and some other sweet treats, and definitely taste the unlimited blini! But the main event was the visit of son-in-law his mother-in-law, and the mother tried to prepare the best blini she could to show respect and love to her daughter’ husband.

On Friday, the mother-in-law returned the visit, then her daughter made pancakes and the son-in-law had to please the mother and her other relatives.

Blini spiral pie

Servings: 6
Difficulty: moderate
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The quantity of the ingredients is given approximately, as it totally depends on the taste, quantity of blini, etc.

*For the pouring mixture, you can use either sour cream or double cream; even milk will work, just reduce the quantity.

Ingredients

~8 blini

Filling

250g mince beef

250-300g raw white cabbage

1 medium red onion

2-3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

dried herbs: dill, crushed whole coriander, marjoram

salt&pepper to taste

some oil for frying

2-3 tbsp sour cream (15-20%)

100ml double cream (30-35%)*

2 eggs

Garnish

sour cream

Method

Make blini. The recipe is here.
Heat some oil in one frying pan, add chopped onion and beef, season with marjoram and salt and pepper. Fry on a high heat for few minutes, breaking up the lumps with spatula. Reduce the heat to medium and fry for 10-15 minutes more. Then add some warm water, if the meat is too dry, cover with the lid and simmer until tender or while you’re preparing the cabbage.
In another pan, heat the oil and shredded cabbage, fry on a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary, allow cabbage to brown but not to burn. Fry until cabbage is brown, then sprinkle with dill and coriander, season, cover with a lid and cook until the cabbage is soft.
To assemble, you need any round baking dish, covered with baking paper and drizzled with oil. Mix meat with cabbage and fresh parsley. Take one blin and put one-two tablespoons of the filling into it, roll. Make as much as fits to the baking dish.
Mix creams with eggs and pour over the blini pie.
Bake in preheated 190C oven for 30 minutes.
Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.

Enjoy!

Kulesh

Kulesh – simple thick soup/pottage, that was popular in old times among peasants and Cossacks. It was also called “field pottage or kasha”, as it was often cooked by farmers for their lunch during field works. This pottage consisted mainly of millet and any root vegetables that were available at the moment. Garnished with some onions and salo (salted or cured fat, usually pork one), kulesh was prepared on a fire, that added a nice smoked flavor to the whole dish.

It should be thick enough but if you prefer thinner consistency add more water. Mine was thick and nourishing because of smoked meat (cooked pork belly). Using smoked meat replaces the cooking on an open fire. But feel free to make completely vegetarian version and omit the meat.

Once I wrote that millet is a healthy grain or seed. And if you still think it’s just for the feeding birds, you’re completely wrong and miss lots of benefits of this lovely grain. It’s a good source of vitamins B, calcium and iron. Here another recipes that I do love and cook at home: sweet breakfast millet porridge and autumn recipe – millet cooked in a pumpkin pot.

So, have you ever cooked millet? What are your favorite recipes?

Kulesh

Servings: 4
Difficulty: very easy
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You can add some cubes of celery root along with other vegetables.

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes, cubed

1 large carrot, cubed

200g millet

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion

150g smoked pork belly

1 bay leaf

fresh chopped parsley and spring onion, optional

S&P to taste

Method

Boil 2l water in a large pan. Add cubed vegetables and some salt. Bring to boil, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer about 15 minutes.
Wash millet throughly under running water. You may also cover millet with some warm water, it helps to cook it faster.
Add millet to the pot along with bay leaf and simmer for 10-15 minutes more or until it’s cooked.
Meanwhile, slice or chop onion, and cut pork belly into thin slices or chop it as you like. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute onion until it’s soft. Add pork belly and fry for few minutes.
Stir the onion-pork mixture into the soup. Adjust the seasoning.
Pour the soup into serving bowl. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, if desired. Serve with bread.

Enjoy!

Sunday Breakfast: Oladushki

One of the most-viewed and visited posts in my blog is “oladushki”. For those of you who don’t yet know the meaning – it’s Russian name for small pancakes. Yes, it’s absolutely incorrectly to call them blini as many people do (blini are large and thin like crepes, look here), and how they are usually called in restaurants or sold in stores.

This is the perfect breakfast or brunch to spoil yourself with on the weekend, and it could be made in a short time. Russian housewives most of the time use soured or any leftover kefir to prepare these soft beauties. You can try to substitute with buttermilk, drinking but thick yogurt, or as I did – used laban (local dairy drink). Oladushki go well with many sauces: honey, sour cream, sweetened yogurt, jam or sweet condensed milk. You can also serve them as a savory breakfast: with cream cheese or sour cream along with cured salmon or caviar.

Few tips on how to make oladushki soft and fluffy (not only to add a baking soda for leaving):

you should sift the flour (add the air); do not over-mix the batter (it leads to tough texture);

let the batter rest for a half an hour and then do not stir it again (otherwise the bubbles will deflate);

carefully scoop the batter from the side of the bowl – do not dip the spoon into the center;

finally, when you flip oladushki over – do not press it with a spatula.

So, this or next weekend morning that you make these oladushki, make a few extra. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge. And next hectic morning you don’t need to skip breakfast: reheat them, sit down&enjoy and plan for a successful day. 🙂

Sunday Breakfast: Russian Oladushki

Servings: 2-3
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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I served oladushki with plum preserve and vanilla yogurt.

All ingredients should be at room temperature, so take them out of the fridge 1 hour ahead.

Ingredients

1 medium egg

a pinch of fine salt

1-2 tsp white sugar

250ml kefir (laban or buttermilk), warm

170g plain flour

1/3 tsp baking soda

sunflower or any other veg.oil for frying

Method

In a large mixing bowl, beat an egg with salt and sugar until fluffy. Mix in kefir.
Sift the flour with soda into the batter. Whisk gently until the ingredients are just incorporated. Do not overmix – it leads to tough texture.
Let the batter rest for a half an hour and then do not stir it again (otherwise the bubbles will deflate).
Preheat the frying pan (until a drop of water skitters across the pan), lightly coat with oil.
Carefully scoop the batter from the side of the bowl. When oladushki are dry around the edges and bubbles over the top – turn it over. Don’t press oladushki with a spatula!
Transfer to a large plate in a single layer, keep it uncovered (you may keep them in a warm oven), while preparing the rest.
The best eaten fresh with your favorite sauces. But they also can be covered with a plastic wrap and kept in the fridge until the next morning.

Enjoy!

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