Tag Archives: Russian recipe

Stuffed capsicums. Russian recipe.

First of all, guys, have you seen Jamie Oliver’s live foodtube show yesterday? I’m a huge fan of him, he is so inspiring person! It started 12:30am Dubai time and today has been working day. I’ve honestly tried to watch it, but after half an hour I fell asleep:) Going to watch it today.

There are a large variety of fillings that are used for stuffed capsicums worldwide.

The most widely known in Russia is ground pork with rice. However, the concept has mutated to suit up-to-date needs, and peppers are filled with couscous, wild rice, cheese and etc.

You need around 60-70g of the filling per capsicum.

8-10 medium-sized capsicums

500g ground pork/beef or 250g pork+250g beef (I used beef)

100-150g rice, short-grain preferably

2 carrots, shredded

1 big onion, finely chopped

200g sour cream

100g tomato paste

200-400ml lukewarm water, I prefer veg stock

sunflower or olive oil for frying

salt, black pepper

small bunch of dill or parsley, chopped (optionally)

Wash the rice thoroughly, cook in 100ml of water until semi-done (around 7-8 minutes).

In a small pan over medium heat, fry carrots and onions until tender and they’ve get golden color.

Meanwhile, wash capsicums, cut the tops off each pepper and remove seeds. If peppers do not stand up straight, slice a little (!) off the bottom of the pepper to level it out.

Mix meat, cooked rice and 1/2 of veggies together (if you don’t like onion and carrot in filling, escape this step). Add salt, black pepper to taste. Fill the capsicums tightly and place in a baking dish.

In a bowl combine sour cream, tomato paste and the remaining 1/2 veggies together.

Pour the sauce in a large deep dish. Place the stuffed capsicums in.

Pour the stock or water slightly below the brim of the capsicums.

Close the dish with a lid, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer on a lower-medium heat for 35-45 minutes.

Serve with the sauce, in which peppers were cooked, or sour cream.

Sprinkle over some fresh dill or parsley.

Yummy! 🙂

Russian cold soup-Sveckolnik

Sveckolnik [sve’koljnik] – Russian summer cold soup, which goes really well during the summer heat. The name comes from the word “sveckla”, which denotes beetroot.

When AC and even hundreds of ice cream don’t help you against hot, this light soup refreshes and cools you.

The main ingredient is a raw beetroot, it’s high in vitamins, minerals and fiber that can effect the digestive system in a positive ways.

Raw beets are one of the top vegetables for nutritious raw eating, according to Bastyr University.

You can include this light soup in your balanced diet and it takes only few minutes to prepare it.

Ingredients:

beetroot – 2 small

cucumbers – 3-4

eggs – 1-2 per plate

a bunch of spring onion

a small bunch of dill

1 garlic clove

buttermilk 400 ml

water 200 ml

salt, sugar to taste

sour cream (optional)

Better to choose small young beets. And you can substitute raw beets with boiled, if you like.

Shred beets and cucumbers, put them in a deep plate.

Boil eggs for 10 minutes, let cool and cut them into chunks.

Slice green onions, put it in a cup and add some salt. With teaspoon begin to grind the salt into onions.

Add crushed garlic and mix.

Combine together beets, cucumbers, eggs, onions and dill. Add a pinch of sugar.

For the liquid part buttermilk is mixed with cold drinking water, the volume and thickness of it totally depends on your taste.

If you can find “salted lassi” (yougurt drink)-use it, no need to dilute with water; in Arabian countries it’s called “laban up”, in Russia – “tan”, “sivorotka” .

Pour the buttermilk over dry ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle some dill.

Enjoy! 🙂

You can serve it with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.

Layered salad with chicken and prunes

August 5, 2013
milkandbun
7 comments
blog, Blogging, chicken, cooking, dinner, DIY, eggs, food, food photo, lunch, photography, recipe, Russian, Russian recipe, salad, side dish

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 🙂

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

Prunes
Chicken fillets
Spread 1/2 dressing
Mushrooms with onion
Spread 1/4 dressing
Eggs
Spread the remaining 1/4 dressing over eggs
Cucumber

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

Red spinach

Hi guys! 🙂Have you ever tried red spinach? First time I tried it in Dubai. Unfortunately, I never seen it in Russia before. It has mild earthy and green flavor, very similar to green spinach. I use leaves in salads or garnish, adding nice color to any dish!

Today for the lunch is baked crusted creme dory fillet and carrot-spinach salad.

Ingredients (Serve 3)

3 medium-sized creme dory fillets

2 eggs

For the crust:

1 cup breadcrumbs (homemade is better)

1 tsp crushed coriander seeds

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp crushed white pepper

some salt to taste

For the salad:

3 carrots, shredded

1 stalk celery, sliced

1/2 bunch coriander

1/2-1 bunch red spinach

sour cream

Preheat oven to 190C (370F). Pat the fillet dry with paper towel.

In a bowl combine the crust ingredients. Dip the fish fillet in beaten eggs, then in crust.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile mix salad ingredients together gently and coat with sour cream.

Serve the hot crusted fish and the carrot salad together.

Enjoy!

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

For 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.

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