Tag Archives: Russian

Khvorost

Khvorost is a traditional Russian crispy sweet which made out of dough, shaped into twisted ribbons and deep-fried. The name means ‘brushwood’, it was given because of similar look to a real brushwood and a sound ‘crack-crack’ when you bite the crunchy sweet khvorost. 🙂

Khvorost was very popular in the 18-19th centuries and commonly eaten among petty bourgeois, shopkeepers, clerks and students, who could gather and spend a little amount of money on this crunchy treat.

When pastry and confectionery industry progressed after 1930-50th, bringing more sweet products such as caramel candies and variety of cookies the khvorost itself became less popular.

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

1 Tbsp sour cream

100 ml full-fat milk

2 Tbsp cognac (or vodka)

pinch of salt

500g flour (white, all-purpose)

icing sugar for dusting

sunflower oil for deep-drying

Method

Whisk well egg yolks with sour cream, milk, cognac and salt. Adding the flour gradually to the egg mixture, knead a dough until soft, cohesive and no longer sticky (thus don’t add all the flour at once, or even add some if needed).

Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, let it rest for 20-30 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1cm/0.4″ thick. Cut strips (2-3cm/1″ width and 8-10cm/3-4″ length), make a small cut in each strip and fold one edge into it.

Heat the oil in a large pan and cook khvorost on both sides until golden (1-2 minutes). Ready ones set on a paper towel to get rid of fat excess.

Sprinkle with a good quantity of icing sugar.

Sugar is not added into genuine classic khvorost dough , that helps to make it more fluffy; thus sprinkle lots of icing sugar or pour some honey over ready ‘ribbons’ .

Enjoy with a cup of black tea or milk, or leave some for the morning coffee! 😉

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Velvety&Luscious Cauliflower soup

Vegetables play an important role in our lives. Let’s do it more healthy and cook this velvety and creamy cauliflower soup.

Sautéing capsicum and roasted cashews is great topping to the soup, infused with spices.

! Don’t forget to adjust the level of chilli seasoning to make the soup less or more spicy. 🙂

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium head of cauliflower (600-700g/1.5 pounds),

cut into medium-size florets

1 capsicum

1+1 garlic cloves, a slightly crushed

1 small onion

1/2 Tbsp butter

1+1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp cream cheese

100 ml single cream

100 ml vegetable broth (or water) + some warm water

3-4 Tbsp cashews, roasted and crushed

1 tsp dry basil

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder)

2-3 tsp chilli flakes or chilli seasoning

3-4 tsp chopped parsley and/or basil

Salt&pepper

1 tsp olive oil per plate, for dressing, optionally

In a soup pot, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil and butter. Add the onion and cook until soften but not browned for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the cauliflower and garlic, cook for 5 minutes. Pick out and discard the garlic.
Add the broth and water, season with basil, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil on a frying pan, add the capsicum and garlic and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Pick out and discard the garlic.
Purée the soup until very smooth. Season with the nutmeg. Stir in the cheese and cream.
Rewarm it over medium heat (just few minutes). If necessary, add more water to thin the cauliflower soup.
Serve with capsicum on the top; sprinkle with fresh basil, parsley, chilli and cashews.
Drizzle over the olive oil, if desired.

Bon Appetit!

The soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Pancake Pie

Today is ‘Forgiveness Sunday’, the last day of the ‘pancake festival’ (Butterweek) in Russia.

According to one old tradition, the more pancakes have been eaten during the Butterweek, the more successful will be the year.

As per another custom, a girl at the twilight, should took a pancake, went out and asked the first stranger his name. It was believed, that man’s name and look is similar to the future husband’s appearance. In case if the girl didn’t like the name ‘n’ look, she had to give a pancake to the guy. If she liked it, she had to eat a pancake herself. 🙂

There are lots of pancakes varieties, with savoury or fruit fillings. Mine 3 favourites: with cottage cheese, sweet condensed milk and salmon 🙂

Making pancakes could be really exciting and interesting, you can involve the whole family, invite friends and enjoy the holiday.

You can surprise your family by preparing this delicious pancake pie!

What’s more, I decided to participate in Fiesta Friday, organized by Angie from TheNoviceGardener. I’m happy to be involved in such virtual parties and get new friends. 🙂

The basic Russian pancakes recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

650ml full fat milk

50ml warm water

250g all-purpose flour

2 eggs

a good pinch of salt

2 tbsp of sugar

2 tbsp of sunflower oil

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar

Preparation:

Break the eggs into large bowl, add salt and sugar, whisk.
Add the oil and milk, whisk again.
Sift the flour into the bowl, whisk thoroughly.
Add warm water and whisk to incorporate any lumps.
Pour lemon juice or vinegar into a spoon with baking soda on it (to dissolve the soda), quickly add it into the batter and whisk a couple of times.
While the mixture is resting (it allows the ingredients to blend together better), heat the pan; grease the pan with some oil, if needed.
Evenly coat the pan with the batter. Cook about a minute, then flip the pancake and cook for 15-30 seconds more.
Keep prepared pancakes in warm place.

You can already enjoy the tastiest pancakes, dipping them into a raspberry preserve or hazelnut sauce, or prepare the pancake pie with salmon. It could be wonderful lunch or dinner for the weekend.

Pancake pie with salmon and cream cheese

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

8 pancakes

200g salted or smoked salmon, always better homemade (find the recipe here)

120-150g cream cheese

2tbsp sour cream (substitute with crème fraîche, or single/double cream)

4-5 tbsp finely chopped dill

I used red caviare for the decoration, you can do it with salmon or just keep the top as is.

Assembling:

Blend the cream cheese with sour cream until smooth.
Cut the salmon into small cubes.
Arrange the first pancake on a plate, spread the cheese mixture and sprinkle with dill.
Cover with the second one. Spread some salmon on the pancake.
Cover with the third pancake.
Repeat all steps.

Have a lovely pancake time! 🙂

Russian schi (cabbage soup)

Today is 3rd day of Butterweek (Rus.-Maslenica) in Russia. It’s spring festival, saying goodbye to the winter, and the week before Lent. During the week we bake pancakes (we say exactly bake, not cook, even though we fry them on a pan) almost every day, invite relatives and friends, and our hearts fill with a joy of the upcoming spring.

Every day of Butterweek has the name and meaning. Today (Wednesday) is ‘Lakomka’ – Gourmand. When wife’s mother invites son-in-law and treats him with pancakes. Unmarried boys and girls usually went to slide from snow hills. Old folks bantered with guys, who hadn’t married that year and played various pranks to them. And guys bribed with pancakes and candies.

More you can read in my previous post here.

I’d like to tell you about another no less famous Russian dish – Schi, it’s cabbage soup, similar to Borsch (with cabbage and beetroots). Everyone knows and enjoy it. 😉

Schi is the main hot Russian dish over a millennium. Peasants started to cook it a long time ago in the 9th century when cabbage has begun to cultivate everywhere in Russia. In spite of the fact that people’s tastes have been changing, the soup is always been eaten.

Of course, schi was not the same for all social classes. Full of content, with meat and thick cream, was called ‘rich’, other ‘empty’, as it was cooked only from cabbage and onion.

To create a special and unique schi’s taste, it was prepared in clay or cast-iron pot in Russian petch/oven. ‘Schi’s spirit’ was always in homes, that means everybody cooked it. The Russian proverb says ‘Schi and kasha is our food’, as they were eaten every day.

Schi consists of six major components: cabbage, meat (or mushrooms rarely), roots (carrot, parsley), spice part (onions, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper) and sour part (sour cream, apples or cabbage brine). First and last parts are essential and absolutely compulsory. Thus, the simplest schi could be done from cabbage and sour cream 🙂

The notable feature of schi (that you cook not just a simple cabbage soup) is a slightly sour taste, which usually archived by adding sour cream, sour/salted cabbage, and brine or salted mushrooms into the soup.

Originally, flour was added as well to make schi thicker, but such ‘dressing’ spoiled the taste and then began to add potatoes or buckwheat.

Considered that the ideal schi is so thick, that if you put a spoon into the soup, it holds vertical position and doesn’t fall. 😀 or when a huge piece of meat is risen above a plate of schi.

Health-giving properties of the soup allowed to consume it frequently. There are many schi versions: ‘summer schi’ with fresh cabbage or sorrel, ‘winter schi’ with sour cabbage, ‘lenten/lean schi’ without meat and etc. Mine is with fresh cabbage and meat.

For the meat part better to choose fatty beef, belly or rump, bone in. Even you can add some pork. I used boneless lamp, because couldn’t find a proper piece of beef.

When the soup is ready, leave it for 15-30 minutes to get the enhanced flavor. A similar principle is brewing tea, we keep it for 3 minutes to get a wonderful aroma. So, you can make a big pot of schi and eat it all week long. 🙂

Russian schi

Servings: 5-6
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

500-600g lamb or beef

300-400g cabbage

3 medium potatoes

1+1 onion, for broth and frying

1+1 carrot, for broth and frying

2-3 tsp tomato paste

small bunch of parsley and/or dill

2 bay leaves

5 whole peppercorns

2 tbsp. sunflower oil, for frying

1 garlic clove

sour cream, good quality

rye or wholemeal bread

salt, black pepper to taste

Preparation

- Put the meat inn a large soup pot, cover with 3 litres of water, bring to boil and remove the foam.

- Meanwhile, grate carrot and dice onion. Sauté vegetables until they are soft for 10 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and sauté for 3-4 minutes more.

- Take and throw carrot and onion out, we won’t use them anymore.

- Take the meat out as well. Cut into small cubes and keep aside.

- To get the clear soup, you can strain the broth through cheesecloth (optionally).

- Season the broth with salt and black pepper to taste.

- Slice potatoes, add into the broth and boil 15 minutes.

- Thinly shred the cabbage and add to the potatoes (when they are half way done) along with meat cubes.

- Again bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until vegetables are soft.

- Add sautéed carrot and onion to the pot along with bay leaves, whole peppercorns (you can smash them little bit), salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.

- Add chopped parsley/dill and crushed garlic.

- Turn the heat off, cover the pot with a lid and let it stand at least for 15 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and rye or wholemeal bread.

Enjoy Russian lunch! 🙂

You can click on any picture to have a look it in full size.

Winter cake with red berries

Red berries and cheese make this cake a frequent guest on my table during the winter. 😀 It looks gorgeous and tastes delicious! Perfect for holiday season!