Tag Archives: Russian

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.

Peppers_3

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.

Peppers_1Peppers_2Mix 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.

Peppers_4

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.
Svekolnik-5
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.
Svekolnik-3
Slice green onions, put it in a cup and add some salt. With teaspoon begin to grind the salt into onions.
Svekolnik
Add crushed garlic and mix.
Svekolnik-2
Combine together beets, cucumbers, eggs, onions and dill. Add a pinch of sugar.
Svekolnik-4
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.

Svekolnik-6
  Enjoy! 🙂
You can serve it with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.

Layered salad with chicken and prunes

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 🙂

Cucumber salad1

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

  1. Prunes
  2. Chicken fillets
  3. Spread 1/2 dressing
  4. Mushrooms with onion
  5. Spread 1/4 dressing
  6. Eggs
  7. Spread the remaining 1/4 dressing over eggs
  8. Cucumber

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

Cucumber salad-2

Georgian Salad

The weather leaves much to be desired here (in Dubai), and the sun is all day long. Today is 47C (117F)!!!! and needless to say, how hot it is 😀

So I’ve started enjoying salads for dinner pretty much. I know what you could think: salads are boring! Be creative! Upgrade your small salad to big entree and add extra meat or beans to make it more hearty.

The below salad is named Georgian or Tbilisi, after the country, which cuisine offers various meat dishes with herbs and vegetables.

We need 300 g of baked (or boiled) beef meat;

1 can of red beans;

2 yellow or green bell peppers;

1 red onion;

1-2 cloves of garlic;

seeds of 1 pomegranate;

juice of 1 lemon;

olive oil;

khmeli suneli.

First, I need to explain what khmeli suneli is. It’s a Georgian spice mix, which can be used in any dish, it gives nice flavor to beef stew, goulash or hearty soups. You can buy it at any Russian store or DIY 🙂

In equal parts (all ingredients are dry):

-dill

-parsley

-coriander

-crushed bay leaves

-marjoram

-chili pepper- much less~2%

Next ingredients are not necessary, but you can put them as well:

-fenugreek leaves or seeds

-basil

-mint

-savory

-saffron ~0.10%

Cut the red onion into half moons and keep it in a hot water. Meanwhile cut the meat and peppers into cubes.

In a serving bowl, combine together meat, peppers, beans (without liquid) and onions.

In a small cup, prepare the dressing-mix olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic and spice mix (khmeli suneli). Pour it over our salad, mix well and let stand for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, black pepper and salt.

 

Bon appetite!

Penne with basil and parmigiano

Hi guys
Long time didn’t post anything. I had short and unplanned trip to Russia, then had been moving into a new apartment (bigger, lighter, lucky me). But one Russian saying says “moving is worse than a fire”, and I can’t agree. It really drains me. Thank God, almost all stuff already in place.

Since my small basil has been grown I’m trying to use it, it gives wonderful aroma:)

The simplest dish- penne with basil and parmigiano. Serve 1-for yourself 😉

-You can use any ready basil pesto or do it the quickest version: basil, some parmesan and olive oil mix in a blender until smoothly combine or  fresh basil leaves with olive oil.

-Cook 100-200 g of the penne in plenty of boiling salted water around 9 minutes. Drain it, reserve few spoons of cooking water or use cream.

-Toss and stir the hot pasta with pesto, fresh basil leaves and reserving water or cream.

-Spinkle with pistachios and parmesan.

 

Serve and Enjoy:)

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Mila

 

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