Tag Archives: Russian

Pokhlyobka – The Old Russian Pottage

Pokhlyobka is a kind of thick Russian soup made by adding flour, grains, potatoes or other vegetables. It is similar to the Britain Pottage.

Long time ago, it was a main meal among poor strata of Russian society. Most of the time, villagers and peasant farmers cooked and ate vegetarian pottage, because such expensive ingredients like meat or fish were not affordable for them. It’s worth mentioning that meat was eaten once or twice a year; more luckily were farmers, who had lived near rivers and could caught a fish throughout the year. The dish was easy to prepare, and people could use the remains of the yesterday meal – chunks of boiled potatoes or cabbage, then add extra millet or buckwheat. The rich part also ate pokhlyobka, but it was significantly better and besides potatoes, contained the meat of duck, hazel-hens, and etc.

My recipe of Russian pottage is also without meat.. Definitely, a good piece of fatty pork or beef could makes the pokhlyobka especially rich, so if you’re not a vegetarian you may add it. But I suggest you to try the non-meat option, which is infused with aromatic spices, and delicious pumpkin and thick sour cream make the soup absolutely irresistible!

‘Acoulina cooked absolutely delicious koulebyaks, various pokhlyobki..kvas..soaked apples..’ from the Russian novel ‘Whites, blacks and grays’ by Ivan Lazhechnikov written in 1856.

‘The dinner was absolutely delicious that day: pokhlyobka made from goose meat with wild onions, venison shashlik and slices of bear meat..’ from the Russian novel ‘Plutonia’ by Vladimir Obruchev written in 1915.

Pokhlyobka - The Old Russian Pottage

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

120-130g yellow split peas

3 small potatoes

300g pumpkin or squash

1 medium carrot, sliced

60-70g celery root, cut into small cubes

1 small onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped, optional

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 bay leaves

1.2 l water

1 Tbsp sunflower oil

salt, black pepper to taste

fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

sour cream, for serving, optional

fresh country-style bread, for serving, optional

Preparation

Wash peas, put in a pan, cover with water and soak overnight. Pour out the water. Cover peas with new cold water. Boil on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until peas are tender. Skim the foam during the boiling.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the oil, add spices and fry them for a minute. Add garlic, onion, carrot, celery root and saute vegetables on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
Peel and cut into small cubes potatoes and pumpkin.
Add potatoes to the pottage. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Add pumpkin along with fried vegetables, simmer the pottage for 10 minutes more or until the pumpkin is soft.
Adjust seasoning. If the pottage is too thick, add more hot water and stir through.
Garnish each plate with a dollop of sour cream and chopped parsley. Serve with a slice of bread.

Enjoy the old Russian farmer meal! 🙂

I’m bringing this traditional recipe to all lovely people who’s enjoying the FF party today!

Russian beetroot salad

November 18, 2014
milkandbun
26 comments
beet, beet salad, cooking, food, food photography, food styling, healthy, healthy recipe, photography, photos, recipe, Russian, Russian food, Russian recipe, salad, vegetarian

This simple salad is well-known in Russia. It brings back memories about my childhood, parents’ home and cold evenings, when we made the salad and then ate it. Beets, walnuts and garlic is a very good source of vitamins and oils, which is important during winter days. Prunes is another wonderful ingredient here, it adds sweetness to the salad (especially if the beets aren’t sugary); moreover, prunes have health benefits – they have a high anti-oxidant content and contain dietary fiber*.

I still love and make this salad. For me it’s certainly a good and comforting recipe. You can serve it also as a side dish to grilled meat, burgers or chicken. I hope you do give it a try! So easy and so tasty! 🙂

Russian beetroot salad

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 medium beets

6-8 prunes (dried plums), pitted

2 cloves of garlic, minced

a handful of walnuts

2-3 Tbsp sour cream

salt, black pepper to taste

fresh dill, optional, for garnish

rye bread, for serving

Preparation

Boil or roast beets until they’re tender. Cool, peel and grate beets (using medium-hole grater).
If prunes are too dry, soak them in a warm water for 10-15 minutes. Then roughly chop prunes and walnuts.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Garnish with dill, if desire. Serve with rye bread.

Enjoy!

Classic Beef Stroganov

Beef Stroganov is a well-known Russian dish, which become extremely popular in many countries. It consists of fried beef cubes mixed with sour cream sauce. Various explanations are given for the name, one says that such dish was firstly appeared at the count Alexander Stroganov’s dinners, who was the Russian minister of the interior from 1839, the member of the state Council from 1849 and the governor general of Novorossiia from 1855. The sauteed beef was among other different dishes, which were served at ‘open tables’ when all decorous and presentable people could came in straight from the street and tried any meal.

The first known Beef Stroganov recipe doesn’t contain onions or mushrooms, only floured beef cubes, which fried and sauced with mustard, bouillon (stock) and some sour cream. Thus, you may guess that it’s not the best recipe. The dish becomes much tastier and aromatic if you add onions and mushrooms (it tastes fantastic with cep mushrooms, even if you add only one), such recipe is considered now as classic Beef Stroganov.

Classic Beef Stroganov

Servings: 4
Difficulty: moderate
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You can also serve the beef with buckwheat instead of mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

500g beef fillet, cut into medium cubes

2 medium brown onions, thinly sliced

200-300g mushrooms, sliced (cep mushrooms or brown champignons)

2-3 Tbsp plain flour

150-200ml sour cream

2 tsp dijon mustard

2-3 Tbsp beef stock

butter or sunflower oil

sea salt, black pepper to taste

mashed potatoes, chopped dill or parsley, rye bread, for serving

Method

To make the sour cream sauce, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream with mustard, add stock to make it more thin (it should be liquid like kefir).
Mix the flour with a good pinch of salt. Lightly flour beef cubes from all sides, shake off any flour excess. Heat the heavy frying pan, when it’s hot, add butter or sunflower oil. Then sear beef cubes in 2 or 3 batches, so you don’t overcrowd the pan and steam the meat. Cook for 2-3 muntes or just until browned. Transfer to the plate.
In the same frying pan (reduce the heat to medium), add a knob of butter, mushrooms and onions. Fry onion until it’s soft. Then add fried meat, season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, you need to warm the meat mixture for 2-3 minutes. Now add the sauce, stirring continuously for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with lid and let it rest for few minutes.
Serve with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with dill or parsley. Enjoy!

You can keep the dish in the fridge up to 1-2 days. Keep the fried meat and sour cream sauce separate in the different containers. Just mix it together and rewarm before serving (but don’t let the sauce bubble).

Mrs Pumpkin’s Rolls

Mrs Pumpkin and Mr Squash are in trend this autumn! 🙂 It seems everybody is obsessed with them and cooks lots of dishes. Bright, sweet-smelling and delicious, that is hard to resist and don’t to eat it; moreover pumpkin is a great course of vitamins A, C, B, K, E!

Pumpkin always pairs good with such warming spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. And it’s amazing how all the cozy autumn spices make cool weather quite easy to enjoy, and bring a sense of comfort on cold days.

Today recipe is for all Mrs Pumpkin’s admires! 😀

These rolls are perfect for weekend breakfast, or simply enjoy it anytime! Cinnamon-scented pumpkin filling, cheese glaze and hazelnuts make rolls crazy delicious!

Pumpkin Rolls with brown sugar and cinnamon

Actually, it was an experiment. I had to use cottage cheese leftovers, and firstly I planned to make cookies; but it seemed bored, besides that I’d made shortbread cookies a day before, thus idea of pumpkin rolls was born!

As you may see, I’m so pleased with the result of my experiment! Perfectly spiced and tender rolls! They can be served with lightly sweeten mascarpone or yogurt instead of cheese glaze. And one more important thing – the dough has no yeast, so the rolls can be easily made in the morning or when you’re short on time and don’t have time to wait for the dough to rise. 🙂

Mrs Pumpkin's Rolls

Servings: 8-10
Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

The dough

1 egg, at room temperature

40g brown sugar

120-150g cottage cheese

80g plain flour

110g wholewheat flour*

1/2 tsp/2.5g baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

20g butter, melted

Pumpkin filling

300g pumpkin

1 medium apple

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

30g mix of dark muscovado and brown sugar/ or only brown sugar (adjust sugar to taste)

20g butter, melted, for brushing the dough

Honey cream cheese glaze

70g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 Tbsp liquid honey

2-4 Tbsp full fat milk

icing sugar, if needed

hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped

Method

For the dough, beat egg with sugar until pale and sugar is dissolved about 4-5 minutes. Add cottage cheese and fold in. Add flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, vanilla and mix in. Stir in butter and mix to combine. The dough should be soft but not sticky. *Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Cover and keep to rest.
Meanwhile, prepare pumpkin filling. Core and cut in small cubes pumpkin and apple. Heat butter and olive oil in a frying pan, add pumpkin and apple cubes, drizzle with lemon juice; saute on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Add cinnamon and nutmeg, mix and set a side to cool. Blend to get a puree.
Roll the dough out to 37×26 cm rectangle. Brush the dough with melted butter, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Spread evenly the pumpkin mixture on the dough. Cut the dough into 8-10 equal strips, and carefully roll each strip into a ‘barrel’.
Transfer rolls to the baking tray, lined with baking paper and greased. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden-brown.
For the glaze, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add honey and milk and beat again. If you want to make the glaze more liquid add more milk and mix. Add icing sugar, if it’s not sweet enough.
Arrange pumpkin rolls on a serving plate, pour the glaze over the warm rolls, and sprinkle with hazelnuts.
Enjoy warm!

Rolls can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days (without glaze). Reheat before serving.

Pumpkin Rolls/Sprinkle the dough with sugar

Pumpkin Rolls/Spread the pumpkin filling

Pumpkin rolls not only look amazing, they taste great! 😉

A touch of summer. Radish salad with goat cheese and black salt.

I know! It’s autumn out there.. and most of you would like to see hearty, meaty dishes with lots of roasted vegetables.. When I think “autumn and hearty” I always imagine stew and potatoes! Or that’s because I love potatoes! 😀 You know, in Russian potato is ‘kartoshka’, and we consume it a lot. But today’s hero is a fresh salad!

The temperature in Dubai slowly but steady going down.. I was pretending again that it’s kinda autumn while did my shopping, and was looking for pumpkin and beets, when stumble upon beautiful radishes! They literally told me – buy us, eat us! 😀 Certainly, I had to buy them!

I love simple salads, when you can cut cucumbers and radishes, dress it with sour cream or olive oil, season with sea salt, and that’s it! This salad is one of such variations, but with a small twist – pungent goat cheese, fancy black salt and crunchy sesame seeds! Oh, they work super here! The salad looks so bright and cheerful, that I bet you want it right now! 😉 I hope you can get fresh radishes and make it.. Otherwise, welcome to the UAE, the country of eternal sun!

Ingredients for one person

Radishes 5-6, or as many as you like

Cucumber 1

Cherry tomatoes 4-5

Goat cheese 1-2 Tbsp

Coriander or parsley 2-3 Tbsp, chopped

Chives 1 Tbsp, chopped

Sesame seeds 1-2 tsp, roasted

Walnuts 1 Tbsp, roasted and chopped

Black salt and pepper, to taste

Extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp

Balsamic vinegar or cream 1 tsp