Month: October 2010
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Ox Tail Stew
Until recently I eluded cooking ox tail stew, I thought beef tails were best for meat jelly (kholodets), one very popular Russian dish. Besides, the idea of eating t-a-i-l-s just didn’t appeal to me. Boy was I wrong. A friend of mine enlightened me and handed out the best pack of tails he had in his store. I compiled…
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Buttermilk Pancakes
When the cool fall weather is setting in, I feel a longing for kitchen activities that involve flour. I cannot explain it, but there’s something in working with dough that warms my soul and brings spirits up. This Sunday it was badly needed. The recipe I am offering today is a hybrid between Russian traditional blinis (spelled…
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Pickled Mushrooms
Pickled mushrooms are traditional to Russian cuisine, especially as a winter treat. They could be used in salads, pies, as a side dish, as is, and as a perfect zakuska (snack) for vodka. There are several methods to prepare pickled mushrooms, but two main ways are marinated and salted. Marinated mushrooms are prepared with salt and vinegar(and sometimes…
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The Best Biscotti
Everybody who has been to a cafe in North America knows biscotti. Dating back to the ancient Rome, where they were used as a non-perishable food carried by travelers, these crunchy dry cookies have since become widespread in Italy and throughout the world. In fact, the British biscuits take their name from Italian biscotti. Italians…
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Sugar Cheese Cookies
As the cool fall weather is setting in, I’m beginning to feel like baking. In need of some “warming up” before heavy baking in winter, I decided to make some improvisational cakes. One, the fruit and nut cake, was not so good though men of the household said it was. OK, that’s their opinion, so not…
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Cauliflower with Slow-Cooked Garlic
Unlike writing (allegedly manuscripts do not burn), cooking is a transient art, swept away by Time just as the Tibetan sand paintings. Just as with the sand paintings, the sweeping away itself is a ritual. Business lunch, romantic dinner, coffee break. Just like birthdays meals remind us that we are alive. They celebrate not a…
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Beef and Mushrooms Stew
It’s interesting how food is associated with our memories. Remember a meal, and then go people, and places, and feelings. Or maybe it’s just me?.. Maybe I’m getting old and tend to return to my past as old people do? 🙂 Combination of beef and mushrooms brings me back to the time when Alex and I…
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Quick Pickled Cucumbers
Sometimes a normal person has cravings for sweet, sour or salty, and many other things. Don’t get me wrong, but I think it’s very healthy to follow your cravings, otherwise you will get depressed and plain unhappy, and there is nothing good about it. Am I not right? Quick pickled cucumbers are one of my summer cravings.…
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