Category: hearty
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Boiled Corned Beef & Veggies
Not that I have Irish ancestors to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, but I really like this corned beef & veggies soup. It is simple and rustic, but very aromatic and filling. It does take a lot of time to boil meat, but if you cook in two stages, it’s really not that bad. The meat could…
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No-Egg Yeast Dough Pies
No-egg yeast dough is a real savior during Great Lent that started about a week ago and will last until Orthodox Easter. During this time one cannot eat anything of animal origin – no milk, no eggs, no meat, no butter. They say it’s the time of cleansing your body and soul, time of praying…
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Belyashi : Fried Pies with Meat
These small meat pies come from Tajik cuisine, but were traditionally cooked in Russia. In the Soviet era they used to sell hot belyashi from big pots right on the corners of busy streets, where hungry students immediately formed a line to buy a hot pie for about 15 kopecks each. It was not as…
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"Bewildered Turkey" Meatballs
Meatballs is not quite the right word. In Russian, тефтели (pronounced: tef-teh-lee) is the name for meatballs that contain a large portion of rice or potatoes in addition to meat. This recipe uses turkey meat, which is lower in fat and has a milder flavor than beef. To make up for this mildness, I went…
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Spiced Roasted Duck with Fennel and Prunes
Despite Alex’s plea, I did not agree on traditional goose for this year’s First Night dinner. The flow of time is rushing forward so fast that we barely have a chance to start missing something from the last year, goose is one of those things for me. Even buying a Christmas tree is not that…
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Czech Meat and Cabbage Loaf
The recipe for this meatloaf, sekaná in Czech, is adapted from the Czech cookbook (Česká domácí kuchařka díl 1.) mom and I bought while in Prague. To a Russian speaker, translating the ingredients from Czech is rather trivial, and the combination of cabbage, bread and milk in a meatloaf immediately struck me as original and…
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Golubtsy – Cabbage Rolls with Meat
Russian golubtsy that are known in America mostly as Polish golabki, are simply cabbage rolls with meat and are popular in many European countries. I consider golubtsy one of Russian traditional and loved dishes. It takes some effort and patience, but the payoff is just great: steaming hot rolls with most delightful meat filling accompanied…
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Spiced Lamb Chops
Spices were never used a lot in my cooking, with the exception of black pepper and salt, which I do not even consider spices. That’s how I grew up – in my mom’s kitchen where wonderful things were cooked, we didn’t use unusual stuff. Spices like coriander or cumin could be bought only at the…
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Beer-Braised Lamb
Do something new with your porter: succulent, flavorful, lick-your-fingers lamb… Ladies and gentlemen, I have done it: beer-braised lamb on Monday night. Yes, braising does take about an hour and a half or more. Vacation must have left me with some extra energy, or hunger, or desire to stay up later… Whatever it was, I…
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Beef Liver Patties
As much as I liked pea soup, I hated liver in my early years. Oh God, I remember so vividly how I was sitting over my plate in desperation, unable to get this hateful piece of fried liver down. I was a rather sickly child, and mama fed me with half-done liver for anemia. That’s…
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Kulesh the Warrior Food
Funny name? Maybe. According to one of the theories, this hearty millet dish originates from Cossack‘s cuisine. Easy to do, tasty, and very filling, kulesh could be cooked in the woods and fields on the open fire in cauldrons, and can be considered a warrior food. But the name probably derives from Hungarian koeles (millet porridge). It is cooked in Ukraine, Belorussia,…
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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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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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Lamb Pilaf
Every home chef has his or her own recipe for lamb pilaf. Different ways to cook rice, different spices, different fats and oils, etc. … My recipe is a compilation of many and my own experience put together. I like to cook pilaf: standing over the range, stirring meat, and breathing in this wonderful aromatic blend…
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Beef Stroganoff
Bœuf Stroganoff (Beef Stroganoff, or just Befstroganov) is one of Russian traditional and loved meat dishes. I remember my mother’s kitchen and wonderful aroma of cooking meat, and sauce, and fried potatoes. It was an all-time favourite and never failed to be well prepared. The dish of finely cut beef in sour cream sauce was…
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Bigos
Many consider bigos to be a Polish traditional dish, though its origin could be probably traced to Germany. Those who happened to visit Germany might remember something like Berlin Platto dish served as sour kraut and different meats, accompanied by a pint of beer. Maybe that’s why it sneaked into our family’s list of recipes –…
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Beef Bourguignon – My Variation
One of the prized dishes introduced to Americans by Julia Child, this rich beef stew is a French country classic. To this I add that my French co-worker referred to it contemptuously as “food for the old people”, claiming that it’s been cooked for so long to make the ingredients soft for the toothless that…
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Classic Russian Cotletas (Cotelettes)
Russian cotleta is not to be confused with American cutlet. Cotleta (french cotelette) is one of Russian traditional and very much loved dishes made of ground meat. It came to Russia from Europe and initially was a deep-fried slice of meat with rib bone, but later became a ground and spiced meat patty, coated with bread crumbs and pan-fried. Since the 19th…
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Stuffed Peppers, Spring Cabbage Salad
Today was one of those (relatively few) days, when I forsake all my youthful yearnings for extreme sports, shopping, museums, nightlife, and instead settle for a day of picture-perfect domesticity. I decided to take it to a relative extreme and spent a few solid hours in the kitchen, cooking enough food to last us a…
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Smoked Chicken Pilaf
This is a fool-proof tasty dish, since the chicken used in this recipe is already cooked. One only has to have some skills to cook rice. This pilaf, accompanied by fresh vegetables, was our today’s dinner – nice re-energizing after a long working day. What you need: One smoked chicken leg with thigh, deboned and…
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