Category: taste of home
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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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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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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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Classic Beets Salad
Out of the Russian gastronomic stereotypes (apart from cabbage, which is also German, and vodka, which is really quite popular around the globe) beets is one of the most persistent. And yes, we are truly beet-eaters. Beets are a proud ingredient of many traditional Russian dishes. Nothing to be shy about. Beet root is known…
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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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Portobello Salmon
Finally, there came to be a dreary Sunday, the kind that causes bouts of spleen and laziness, chains one to her Brooklyn apartment, and hence also to its aging gas stove. Thus it came to be that I ignored my plans to go to the city for yoga, and instead cooked my favorite salmon recipe…
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Red Shchi
This variation of cabbage soup was my aunt’s favourite. Remember my aunt Shura who taught me all cooking basics? She cooked with her own special attitude, appreciating good quality products and enjoying the process of cooking with them. She just loved to cook this red shchi in summer when there were plenty of ripe fresh tomatoes. Actually,…
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Chicken Livers Pate
When I was little I hated liver. Maybe because in my kindergarten they made us little kids eat it no matter what, to keep us well-nourished and fattened. I was as thin as a twig at that time, but strongly resisted getting the hated liver down. I sat over my plate much longer than it…
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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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Soup with Puff Klezki
A soup with klezki, one of the simplest Russian dishes, must have been handy during the time of empty shelves in the Soviet supermarkets. I barely remember those times, they left in me no bitter sediment, and this soup has left me nothing but warmth. There are other variations on klezki, most notably the German kößchen, but the klezki I…
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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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Squash Pancakes
Now when vegetables are growing in excess in nearby farms, I cannot help but create various dishes (and their variations) with them. Squash pancakes being one of our favourites evokes the time when Alex and I were dating. I cooked squash pancakes at our friend’s dacha (a small country hut) where we had a very romantic weekend. Since then Alex ate squash only…
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Goulash
Goulash as I knew it back in Russia was a pretty simple dish cooked of beef with onions and tomato and usually served with pasta. There was a meat dish in Russian diners that also carried a proud name goulash, but was very far from its original Hungarian recipe. There are two forms of goulash: one is a soup and another a…
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Classic Borsch
A staple of East European kitchen, this bright beet soup is healthy, delicious, and worth every bit of trouble… If you know of Russian food, you’ve heard of Borsch. It is popular not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine – its motherland – and in a number of East European republics. Naturally, this dish…
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Heavenly Chicken Noodles
Some consider chicken soup a winter meal, especially if one has a cold. Luckily, I don’t have this association, and, due to the fact that at my favourite farm fresh chickens are cut some time in mid summer, that’s when I have the opportunity to prepare my best chicken noodles. Chicken is certainly fresh-not-frozen and organic, and noodles are homemade by yours…
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Tomato Herring Salad
Herring is one of those products that is under appreciated here in the US. It evokes the feelings of unconcealed disgust and possibility of poisoning. This is strange since anchovies, which are very similar, are widely used in gourmet preparations. Herring is not only Russian traditional food, it is also a favourite in many European countries, Scandinavians being the…
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Farmers Cheese Pancakes (Syrniki)
These delightful tender pancakes make a perfect summer breakfast, especially if one has fresh berries for garnish. Syrniki (syr means cheese in Russian) is a traditional Russian and Slavic dish made of tvorog. Tvorog (also quark, topfen, twarog, tvaroh) is curd that is similar to cottage cheese and farmers cheese, but is thicker and drier, it is very well strained…
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Gigantic Potato Pancake
Simply put, this is a big (the size of a frying pan) Jewish latke(s), also Belarusian dranik(i), Ukranian derun(i), German Kartoffelpuffer, and Swiss Roesti. I looked this recipe up on one of cooking shows and decided to give it a try. Alex was wandering around kitchen and whining that it would not work out. Boy, was he wrong. It…
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