Tag: challenging
-
Kulich: Orthodox Easter Bread
For many Orthodox Christians kulich, the festive and colorful bread, is traditionally a part of their Easter morning table, along with paskha and colored boiled eggs. During Soviet era, when people were deprived of God and faith by the regime, many older people still prepared traditional meals for religious festivities and observed religious holidays at…
Written by
·
-
Napoleon Cake
Layered Napoleon cake is our family’s heirloom recipe. The number one cake. It can also be called mama’s signature cake. Nobody she shared this recipe with could reproduce what she did. Luckily I wrote it down in my recipe notebook some thirty years ago. I made it a few times, but it was never like…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
Yeast Blini
Yeast blini have been traditionally prepared in Russia at Pancake Week (Maslenitsa). Before Christianity onset it was a week of pagan celebrations when people parted with harsh Winter and welcomed long-awaited Spring. Nowadays it is a week of festivities at the end of winter, before Great Lent that lasts until Orthodox Easter. People gather in still snowy parks to sing,…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
Classic Tiramisu, with Blackberries
Oh, who has not heard of Tiramisu, the modern Cesar of Italian desserts? It has conquered its native country in a storm, taken over the rest of Europe, made its way into the US. Indeed, Tiramisu has an empire of its own, though the recipe itself is at most 35 years old. Once, when I…
Written by
·
-
Ginger and Shiitake Pork
Mushrooms, ginger, and pork – a perfect combination of flavors with an Eastern twist. This recipe is inspired by Japanese cooking, but does not require any rare ingredients (because I was too lazy to travel to Manhattan for a visit to a Japanese grocery). And I don’t regret it, because this pork dish lacks absolutely…
Written by
·
-
Cinderella Almond Pear Tart
This weekend I got to enjoy a glorious event that only happens once in a blue moon: my parents drove over to New York to visit me. This was a perfect occasion to seek out the imaginary pear tart that has been haunting me. I exploited my imagination and several cook books at once, and…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
Rassolnik – Chicken Soup with Pickles
Rassolnik is a fairly common traditional Russian soup. Its name comes from the Russian word rassol, or brine in which pickled cucumbers are kept. It is true that brine can be used in preparing this soup, but it is not essential. In practice, pickled cucumbers alone are sufficient to give the broth the tangy acidity…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
Poppy and Pear Lemon Cake
My grandmother, mother’s mother, was famous in the large circle of her friends and relatives for her cakes. Cakes that were sheer perfection, a hard-to-come-by luxury that made one forget, I suppose, about the meagerness of one’s world, about supermarkets, laundry, quarrelsome neighbors, broken water pipes, small children unwilling to do homework, grown-up children with no apartment…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
One Very Nutty Coffee Cake
Finally I have broken my hiatus from cooking, which had begun to extend dangerously. It’s fascinating what a staggering effect failure has on motivation (and I did have a few cooking failures recently, mostly gelatin-related). But when is it ever easy? Nothing will come out right, if you quit after the first few stumbles. It…
Written by
·
-
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…
Written by
·
-
Fresh Berry Tart
Today’s recipe was not composed by me, but it comes from a book that I gave my mom for Christmas this winter: The Tassajara Bread Bookby Edward Brown. I have not tried many recipes from it, but I did cook this Fresh Berry Tart from it before I actually gave the book to my mom…
Written by
·
RecipeStudio 