Tag: main course
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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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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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Fish Rissoles
Following our rule to cook fish at least once a week, we decided on fish for Saturday. There was no particular recipe in mind, and, exhausted by endless repair work over dreadful garden shed, I almost ended up cooking something quick like baked fish fillets with mustard, garlic, and mayo, but suddenly I got extremely bored with…
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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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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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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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Nutty Fish
How useful leftovers could be – once and again I had a tasty proof of it today. Fish for today’s dinner was planned ahead, but I hesitated for a moment about what to roll fish in before frying. Suddenly I glanced at ground walnuts that were sitting on the counter top since Masha’s elaborate experiments in our kitchen…
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Spiced Swordfish
My contribution to this dish is small. With good seafood, most of the flavor comes from the raw ingredients at its own accord: no need to awaken it and draw it out. With excellent fish, the main responsibility of the chef is not to overcook. Yesterday I bought fresh harpoon-caught swordfish at the Whole Foods,…
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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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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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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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Pork "Chili" Stew
I’ve been away on vacation to the land of red earth and blue skies, where the food is hot and the people are easy-going – New Mexico. Incidentally, this means that I have been away from the kitchen and, to tell the truth, a bit loath to return to it. But, nostalgia for spicy New…
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Dolma – Delight in Grape Leaves
Many times I heard about this dish and saw how to make it in cooking shows, but never endeavoured to cook it myself. Why? The answer is simple: grape leaves that are used in this recipe are not your regular easily available product, and I do not grow grapes in my garden. What a pity. But during my…
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Chicken Tenders with Brussel Sprouts
After working day aggravated by a few errands around town, I had no time for intricate preparations. Besides, my empty stomach was already beginning to play its hungry overture. It’s good to plan ahead for such days, so from yesterday’s shopping I had fresh chicken tenders, and some Brussels sprouts waiting to be used in my fridge. This…
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Fish "On a Pillow"
On Saturday I was woke up by thunderstorm , and couldn’t get back to full sleep after that. The gloomy and pouring day dawned upon Boston harbor. I dragged myself out of the bed, since this very Saturday, when it rained cats and dogs, and when the best would be to sit at home at…
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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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