Posts tagged with "cooking Russian food"

How to Make the Best Pelmeni

Posted by yelena 14 Comments
Feb 8 2011

Do you know that 95% of Russian households have at least one pack of «пельмени» [pel’meni - dumplings] in their freezers?  Ok, I just totally made it up.

But I can’t be too far off since, according to «статья в Российской газете» [an article in the Rossiyskaya newspaper] an average «россиянин» [citizen of the Russian Federation] buys and consumes 3.98 lbs of «пельмени». This includes «младенцы, вегетарианцы и жители сельских районов, традиционно употребляющие только пельмени домашнего изготовления» [infants, vegetarians and village residents who, traditionally, consume only home-made pelmeni].

An average Russian family buys at least a pack of pelmeni «раз в месяц» [once a month]. But the heaviest «едоки пельменей» [pelmeni eaters] – «пенсионеры, проживающие в больших городах» [retired people living in large cities] and «студенты» [college students] – buy 5-6 times as many.

But I’m not here to talk about «состояние российского рынка пельменей» [the status of the Russian pelmeni market]. I’m quoting all this «статистика» [statistics] in hope of persuading you that, in order to further your understanding of «загадочная русская душа» [the mysterious Russian soul], you must try at least one «пельмень» [a singular form of pelmeni].

But don’t you be running to your nearest Russian store! Unless, of course, your nearest store sales fresh «домашние пельмени», meaning their pelmeni are hand-made. It’s not that I’m against workplace automation. It’s just that it’s a long way from one of Russia’s 500 «производители пельменей» [pelmeni producers] to your store. What I’m trying to say is what you pick up in the freezer at your local «русский магазин» [Russian store] is by no means fresh. Good in a pinch, but not the real thing.

Instead, try making your own pelmeni. It’s not hard at all, just kind of «нудно» [tedious]. But there’s simply no point in setting out to make pelmeni if you are not making at least «сотня» [a hundred] of them. So turn on some music or call friends over for a pelmeni-making party and let’s roll!

The recipe my mother has followed for years (and that never fails) calls for the following ingredients:

«Для теста» [for the dough]

  • «3 стакана муки» [3 cups of flour]
  • «1 стакан холодной воды» [1 cup of cold water]
  • «1,5 яйца» [an egg and a half] – I have no idea how to measure an egg and a half, so I just take one large egg.
  • «1 неполная столовая ложка соли» [1 scan tablespoon of salt] – I just eyeball it.

«Для начинки» [for the filling]

  • «500 г. мяса» [500 grams or meat] – you can use beef, mutton or pork or a combination of beef and pork.
  •  «1 луковица» [1 onion]
  • «соль и перец по вкусу» [salt and pepper to taste]

Here’s what to do:

Combine dough ingredients in a bowl and mix until the dough is «однородное» [of uniform consistency]. Then cover with a towel and let rest for about half an hour.

While the dough is resting, mix the filling. Grind beef in «мясорубка» [meat grinder] with an onion. If you don’t have a meat grinder buy ground beef or whatever meat you’re using and grate the onion on «мелкая тёрка» [fine grater]. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Next get the dough and «раскатать в тонкий пласт» [roll it into a thin sheet]. Thin is «относительное понятие» [a relative term]. Russian recipes rarely tell you how thin to roll pelmeni dough, but some specify «тонко-тонко» [very thin].

Note: this is a very useful construction, especially in «разговорная речь» [colloquial speech] – repeating an adjective or an adverb twice to emphasize it, as in «быстро-быстро» [very fast], «сладкий-сладкий» [very sweet], «тёмная-тёмная» [very dark], etc.

I don’t believe in “very thin”. As a great Russian saying goes, «где тонко, там и рвётся», meaning literally “(the cloth) gets torn where it’s thinnest”. It’s the Russian equivalent of “the chain is only as strong as its weakest link”.  

All this is to say that I personally don’t roll my dough “thin-thin”. I do use a small «стакан» [glass] to cut out the rounds of dough. But don’t cut too many «сразу» [at once] or they’ll dry out. Take the remnants of the dough, roll into a ball, then roll into a thin sheet and repeat (I promised you – tedious).

As to the size of the pelmeni… The size does matter – «чем меньше, тем лучше» [the smaller, the better]. Now put small portions of filling in the middle of each round and pinch the edges close.

Cover the finished pelmeni with a towel while working on the rest of the dough. If you are following my advice and making a few hundreds of them, start freezing them.

Finally, cook fresh pelmeni «в кипящей подсоленной воде» [in boiling salted water] for 5-7 minutes. I also love adding some bay leaves and a few whole peppercorns to the water. The pot must be big enough so all the pelmeni float and non stick together.

Just as you are about to «упасть в обморок» [pass out] from the mouth-watering smell, your pelmeni are ready. Serve them in their broth with some chopped «укроп» [dill] and «сметана» [sour cream]. Or drain and serve with «сметана» or a mix of broth and «уксус» [vinegar] or «сливочное масло» [butter] or «кетчуп» [ketchup] or «аджика» [adjika sauce] or other sauces (I’d stay away from BBQ sauce, but that’s my personal preference). «Приятного аппетита!» [Bon appetite!]

Have you tried making pelmeni? How many did you make? How long did they last? Share your pelmeni cooking or eating tips here or on our Facebook page.

“Котлета” – It is What Hamburger Always Wanted to Be

Posted by yelena 1 Comment
Dec 2 2010

Do you love Russian language? Of course or else why would you be reading this blog, right? Do you also love «готовить еду» [to cook] or «читать о еде» [to read about food]? Then «я настоятельно рекоммендую» [I strongly recommend] to immediately get a copy of a wonderful book called «Книга о вкусной и здоровой жизни» [Book About Delicious and Healthful Life].

This is not at all a typical cookbook or even a food diary. Instead, as the authors explain, this «книга посвящена не только еде, но и всему, что с нею связано (а связано с нею всё)» [book is dedicated not just to food, but to everything connected to food (and everything’s connected to food)].

But why am I talking about this book? Well, as days have been getting «всё короче и короче» [ever shorter] and the temperatures have been dropping «всё ниже и ниже» [ever lower], I’ve been craving some good ol’ comfort food of my childhood. I’d close my eyes at imagine a bowl of steaming «борщ» [borscht] or fluffy «картофельное пюре» [mashed potatoes] served with «вызывающий оскомину квашенный зелёный помидор» [sour green tomato that causes one’s mouth to pucker].

Well, we’ve already talked «о борще» [about borscht], Russian mashed potatoes aren’t much different from the American ones and Brighton Beach, NY is still the best place outside of Russia to get your sour tomatoes (or any other pickled veggies) fix. So instead, why don’t we talk about «котлеты» [ground meat patties] (I had to use the Wikipedia image since my camera gave up the ghost a few days ago).

But first, let’s get something straight: with the exception of «котлета по-киевски» [Chicken Kiev], Russian «котлеты» are not “cutlets”. Russian-style «котлеты» are «кулинарные изделия» [culinary creations] made out of «фарш» [ground meat] or «рубленое мясо» [minced meat].

«Котлета» is unglamorous. In fact, none of the “coffee-table” style books on Russian food that I own even mention the humble «котлета». I should probably double-check for recipes for «биточки» [small round ground meat patties] or «фрикадельки» [small meatballs, usually steamed] that are essentially «котлеты» that have taken on a different form.

Back to the “Healthful Living” book. Here’s what it has to say on the subject: «Котлета – пища бедного человека: порой в ней хлеба больше, чем мяса.» [Ground meat patties are food for the poor: sometimes they contain more bread than meat.] Not to mention the kind of meat that’s used for the purpose, definitely not «бифштекс из вырезки» [filet mignon].

Yet, the book goes on to say that «И котлета может быть хорошей! И в котлете есть красота!» [Even a ground meat patty can be good! There’s beauty even in the ground meat patty!]

It’s up to the cook to uncover this gustatory beauty and bring it to the table. Properly done, humble «котлета» can be remarkably «нежная» [tender], «пышная» [here: rich], «сочная» [moist], and «пикантная» [zesty]. It’ll be nothing like «дежурная котлета» [lit: routine patty] – a tasteless and flavorless lukewarm creation served by many «забегаловки» [fast food places]. Instead, it can be «гастрономический шедевр» [magnum opus of gastronomy].

There are quite a few «котлеты» recipes out there, varying in complexity, number of ingredients, types of ground meat used, etc. But the basic ratio stays the same – 2.2lbs of «мясо» [meat], 2 «яйца» [eggs], 1 medium «луковица» [onion] (grated finely), 1 medium «картофелина» [potato] (also grated finely) and 2 slices of «чёрствый хлеб» [stale bread] (soaked). Oh, and of course, «соль» [salt] and «перец» [black pepper].

Note that you can use whatever meat you prefer – «говядина» [beef], a mix of «говядина» and «свинина» [pork], «курятина» [chicken], even «рыба» [fish]. You can even skip meat altogether and make purely vegetarian «котлеты» (although then you have to modify this recipe significantly and grate lots and lots of veggies).

To these basic ingredients you can then add «натёртые» [grated] or «мелко порубленые» [finely chopped] vegetables – beets, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, even swiss chard. You can try different spices. You can use either «булка» [white loaf] or «чёрный хлеб» [rye or even pumpernickel bread] and soak it in either «молоко» [milk], «бульон» [stock] or even «вода» [water]. You can add chopped «сливочное масло» [butter] or «сало» [bacon or lard] to the mix. As you can see, «возможности воистину безграничны» [indeed, the sky is the limit].  

Then you form little oval patties (please, do NOT flatten them hamburger-style; they are meant to be plump), coat in «мука» [flour] or «панировочные сухари» [bread crumbs] (you can skip the breading step entirely), and fry in «растительное масло» [oil] until browned on both sides.

Speaking of sides, perfect and perfectly nostalgic sides to «котлеты» include mashed potatoes or «гречка» [buckwheat], «солёная капуста» [sauerkraut] or something else crunchy and pickled, and maybe a simple «салат из помидоров и огурцов» [tomato and cucumber salad], dressed with «сметана» [crème fraiche]. Oh, and do me a favor, leave that ketchup bottle in the fridge just this once. «Приятного аппетита!» [Bon Appetite!]

Russian Food – the Joy of Cooking Beets

Posted by yelena 5 Comments
Apr 3 2010

beetsLet me start with a little ditty by a Polish poet Julian Tuwim that I learned years back in my then-Soviet elementary school:

Russian English
Хозяйка однажды с базара пришла,
Хозяйка с базара домой принесла:
Картошку,
Капусту,
Морковку,
Горох,
Петрушку и свёклу.
Ох!…		 Once at a farmers’ market a housewife bought
And back to her house the housewife brought
Potatoes,
Cabbage,
Carrots,
Some peas,
Parsley and beets.
Please!

Ok, so «ох» doesn’t mean “please”, but I took some poetic license here. «Ох» is «междометие» [ an exclamation or an interjection] that can be best translated as “oh dear” or, in this case, possibly as “wow”. But that wouldn’t rhyme with “peas”, would it?

Here’s what prompted my recollection of this poem. A few weeks ago I went to the local «рынок» [farmers’ market]. This being a very early spring in North Carolina, there wasn’t anything exotic there or so I thought. All around me customers were busy paying and transferring into their reusable bags the winter basics – potatoes, cabbages, carrots.

Some time later as I stood  «в очереди» [in line] for some amazing Linzer tart, I overheard two women talking about beets. One just bought a bunch and the other one asked her what was she going to do with these beets. Turns out, this second woman, well into her 50ies, had never eaten a beet in her life!

Being Russian, I had to chuckle to myself and shake my head sorrowfully and indignantly babushka-style while muttering «вот буржуи, едят бананы-ананасы, а простую свёклу готовить не умеют!» [oh dear, this bourgeois eat bananas-pineapples, yet can’t cook something as basic as beets!]  

Admittedly, most Americans I talked to on the subject of beets do know and like this humble veg. But the tepid “like” pales next to the «любовь и уважение» [love and respect] most Russians have for beets.

I won’t go so far as to say that «свёкла» [beet] should be the national vegetable of Russia since it might cause some geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. But it is at the top of the list of the most popular and longest cultivated and used (by many accounts since 11th century) vegetables.

So, what do Russians do with beets other than make sugar, use for natural dyes and pectins, feed to farm animals, and use as home remedies and, also home-made, beauty products? Well, they eat it, of course!

Russian English
Из свёклы можно приготовить любые блюда, начиная от закусок и заканчивая десертом.Из неё можно сделать разные салаты, включая винегрет с отваренными и мелко нарезанными картошкой, свёклой, морковью, солёными огурцами, луком и солёной капустой.Свёклу можно отварить, натереть на тёрке и смешать с плавленым сыром , чтобы получилась икра.Из свёклы можно сделать изысканную закуску, если её нафаршировать сыром и грибами. А можно просто отварить, очистить кожицу, разрезать на четвертинки и подать с малой толикой горчичного масла или небольшим количеством сметаны – просто, но очень вкусно.

Свёкла необходима и для горячего сытного зимнего борща и для холодного и освежающего летнего свекольника.

Её можно добавить в мясной фарш для котлет и запеканок или даже полностью заменить ею мясо.

Можно добавить капусту и морковь для начинки пирогов или изюм и чернослив для сладких пирожков.

И давайте не забудем про свекольные цукаты. (Да, моя мама так делает, правда она родом с Украины – истинного центра любителей свёклы.)

 From appetizers to deserts and everything in between can be cooked with beets.It can be made into various salads, including the Vinaigrette Salad aka Russian Beet Salad with lots of boiled and finely chopped potatoes, beets, carrots, pickles, onions and sauerkraut.It can be boiled, shredded and mixed well with cream cheese for a “caviar” spread.It can be stuffed with cheese and mushrooms for a fancy appetizer. Or boiled, peeled, quartered and served with just a drizzle of sunflower oil or a dollop of sour cream for something very simple, yet delicious.

Beet is a foundation of hot and filling borscht in the winter or cold and refreshing beet soup in summer.

It can be added to hamburgers and meatloaves or even replace meat in them entirely.

It can be combined with cabbage and carrots to fill savory pies or with raisings or prunes to be used in sweet pierogi .

Oh, and let’s not forget candied beets (No, really! My Mom makes them, but then again, she’s originally from Ukraine, the true beet-lover’s center.)

With much love and attention lavished on this simple vegetable, it’s no wonder Russians have not one, but two ways of pronouncing the word itself. Throughout this post, I used the grammatically correct «свЁкла». But in real life you won’t catch me dead using this dictionary-approved form. Instead, like so many other Russians, I say «свеклА».

Grammatically correct «свЁкла» Grammatically deficient, but widely used «свеклА» English
Почём свёкла?  Почём свекла?  How much are the beets?
Мне, пожалуйста, кило свёклы. Мне, пожалуйста, кило свеклы. One kilogram of beets please.
Сегодня на обед – котлеты со свёклой. Сегодня на обед – котлеты со свеклой. Tonight for dinner are hamburgers with beets.

So, pick your side and roll with it! You will be understood either way. But if you do have problems with remembering where to place the stress in Russian words, then go with the grammatically correct and fool-proof «свЁкла» since as I said in the earlier post, «буква Ё всегда ударная» [letter Ё is always stressed].

Everybody loves борщ [borscht]!

Posted by josefina 17 Comments
Feb 7 2009

There comes a time in everybody’s life when you need to get a little Russia into your everyday existence. Especially if you’re not currently in Russia, but constantly finding yourself outside of the Russian Federation, and thus persistently living without interacting with Russian culture on a day to day basis. Particularly will you suddenly find yourself craving Russian food. This problem is, however, easy to solve. «А как?» [But how?] you might wonder, and the answer to that question is even easier than the solution – throw a Russian style dinner party! Once again the question «как?» arises, but worry not, dear readers, because today I will show you an uncomplicated trick and at the end of this post you will inevitably exclaim «вот так!» [like that!]. Call some close friends and invite them over for dinner, but tell them only that you plan on cooking «борщ» [borscht], nothing else. The rest will be a pleasant surprise, and – as I would like to call it – the shortest visa-less trip ever possible to the great Eastern Motherland! What you need to create that special Eastern European coziness in the comfort of your own home (kitchen, of course!) isn’t very much, and if you’ve got a Russian store in your neighborhood it is even less. I decided to throw my own Russian style dinner party on my last Saturday at home in Gothenburg, Sweden (I’m currently back in the Urals) and lucky for me, Gothenburg has a Russian store called «Бабушка» ['Grandmother'] where I could acquire the two essentials – «приправа для борща» [seasoning; flavoring for borscht] and «сметана» [Russian sour crème; ‘smetana']. The recipe I’m about to share with you is for vegetarian borscht, though real Russian borscht (or Ukrainian borscht, for that matter) is made with meat, as I am well aware of. But I’m a vegetarian, so this is the only way I cook it. Probably many of you have your own special way of preparing borscht, and the way I make is in no way the only ‘canonical’ way of making it. Yet I must take some pride because the borscht I make is to die for. «Обещаю!» [I promise!]

I bought two packages of «приправа для борща», one of them I used to make «бульон» [broth; consommé; bouillon] mixing it with one litre of boiling water. This I used as the ‘foundation’ for the soup; if you make it with meat, then you’ll use the water you cooked the meat in for this. When you make vegetarian borscht it is important to remember two things – to use more spices and more fat, which isn’t needed with meat, since there’s enough spice and fat in meat as it is.

This recipe is enough for six people to get two servings each (it is both Swedish and Russian custom to fill up your guests to the top). You’ll need «два или три большие картошки» [two or three big potatoes], «пятьсот граммов капусты» [500 grams of cabbage], «четыре или пять свёкл» [four beets] to start with.

The first thing to do is to cut «один лук» [one onion] and «четыре лодки чеснока» [four garlic ‘boats' - don't know the word for it in English, but you know what I mean!] into very fine small pieces and fry them in a big pot. I used over 1 decilitre of olive oil, and I don’t recommend using any less.

All the vegetables need to be cut into small squares, including «одна морковка» [one carrot] and as is the thumb rule in cooking Russian food – when you’re cutting things into tiny pieces, you know you’re on the right track! I would recommend slicing the cabbage with a ‘cheese slicer’ (as seen on the picture above next to the cabbage), though I know that’s an eccentric tool used primarily in Sweden. You could also chop it up with a knife, of course.

Then you put all of the ingredients into the pot, plus some more water, and let it boil for a little while, then putting down the heat and adding some more spices (like salt, pepper, «укроп» [dill] and «петрушка» [parsley] for example). Add about 2 decilitres of tomato paste to make it even fuller and ‘foodier’. Now the only thing left to do while the soup cooks – 30 minutes is minimum, but an hour or two only makes it even tastier – is to set the table. To create that exceptional Russian atmosphere in your own home all you really need to do is to set the table with a red tablecloth (I used a regular sheet for effect), a flag in the window, a couple of Russian books on the window sill, a knitted scarf over one chair, a Russian army jacket over another, a magnet with Medvedev and Russian modern art on the fridge, plus three glasses – for vodka, beer (or wine) and water. The vodka should be Russian, but the beer could be Czech or Polish, and the wine… anything red will do!

Of course there’s no real borscht experience without «сметана»! Start the meal by making a toast with ice-cold «водка» (put it in the freezer for an hour first) and then biting it off with some «огурчики» [salted cucumber]. A good choice for background music is the Russian Army Choir, which has made some excellent discs. The first song to play should of course be the Russian national anthem…

…and then your guests are ready to enjoy your borscht – but don’t forget the bread! It should be «серый или чёрный хлеб» ['grey' or 'black' bread; in other words whole-wheat], white bread in this context is a big no-no.

Incidentally, my dear mother also blogged about this our ‘borscht-experience’ – this is for those of your who are fluent in Swedish, or those who are just curious to see just what kind of outfits is appropriate for such a dinner party as the one suggested above.

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