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Righteous salad, my new favorite.

July 1, 2022August 15, 20221 min read AlwaysTasty

Baked beets, goat cheese, caramelized pecans on the arugula foliage, sprinkled with olive oil and balsamic reduce. The herb of choice is cilantro. So simple,

Simple stuffed cabbage

First thing first – got to have a cabbage. The size doesn’t matter, but if it’s it medium or big – much easier to cut it in 4 pieces, remove the core, and keep just bigger leaves, the small ones is impossible to stuff so you can take them out and use for salad or something else. Put your whole small cabbage or leaves into a pot , add some cold water, 1 tbsp of salt and put over medium heat. Let it boil for just 5 min, fish it out and let it cool. The stuffing is

Ingredients:

Medium size cabbage
Ground beef/chicken/turkey – 1 lb
1 small onion
1 egg
Rice – 3 tbsp

Directions:

Prepare the filling

Fry finely chopped onion in a frying pan with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
Place ground beef, fried onions, rice and egg into a big bowl
Add salt, pepper, rice, other herbs of your choice and/or red pepper flakes
Mix all to combine using your hand or a big fork

Make the rolls

Separate cooked cabbage leaves, place about 1 tbsp of filling on each leaf and wrap the rolls. You can also stuff some sweet peppers if you have an extra filling.
Add about 1 cup of water (or use the water from boiling cabbage) into a big pot or dutch oven.
Bring it to a boil, add 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper, a can of diced tomatoes (or some other tomato sauce and/or paste)
Reduce heat to low, and place the cabbage rolls into a pot with the boiling sauce
Simmer for about an hour
Taste the sauce for salt and adjust to your taste.
Serve hot, garnish with parsley/cilantro/chives

My family strudel

It’s all about pastry, the filling can vary: a combination of jam, berries, nuts, dry fruits, chocolates, poppy seeds or maybe even savory. But the pastry I remember my mom was making was magical, she was rolling it out to the whole width of the kitchen table – paper thin, stretchy, but very delicate. It was almost invisible inside wrapping the layers of the filling. But that’s what makes it melt in your mouth. Another good news is – this strudel can last for several days in room temperature.

For the pastry Ingredients:

200 gr cold butter
200 gr sour cream
2.5 cups app purpose flour
1 egg
pinch of salt

Directions:

Place cold butter and flour into the big bowl
Cut it with pastry cutter or do it in the food processor till butter is pea size
Add sour cream, pinch of salt, 1 egg
Mix into a ball using your hands for about 2-3 minutes
Divide into 2 equal parts, wrap with the plastic wrap and put into the fridge for a couple of hours at least (you can keep it there for a week).
Take 1 ball, sprinkle working surface with some flour and start rolling trying to make it into a rectangular like shape (15-16” wide), it should be super thin, but it’s not hard, the pastry is very stretchy.
Brush the pastry with melted butter or neutral olive oil (not extra virgin, it shouldn’t have a strong smell). Sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon/cacao mixture or you can skip this step
Put the filling in a single row, or you can spread it wider to have several layers of party inside.
Roll the pastry around the filling forming a log.
Put strudel on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg.
Make small incisions (about an inch from each other) on your strudel so it’s easier to cut after it’s baked
Place into preheated to 375 °F and bake for 40-45 min or till golden brown, cool completely

Tart cherries filling (the proportions are very flexible):

Tart cherry jam without syrup – 2 cup
Walnuts – 1 cup
Lemon zest – 1 tbsp
If the jam is too sweet – lemon juice 2 tbsp
To make the filling more condensed add more nuts or dried cherries or even crashed cookies.

Fantastic yet homey Lemon Pie

It is a serious upgrade of traditional Russian lemon pie (Limonnik). The very rare case when reducing the calories improves the flavor. The calories reduction comes from substituting of the 3rd of the flour with the almond flour (will try to substitute half next time) and as always I put half of the sugar than in the original recipe (the amounts here are post-reduction). It’s still sweet, but much crumblier and interesting, also ginger makes it very fragrant. Hope you bake it soon, it will be great with your cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:

for the dough:

200 gr (1+2/3 stick) of butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups regular all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
2 tbsp sour cream
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

for the filling:

1 big or 1+1/2 medium lemons ( I took 2 small mayer lemons)
2/3 cup of sugar
small (1 inch size) piece of ginger

Directions:

In a big bowl place cold butter, flour (all purpose and almond), sugar, salt.
Cut the butter with pastry cutter (or on a food processor) till butter is pea size
Add sour cream, egg, continue mixing with a steady spoon
Switch to hands and kneed the dough till you make it to a ball. Almond flour makes it a little harder to bring together. If it’s too crumbly add 1-2 tbsp of cold water. Or delegate the process to the food processor.
Divide the dough into 2 unequal part (70/30).
The smaller part goes to freezer, the bigger one – to a fridge for about an hour

Make a filling by:

Zest the lemon
Grind the lemons using a box grater or food processor
Grind piece of ginger
Add sugar and mix all together
Remove lemon seeds from the filling

Bake the pie:

Cover baking form with the parchment paper
Take the bigger part of the the dough and using your palms spread it evenly to form a bottom later of the pie with small walls
Spread the filling over the bottom layer
Take the smaller part of the dough from the freezer and grind it over the filling evenly, it should be easy.
Place into preheated to 375 °F oven and bake for about 45-50 min or until golden brown
30 min into baking sprinkle the pie with sliced almonds (optional)
Sprinkle the pie with powdered sugar when it’s room temperature

Stellar Kiss Cake

It has been a royalty of a cake in my family, my mom baked in only on very special occasion – our birthdays or the New Year. It is super rich, no low calories here, but it’s not the richness that makes it exceptional, the flavors are overwhelming. Soft merengue loaded with walnuts between 2 sponge like layers, every layer saturated with icing (we call it cream in Russian). It was very labor intensive at the times when there were no hand mixers, now it just requires some planning and enthusiasm. But it is totally worth it.

Ingredients:

Butter 300 gr
Granulated sugar 1/2 cup + 1/2cup
Confection sugar (granulated sugar can be used instead) – 1 cup
Sour cream 3/4 cup
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Large eggs 3 + 2
Flour 1.5 cup + 1 tbsp
Milk 1.5 cup
Chopped walnuts – 1 cup

Directions:

The bottom and the top layers:

150 gr room temperature butter cream with 1/2 cup of sugar using whisk or a hand mixer.
Add 3 egg yolks, continue whipping
Mix soda with sour cream
Add to the butter and yolks mixture, combine and whisk together
Gradually add flour till fully incorporated, you can use hand mixer all the way just reduce the speed
Divide the batter in half place each part into a greased with butter or neutral vegetable oil baking sheet
Place into preheated to 375 F oven and bake about 25-30 min or until golden brown

For the icing:

In a saucepan mix 2 egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar
Add 1 tbsp flour, mix to combine
gradually add 1.5 cup of milk
Add 150 gr of butter
Put a pan on a low heat
Bring a boil stirring constantly till the cream thickens a little

For the middle layer:

Add a pinch cream of tartar to the egg whites (5 egg whites)
Beat the whites in a stand mixer or with hand mixer in a big bowl
Gradually add confection sugar (granulated will work too) while beating
Beat for another 2-3 minutes till the mixture is glossy
Carefully fold in chopped walnuts
Bake in 325 F oven for 35-40 min
Leave in in the oven for about 30 min after turning the oven off
Assemble the cake – put one of the sponge layers to the platter, spread the icing, then carefully put the merengue layer, spread the icing, do the same with the top layer.
Decorate with ground chocolate.
It has to stay in the room temperature for several hours or overnight for the icing to soak

Life style

Desserts

January 16, 2022January 16, 20221 min read AlwaysTasty

It doesn’t have to crown your every dinner. But when it does-it should be an Epiphany, a celebration of flavors. Otherwise it’s a wasted calories intake.

Soup in Roasting Pan – Butternut Squash

Roasted vegetables have more pronounced and concentrated flavor when caramelized in oven. Not only butternut squash, but any vegetable soup that’s intended to be pureed. The ingredients and their proportions depend on what you have in your fridge, some can be added (carrots, hot pepper), some omitted (fennel, sweet pepper). The combination in the list of the ingredients makes for very delicious, comforting, satisfying soup and it’s made with the minimal effort.

Ingredients:

Butternut squash
Fennel
Onion
Sweet pepper
Tomatoes
Chicken stock (vegetable stock or water)
Hot sauce (sriracha)
Roasted pumpkin seeds for garnish

Directions:

Cut butternut squash into ~ inch size pieces
Slice onion, fennel, sweet peppers, tomatoes
Place on a big roasting pan in 1 layer
Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper
Roast in the preheated to 375 °F oven for about 45 min till all vegetables are cooked and slightly brown
Put all vegetables in a blender, add some water or chicken stock and puree or use emerging blender in a pot
Move into a pan, add some hot sauce and bring the soup to a boil, check for seasoning and adjust if needed.
Serve hot with roasted pumpkin seeds and/or feta cheese crumbles

Directions:

Russian Honey Cake

It’s comprised of 6-8 layers, each of them has to be rolled and baked. Sounds intimidating, but the pastry rolls easily, bakes quickly and the result is totally worth it. The layers are made with honey, the frosting is surprising – made of cream of wheat with the butter whipped in. But wait till you try it, you will bite into creamy, soft, silky, celebratory dessert – no resemblance to baby food at all!

Ingredients

for the layers pastry:

Butter – 50gr
Milk – 2tbsp
Honey – 2 tbsp
Soda – 1 tsp
1 egg
Water – 2 tbsp
Granulated sugar – 3/4 cup
Flour – 2.5 cups

for the frosting:

Milk – 2 cups
Sugar – 0.5 cup
Cream of Wheat – 2.5 tbsp
Pinch of salt
Butter – 2 sticks (~200 gr)

Directions:

Place all the pastry ingredients with the exception of soda and flour into the bowl
Place the bowl on double boiler
Stir till butter and sugar dissolves
Take off the heat, add soda and flour gradually and kneed the dough, starting with the spoon and then just use your hand. It’s warm and very pleasant to touch
Cover with plastic wrap, allow to cool down and put in the fridge for an hour
Divide into 8 pieces, roll very thinly to fit 8″ baking form. I may not fit exactly, but you will use those borders to decorate the cake.
Bake in preheated to 375 °F oven till golden brown (check after 5 min, they bake very fast).
Make sure you snap off the borders of the layers till they are warm, they will firm as they cool down.

In a sauce pan combine cream of wheat, sugar, pinch of salt, gradually add milk and put on a low medium heat
Bring to a boil stirring constantly
Boil till cream of wheat is ready (about 5-7 min)
Take off the heat, allow to cool completely
Whip in room temperature butter with the hand mixer, it should be whipped in not melted.
Assemble the cake by spreading the frosting over each layer
Grind the borders of the layers in a food processor or make crumbles any other way, you can add hazelnuts or almonds to the mix

Zucchini Gratin

Unusual, delicious, decadent zucchini dish, great for family lunch/brunch, dinner side dish, or party buffet

It does require some preparation, but it absolutely melts in your mouth. The cheeses and spices/herbs are flexible, so are the proportions, use the ones you have and/or like and as many zucchini as you have, adding spinach is an option too.

Ingredients:

3-4 middle size zucchini
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup whole milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1 -1.5 cup shredded cheese

Directions:

Wash and peel zucchini (or summer squash)
Cut into pieces (if you use food processor) to fit into the food processor. Skip it if you use a hand grater. Shred zucchini using food processor or grate using hand grater.
Put shredded (grated) zucchini into a pan, add 4-5 cups of cold water, 1tbsp salt and put on high heat.
Bring to a boil and let it boil for about 3-5 min.
Drain through a sieve and wait till all water is drained.
Make Bechamel sauce:
Melt 2 tbsp butter on low-med heat, add 2 tbsp flour. Fry flour in a butter stirring constantly, gradually add milk, keep stirring to avoid lumps till the sauce start thickening. Once the sauce thickens – take it off the heat and let it cool a little.
In a big bowl combine drained zucchini, grated cheese (I used provolone and fontina), it can be gruyere, parmigiano, manchego or a combination of the above, even cheddar. Season with 1 tsp salt, half tsp of pepper, you can add nutmeg, dry garlic, dry oregano or any other herb you like.
Oil deep baking dish. Pour zucchini mixture into a dish and put into a preheated to 375°F oven for 50-60 min (or till it’s golden). Take a small taste 15 min before it’s cooked and add salt/pepper if needed.
Serve hot or warm and you can reheat the leftovers

Запеканка из Кабачков.

Ингредиенты:

3-4 кабачка зуккини среднего размера
2 ст. ложки сливочного масла
2 ст. ложки муки
1 стакан молока
2 ст. ложки оливкового масла
1-1.5 чашки тёртого сыра (проволон, фонтина, груйер, пармезан, манчего, чеддер).

Инструкция:

Помойте кабачки, очистите от кожуры.
Нарежьте на дольки, которые поместятся в кухонный комбайн.
Для натирания на тёрке нарезать не надо

Соус Бешамель:

в небольшом сотейнике на небольшом огне растопите 2 ст ложки сливочного масла,
добавьте 2 ст ложки муки, поджарьте непрерывно помешивая.
продолжая помешивать постепенно добавьте молоко.
не переставая мешать доведите соус до загустения, снимите с огня, остудите.

Натрите сыр.
Смешайте кабачки, бешамель, сыр.
Добавьте 1 чайную ложку соли, 1/2 чайной ложки перца.
Можно добавить сухой чеснок, орегано, мускатный орех.

Russian cutletts

It’s not meatballs, not burgers, not meatloaf. These crispy and fluffy meat pillows are called cutletts in Russian.

The ingredients, the proportions and even directions vary wildly, I don’t think I ever made 2 identical batches. You can mix and match the meats – beef, pork, lamb, veal, chicken, turkey. The best result is usually with the combination of beef and pork, or beef and lamb, even a sausage without casing can be added to juice up beef. To make them fluffy you can add breadcrumbs or stale bread soaked in milk or water, number of eggs can be different. Adding fried onion instead of raw is always better. Different herbs, spices, condiments you put inside may turn your cutletts to different directions – make them Italian, Spanish, Moroccan, or Asian oriented, it’s your choice.

For the best result you can grind your ingredients yourself using meat grinder, not blender, it doesn’t have to be pureed. But using ground meat is absolutely fine, the rest of the ingredients can be finely chopped or ground with a box grinder.

Ingredients:

Ground beef (plus pork or lamb) 1 + 1 lbs
Onion 1 medium or half of a big onion (can be red or white)
3 Eggs
Breadcrumbs or bread soaked in milk – 2-3 tbsp
Very important secret ingredient I learned from my aunt – small piece of a tart apple (granny smith), can be replace with the small piece of cabbage, or zucchini. You will not feel it there, but it makes the cutlets juicy.
Salt 1 tsp, be careful with the salt if you put any sauce inside.
Pepper 1/2 tsp

Directions (with ground meats):

In a big bowl
Grind or finely chop onion
Grind a piece of apple
Put ground meats
Add eggs, breadcrumbs,
Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and/or a tablespoon of any barbeque sauce or a teaspoon of any condiment you like
About a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, fresh thyme
Mix everything to combine with your hand
Shape your cutlets (these amounts made 8-9 cutlets)
Heat a pan with some neutral oil
Fry the cutlets on both sides on a medium high heat in batches about 3-4 minutes per side
Put all cutlets back to the pan, sprinkle with lots of chopped parsley/cilantro/dill or other herbs
Finish in the 325 F oven or cover with a lid and turn the heat to very low for 15-20 minutes
Serve warm or hot with any side of your choice – mashed potatoes, pasta, rice, green salad.