Family Recipes Recipies

Borsch – the staple of Russian cuisine.

March 7, 2023March 16, 20232 min read AlwaysTasty

The most common, popular and loved Russian soup. There is no classical recipe, almost every family has one of its own. Just three mandatory ingredients

My version of Borsch

I never really knew how my mom cooked borsch. I remember it was a very long process, she boiled whole beet roots with the broth, then shredded cooked beets for which they had to be cooled and then she put them back to the pot. By the time I needed to cook borsch my mother was sick in a hospital, so I asked neighbors and my mom’s friends. I collected and compiled all the advices they gave me, and after several trials developed the recipe of my own. What makes it different – I split the cooking process into two parts: broth (chicken, turkey, beef bone or just vegetable) to which cabbage and potatoes are added and beets/herbs/tomatoes mixture – the essence of borsch flavor, which joins the broth pot in the end. For this mixture I shred raw beets, put it into a separate pan, add a little amount of water, sprinkle it with lemon juice to preserve the color, and cook it with the lid on on medium high heat, so it takes no more than 10 minutes for the beets to be fully cooked. It simplifies the cooking process by a lot, and can be done ahead of time or in parallel and is very fast. There is a minus though – an extra pot to wash.

For 3.5 liters pot (8 servings)

Ingredients:

Medium size beet root, if stems and leaves look good – use them too. In that case the root can be smaller
Onion (for the broth)
Parsnip
Celery
carrots 2 medium size (for the broth)
Sweet pepper
Potatoes – 2 medium
Chili pepper – 1 small (optional)
Big ripe tomato, or a cup of diced tomatoes
Tomato paste – 1tbsp
Cabbage – it should be about a cup when shredded
Garlic – 3-4 cloves
Bay leaf
Parsley

Directions:

Start cooking you broth with usual aromatics (onion carrots, celery), season with salt, pepper, add bay leaf. Cook on medium heat. Make sure you have enough room in the pot for the vegetables.
When broth is ready and meat is cooked add shredded cabbage and diced potatoes. It will take about 10 minutes for the vegetables to cook.
Season with salt, pepper, add bay leaf.
In a separate pan place shredded beat with chopped stems and leaves, add 1/2 cup of water, sprinkle some lemon juice (about 2 tbsp) to preserve the color, cover with the lid and put on medium heat.
It should take about 7-10 minutes for the shredded beets to cook through, but check in 5 minutes and add some water if needed.
Add your other chopped aromatics: sweet pepper, chopped parsnip, chili pepper, parsley.
Cook everything together for 2-3 minutes
Add fresh and/or diced tomatoes, tomato paste or maybe even ketchup, bring the mixture to a boil and take off the heat.
Add the mixture to the pot with broth when potato and cabbage are almost cooked, bring everything to a boil. Check that potatoes are cooked, check for seasoning, add salt/pepper if needed. It should be very fragrant, rich and slightly sour from tomatoes and cabbage.
Turn off the heat, add pureed or smashed garlic, cover the lid, let your borsch rest and the all flavors mix.

Diced potatoes and shredded white and red cabbage

Sauerkraut Russian style

It is one of Russian specialties, a unique combination of tasty and healthy food, loaded with vitamins C and K, iron and fiber and contains probiotics. It is called sour cabbage, and with all due respect to all things German is much better than pale mushy sausage condiment. It makes a great side for anything – chicken, fish, steak or ribs. It can even be a salad of its own, or mixed with some sliced shallots and topped with olive oil. One of my favorite meals when I was a child was mashed potatoes mixed with sour cabbage.

The cabbage should be fermented in its own juice, therefore it has to be green cabbage usually harvested late in fall. Another traditional ingredient is carrots, it contributes more to the color, not so much to flavor. The only important proportion to remember – 30 grams of salt per kilogram of cabbage. The rest is optional

Ingredients:

Cabbage 1 kg (2 lbs)
2 medium carrots
Kosher salt 30 gr
2 garlic gloves (optional)
Caraway seeds 1 tsp (optional)

Directions:

Cut the cabbage into 4 big parts, remove the core
Make sure you weight what will be chopped, the ratio of cabbage to salt is important
Shred the carrots
Chop the cabbage into thin strings, the way you do for the coleslaw
Add salt, caraway seeds, thinly sliced garlic and several red pepper flakes
Place everything into a big bowl
Mix everything with your clean hands, don’t squeeze, just mix to evenly distribute salt, carrots and spices. It is actually tasty right away, somewhat like oversalted coleslaw
You will see that the cabbage starts extracting the juice when salt touches it.
Transfer the mix into a glass jar pressing it tight with a spoon, potato masher or just your fist.
Cover the lid
Let it sit on the counter top for 3 days, check daily, open the lid and let some extra gas to evaporate, but still pressing it is submerged into the juice.
It should be ready in 3-4 days, just taste it – it won’t taste like a coleslaw anymore. It will taste like sour cabbage.
Needs to be refregarated once ready

Abundance of Cilantro!

It’s not just a way to preserve such fragrant and delicate herb but make a great condiment of your own.

Here is one idea – cilantro pesto:

Ingredients:

Cilantro – about 1 cup (stems can be used too)
Garlic – 3-4 cloves
Red pepper flakes
Lime juice 2-3 tbsp
Olive oil – 3/4 of a cup
Pistachios – 1/4 cup
Salt -1/2 tsp
Pepper – 1/4 tsp
Optional – Manchego cheese

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse till it becomes a paste.
It can stay in the fridge for weeks, great with rice, pasta, fish, cracker or just slice of bread.

Easy Family Recipes Life style

Tomato salad from my childhood

September 9, 20221 min read AlwaysTasty

Back in the day and the place there was no dressing. There were just 2 options for vegetables salad accompaniment – sunflower oil and sour

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

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

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: