Cheese Gnocchi (lazy vareniki)

It was one of my favorite breakfasts, called lazy vareniki. Vareniki (similar to pirogi, but with thiner pastry) are Russian or Ukranian dumplings made with potato or ricotta cheese filling. So instead of making a dough, rolling it, cutting, preparing a filling, forming every dumpling you just put everything together in one bowl, mix it, divide into little pillows and boil. Lazy! And done within 5 minutes!

It should be done with tvorog, but if you don’t have it I found that farmers cheese is not a bad option for this dish (don’t use store bought ricotta, it’s too watery).

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

Tvorog or farmer’s cheese – 1/4 lbs (100 gr)
1 egg
Flour – 3 tbsp
Pinch of salt

Directions:

Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix really well with spoon forming sticky dough
Put the dough on well floured board, flour your hands too.
It should be sticky, but workable, there is no need to kneed it, but you should be able to form about an inch wide log with your hands
Cut the log into small pieces
Put pot with water on medium to high heat, add 1 tsp of salt and bring to a boil. Do not reduce the heat!
Place several dumplings into boiling water, don’t overcrowd the pot.
Boil the dumplings for 2 minutes
Remove from the pot with a skimmer spoon
Garnish with melted butter or sour cream and sprinkle with sugar if you want to make it sweet
Serve hot or warm

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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

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

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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

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.

Birds Milk Cake

Ingredients (all should be in a room temperature):

5 eggs
1/2 + 1 cup of sugar
12 tbsp of butter
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1tbsp of gelatin
1/2 cup of water
2 oz of dark chocolate

Directions:

Separate whites and yolks of 5 eggs

For the batter:

Beat yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar in a stand mixer or hand mixer.
Add 8 tbsp of room temperature butter
Sift 3/4 cup of flours with 1/2 tsp of soda.
Add flour + soda to the yolk and butter, mix the batter,
Place into 8 ” foil form greased with vegetable oil,
Put into a preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 25-30 min.
Let the crust cool.

For the topping:

Mix 1 tbsp gelatin with 1/2 cup of water, heat it till gelatin dissolves.
Place 5 whites into the bowl of the electrical mixer, add 1/2 tsp cream of tartar and start beating on high speed for about 2 minutes.
Add 1 cup (or a little less) of sugar, keep beating for another minute.
Add gelatin mixture slowly and beat till firm glossy peaks.
Assemble the cake: Decorate the crust with berries, slices of mandarins.
Place the whites mixture on top, shape the cake.
Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Make the chocolate glaze by melting 2 tbsp of butter with 2 oz of dark chocolate on low heat.
Gently spoon the glaze over the cake, decorate with mint and berries and put it back in the fridge.

Serve cold.

Самый простой и вкусный рецепт торта Птичье Молоко

Ингредиенты:

5 яиц
1/2 + 1 ст. сахара
100 + 50 гр. сливочного масла
1/2 ч.ложки соды 3/4 ст муки
1 ст. ложка желатина
1/2 стакана воды
50 гр тёмного шоколада

Отделите белки от желтков
Взбейте желтки с половиной стaкана cахара в стационарном миксере или ручным миксером.
Добавьте 100 грамм мягкого сливочного масла
Просейте муку с содой , смешайте с желтками.
Мягкое тесто положите в смазанную растительным маслом форму и поместите в разогретую до 180 духовку на 25-30 минут
Корж остудите.
Растворите 1 ст ложку желатина в 1/2 стакана воды на медленном огне.
Взбейте белки с лимонной кислотой 2 минуты
Добавьте сахар, продолжайте взбивать еще минуту.
Постепенно добавьте желатин, продолжая взбивать до получения густой, блестящей массы.
Выложите белковую массу на корж украшеный ягодами, и/или дольками мандарина.
Торт поставьте в холодильник на 30 минут.
Растопите 50 граммов масла + 50 грамм тёмного шоколада на медленном огне.
Залейте торт шоколадной глазурью. Украсьте мятой и свежими ягодами.

Подавать холодным.

Blended Ratatoulle (икра)

Just cook your ratatouille the way you usually do (or as I suggest below) and after it’s cooked and chilled (at least a little) – put it all in a blender and puree. It creates a very delicious, creamy, and versatile vegetable dip, which you can spice to your liking and serve warm right away, room temperature or cold, and can be a sauce or a side for any fish, chicken or meat. I can eat it with a spoon, but if you put that spoon on a slice of good rye bread – it’s hard to stop.

Start with roasting onions (and you don’t have to chop them too fine as it will all be blended) on medium high heat.
When onions turn golden – add eggplant as they cook the longest
Once eggplant gets some golden crust – add chopped zucchini
When zucchini softens add garlic and chili pepper (optional)
Add chopped tomatoes, you can also add tomato paste, herbs of your choice (thyme, oregano, parsley)
Mix everything, check for seasoning, cover the lid, reduce the heat and let it cook for about 15 min till all the vegetables are fully cooked
The vegetable size and proportions are very flexible, you can also saute every vegetable separately
You can add salt and pepper to every vegetable as you add it or season the whole pot when all the ingredients are in
Turn the heat off, let it cool (at least slightly), place in a blender or food processor and puree. Check the dip for seasoning and adjust if needed.

Fish covered with carrots sofrito

Very easy way to transform somewhat plain boring white fish like cod or haddock into delicious colorful dish with a spice level adjustable to your taste. Served cold or room temperature, you can take it to work for lunch, serve at brunch buffet or as a dinner appetizer

Ingredients:

White fish (cod, haddock, flounder) – 2 lbs
Shallot (or small onion) – 1
Carrots – 1-1.5 lbs
Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp (you can use fresh a couple of tomatoes, ketchup, some spicy sauce you have or like, and or tomato paste)

Directions:

Place your fish into a casserole dish, sprinkle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper ( you can also sprinkle some lemon juice)
Bake in 375 °F oven for about 30 min till fully cooked.
Finely chop shallot (or onion), grind carrots (with manual grinder or in a food processor)
Add 3 tbsp light olive oil or some other neutral oil into a heavy pan
Start roasting shallot on a medium heat till it is translucent, then add shredded carrots. You might need to add some oil
Roast your vegetables till golden color, the add your tomatoes or tomato sauce/paste, season with salt, pepper, add some red pepper flakes if you want to make it spicy.
Reduce the heat to low, add 1 or 2 bay leaves, cover your pan with a lid and simmer till your sofrito is fully cooked and soft.
Split cooked fish into small pieces with a fork.
Load the sofrito on top of the fish, better to do it while it’s still hot or at least warm so that the taste of vegetables penetrates the fish
Sprinkle with good olive oil.
Let it cool down on counter top and put in the fridge for several hours. Sofrito will “marinate” the fish, adding it a color and spice
Serve cold.

Rosette cookies

I remember I tried these cookies over 25 years ago in Moscow, but they were shaped as little pillows, my college friend grandma was making them. Then I tried them in my friend’s house here, she called them rosettes.

The dough is very light because it’s based on farmer cheese. The result is – super airy pastry. Friendship brand works, but I usually make farmer cheese or tvorog (творог) of my own, and that’s the one on the picture.

Ingredients:

Farmer cheese – 1/2 lbs
1.5-2 sticks of soften margarine or butter (I usually use 1 stick of butter and the 1/2+ margarine).
Sour cream – 3-4 tbsp
Eggs – 3 (room temperature)
Sugar – 1/2 cup + 1 cup
Flour – 3-31/2 cups

Directions:

Separate egg whites from yolks
In a bowl start mixing yolks and 1/2 sugar with a whisk
Add softened butter/margarine, farmer cheese, sour cream and soda and mix it well (with the whisk or a spoon)
Gradually add flour, 1 cup at a time. Use a spoon till possible, then kneed with your hands. The dough should be soft, even a little sticky. But you will add some more flour when rolling.
In a separate bowl beat egg whites + 1 cup of sugar
Preheat your oven to 375 °F, cover baking sheet with the parchment paper
Divide the dough into 3 pieces (just so it’s easier to roll)
Dust you board with flour
Roll the dough to the “rectangular” or oval shape (about 15″x 8″), 1/8″ (3mm) thick
Spread the dough with 1/3 of a beaten whites leaving some borders (for the whites not to ooze out too much)
Make a roll, make it even width with your hands, also trying to spread the whites inside evenly.
Cut the roll into 1 inch thick pieces, pressing with the knife and lifting each piece so that the whites don’t come out, placing it to the baking sheet right away.
Repeat with the rest of the dough and the whites
Bake for about 20 minutes, but start checking after 15 minutes. The cookies (and the whites) should be just golden and remain a little soft.