Farmer cheese cake ( Zapekanka )

I should be writing about Russian blini's (pancakes) right now since Maslenitsa is being celebrated throughout Russia nowadays. I promise I will take a picture this week-end and I will post my recipe for blini. But for now I will try to tell you about beautiful and easy breakfast cake. It is not really a desert though it is sweet. It is traditionally served for breakfast or 'Poldnick'- Russian 4 o'clock tea.

The main ingredient here is tvorog- a fresh cheese. The closest match to it that I was able to find in America is a farmer cheese. (You can easily spot it in the cheese section of you supermarket). Oh how much I miss Russian tvorog form the Sunday farmer's market. You just sprinkle it with sugar and your best breakfast is ready. It is reach and tender. It has some hints of salt and that little sugar brings the flavor to the unbelievable heights. You've got to try it if you ever find yourself in Russia. The best part is that every woman that sells her cheese at the market will let you try her tvorog. And they all would taste different. So you just pick the one you liked the most. It cannot get any better then that!
So let me get back to the recipe. You will need:

1 package of Framer cheese ( 1lbs)

2 eggs

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbs semolina

1 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F.

Beat the eggs and sugar together. Mix in gently all the other ingredients. Grease the 9" round baking dish and pour in the batter. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden.
Serve with fresh berries and sour cream

Enjoy!

Fish with carrots

I am sorry for being away for so long. Holidays in December and then my sister's visit did not leave me much time to write in the blog. But I am back and cannot wait to share my next dish with you.

I do not really know what took me so long to make this dish. It was one of my favorite dishes growing up but I've never cooked it since I have moved to the US. Recently I've been looking through my Russian cuisine cookbook and discovered this recipe under 'Cuisine on the Volga'. So when Omur bought white fish this week-end I knew exactly what I would do with it.

I just love the wonderful sweetness the carrots give to the fish. My mom would normally serve it with some boiled potato and a salad on the side. But honestly I can eat this fish as is. And did I tell you it tastes even better the next day. So think about a perfect lunch having it wrapped in a wheat tortilla. Hope you will love it as much as I do.

2 fillets of haddock or cod fish
salt and pepper
flour

oil for frying

3-4 carrots

1-2 onions

1 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp Mayonnaise
1/2 cup of broth
1-2 bay leaves

Start by cutting your fish into small pieces, say 1-2 inches long . Season it with salt and pepper, dredge into flour and then fry in a small amount of oil. Remove the fish from the pan.

To the same pan add thinly sliced onions and saute for about 5 minutes until translucent. Now you can add grated carrots. Pour half of the broth over the mixture, cover with a lid and let it cook on med low for another 5 minutes. Now mix together sour cream and mayonnaise, spread it over the carrot mixture, place your cooked fish on top,and pour the rest of the broth plus bay leaves over it. Now cover with the lid again and cook on low for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

Just Grate

Holiday season is here. I love the spirit of it. I love the idea of simple homemade meals for the most dear people. Unfortunately our both families are far away and that's why my mind these days brings back the memories of holidays back in Russia
I thought about sharing with you two very simple side dishes that are sure to be found on many tables this holiday seasons in Russia.

I am talking about GRATED BEETS and GRATED CARROTS.

You need to cook BEETS first. Scrub them good, trim the stem but not too close to the bulb and leave the root untouched. Then boil like you would potato- until the knife inserted goes in smoothly. I would think 3 medium beets should be fine here. Once they are cooked you need to peel them ( the skin will come right off) and grate.
Add one clove of garlic crushed, couple of spoons of mayonnaise and a handful of crushed walnuts.

The CARROTS do not need cooking. For this dish you will grate 2 large carrots then simply add 1 crushed garlic clove and mayo. The day I cooked it for myself and took picture I did not feel like adding anything else in it. But crushed walnuts or even raisins would work great in here.

Borsch

I guess Borsch is the first dish that comes to your mind when you think of Russian cuisine. So I am very happy to share with you the technique behind it. The reason I say technique is because basically you can do borsch any way you like it as long as you add beets and you cook them separately before adding to your soup.
I remember my grandmother cooking a rich beef stock first and then building her borsch from there. She would always make it with cabbage and potatoes. And then she would make sure everyone would get a piece of juicy meet from the pot on their plate. My mom would always make it vegetarian and would sweat the beets in butter rather than in lard. As for me I like playing with it even more. One day I would do it vegetarian and the other day would add meet. I may substitute potato with white beans and have it with Brussels sprouts since they tend to be sweeter than regular cabbage. But I never omit the step where you sweat your beets in little butter and tomato paste on a separate pan with a squeeze of lemon. This is the only way you can achieve this beautiful red color and bring out all the sweetness of beets.
If you choose to go with meet based borsch start by enhancing your beef broth. You will need to brown the meat in the pot, then add 1 onion halved and 1 coarsely diced carrot and then pour 6 cups of beef stock and cook on low for about 20 minutes.

6 cups of broth (vegetarian, chicken or beef)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs of corn oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
3 Tbs of tomato paste
2-3 beets, diced
1 tsp vinegar or a squeeze of lemon
2 medium potatoes, pilled (or a can of white beans)
1 red pepper, diced
half a head of small cabbage , julienned
(or 0,5 lb of Brussels sprouts)
2 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

For serving: sour cream, chopped parsley and/or dill, , pilled garlic, bread and 1tbsp of salt

In a big pot heat 1 tbs of butter with oil and cook onion until translucent. Add carrots and celery and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add 1 spoon of tomato paste and caramelize it by stirring for a minute. Then pour the broth of your choice and bring it to a boil.
Meanwhile julienne your cabbage and add it to the soup. Now dice the potato and add them as well. Do the same with the pepper. Bring everything to a boil again. Add the bay leaves then lower the heat, cover with the lid and let it cook.
Now it is the turn for the beets. Heat another 1 tbs of butter on a separate pan. Add the beets, 2 Tbs of tomato paste and squeeze some lemon ( 1 tsp of vinegar). Sautee for about 10-15 minutes or until soft. Now you can add them to the pot together with some crashed garlic and bring everything again to a boil. Lower the heat to a minimum and cook for another 20 minutes.

Serve borsch with some sour cream and plenty of chopped parsley and/or dill.
Even better deep some peeled garlic into salt and rub the crust of your sliced bread. Yumm!

Enjoy!

Sharlotka

Thanks to my friend Inna who reminded me about this apple cake. She is so good at it and honestly I miss having a cup of tea with a slice of just-baked-apple-goodness with her! So you would understand if I say that I had to make it today for breakfast.

This is a very Russian cake though the name may not sound so (people are still guessing about the origin of the French name for this cake). Sharlotka is as dear for Russians as Apple pie for Americans but the simplicity of Sharlotka allows a hostess to bake it an instant weather she is having some unexpected guests or say for breakfast. There are only 5 ingredients for this apple cake and they are sure to be found at any time in any Russian house.

This recipe is from my family and I've learned to bake it since I was little over 10 y.o. So think about it as a good recipe for baking with kids after you come back home from apple picking at the farm. It doesn't get any easier then:

4 eggs

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of flour

4-5 sour apples (*see a Note)

a pinch of salt

Start by preheating your oven to 350 F (or 180 C). Then peel and slice your apples to your liking. Now beat the eggs on high for a few minutes. The longer you do it the better the cake will be. Without stopping your mixer slowly add sugar and mix some more. Now add flour and salt (cinnamon optional) but this time mix just until incorporated.

Now here I have to make another note. In Russia we use white flour but to make it more healthy I did mine today with Whole Wheat Pastry flour and it turned out perfect. I think I will not go back to white flour for this recipe anymore.

I use my Pirex glass pie dish. Oil the bottom to prevent sticking and then start building your Sharlotka by layering apples and batter. Cover the bottom with one layer of apples then pour some batter. Repeat about 3-4 times leaving some apples for the top.

I sprinkled mine with some decorative cinnamon sugar but I do not recall using any cinnamon for that recipe growing up. Now you may put it in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Note: If you have only sweet apples on hand you can still use them but sprinkle them with juice of half a lemon before adding them to the batter.