Vinaigrette Salad, Another Russian Classic

This is one of those perfectly healthy and deadly delicious example from Russian cuisine that I made following my mother's instructions. I had a huge craving for it all day and since I failed to convince my mother that today was the perfect day to make this salad when I come over for a visit I had no choice than make it myself. It tastes just like I remembered...

Ingredients:

1 beet

2 carrots

3 potatoes

3 small cucumbers

2 marinated cucumbers

1 apple, peel skin

a bit of lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil for dressing

First boil beet, carrots and potatoes in their skin. Beet separately from the others and give it 20-25 minutes. Carrots and potatoes may be boiled together, takes about 15 minutes. Meanwhile grate cucumbers, marinated cucumbers and apple. When beet, carrots and potatoes are done, cool under cold water and peel skin. Then grate as was done with other vegetables. Add fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil and mix everything. And ready it is!

P.S. I think the original recipe also includes head cabbage, but I forgot to add it and to be honest the salad is perfectly fine without it.

Russian Borsch

Enough of fooling around and let's bring on the hardcore gourmet soup game! Namely, I am about to reveal the hidden secrets of borsch making, the way my mother has taught me. Naturally there are many different recipes for borsch and I am not saying they are wrong and mine is the best, but if you do it like I tell you here, you won't go wrong. Promise! :))

Since I still have a lot to learn about recipe writing (e.g. actually note down the ingredients and quantities I use when I make something) then I photographed all products in quantities that were used in the soup this time to make this task easier for myself and more visual for you.

For the broth:

2 litres of water, bring it to boil

add the beef osso bucco piece and let it boil a bit, remove all foam that forms on top. if you want more colour and taste, fry the osso bucco piece beforehand a bit.

After about 40 minutes of boiling on medium heat add ginger, garlic, onion (the more the better the taste, imo), carrots and parsley

For the perfect beef broth make sure you have at least 3 hours in total. So make sure you have plenty of time or go to the gym meanwhile, like I did! ;)

Add salt and pepper to taste. Put beef aside and strain or filter the broth. Throw away all the vegetables used in making the broth. Let the osso bucco cool.

For next step:

 

Peel the potatoes and carrots. Chop potatoes and cabbage into small pieces and add to the broth which is being brought to boil. Do not close with a lid in the first 15 minutes, so that the cabbage smell evaporates. Then cover with lid.

Meanwhile, grate carrots and mince onions. Heat up a frying pan with some olive oil, first add carrots and some minutes later the onions. Let them braise under a closed lid until they are cooked. Then add salt, sugar, some fresh lemon juice and tomato paste (about 1 tablespoon, or one tomato), let simmer few more minutes. Before you add this mixture to the soup, make sure the flavours are balanced - it is not too sour, salty or sweet.

Now add to the soup. Also add a few bay leafs.

 

 

While it is all simmering at low heat, chop the beef into small pieces, removing everything that is not actual meat. Also grate the previously boiled beet of about 200 -300 grams (that's one of the items I always buy ready made, since it makes life so much easier) and add  to the soup together with two minced garlic cloves. Bring it to boil, flavour with more salt if you wish and remove from heat. Also now it is the time to find those bay leafs in the soup and remove them.

And voila, we are ready!!!! :)

By the way, this soup tastes best on second day and from there on. So make sure you make it one day in advance if you are preparing it for guests.

Upon serving garnish with sour cream, fresh minced garlic and chopped parsley leaves.

Suddenly I feel so hungry... ;)

Lazy Cabbage Rolls

This one that I am sharing now is not an original recipe, but my interpretation of what else can be done with the baked cabbage stew leftovers, a recipe that I shared here. Remaining faithful to my fascination with Asia, I added some Indian spices for the extra kick.

Why I call it Lazy Cabbage Rolls is because there is one similar Ukrainian dish that I was inspired of when making this one. As I mentioned also Indian cooking. What a mix!

- What you do is first cook some rice (quantity depends of the amount of leftovers), but it should be around half of the cabbage stew quantity otherwise it will be too much about rice.

I've seen how some people cook rice and it can be a tragic sight! To make sure you know better, please take a look at this link.

- While this is in the making, heat up a frying pan. Add oil and grind two tomatoes onto the pan (you can chop it up as an option, but make sure it is finely chopped in this case, the difference is if you grind then there will be no tomato skin in your dish and this makes the dish and eating experience much nicer). Add some grinded garlic (yes, I love garlic!), but this is only an option.

-Also now is the time to add the spices. I have my lazy moments, so I added a ready-made Indian spice mix from Meira + East End cumin powder (jeera powder), chili.

- Then add the cabbage stew, stir everything and let it simmer for a few minutes.

- Then add rice and let it cook for another few minutes so that the flavours mix. If you wish you may add some more black pepper.

- Once it is ready decorate with parsley or coriander.

Serve with natural yoghurt or a fresh salad that I made being inspired by Indian raita, see below:

I used:

young beet leaves (not sure this is the correct word, in Estonian peedivõrsed), cucumber, tomato, capsicum/paprika. I did not mix the greens, but instead set them as layers and covered amply with natural yoghurt. Added some cumin powder, ground black pepper and salt. Sprinkled with fresh parsley.

I have to stress that natural yoghurt is one of the best of salad dressings ever! It has totally substituted mayonnaise and sour cream, not to mention any ready-made salad dressings that we all can find in supermarkets and personally I always avoid using.