Russian Blini

Unfortunately I lost my old, favorite Blini recipe.  But this one is good and significantly easier…

2 cups 2% milk
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 packet yeast
1 Tbso sugar
1 1/4 cups flour

Heat milk to a medium warm temperature (not too hot!  you don’t want to cook the eggs!)

Mix in eggs, salt, sugar and flour.

Add yeast

Let sit at least 1/2 hour

Heat pan to medium (4.5 if your stove measures 1-10).  Butter the pan and ladle some batter on the pan.  You should have a thin layer of batter covering the bottom of the whole frying pan.  Cook for a minute or so, until bubbles appear on the surface.  Flip to the other side, and cook about half as long as the first side.  Remember, the first blin is for the bears, so adjust based on what happened with that one.

Serve the blini with condiments, some poplar ones are nutella, jam, sour cream, caviar or cheese, but you can put anything you want on them.

-Emma

Aubergine/eggplant caviar

A nice simple roasted aubergine and red pepper spread. Next time I might add some chilli and raw garlic to sharpen up the flavours.

2 aubergines / eggplants
1 red capsicum / pepper
Half a head/bulb garlic, unpeeled
Squirt of lemon juice, to taste
Salt, to taste
Olive or vegetable oil, to grease

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (about 350F). Cut tops off aubergines, prick several times into the body with a sharp knife or fork (to let steam escape so they don’t explode, like when you bake potatoes!). Do not peel aubergines.

2) Grease a baking sheet. Lightly grease aubergines. Place onto baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.

3) Cut capsicum in half and remove seedy core and stem. Rub oil over it lightly. Oil the unpeeled garlic bulb. Add to baking sheet; bake, along with aubergines, another 20 minutes or so. Aubergine should be soft, the capsicum should be collapsed with the skin lightly blackened and coming away, and garlic cloves should give way when pricked with a knife.

4) Peel capsicum. Cut aubergines in half and scoop out cooked flesh; discard skins. Peel softened garlic (this should be easy). Blend together in a blender or using a stick blender – or just chop very finely. Add splash of lemon juice, to taste. Season with salt. Make sure to taste and adjust the flavours, adding more lemon juice if you need to. Don’t skip it – it really lifts the flavour.

Proper Brownies

In my house cake, muffins, and brownies all had distinctly different textures.  I notice this difference disappearing in most commercial bakeries.  Try a proper brownie, they really are an entirely different food than just small pieces of chocolate cake!

Recipe for a 13×9 (in.) cake pan:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a baking pan lined with foil.

Melt in a small saucepan:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

Let cool.

Beat until light in color and foamy in texture:
4 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Gradually add and continue beating until thick:
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

With a few swift strokes, stir in the cooled chocolate mixture just until comvines.  Even if you are using an electric mixer, switch to a wooden spoon for this.  Stir until just combined:
1 cup all-purpose flour

Gently stir in, if desired:
1 cup chopped nuts (or other goodies)

Scape batter into the prepared pan.  Bake about 25 minutes.  Cool completely in the pan on a rack.

-From “The Joy of Cooking”

Enjoy!
-Emma

Pico de Gallo: Fresh Salsa

Salsa doesn’t have to come from a jar at the store!  It’s delicious when you make it yourself, and is a good way to use garden tomatoes when an onslaught comes. 

You can obviously increase the quantity easily, but I’m giving proportions for one normal-sized tomato.

1 fresh tomato
1/2 onion (I prefer red) (optional)
1 clove garlic
1 TBSP cilantro
1 TSP salt
juice of 1/2 lemon (can use lime, too)
a dash of hot sauce or a chopped chipotle pepper

Cut everything up and throw it in a bowl.  Simple and tasty.  You can experiment with some additions for fun;  my mom sometimes adds mango, and it’s delicious.  Use it just like salsa from the jar; dip in tortilla chips, or add to tacos or burritos.

-Emma

Parmesan potato wedges

These were both simple and delicious. I adapted the original recipe a little to be more convenient for me (e.g. it’s not easy for me to use only eggwhites, so I used a whole egg). It was very tasty and a delicious and super-simple accompaniment to some stuffed baked peppers (recipe soon!). It would also be a really nice side to something like roast or meatloaf.

Parmesan potato wedges

6 potatoes, cut into about 6 wedges each
1 whole egg, beaten
finely grated parmesan, about 3/4 cup

Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius. Oil a baking sheet. Toss the potatoes wedges into the beaten egg (you may need more) and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle parmesan over the wedges and bake until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.

Original recipe here.

Eat well…life is too short not to!

Chloe

Russian Grocery Store in London

It wasn’t long ago that I discovered the wonderful little Russian grocery, Kalinka at 35 Queensway in London (Queensway or Bayswater tube).  While most of the products are technically imported from Poland or Germany, you can find all your favorite Russian foods here (or introduce yourself to the delights of simple, tasty Russian food).  We went on a walk on a nice spring day (punctuated by hail…oops) and then had a picnic in Hyde Park, which is conveniently located just a block away.  We went for the ‘peasant lunch’ buying two types of sausage (кольваса), farmer’s cheese (сыр), black rye bread (чёрный хлеб), eggplant caviar, Russian pickles, and some квась (Russian soda made from fermented bread) and apricot juice to wash it all down, and then finished with some poppyseed cake and spice cakes (пряники).  Kalinka is also a great place to buy things like buckwheat flour for a good price, get a nice bottle of vodka, or explore the interesting world of Russian candy.

In short, we highly recommend this little gem of a store in a fun part of London.

For more adventures in Russia, please visit www.baikalclub.blogspot.com

(Apologies for any egregious Russian spelling errors, I don’t type in Russian often)

Как вкусно!
Эмма

Guacamole

Guacamole is one of the best foods in the world if it’s made well.  If it isn’t made right it can be downright disgusting.  To me, the most important part is that the texture isn’t too smooth.  To get the right consistency, mix the guacamole with the blade of a knife, cutting the avocado into progressively smaller chunks, stopping while there are still some reasonable sized pieces, but everything is mostly incorporated.

Here’s what I use:

1 avocado
juice of 1/2 lime
pinch of salt
small splash of Tabasco sauce
1 clove diced garlic
a few sprigs of chopped cilantro (aka fresh coriander)

Everything is to taste, really.  You want to balance the salt and lime so that you can’t really taste either.  You shouldn’t be able to taste the Tabasco, or feel the heat; it will just give the guacamole some depth to the flavor.  Mix together as described above, and enjoy atop Mexican food, or with corn chips (my favorite).

-Emma