Eastern European Blini (Or Crepes)

Growing up in a Russian-Ukrainian household always meant a lot of yummy milk-butter-yogurt-cream-[anything dairy]-type food. These are no different. Learning how to cook these in my family was like a rite of passage. Maneuvering the pan to make the thinnest of crepes was always the challenge, as was keeping the butter or crepe from burning.

  

Ingredients

1 pinch salt

1 egg

3 cups milk

1 pinch baking soda

3 cups white flour (you can substitute half for whole wheat)

1 stick frozen butter

Directions

Making the batter:

1. Lightly whisk together egg and salt. Whisk in the milk into the mixture.

2. In another bowl combine baking soda and flour.

3. Sift the dry ingredients into the egg-milk mixture. Mix very well, making sure to get all clumps out.

Frying the blinis:
Important note: Utensils and set-up are very import for cooking the blinis.The spoon you use to ladle the batter onto the skillet must be the right size, or else your bilinis will be too thick, or won't form into a circle from lack of batter. I use a large spoon (shown in the center below)-- a soup spoon and a soup ladle (left and right) are shown for size comparison. Using a measuring cup won't give you the right pour into the pan, so make sure you find what essentially is a very over-sized soup spoon (but not ladle).  

Also, setup is quite important. Most of the steps are very time-dependent, so you'll want to make sure you have everything ready. I usually set up my blini-cooking station like the photo below: I have a plate ready for cooked blini's on the left, the pan(s) for cooking in the center, the frozen stick of butter within reach in the center, and the batter on the right.

1. Once you have a smooth batter prepared, set up your cooking station as shown above. 
2. Heat up the pan(s) to medium-high heat. This is much easier to cook on a gas stove (where you can control heat well), but that's a whole other story :). 
3. Pick up the pan with your left hand and with the frozen stick of butter, lightly grease the pan. You'll know your pan is hot enough for the blinis if the butter starts crackling when you're greasing the pan.
4. Keep the pan elevated, and at a slight angle (40ish degrees) while you ladle out a spoon-full of batter with your right hand. Quickly ladle the batter onto the pan in the upper left-hand side of the pan (most elevated part) so that the batter starts spreading down across the pan. Maneuver the pan quickly so that the batter spreads into a nice circle (will have to get photo of this step sometime soon). 
5. Set it back down on the heat and let the first side cook until the top batter cooks through (depending on thickness, anywhere from 30-90 seconds).
6. Quickly flip the blini and cook the other side for about 20-30 seconds.
7. Grease the plate you have for the prepared blinis and flip the blini onto it, grease the top with additional butter (to prevent sticking to each other) and move on the next one. 

Additional tip: by the end of your batch, you'll notice the butter starting to burn more and more (especially if you have electric) - make sure to take the pan off of the heat a bit longer between blinis  to cool it down a bit.

Enjoy these as savory main dishes, or as sweet desserts or breakfasts. Suggestions for savory blinis are: rice with ground beef, mashed potatoes with mushrooms, rice with mushrooms. Suggestions for sweet blinis are: jam, honey, yogurt, yogurt with sugar, or chocolate spread. Pairing them with berries is also yummy. 

Apple Tart

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients

Pastry Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

Apples
4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Directions
Pastry:
1. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. 
2. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas.
3. Add the ice water and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. 
4. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. 
5. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 
Note: If you don't have a food processor, it isn't too difficult to make this in a bowl. Just make sure to mix well.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Assembly:
1. Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 by 14-inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.
2. Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baler. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices. 
3. Mix apples with sugar and flour.
4. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. 
5. Dot with the butter.

Baking:
1. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don't worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn't stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Oladi's -- Russian Kefir Pancakes

Another breakfast recipe!

Oladi's are little bites of Russian heaven. They're also pretty easy to cook. Enjoy!

Doesn't have to be perfect!

 Make sure to get that golden brown color.

Raspberry jam and sour cream go wonderfully with Oladi's

Sour cream + sugar mixture

Mound of yummy Oladi's!

(Adapted from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/OLADI-RUSSIAN-KEFIR-PANCAKES-51247771#ixzz2hWgerHRn
and my mother :))

Ingredients
1¼ cups flour 
1½ tablespoons sugar 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon fine salt 
2 eggs 
2 cups kefir or buttermilk 
Neutral oil such as canola or sunflower, for frying

1. Whisk egg and sugar together until about doubled in size (warning: overmixing will cause it to be cakey).  Add kefir to the egg and sugar mixture. In another bowl whisk together sifted flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

2. Add dry ingredients to the kefir mixture, all at once, and stir to combine. Don't over-whisk: A few lumps are to be expected. Make sure the mixture is runny enough to easily ladle it, but not runny enough that it will spread too much in the pan. You want to keep your Oladi's to about 2-2.5" in diameter.

3. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add enough oil to slick the surface.

4.Using a measuring cup or ladle, add 1/4-cup portions of batter to the pan. Cook slowly, as with typical pancakes: until bubbles form on the top surface and the batter begins to lose its gloss, and until the pancakes are golden brown on one side (this may take 3-4 minutes). Flip, and repeat on other side. When gently touched, cooked oladi should feel soft and springy, not wet inside. Adjust heat as necessary to keep the pancakes from browning too quickly.

5. If they turn out too oily, put them on paper towels to soak up some of the oil. 

6. Serve plain or with sour cream, sour cream+sugar (my favorite), jam or honey.

Russian Meatballs, or "Tifteli"

I love this recipe. It's hearty, goes with a variety of sides, is easy to make and plus it stores in the freezer very well. I usually double the recipe below, and freeze half of it for a later time. 

Yield: ~20 meatballs (if ~2" in diameter)

Ingredients:

-1 pound ground turkey (original recipe calls for ground beef)

-.5 cup rice

-1 egg

-1 onion, finely chopped

-salt to taste

-1 tsp pepper

-1/4-1 teaspoon red pepper or paprika

-1/2 cup flour for tossing meatballs

-sunflower or canola oil (for high heat frying -- canola is usually cheaper)

For the sauce:

-1 Tbsp flour

-1 cup water

-1/2 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt, you'll never know the difference)

-1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

-salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook rice, make sure to salt water when cooking

2. Rinse cooked rice through cold water, until it cools down

3. Mix: meat, rice, egg, onion, salt, black pepper and paprika (or red pepper). Add as much black pepper and paprika as you want, I usually end up doing 1.5 tsp of paprika and pepper.

4. Form meatballs - form as small or as big as you like, but make sure to keep them all the same size.

5. Toss meatballs in flour, making sure to coat all sides.

6. Heat up oil in a nonstick pan on high heat.

7. Fry all meatballs until golden brown, making sure to get all the sides. This is the hardest part of this recipe - they can break apart very easily. I recommend you use a wooden spoon to turn them at first, and then use some chop sticks at the end.

If you're planning on freezing the meatballs, cool them after step 7, wrap in foil and store in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.

8. Sauce: Brown the flour -  heat up a nonstick pot and place the flour in the pot once it's hot.  Move the flour around with a wooden spoon so as not to burn it. Once it's light brown, pour in the water and mix to get rid of any clumps. 

9. Add in the sour cream (or yogurt if you're using it) and mix well, until all the clumps are out.

10. Mix in the tomato paste. Salt and pepper to taste. 

11. Add in the meatballs into the pot with sauce. Cover and let simmer on low for 20-30 minutes.

Happy cooking :)

The Best Seafood Stew

I never thought I would be able to make the jaw dropping seafood stews I've always had at restaurants. What do they call it? Cioppino? To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure how to pronounce that.

Until I came across this recipe.

It is perfect - easy, fast and as delicious as the restaurants' seafood stews.

A few suggestions: add more wine - I would add at least a cup (1/3 for the mussels and another 2/3 for the actual stew). Don't skimp on the clam juice - it adds a lot to the taste. I would add in a little bit more water (or more clam juice and tomato juice) to the stew - it seems like it always runs out.

Happy Cooking :)

On Breakfast Time

Breakfast. Enough said. It is the best part of my day. I grew up with BIG breakfasts. I made breakfast for my family every Sunday, at first as a chore, but then turned into something I looked forward to. I make a variety of breakfasts now - some of my favorite ones are the Russian recipes (ie lots of butter, milk, cream....sadly my husband is lactose intolerant, so I feel bad making them). I'll also admit I still love my good old cereal and milk too though.

ANYWAY.

I decided to make a quiche a few weeks ago. Mushrooms = i'm obsessed, eggs=yum, cream=makes everything better. I added some notes in blue below, but recipe courtesy of Epicurious (one of my favorite recipe websites): http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mushroom-Shallot-Quiche-236171.

Here's what you have to look forward to

Recipe:
Crust

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon cold water

• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Filling

• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup chopped shallots (about 2 medium)-- I used chopped onions, because,let's be honest, who has shallots laying around? Works just as well.
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 5 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, divided -- I would recommend cutting this in half. The thyme took over the dish, enough that I could only eat one piece. :(

• 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 2 large eggs
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of ground black pepper
• 2 green onions (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons finely grated Gruyère cheese --I would do 4 tablespoons next time, never can have enough cheese.

For crust:
Blend flour, salt, and sugar in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until coarse meal forms. Whisk 1 egg and 1 teaspoon cold water in small bowl; add to flour mixture. Using on/off turns, process just until moist clumps form. Transfer to work surface and knead gently until dough comes together, about 4 turns. Form into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. Do ahead Dough can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.

Butter 9 1/2-inch round fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer dough to pan, pressing onto bottom and up sides of pan; trim any excess dough. Chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter large square of foil and press, butter side down, onto crust. Fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Using fork, pierce bottom of crust all over (about 10 times). Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Brush lightly with egg white. Cool. Do ahead Can be baked 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

For filling:
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Increase heat to high and sauté until liquid is absorbed and mushrooms are tender, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with 2 1/2 teaspoons thyme and cook 1 minute. Transfer mixture to plate. Cool mushrooms completely.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cooled crust in pan on baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining 2 1/2 teaspoons thyme. Drain mushrooms, if needed. Scatter mushrooms over thyme. Whisk cream, eggs, salt, and pepper in medium bowl. Pour egg mixture over mushrooms. Sprinkle with green onions and cheese.

Bake quiche until custard is set, about 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Overall, this was a pretty simple, delicious recipe. However, like I mentioned above-- too much thyme! The crust also left something to be desired... I think I may have made it too thick. I am planning on rolling it out thinner next time and seeing how it goes. I might also try to put spinach in next time. Definitely think this recipe has lots of potential. 

Assembled Quiche

Post-oven and ready to be devoured.

Happy cooking.

First Post!

Some things I love: my dog, pretending to be an engineer, taking pictures of food, learning how to cook food and subsequently eating said food. I will attempt to post some notes about my favorite and not-so-favorite recipes, mostly so I remember what I like and don't like.