So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Ingredients: – 3-4 middle potatoes – 3-4 middle carrots – 4 eggs – 200g chicken breast – 150g ham – 250g canned green pea – 5-6 pickles – 1/3 bunch green onions + 1/3 bunch parsley – 3-4 tbsp mayonnaise to taste – salt/pepper to taste
Method: 1 Dice boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs, chicken breast and combine with diced ham, diced pickles, chopped green onions and parsley 2 Add mayonnaise and spices, mix well and put for 1 hour in the fridge 3 Serve ! Merry Christmas !
Additional ingredients: – 3-4 tbsp flour for dipping Syrniki – sunflower oil for frying – honey for serving Method: 1 Mix batter ingredients until smooth 2 For each Syrnik, dip 1 tbsp batter in flour, form a round with fingers and put it on the wooden board 3 Pre-heat sunflower oil in the skillet: fry Syrniki 2-4 min each side until golden: transfer them on paper towels to absorb extra oil 4 Serve warm with honey ! Have a nice day !
Ingredients (2 servings): – 250g pasta – 2 small red onions – (already boiled) beef, chopped – butter for frying – salt, papper – tomatoes for serving Method: 1 Chop onion and fry it in butter until golden 2 Add chopped (already boiled) beef: fry for 5 minutes 3 Boil pasta al dente, drain water and mix pasta with beef and onion 4 Serve with fresh tomatoes!
Patsuk opened his mouth, stared at the vareniki, and opened his mouth wider still. At that moment, a varenik jumped out of the bowl, splashed into the cream, flipped over and leapt straight up into his mouth. Patsuk opened his mouth again, and another varenik went through the same performance. The only trouble he took was to munch it up and swallow it.
Nikolai Gogol, Christmas Eve
We used to make Pelmeni on Christmas Eve, all the family was gathered together. One of Pelmeni was “lucky one”, made with a different filling from the others – the person who will get the “lucky” Pelemen’ is supposed to be lucky throughout the year!
Dough ingredients (~70 Pelmeni = 4-6 portions): – 3 cups (1 cup = 250ml) wheat flour – 170ml warm water – 1 tbsp 9% vinegar – 2 and 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil – 1/2 tsp salt
Serving ingredients (for 2 portions): – 200g sour cream Method: 1Dough: 1.1 combine dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5-7 min 1.2 leave the dough under the cloth while making the filling 2Filling: combine minced meat, spices, grated butter: mix well until smooth 3 Pelmeni 3.1 separate dough into 6 equal parts and form a 1.5cm diameter sausage from each part 3.2 cut each sausage into 1cm width pieces 3.3 roll out each piece into a ~7cm diameter round 3.4 put 1 tsp filling into each round 3.5 fold the round into a half-moon, pinch all the edges together strongly with fingers; then pull together two corners and pinch strongly with fingers 3.6 boil Pelmeni for 5 min after boiling and serve with sour cream 4 Enjoy !
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl
My mom once made very tasty éclairs when I was a child. For some time I am searching for a recipe to reproduce that taste, but in vain… Yet hope is not lost 🙂
Directions: 1 Filling 1.1 Combine milk, eggs, sugar, corn starch: mix well until smooth 1.2 Pour the mixture in a non-sticking pan, medium heat: cook until thickened constantly stirring 1.3 Add butter and mix until butter is melted, set the filling aside and let it cool down 1.4 Move the filling in the fridge while making dough 2 Dough 2.1 Combine butter, sugar, water and salt in a pan, put on medium heat: keep until butter is melted constantly stirring 2.2 Add flour: continue mixing until smooth, then remove from the heat 2.3 Add whisked eggs, mix well 3 Eclairs 3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C 3.2 Form 1.5cm width x 5cm length stripes out of the dough (I used decorating tube for that) and make stripes with a fork on the surface 3.3 Bake 40 minutes at 180C and let them cool down 3.4 Fill the eclairs making a small hole on the side and using a decorating tube 3.5 Enjoy with a cup of coffee !
Method: 1 Preheat oven to 200C 2 Bake walnuts for 10 minutes at 200C to make them easy to chop, set aside 3 Combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, salt and grate butter to dry ingredients, mix well 4 Add sour cream, egg and chopped walnuts: knead a dough 5 Form with hands 2cm diameter balls out of dough, dipping them in flour 6 Bake the cookies at 190C for 25-30 minutes 7 Enjoy the cookies with Christmas fruits punch and Merry Christmas !
Dough ingredients: – 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour – 150g cottage cheese – 75g sugar – 4 tbsp sunflower oil – 1 egg – 1 pinch salt
Filling ingredients: – 2 medium apples, sliced
Beautifying ingredients: – 1 egg yolk
Method: 1 Dough 1.1 Combine all dough ingredients and knead the dough 1.2 Let the dough rest for 20 min in the fridge 2 Envelopes preparation 2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C 2.2 Peel and deseed 2-3 apples, cut them into 48 slices – yes, adults enjoy the numbers 😉 2.3 Divide the dough into 2 equal parts 2.4 Repeat with each dough piece: 2.4.1 Roll out into ~24cm round and separate with a knife into 4 segments 2.4.2 Make 3 diagonal cuts like on the leaf going diagonally from the side to the center line 2.4.3 Put 6 apple slices on the center line and enclose the apple slices from the left and from the right side with a dough 2.5 Put envelopes on the baling paper and brush them with egg yolk 2.6 Bake the envelopes for 25-30 minutes at 200C 3 Enjoy the envelopes with a cup of strong black tea ! … and the sun will be shining tomorrow too 😉
– 1 cup chopped prunes – 3/4 chopped walnuts Directions: 1 Sponge cake 1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C 1.2 Combine eggs with sugar and vanilla sugar: whisk well for 3-4 minutes 1.3 Add flour and mix well until smooth, then add baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix in 1.4 Pour the batter in the buttered baking form and bake for 20-30 minutes at 190C (test with a wooden stick for readiness) and let it cool down 2 Filling (while cake is being baked) 2.1 Whisk melted butter with sour cream and sugar: put the cream in the fridge for 30 minutes 2.2 Chop walnuts and prunes 3 Final steps 3.1 Spread the filling on the top of sponge cake 3.2 Decorate with chopped walnuts and prunes 3.3 Put the cake in the fridge overnight (or at least 2-3 hours) to let the filling saturate the sponge cake 3.4 Enjoy the cake in the sunny morning with a cup of strong black tea !
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”
A.A. Milne
Notes: this a very gentle morning cake, not too sweet and perfect for cosy breakfast with a cup cocoa and in a nice company – you will enjoy it! 😉
Dough ingredients: – 80g butter – 160g flour – 1 egg – 1tbsp cane sugar – 1/2 tsp soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar Filling ingredients: – 400g cottage cheese – 70g 33% cream – 4tbsp cane sugar – 2 eggs – 1tbsp cornstarch Serving ingredients: – some blueberries – fresh mint leaves – 1/2 tsp powdered sugar Method: 1 Dough 1.1 Whisk egg with sugar 1.2 Grate butter, mix with flour and add to the egg and sugar 1.3 Add soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well 2 Filling 2.1 Whisk eggs with sugar 2.2 Add cottage cheese, cream and cornstarch: mix well until smooth 3 Cake 3.1 Preheat the oven to 180C 3.2 Transfer the dough to the buttered baling form (I used 30cm diameter resulting in a thin layer of filling) 3.3 Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180C 3.4 Leave the cake in the oven for 1 hour after switching off the heat – do not open the oven door! 3.5 Put the cake in the fridge overnight – it will become very gentle in the morning!) 3.6 Serve cold with a cup of cocoa and enjoy ! 🙂
The centuries will roll by, and schoolboys will yawn over the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a street lamp, in the cautious bend of stone steps that descend into the canal’s black waters, in the smiles of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.
Vladimir Nabokov, Selected Letters
Zapekanka ingredients (4 servings): – 500g cottage cheese – 2 eggs – 2 tbsp flour – 2 tbsp semolina – 2 tbsp sugar – 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar in the same teaspoon Cherry compote ingredients (4 servings): – 300g frozen cherries without stone – 1 tbsp cornstarch – 50-70ml water Serving ingredients (4 servings): – 200g sour cream – fresh mint leaves Method: 1 Zapekanka 1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C 1.2 Batter: combine cottage cheese, eggs, flour, semolina, sugar, baking soda and vinegar: mix well with a fork until smooth 1.3 Transfer batter to the buttered baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden at 190C 2 Cherry compote 2.1 Transfer in the skillet washed cherries, water and cornstarch: mix well and cook for 5-7 minutes at medium heat 3 Serve Zapekanka with warm cherry compote and cold sour cream ! Enjoy ! 🙂
The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats
Syrniki ingredients (2 servings or 10 small pancakes): – 500g cottage cheese – 1 egg – 4 tbsp flour for dough + 2 tbsp flour for forming – 1 tbsp semolina (to make them more gentle!) – 8g Vanilla sugar – 1/2 tbsp cane sugar (put 1-2 tbsp sugar if you like it sweet) – 30-40g dark chocolate – 1tbsp sunflower oil for frying
Serving ingredients: – 200g sour cream – fresh mint leaves Method: 1 Combine cottage cheese, egg, flour, semolina, Vanilla and cane sugar: mix until smooth and leave to rest for 10 minutes to let semolina increase in size 2 Prepare 2 tbsp flour on the plate: form in hands each pancake with 1 tbsp dough putting inside 1 piece of chocolate and rolling in the flour to form round shapes. 3 After all pancakes are formed, preheat a bit of sunflower oil in 2 skillets for 3-4 minutes 4 Fry pancakes 3-4 minutes each side at medium heat 5 Serve pancakes hot with sour cream, fresh mint leaves and a cup of black tea with a piece of lemon!
Notes: Syrniki are very popular in my hometown, I made them today with chocolate filling – it’s a delicious combination of gentle cottage-cheese taste with a bit of dark chocolate reminding me my childhood 🙂
There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston’s wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.
Jane Austen
Ingredients: – 150g flour – 140g cottage cheese – 75g butter – 2 eggs – 8g Vanilla sugar – 60g sugar (you can add more if you like it sweet!) – 1 dash of salt – 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2tsp vinegar – 6 large sour plums – 200g raspberries – 50g almond petals for decoration Method: 1 Preheat the oven to 180C 2 Wash plums and raspberries and let them dry 3 Bowl 1: whisk well sugar+Vanilla sugar+eggs+salt 4 Bowl 2: grate butter to the flour, then add cottage cheese: mix everything well 5 Combine content of Bowl1 and Bowl2: add in the same teaspoon soda and vinegar and mix everything well 6 Slice plums 7 Pour the batter into the baking form over the baking paper 8 Sprinkle plums stripes and raspberries over the batter 9 Bake the cake for 45 minutes at 180C, then sprinkle almond petals and bake another 10 minutes 10 Put the cake in the fridge overnight and enjoy the cake in the morning with a cup of black coffee and with the best friend 😉
…nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book…
Nikolai Gogol
Ingredients (for 12 cabbage rolls): – 1 pointed head cabbage (it is more tender for this recipe than white cabbage) – 4oog minced beef – 120g rice – 1 red onion – 250g mashed tomatoes (tomato passata) 🍅 – 1.5 tsp salt – 0.5 tsp black pepper – 200g sour cream for serving Directions: 1 Boil rice until ready 2 Carefully separate cabbage leaves and boil them for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a plate to cool down 3 Chop onion 4 Mix minced beef with boiled rice, chopped onion, salt and black pepper 5 Put 1-2 tbsp beef mixture on one cabbage leave and pack into a roll 🙂 6 Put cabbage rolls side to side in the saucepan and cover with water 1-2 cm above, then add mashed tomatoes: I cooked in 2 saucepans with 125g mashed tomatoes in each 7 Boil cabbage rolls for 30-35 minutes covered with a lid 8 Serve cabbage rolls with cooking broth, sour cream and chopped parsley!
Ingredients (4 servings): –250g rice – 400g chicken breast – 5 (~390g unpeeled) medium carrots – 2 small red onions – 3 tbsp sunflower oil – 1.5 tsp salt – 0.5 tsp black pepper – a few parsley sprigs for serving Method: 1 Wash rice and soak in water for 30 minutes 2 Grate carrots and chop onions 3 Wash chicken breasts and absorb extra water with paper towels 4 Cut chicken breast into 0.5-1 cm pieces and fry 5 Fry chicken pieces with sunflower oil for 10 minutes at medium heat 6 Add carrots, onion, salt, pepper to the chicken: stew for another 15 minutes 7 Preheat the oven to 200C 8 Drain water from the rice 9 Boil 1.5l water in the teapot 10 Put in the four ceramic pots (I have 0.5l pots): 10.1 Chicken with vegetables 10.2 Rice ~2-3 tbsp per pot 10.3 Pour boiled water in each ceramic pot to cover the rice ~1cm 11 Cook the Pilaf in the oven for 40 minutes with covered lids 12 Serve with chopped parsley and enjoy ! 🙂
Serving ingredients: – 150g sour cream – a few mint leaves
Directions: 1 Prepare berries compote: 1.1 wash and deseed berries add put to the pot 1.2 add water+sugar+starch 1.3 boil the berries mixture for 4 min. continuously stirring 1.4 put the pot aside and keep at room temperature 2 Boil poppy seeds with milk for 5 minutes: add milk little by little continuously stirring so that by the end all the milk is absorbed 🙂 3 Cook cottage cheese pancakes: 3.1 Combine cottage cheese+wheat flour+semolina+sugar+eggs+boiled poppy seeds: mix everything well until smooth 3.2 Put on a separate plate 3 tablespoon flour for forming the pancakes 3.3 Preheat non-sticking skillet, add some sunflower oil 3.4 Tricky part to make very gentle pancakes: take a little bit of batter (yes, it is viscous), form a round, roll it in flour and put on the skillet 🙂 3.5 Fry pancakes until golden each side ~3-4 minutes at the medium heat 4 Serve cottage cheese pancakes (or Syrniki) with berries compote and sour cream 5 Enjoy !
Ingredients (for 4 stuffed peppers): – 4 red bell peppers – 450g minced beef – 90g pearl barley – 7 small tomatoes 🍅 – 1/3 bunch dill – 1 small onion (to adda flavour to the broth!) – 1 teaspoon salt – 1/2 teaspoon black pepper – 100g sour cream for serving
Directions: 1 Pre-cook pearl barley: boil for 12 minutes, then drain extra water 2 Mix minced beef with chopped dill & pre-cooked pearl barley & salt and black pepper 3 Wash red bell peppers, carefully remove the top part and de-seed 4 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture 🙂 5 Wash and cut tomatoes into 1cm cubes, peel small onion: put cut tomatoes and an onion into a large pot 6 Carefully put the stuffed peppers to the same large pot with the tops from bell peppers One can put them either horizontally or vertically, the main point is to be able to cover them with the water afterwards. 7 Add to the pot water to cover all the peppers: cook at medium heat for 40 minutes, but evacuate the onion from the pot after 10 minutes of cooking 🙂 8 Serve with sour cream and half a soup ladle of broth !
‘There you are! It only needed a little more energy,’ said Karlson. ‘Now just put on the coffee, and set a nice little tray and get out a few little buns…’
Buns dough ingredients (for 9 large or 18 small buns): – 250ml milk – 450-500g wheat flour – 21g fresh yeast – 100g sugar – 1 egg – 80g butter – 1 pinch salt
Buns poppy seeds filling ingredients: – 150g poppy seeds – 60g sugar – 50-100ml milk for boiling poppy seeds – 1 egg yolk for beautifying Directions: 1 Prepare the dough: 1.1 Add crushed fresh yeast & 2 tablespoons sugar to warmed up milk to 30-35C: mix well until sugar and yeast are dissolved. Leave the mixture for 15 minutes 1.2 Melt butter, cool it down till 25-30C. Mix in the butter to the milk with yeast, then add 1 egg + 100g sugar + 1 pinch salt: whisk everything until smooth 1.3 Mix in flour in small amounts continuously stirring. Leave the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a cloth 1.4 Knead the dough with a stretch and fold technique for 7 minutes. Add some more flour if the dough is too sticky. Put the dough under the cloth for another 30 minutes 2 Prepare poppy seeds filling: 2.1 Boil poppy seeds for 5 minutes in milk and let them cool down 2.2 Join poppy seeds with 60g sugar and crumble them with a blender 3 Prepare the buns 3.1 Roll out the dough to 35x30cm rectangular. The dough height should be ~0.5cm 3.2 Distribute the poppy seeds filling on the rectangular and … fold the rectangular to the half along the long side 3.3 Cut the halved rectangular into ~1-3cm strips (thin strips for thin rings). Convolve each strip 5-7 times and join the edges to make a ring or snail or whatever your imagination is saying to you. Repeat for all strips 🙂 3.4 Put the rings on the baking paper to rest for 15 minutes under the cloth (make sure there is at least 3cm distance between them) and pre-heat the oven to 180C meanwhile 3.5 Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and put a little bit on each bun avoiding poppy seeds parts 3.6 Bake the buns for 30 minutes at 180C 4 Serve with milk or Kefir 🙂
OkroshkaIngredients (2 servings): – 400ml Kefir – 200ml water – 100g chicken breast meat – 4 baby potatoes – 2 small eggs – 150-200g cucumbers – 150-200g radish – 1/2 bunch dill – 1 teaspoon salt – 1 tablespoon sugar
Directions: 1 Boil chicken breast meat; let it cool down; dice the meat into 1cm cubes 2 Peel baby potatoes; cut into 1cm cubes; boil until ready; drain well and let them cool down 3 Boil 2 eggs, let them cool down, peel and dice into 0.5cm cubes 3 Chop dill 4 Cut radish and cucumber into strips 5 Mix in a large bowl cold (from the fridge) Kefir with water, salt, sugar, chopped dill 6 Add to the bowl eggs, radish, cucumbers, potatoes, chicken and carefully mix 7 Serve immediately !
Notes: traditionally Okroshka is served with Kvass, but it is tasty with Kefir as well
Method: 1 Cook pancakes with you favourite recipe! I like the following one: 1.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar 1.2 Pour Kefir in the whisked eggs 1.3 Gradually add wheat and buckwheat flour continuously mixing 1.4 Mix in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil 1.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil (no more oil will be needed!) 1.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake 1.7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side 1.8 Keep the cooked pancakes warm covered with a lid on a separate plate 2 Mix blue cheese sauce ingredients in bowl 🙂 3 Serve pancakes with smoked salmon slices & the blue cheese sauce & chopped green onions 4 Enjoy ! … and let the black coffee flavour enter you room and inspire you for great doings 😉
Beatifying ingredients: – 8 strawberries – 12 mint leaves
Method: 1 Sponge cakes: 1.1 Preheat the oven to 190C 1.2 Whisk the eggs + sugar + vanilla sugar for 2-3 minutes 1.3 Stir in flour and finely mix 1.4 Pour the batter into the buttered muffin forms: bake for 25 minutes at 190C 1.5 Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool down 1.6 Cut cooled down cakes into the upper and lower halves 2 Chocolate-strawberry icing: 2.1 Wash and slice the strawberries; wash 12 mint leaves 2.2 Melt chocolate + butter + 33% cream 2.3 Put each top cake half into the melted chocolate butter -> put on a separate plate 2.4 Decorate with strawberries&mint and put the cakes tops for 1 hour in the fridge 🙂 3 Filling cream: 3.1 Keep the butter at room temperature for 40 minutes 3.2 Whisk all the filling ingredients 3.3 Put the filling cream in the fridge for 30 minutes 3.4 Put the cream in between lower and top cakes halves, then join the halves 4 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight and & get prepared for a great coffee-break ! 😉
