Tour of Europe: Russia's meal!

This week’s meal was from Russia.  I wanted to find some traditional Russia-specific recipes rather than to prepare a meal from one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics.  When I searched for “Russian” cuisine, a lot of the recipes I found are attributed to Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, or one of the many “istan” locations.  In the future, we may move on to Asia, when I will include the former SSRs.

I also discovered that in the late 18th century, French chefs were invited to cook for the nobility of Russia, which is where dishes such as Chicken Kiev and Beef Stroganoff originated, so not very Russian indeed.  I finally found a recipe for Rassolnik, a (strange and) classic soup made with barley, beef, potatoes, carrots, and pickles; meaning the dill pickles in a jar. It’s hearty and the beef is tender and satisfying. Rassolnik has existed for more than 500 years and is definitely a comfort food to many Russians.

To accompany the soup, I made small blini that were topped with sour cream, smoked salmon and a tiny dill sprig.  Even if they are traditionally topped with caviar, we opted not to go that route. 

For dessert I found a recipe for a dessert that sounds rather interesting:  “Sharlotka would sound like it relates to a dessert Charlotte, but Charlottes, with their mousse-like, Lady Fingers-decked grandiosity, have little in common aside from the course in which it is served. It can be referred to as a cake (but it contains no milk, no butter), a Russian pie (but it has no crusts) and/or a pancake (but it’s not very cakey). It’s almost like a clafoutis, but no, that’s not right either, with no cream or milk and a proportion of fruit to batter that is nothing short of staggering. It contains no butter, save that which you need to grease the pan. Although it has sugar, it’s not very sweet. Although it contains flour, it’s not a whole lot for the size of the pan. Although it has eggs, it’s not very rich. Really, the whole structure comes from apples. You fill the cake pan nearly to the brim with peeled and chopped apples and you pour the batter over then smooth it to encourage it to seep down. It fills the spaces between the apples and makes a torte of what was a pile, and then you bake it until it’s done.”

Menu:  Rassolnik (Beef, Barley and Pickle soup), Blini with smoked salmon, Apple Sharlotka

Outcome:  We were in doubt of the soup – who sautés dill pickles and adds them to soup?!  But oh, my goodness, this was just downright good.  The beef was very tender and amazingly, the dill pickles added just a bit of tartness and zing!  Without them, the soup would have been on the boring side.  It was really, really tasty and we all liked the addition of the barley, which looks like large oats.  I found a box of it in Walmart, rice aisle, top shelf, made by Quaker oats.  Trivia:  Russia is the world’s largest producer of barley! 
The blini came out pretty well, after a couple of trial runs.  The batter was so very thin that would have been perfect to make large, skillet-sized foldable blini.  However, since I was wanting for these to be silver dollar size, I needed to add more flour so they could be a little thicker.  The Sharlotka came out very nicely, and we all agreed that we want to make it the next time the kids come, but with some of the peaches that we picked last summer!   

Rassolnik

Next up:  Brandi chose Albania! 

Rassolnik (Beef, Barley and Pickle Soup)

Prep Time: 10 mins Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 12 cups water
• 1 lb lean beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
• ¼ cup barley, rinsed
• ½ Tbsp. salt, more to taste
• 3 medium potatoes, diced
• 2 carrots, 1 thinly sliced and 1 grated
• 3-6 dill pickles (about 1 ½ cups diced)
• Olive oil for sautéing
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 celery ribs, finely sliced
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp. fresh dill
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ tsp pepper 

Directions

1. In a large pot, cook 12 cups water, beef and barley with ½ Tbsp. salt for 30 minutes partially covering with the lid. Skim off any impurities that rise to the top to keep your soup clear.
2. In a skillet, sauté pickles with 1 Tbsp. oil for a few minutes on medium/high heat. Add sautéed pickles with the potatoes and carrots to the soup pot and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

   

   My first time sauteeing pickles...sure did smell good!

3. Add 3 Tbsp. olive oil to the skillet and sauté onion until softened, then add grated carrot and sliced celery and continue to sauté until carrots are soft. Stir tomato paste into the pan and add this mixture to the soup pot.

   

   Carrots, onions, celery, tomato paste

4. Add 2 bay leaves, ½ tsp black pepper, 2 Tbsp. dill and more salt to taste. Continue to simmer for another few minutes or until the potatoes are fully cooked and can be easily pierced with a fork.
5. Some people eat it with a dollop of sour cream.

Blini

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. white sugar
• 1/3 tsp salt
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ cups milk
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp. butter

 Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt. Sift the flour into the bowl, and stir in along with the milk. Mix until smooth and well blended. The batter should be thin.
2. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Lightly oil the pan or spray with cooking spray. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter, or as much as desired, into the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter out evenly. When the edges are crisp looking and the center appears dry, slide a spatula carefully under the blini. Flip, and cook for about 1 minute on the other side, or until lightly browned.
3. Remove blini to a plate. Put a little butter on top, and continue to stack the blini on top of each other.
4. To serve, spread with desired filling (jam, chocolate, mashed potatoes, etc.) then fold in half, and in half again to form a triangle.  An alternate way to serve these is to make them made smaller (2”) and topped with smoked salmon or caviar with sour cream and a dill sprig.   

   

   Blini with smoked salmon, sour cream, dill

   
   

Apple Sharlotka

  

Ingredients

• Butter or nonstick spray, for greasing pan
• 6 large, tart apples, such as Granny Smiths
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Cinnamon and powdered sugar for garnishing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper and the sides of the pan. Peel, halve and core the apples, then chop them into medium-sized chunks. Pile the cut apples directly in the prepared pan.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat eggs with sugar until thick and ribbons form on the surface of the beaten eggs. Beat in vanilla, then stir in flour with a spoon until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
3. Pour over apples in pan, using a spoon or spatula to spread the batter and press it down into the apple pile so that it covers all exposed apples. (The top of the batter should end up level with the top of the apples.)

   

   so many apples!

4. Bake in preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes on rack, then flip out onto another rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip it back onto a serving platter. Dust lightly with ground cinnamon.
5. Serve warm or cooled, dusted with powdered sugar.

   

   Sharlotka ... did I take a bite before I took the picture???