Cooking Russian Food

What are you planning to cook at your next dinner party?  Why not step outside your comfort zone and try out something new and exciting.  International cuisine is great way to show off your cooking talents and today we are going to talk about some hot and cold Russian dishes that anyone can prepare.

Russian Blini – Hot Pancakes

The French might have invented the crepe but it does not mean other countries don’t have their own version they think is better.  Russia is no different and they have the Blini:

To make Blini you will need:

½ cup plain flour (sifted)

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (optional if you want a lighter mixture)

Start by whisking the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and salt.  Combine with the flower and stir in the milk (if mixing by hand add the milk in slowly to avoid lumps).  Mix by hand or with a food processor to a smooth consistency.   Your batter should be fairly runny at this stage.

Optional – Add the baking soda to make the mixture more light (porous).  For the best result, cover your mixing bowl and leave your batter in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.  Take the batter out of fridge when you are ready to cook.  If the mixture is too thick, add water or milk.  If the mixture is too thin, add in flour. 

Start cooking the pancakes by warming a non-stick pan over a medium heat.  Coat the pan with a light cooking oil or butter (though butter does give a better tasting pancake, it just depends on how fattening you want them to be).  Pour a couple of table spoons of the mixture onto the pan and spreak the mixture out evenly into small pancakes.  Traditional blini are thin but this is personal preference.  You should be able to fit 3 or 4 on a standard frying pan to make the process go faster.  When bubbles appear in the center or it starts to look dry, flip it over to cook the other side.

Take your finished blini, butter one side and stack them on a warm plate while you cook the rest of the batch.  Serve them by putting jam in the center and folding them.  Fold them again to make a triangle.  They are best enjoyed with hot black tea with lemon.

Russian Salads

If you are use to salads of tossed lettuce, fresh vine ripened tomatoes and a light vinaigrette,  then you are in for a bit of a shock with Russian salads.  Russia is a cold country, so hardy root vegetables tend to feature on the dinner table that delicate spring salads.

This gives us a traditional Russian salad – a salad with some bite.  The salad we will cook for you today is the Dressed Herring Under Fur Salad.  If you are use to a delicate vinaigrette, then this salad will put hairs on your chest.

To make this salad you will need:

2 herring (salted)

5 potatoes

4 carrots

4 beets

5 eggs

1 lb mayonnaise

The Process:

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the potatoes, carrots and beets.  Boil until just soft and then drain.

Skin the herring and remove any bones.  Cut the fish into small bite size pieces.  Take your serving platter and layer the herring on the bottom.  Cover with a thin layer of mayonnaise.

Take the potatoes and mash.  Spread the potato as the second layer and cover with mayonaise.  Repeat the process for the beets and 3 of the eggs.  Top the dish with the remaining egg and put in the fridge (covered) for one hour before serving.

What else can you cook that is Russian?  Why not try some a href=”http://www.hotrussian.net/russian-food-borsch.html”>Borsch as well?