Russian Borscht - The Red Soup

I still do not understand why Americans do not eat more beets.  Yes, they are a strange color, but they are delicious and very nutritious.  I love that my husband along with dinner guests do not mind trying new things, because this soup will not disappoint.  Give it a shot! This could also serve as a nice light dinner meal, served with some dark bread!

Traditional Russian Borscht
Total cook time: about 1 1/2 hours (mostly cooking meat for broth)

beef chunks 1/2 lb (can sub chicken)
6 cups water
bay leaves
salt
whole peppercorns
1 long carrot
3-4 potatoes
1/4 head of medium cabbage
1 large or 2 small raw beets
1/2 onion
olive oil for frying
1 tbsp tomato paste
dill
1 tsp cumin
1/2 lemon
sugar, by taste
1 clove garlic
sour cream, for serving

Boil beef and next 4 ingredients about 45 min until your meat is cooked through and you have a nice broth.  You may need to add more water (judge based on how much soup you want - maybe 1 or 2 cups).  Pull the meat out and shred or chop into bite size pieces.  Add back into the pot.  Peel potatoes and cut into halves.  Traditionally, I like to throw these large halves in to boil, and then split them with a fork before serving, but it's really up to you.  You can cut the potatoes into small chunks if desired.  When the broth is ready, add in the potatoes.  If you are adding the larger halves of potatoes then these will need about 15 min or so before you add the other ingredients.  The beet and cabbage only takes about 7-10 min to cook so plan accordingly.

Separately chop or shred on a large grater the carrot and chop onion.  Sautee onion and carrot with olive oil in a pan on medium heat until carrots are nearly tender.  Add the tomato paste and a ladle of broth from the soup and stir together.

When the potatoes are nearly done, add in the carrot mixture to the soup.  Chop the cabbage into narrow strips and grate the raw beet on the large grater edge.  Add both to soup.  Your soup should now be pretty thick.  Let everything boil for about 5 more minutes until everything is tender.

Add in your seasonings - 1 minced clove of garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, lemon juice, and sugar to taste.  The sugar is important because it will counter the acidity of the tomato paste and lemon juice.  Turn off heat and add dill.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream!  Let me know how it goes.

Swedish-ish Berry Tart

I only learned 2 words when we were in Sweden this summer: smor and hallonpaj.  That means butter and raspberry pie.  The pastries in Europe are to die for, and as soon as we got back I knew I needed to recreate this in my kitchen.  Finding a recipe was not easy but I found it and of course made a few adjustments to make it even more awesome! (Like doubling the amount of fruit)

Original recipe from: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/raspberry_walnut_tart/

Crust:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsp) - cut into tbsp's

Mix crust ingredients with a food processor to a crumb texture.

Filling:
2 eggs
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
20 oz raspberries and other berries (half fresh, half frozen, or a mixture)

Line a 9-10 in. in diameter tart pan with foil.  Press crust crumbs into the bottom and up the edges a little.  Bake at 350 for 25 min.  Mix the filling ingredients except for the raspberries.  Take out of oven and spread the raspberries out evenly on the crust.   Pour the filling mixture evenly throughout.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until set in the middle.

Enjoy! Let me know if you like this recipe as much as I do.

Russian Meat Stuffed Blinchiki

Blinchiki... Blini are Russian "pancakes" that really resemble French crepes.  Blinchiki are the same thing but they sound cuter.  I like the Russian language's ability to make words sound "cuter" or "harsher" depending on your mood.  There are at least 4 ways to just say my name, depending on your relation to me and how  you feel about me.

Anyway, these blini are stuffed with beef and rice and served with sour cream.  They are definitely a favorite in our house.  They take less than an hour to make, so great for a weeknight meal.

For the blini, I found this recipe blog post that is pretty close to the one I make.  Though I like mine really thin: http://www.russianbites.com/blini-russian-crepes.

For the filling: 

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 cup uncooked rice
1/2 onion
garlic
salt/pepper to taste

Cook rice according to standard instructions with salted water.  Chop onion finely and add in a few cloves of crushed garlic - saute in olive oil on medium heat until translucent.  Add in beef and brown, adding salt and pepper to taste.  Drain any excess oil.  Add in cooked rice and mix together with beef mixture.

Once blini are ready, add in about 2-3 tbsp of the mixture into the middle of the crepe, and fold like an envelope.  Same as a burrito! (original link here).  Then fry with a little bit of olive oil, seam side down for a few minute until browned and crispy.  Flip carefully and fry a few minutes more.  Repeat with remaining blini.  

Carrot Cup/Cake

Apart from the frosting, what you really need to nail in Carrot Cake is the moisture level.  The worst thing you could get is a dry piece of cake.  Luckily, I have a recipe that will knock your socks off on both of those levels!  References upon request.

Carrot Cake: (shown here in "cup" form)

- 2 cups flour

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 3 eggs

- 2 cups sugar

- 3/4 cup veggie oil

- 3/4 cup buttermilk

- splash vanilla

- 2 cups grated carrots

- 8 oz canned crushed pineapple, drained

- 3 1/2 oz flaked coconut

- 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9 inch cake pans - I always add in a bottom of parchment paper for this recipe. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Set aside.  In a medium size bowl beat eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Whisk in flour mixture into egg mixture.  Fold in grated carrot, pineapple, and coconut.  Be sure to squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the canned pineapple.  Also, I usually don't put in the pecans - it feels more like fruit cake to me.   Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

- 1 package cream cheese, room temperature

- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened

- about 1/2 cup powdered sugar - but really to taste

- vanilla

- 2 cups heavy cream

Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla.  Taste test for sugar.  I don't like super sweet frosting, so I usually put in less than a recipe calls for.

In a separate bowl beat heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Carefully fold in whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.  Tada!

Enjoy!

Ratatouille - it's worth the extra effort, people

This past week really started to feel like spring.  Thus my brain decided that it really needed some vegetables for dinner.  I've tried to make Ratatouille before but the flavors really didn't combine well.  The standard crushed tomatoes I added didn't quite make the cut.  Shout out to my cube neighbor/recipe guru Kat for the base of this one.  I adapted it a little for my own preferences.

Ratatouille:

For Base Sauce:
- 1/2 red bell pepper, cleaned
- 1/2 orange bell pepper, cleaned
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper, cleaned

Roast peppers cut side down at 450 for about 15 minutes.

In a sauce pan saute:
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 white onion, chopped,
- 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 3 medium size tomatoes, chopped
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- salt to taste
Saute while peppers are roasting.  Tomatoes should be breaking down into a sauce.  Add in roughly chopped peppers once ready.  Saute until tomatoes have reduced into a sauce - about 15 minutes.  I like this sauce relatively smooth, so I pulsed the mixture in my food processor for a minute to chop the peppers, leftover tomato chunks, etc.  Spread the mixture on the bottom of a baking dish - I used a 9 x 13 ceramic and it was full.

Cut into 1/16 inch circles:
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 medium yellow squash
- 1 medium eggplant
- 3-4 roma tomatoes
- salt - LIBERALLY - because these veggies take in a lot of salt

Alternate slices in the dish on top of the sauce.  Over the entire dish sprinkle the following mixture:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 3 cloves crushed garlic
- salt
- pepper

Top with sprigs of fresh thyme.
Cover with foil and bake in 400 oven for about 1 hour.  Check the tenderness with a fork.  If liquid remains, take off the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

I topped the whole thing off with some grated Parmesan.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

This is my go to recipe not only for apple cinnamon pancakes, but for the plain cakes in general.  I got it from a work breakfast about 4 years ago from an unexpected source.  It's seriously a staple in my recipe book.  I can't even explain how delicious these are.  Simple and delicious.  Try them out for yourself!

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tbsp butter - melted
1 apple - peeled, cored, chopped

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  In a separate bowl mix together milk and egg.  Melt butter.
When the skillet is ready, add the milk to the flour mixture and stir briefly until just combined.  Add in butter and apple and mix.  Do not overmix.  Serve with butter and your favorite syrup!

Mushroom and Chicken Saucy Goodness - in under an hour

Had a stroke of brilliance last night.  I had a vague idea of what to make, but even I didn't expect it to come together so nicely.  It turned out to be this deliciously moist chicken breast in a creamy mushroom sauce, served over some fluffy mashed potatoes.  I was definitely patting myself on the head, especially, when I saw that it took just a few minutes over an hour to make altogether.

Chicken in a Mushroom Sauce

4-5 chicken breasts
flour to coat
salt pepper
olive oil
1/2 onion
8-12 oz baby bella mushrooms (depending on preference)
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth + a few tbsp
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cloves garlic
parsley

Cut chicken breasts in half, salt and pepper, and coat in flour.
Place and sautee on hot skillet with olive oil until golden brown and cooked inside, about 15 min.

In another skillet, sautee chopped onion and mushrooms until tender.  Transfer to a bowl.
Melt butter and whisk in flour in hot skillet.  Continue whisking until blended and the flour mixture bubbles.  Keep whisking the bubbles for about 2-3 minutes.  Add the chicken broth and whisk.  Keep whisking until thickened.  There's a pattern here...whisk.  Add in mushrooms and onions and heavy cream.  Add chicken and chopped garlic to the sauce.  Cover with lid and let simmer on LOW for about 15 min.  If the sauce is too thick, add more chicken broth and bring back to simmer.

Serve with parsley, over mashed potatoes or rice.  Rejoice!