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.

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.  

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.

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!

Flavorful Beef Stew

I recently started getting the Cooking Light Magazine - it's actually the first copy that came to my house and so far I love it.  One of the first recipes I pulled from it is the "Beef Marsala Stew" in the slow cooker.  Here are my modifications.  Serve over fluffy mashed potatoes - hint, warm up the milk and use a whisk while the butter is melting in your potatoes..mmm

olive oil
2 lbs beef chuck
salt

1 1/2 medium white onions
3 garlic cloves
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup beef broth
black pepper
fresh thyme
8 oz baby bella mushrooms
4 large carrots
1/2 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp flour

Saute the beef with olive oil, salt, and pepper (about 1 tsp salt) until browned but not cooked all the way through.  Place into crockpot.  In the empty skillet, quickly saute roughly chopped onions.  Add to crockpot.  Add tomato paste and 1/2 cup water.  Whisk until incorporated; add in broth and bring to simmer.  Carefully pour over beef/onions in pot.  Chop carrots into 1 inch pieces, add to pot.  Put whole small mushrooms or sliced in half large ones on top.  Sprinkle in a little more salt and pepper and add in paprika and bay leaves.  Nestle fresh thyme (3-4 small springs) into the liquid.

Cook on Low for about 7 hours, stirring once in a while.

Once cooked, take most of the liquid from the pot and pour into a skillet.  Add in 2 tbsp flour and whisk into the liquid.  Bring to simmer and return to the pot.  Keep on low until the liquid is simmering once again.

Serve with fresh bread, mashed potatoes, and a veggie.  Enjoy!

Adapted from Cooking Light Beef Marsala Stew.

Pizza Pizza!

We love making pizza at home.  With the right ingredients, it turns out 1000 times better than delivery.
We do use a pizza stone and paddle.  It just makes the crust that much better.  I highly recommend getting one.  Just place it in the oven while it is preheating so it's nice and hot when you put your pizza on it.

Here's the tried and true method:

Crust:

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water

Mix and let bubble for 5 min.  Then add:

1 tsp salt
2 1/2 + cups flour
2 tbsp olive oil

Mix in a kitchenaid for about 7 min until the dough is in a ball not sticking to the bowl.
This recipe usually yields us 3 personal pizzas.  One for each, and one for lunch for my husband at work.

Favorite toppings (in this order)"
Trader Joe's pizza sauce (it's the best, don't buy anything else)
Spinach
Red Onion
Bell pepper
Thinly sliced tomato
Salt and pepper slightly on veggies
Prosciutto (also from Trader Joe's)
Fresh basil ($2.99 for a huge package at Trader Joe's)
Fresh mozzarella
Pizza mix cheese (just to top off any spots without mozzarella)

Bake on preheated stone at 450* for 15 minutes or until the middle cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.

If you do the math, I probably spend about $15-20 on the ingredients and I usually make the dough twice for a total of 6 pizzas - $3 per pizza? You can't get that with delivery.

Enjoy!

Greek Steak Gyros - Shaking Things Up

Ever just get bored of the same meals that you rotate through?  This definitely happened to me a few weeks ago so I went on a quest to find fresh new recipes.  This gyro is a great dinner idea if you are looking for something fresh, veggie filled, and delicious!

The special ingredient here is the Tzatziki:

1/2 cup of grated cucumber
1 cup of plain greek yogurt
about 4 tbsp fresh dill
1 clove garlic
salt to taste

My gyro comprised of grilled steak, onions, and bell pepper, spring mix, tomato, tzatziki, and feta.  Try it out!