Category: Tips, Advices & How-to (Page 3 of 4)
How to Make Unsweetened Yeast Dough
October 22nd, 2011 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Yeast dough is commonly used for baked pies and fried pies/dumplings (pirozhki/pyrizhky).
Slavic cuisine features pies with various sweet and savory stuffing, and they all are usually prepared with dough as simple as this one.
Dough for small pies doesn’t usually require time for rising, you can start assembling them as soon as dough is kneaded: when you are finished with last one – first is ready to to fry/bake.
For whole piece pies you may need to set dough aside for 20-30 mins before cooking to rise.
How to Skin Avocado
July 2nd, 2011 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Ripe avocado pulp is very soft and their skin is dense and resembles a shell. And it is very easy to scoop pulp from the skin with a spoon if you are going to prepare avocado guacamole-like dip, salad dressing or milk shakes (yep, I was surprised too!), where avocados are mashed and it doesn’t really matter how you extracted pulp.
However if you need avocado in whole pieces for salad or sandwich, you will need remove pulp from the skin without damaging it.
So here are instructions how to do this easily.
How to Make Dumpling Dough with Milk and Egg
May 14th, 2011 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
This recipe for dumpling dough uses milk, egg and a bit of oil. It suites good for fried dumplings, such as chebureki, for example (this recipe is coming up next saturday).
Another difference in this recipe is that milk is warmed up till boiling temperature when it is mixed with first batch of flour. This makes dough more elastic.
If you have a stand mixer with dough hook feel free to use it, otherwise you can also knead this dough by hands.
How to Make Homemade Egg Noodles
February 5th, 2011 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Homemade egg yolk noodles are not so hard to do as it may seem. Lapsha (in russian cuisine) or klusky (in ukrainian cuisine) are as easy to do as simple egg and flour dough.
It is also a good way to use leftover yolks if you needed egg whites for some other dish.
Boiled homemade egg noodles can be served as a side dish or added to meat or chicken broth or soup.
How to Blanch and Deseed Tomatoes
December 11th, 2010 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Blanching and deseeding tomatoes may seem like a hassle considering big choice of canned already blanched and deseeded tomatoes in a nearby grocery shop.
However, I think no canned tomatoes or tomato paste can compare with the fresh tomatoes blanched and deseeded right before cooking.
Blanched and sometimes also deseeded tomatoes are used to cook soups and stews, as well as to prepare tomato juice, tomato paste, various dips and sauces.
How to Prepare Dough for Dumplings
April 10th, 2010 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Usually to prepare dumplings you need just 3 things: dough, stuffing and inspiration.
Below you will find simplest recipe for dumplings dough: only water, salt, all purpose flour and some time for kneading are needed to prepare it. And because there is no egg included this dough tastes soft and tender.
As for stuffing it is all up to you, you may cook dumplings filled with one or multiple kinds of minced meat or fish (such as “pelmeni” or “manty”) or “varenyky” / “vareniki” or “pierogi” which are filled with sweet (various berries or fresh cheese with sugar) or savory (sautéed cabbage/ sauerkraut, potatoes, potatoes and mushrooms, potatoes and fresh cheese) stuffing.
And as for inspiration – I can’t really advice you anything here, but since you are reading this post and decided to cook dumplings, I believe you’ve already found yours.
How to Separate Egg White from Egg Yolk
November 7th, 2009 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
Some deserts, cakes, custards as well as some other dishes require using either egg whites or yolks or even both, but separately. So in order to prepare those you will need to separate egg white from egg yolk.
Of course there are some egg separating tools, but in case you don’t have one under your hands or if you just prefer to have some fun bouncing egg yolks, learn How to Separate Eggs into whites and yolks without using any kind of special tools from my step-by-step instructions with photos.