Category: Main Dishes (Page 21 of 29)
Ukrainian Sour Cherry Dumplings
August 27th, 2011 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
I didn’t believe my eyes when I saw sour cherries (pitted!) in the Andersons grocery store. It doesn’t happen that often to me here, in US. So I couldn’t simply leave that store without my portion of sour cherries…
Of course, we enjoyed them plain with a bit of sugar, and also made some cherries with whipped cream dessert, however most of sour cherries went to ukrainian sour cherry dumplings – “varenyky (vareniky) z vyshniamy”, and for this one we made plenty of pictures.
With mentioned amount of ingredients you will get about 50-60 dumplings. Most probably you will not need to cook all of them right away – so just freeze remaining potion of dumplings for later use (first put wooden board with dumplings to the fridge until dumplings are frozen, then move them to a ziploc bag and store frozen). Frozen dumplings can be boiled right before serving, just like you usually do it.
Minced Cutlets Stuffed with Mushrooms
August 6th, 2011 in Beef, Main Dishes by Julia Volhina
This is a tasty tweak to original minced beef cutlets recipe. The mince is prepared exactly the same way and mushrooms and onions stuffing gives ground meat juiciness and extraordinary taste.
A bit of agility is required to put stuffing inside of minced meat cutlets, but once you get it – it seems easy: meat is sticky, so if you get some holes, they can be easily patched by adding a layer of mince on top of the hole.
To prevent meat from sticking to hands – rinse hands with cold water from time to time while assembling minced cutlets.
Fried Pork Chops
July 23rd, 2011 in Main Dishes, Pork by Julia Volhina
This is probably the easiest way to cook pork chops – simply beat them up, dust with flour and fry until ready. Actually you can fry any kind of pork meat like this: pork loin slices, pork chops, cutlets, shoulder parts, etc.
For thicker meat cut increase cooking time: it is important to cook pork thoroughly, when cut with a knife it should produce clear juices, especially near the bone.
Lemon juice gives pork meat a nice sour kick in taste; garnishing with chopped greens looks pretty, but is absolutely optional.
Pork Roast with Garlic, Mayo and Spices
June 25th, 2011 in Main Dishes, Pork by Julia Volhina
Yet another pork roast – and it is spicy one. Slow cooking turns meat in this roast tender and juicy and it makes great dinner.
To save some time on preparation you can marinate meat in advance and then just put it to the oven 2-3 hours before it needs to hit the table.
Juices produced while meat was cooking make great addition when poured over the meat or its side dish of potatoes served with it.
String Beans Fried with Eggs
June 4th, 2011 in Main Dishes, No-meat, Sides by Julia Volhina
Yet another recipe for fried green string beans, now accompanied by scrambled eggs.
Any kind of string beans will work good for this one: green or yellow, thin or thick, whole or cut – just adjust boiling time so they are cooked enough but not too soft when done.
I don’t think there can be too much eggs used when cooking string beans. Even though there are only 2 on the picture and I ended up using 3, but actually think 4 would be even better, so just cook to your taste!
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki)
May 21st, 2011 in Lamb, Main Dishes by Julia Volhina
This is another recipe from my USSR-ian childhood. It takes a bit of time and inspiration to cook these from scratch, but it totally worth it.
Even though it is time consuming, with a bit of organization it can be a fun activity to do for whole family together.
I never been a big fan of lamb meat, but these dumplings taste the best made of it. However you can always substitute equal amount of beef and pork mix for lamb meat.
Parmesan Eggplants with Tomato Basil Sauce
May 7th, 2011 in Appetizers & Snacks, Main Dishes, No-meat, Sides by Julia Volhina
Eggplants fried in flour and egg coating are good on their own as a no-meat main course, appetizer or snack. But they can also be served as a side dish.
Tomato sauce with basil and garlic is a good addition to fried eggplants; it adds a bit of spiciness to plain taste of eggplants.
And parmesan goes great with that combination too.