Tag: sugar (Page 3 of 5)
Kefir Crepes
May 12th, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Kefir based crepes have more tender than milk based ones, but they are also harder to do.
Amount of flour to use will depend on thickness of the kefir you have (an that will vary based on brand), somewhere between 2 cups and 2 and half that is what I usually use. If you have choice – use more runny kefir.
There are couple of things you can do if crepes tear when you try to flip them: one of them is to add more flour – but that will not work good if kefir you are using is too thick, then you can put more eggs, and the last resort it to use smaller skillet – then flipping will be easier.
Eclairs with Vanilla Custard
March 17th, 2012 in Desserts by Julia Volhina
While preparing for this post I got some difficulties translating name as well as figuring origin of the recipe.
I guess the general decision was that the recipe is french, however I never ate eclairs prepared by french cook, so I can’t prove that this is exactly the same recipe.
This is recipe as eclairs are cooked in Russia, russian name of that pastry is “zavarnye pirozhennye” and it relates to the way the dough is cooked by boiling.
The common name in english speaking worlds seems to be eclairs, however this only related to long shaped pastry. Round ones are often called cream puffs, even though they are only different in shape.
I do fill these with vanilla custard, but other fillings can be used as well: whipped cream (these would need to be served as soon as made or cream needs to be stabilized), butter and condensed milk filling, and so on.
Vanilla Custard
March 10th, 2012 in Tips, Advices & How-to by Julia Volhina
I use vanilla custard to fill eclairs and cream puffs. It is easy to do (just don’t forget to stir) and tastes delicious!
This custard can also be spread thin dry layers of multi-layer cakes such as “Napoleon”.
Vanilla custard calls for egg yolks, so you can find these recipes which call for egg whites somewhat useful.
“Firewood on Snow” Cake
January 7th, 2012 in Desserts by Julia Volhina
This cake looked unusual even for me when I saw it first time: doesn’t it resemble a bunch of firewood covered with a snow to you?
This recipe is Yuriy’s mom speciality dessert and it often appears on the table during family celebrations. Yuriy’s mom preserves pitted sour cherries in their own juices under sugar each season, so there are always plenty of them ready for use.
If you don’t have sour cherries preserved in such way – you can always go with pitted cherry kompot like I did, but in this case add a bit of sugar to the dough, or cake will not be sweet enough.
I would want to tell you that this cake is easy and fast to do, but I can’t. It took me quite some time to make dough, prepare “firewood” sticks and then assemble the cake; but that is probably because I cooked it first time in my life.
After cake is assembled allow some time for layers to soak in sour cream frosting to get soft: leave it in cool place (but not fridge) at least over night (depending on how liquid sour cream is it may take longer). It is good idea to prepare cake at least a day before you are planning to serve it.
Semolina Porridge (Mannaya Kasha)
December 17th, 2011 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Mannaya Kasha is one of foods associated for russian people with their childhood. When I was little I was always told it is rich on nutrients and required for healthy kid growth – every kid knew that to grow strong and healthy they need to finish up their plate with semolina porridge.
Just as a note: while researching for proper translation for this recipe, I stumbled on information that semolina porridge isn’t recommended for kids younger than 3 years (which was new to me) as it contains high amount of gluten and also phytin. But because it also has a lot of proteins and high content of vitamins E and B1 it is very good for kids after 3 year old who have no gluten intolerance.
While cooking it is important to stir mannaya kasha all the time (I use whisk for this and it helps a lot), or you will get clots and no kid likes them in their mannaya kasha.
Kvass (Russian Fermented Rye Bread Drink)
December 3rd, 2011 in Beverages, Non-alcoholic by Julia Volhina
Kvass (kvas, quass) is probably a bit of unusual drink to this part of the globe.
Indeed, if you read ingredients list: dried rye bread, water, sugar and yeast – it probably will not strike you as something delicious. However this is one of soft drinks which is, according to Wikipedia, popular in Eastern Europe countries, especially Russia, since ancient times.
It is not hard to prepare kvass at home: you just need 2 big cooking pots, a funnel, cheese cloth, rye bread (which can be a bit of challenge to find) and about 3 days. Any type of rye bread will work.
I recently discovered good borodinsky bread in nearby european store, we liked it a lot and now buying pretty often. I dice the bread leftovers and heels and dry them for 10-15 mins in oven; that way I always have dried rye bread for the next patch of kvass ready to go when I need it (and I also don’t need to throw bread out).
Prepared kvass can be stored bottled in fridge; serve it as soft drink or use to prepare okroshka soup.
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.