Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Salmon Roasted under a Grainy Dijon, Soy Sauce and Mayo Glaze

This recipe is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Everybody raves about it. Even my most picky gourmet friends find it amazing, despite the use of such an unpopular ingredient among foodies as mayonnaise. I learned this recipe many years ago from my mom-in-law and since then it was one of my favorite salmon preparations.

Tomato Bisque with Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

Despite being a huge fan of soups in general, I've always felt indifferent toward cream soups. Mostly because of their quite monotonous, smoothie-like texture with nothing to chew on.

Amazing Chicken and Broccoli Patties

Despite not so glamorous appearance, these patties have one significant merit: they are very delicious. Anyone who tried them thought they were amazing. There is something very pleasing in the combination of tender chicken meat with a bitter- sweet broccoli, sharp garlic and earthy fenugreek - all chopped, mixed together and fried like pancakes. Which means quite easy to make since you skip the whole "forming the patties" step.

Rich and Airy Chocolate Mousse

This mousse is everybody's favorite. It's so light and fluffy and creamy and velvety and melting in your mouth and so deliciously chocolaty, it will make you go 'wow' and squint your eyes until the last bite.

Hearty Kale and Bean Soup with Italian Sausage

This simple soup turned out a great hit at our recent Society lunch. I've never heard so many ravings about a soup before, and being a devoted soup lover myself I'm happy to share the recipe.

To my taste, kale and beans are a perfect match. Red kale and fava beans in puff pastry turnovers. Sautéed green kale and garbanzo beans as a side for grilled sardines. This time it is green kale and cannellini beans in a soup with mildly spicy Italian sausage.

Golubtsy or Meat and Rice Stuffed Cabbage rolls

Golubtsy (gah-loob-tsEE) are stuffed cabbage leaves. Large, flat and tender cabbage leaves make a perfect natural wrap. In Russian, they are usually stuffed with ground meat/poultry/fish and grains like rice or millet and then braised in a sauce.  

I’ll give you my favorite recipe of meat and rice golubtsy, cooked in tomato and cream sauce with onions and carrots. This is one of my favorite winter time comfort foods. A bit time and effort consuming – no lying here! – but so tremendously delicious!

Nokedli or Spaetzle, Super Simple Homemade Pasta

Nokedli (Hungarian) or Spaetzle (German) is a free-form pasta made from a thick batter that is grated into boiling water through a special nokedli/spaetzle maker or pressed through a colander.

Lazy Dolma: Ground Lamb and Vegetable Stew

This fragrant and hearty lamb and vegetable stew is truly delicious and liked even by those who swears that they wouldn't eat eggplants or lamb to save their lives.

Beans in Tomato Sauce wit Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

These beans seemed to be quite popular at our last Society lunch. I myself happen to be a big fan of this Greek inspired dish. I make it using either cannellini or garbanzo beans, though the Greeks, I believe, would take large white beans called Gigandes, which are, unfortunately, are not available in our stores yet.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Thai Style Pickled Cucumbers

My friend Amanda calls these pickles amazeballs. And I completely agree: these super easy to make pickles are truly delish. Like most Asian style pickles they are significantly sweeter than local, but the addition of spicy Thai peppers to the marinade perfectly balances out this sweetness.

Better than Butter

 

If you’ve ever frozen leftover raw eggs, you should have noticed that while egg whites, when defrosted, are just like fresh, yolks completely change their texture. They lose their fluidity and become gelatinous and semi-solid. When thawed completely, they keep their round shape and can be sliced with a butter knife and spread on a toast just like butter. For me, it’s even better than butter.

Russian Style Wild Mushroom Gratin, aka 'Julienne'

Mushroom julienne is a dish made with sautéed mushrooms (preferably, wild) combined with sour cream or béchamel sauce and baked in small individual ramekins or cocottes under a cheese crust. It's one of those treats, eating of which is always accompanied by joyful moaning and multiple "OMG" exclamations. No exaggeration here!

Julienne is quite rich, so a small serving is enough to enjoy it. It’s served as a hot appetizer and I prefer to eat it with a teaspoon.

Blini, Russian Crepes

Blini are Russian crepes. They can be made with yeast or plain batter, with regular wheat flour or its combination with other flours, like buckwheat, rye etc. My all-time favorite is small, very thin blini made from a simple non-yeast batter based on all purpose flour and milk.  

These blini go equally well with savory and sweet toppings. Most of all I love them topped with salmon caviar. Paired with a shot of ice cold vodka or hot, sweetened black tea – mmmmm…. Ilya loves them with homemade lox with onions and fresh dill. For dessert, my choice would be to top them with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with white cane sugar just like I used to do it when I was a kid.

Half Sour Pickles

So called “half sour pickles” are little cucumbers that have spent no more than 2-3 days in brining solution. Because of the short brining time the cucumbers don’t get completely pickled, though don’t taste raw anymore either. Half sour pickles are the best of the two worlds - they retain perfect fresh crunch, sweetness and, sometimes, natural green color too, while acquiring light pickled taste and saltiness.  They are a perfect chaser for a shot of ice cold vodka!

Homemade Lox or Salt-n-Sugar Cured Salmon

Homemade lox is Ilya’s favorite snack. A piece of dark bread and several slices of the salmon and he is happy as a clam. For a weekend lunch, I cut croissants in half, spread some light whipped cream cheese on them (chèvre works great too!), top with thin avocado slices, some capers and, finally, with the lox. You  can eat the sandwich as is, open faced, or bring the halves together to form a tall closed one.

For a party, the cured salmon goes well with small rye toasts and sides of horseradish and sour cream or crème fraiche.

The good news about homemade lox is that it's surprisingly easy to make. It takes less than two days to cure it and almost zero effort. You can take any kind of wild salmon: king, sockeye, silver, whichever is available in a store.