Pelmeni are traditional Russian dumplings stuffed with seasoned minced meat. Pelmeni can served boiled with broth or fried. This delicious meal comes from the Ural region (mountains separating the European part of the country from Siberia and the East). In the language of Komi people who live there “pelmeni” means “ear bread”.
This is a very popular meal and packages of frozen pelmeni can be found in every store in Russia. But making them from the scratch is still a tradition especially due to the fact that the result will surpass supermarkets equivalents.
The process of making Pelmeni will take some time but it is totally worth it- firstly, it can be a fun activity for your family or friends (or even yourself with the right attitude) and secondly and most importantly – you can freeze Pelmeni and keep them for many quick, easy and tasty meals to come.The secrets to delicious pelmeni with juicy stuffing:
meat: It should be high quality and a combination of beef and fatty pork. The fat in pork will account for the juiciness. Ideally you mince the meat yourself or specify what you need to your butcher. As an alternative you can grate some lard into the minced meat.
generously salting the meat, lack of salt will make the meal bland
adding some water to the minced meat
onions
mix the minced meat really well
How to boil pelmeni:
1.Take pelmeni out of the freezer and give them a quick wash under running water to wash away the excess flour.
2. Boil in salted water with a bay leaf and peppercorns on medium or medium low heat. After pelmeni come to the surface boil for another 5 minutes.
To check if pelmeni are cooked take one out and break with a spoon. The dough should be soft and the meat should not be pink.
How to serve boiled pelmeni.
Serve with smetana Or a piece of butter. With or without broth. You can also add chopped dill.
Semolina groat is a flour-like product made from wheat during the milling process. It has small white grains and it is used to make porridges or sweet dishes.
This product is very popular in Russia and semolina porridge is often given to children for their breakfast. It goes great with a piece of butter and jam or fresh berries for example blueberries, raspberries or strawberries. All you need to do is to boil it with milk, adding some sugar and a pinch of salt, and mixing throughout the cooking process to prevent lumps as it gets thicker. Serve your semolina porridge with a piece of butter and jam or berries of your choice. You can also check our more detail recipe of Semolina porridge.
It is often used in baking – for cakes or to powder baking forms. Semolina can also be used instead of breadcrumbs- mix some semolina with salt and seasoning and dredge a piece of meat or fish the way you do it with the breadcrumbs. You will get a juicy meal with a crunchy crust.
Zapekanka is a Russian breakfast recipe. Children and their parents love this baked cottage cheese treat for taste, texture and nutritional goodness. Delicious and rich in proteins, this tvorog treat is a great start of a day, or can be a perfect brunch snack. The recipe is quite straightforward – cottage cheese (tvorog) mixed with eggs and some sugar and baked in oven. You can add sliced fruits or berries into Zapekanka. Zapekanka is usually served cold.
Chicken Kiev (Rus. Котлета по-киевски, lit. ‘Kiev-style cutlet’) is an extravagant dish which is worth the efforts as it will be a pleasure both to the eye and mouth. It is a chicken breast wrapped around garlic and parsley butter, and then breaded or either baked or fried. When you cut through the hot meal, the melted butter with herbs will elegantly leak out adding a chic to the look of the meal.
Despite its name, it is not a Ukrainian but a Russian dish – a Russian culinary historian William Pokhlyobkin tracked the origin of the recipe back to the early 20th century where it appeared in the Moscow Merchants’ Club and later was given its present name – ‘Kiev-style cutlet – by a Soviet restaurant.
In the original recipe, the cutlet is wrapped around the wing bone which then sticks out like a handle. It must be noted though that this extra twist requires a lot of expertise and skills in cutting the meat so it’s more fun watching the professional chefs do it than trying to reproduce the technique on your own. In everyday life you can go with just a normal boneless chicken breast – at the end of the day that bone is just a show-off.
Yum
The amazing Oliver salad is known worldwide, and in some languages it is simply called the Russian salad. Although the recipe is very simplistic – boiled diced vegetables and meat dressed with mayonnaise – the outcome is so delicious that in Russia it has become pop-culture and a must-have on a New Year table.
The original recipe of Olivier salad was far more sophisticated and was created by a Belgian chef Olivier Lucien who used to work in The Hermitage – one of Moscow’s most celebrated restaurants in 1860s.
Many people, including the chef’s personnel, tried to recreate the secret recipe formula but up to this day it remains a mystery wrapped in enigma. It is only known for sure that the ingredients were very exquisite and posh, and contained grouse, veal tongue, caviar, lettuce, crayfish tails, capers, and smoked duck. Not bad, huh? The original dressing was specially prepared mayonnaise with unknown proportions of French wine vinegar, mustard, and Provençal olive oil and some special sauce exported from England similar to Worcester sauce.
In the mainstream cuisine the rare and expensive ingredients were substituted with more readily available ones: grouse with bologna sausage, crayfish tails with boiled eggs, capers with pickled cucumbers and so on. You would think, oh, what sort of a recipe is that, when everything is substituted with something else. But hold your skepticism until you try this salad: the salad is so tasty that it became a pop culture hit in Russia!
Insalata russa – Russian Olivier salad in Italy
We give you 2 recipes – the first one is the classic and modern one, and the second recipe is a pretentious attempt to get as close to the original secret formula as possible.
Boil potatoes and carrots. Cool down and skin. Boil and peel eggs.
Dice potatoes, carrots, eggs, pickled cucumbers and bologna sausage into cubes of the same size.
Add sweet peas and mayonnaise. Mix well.
Serve cold.
*Later on in this recipe bologna started to be substituted with boiled meat, and pickled cucumbers with fresh ones beacause people could afford this products in winter. But the basic and cheaper Soviet version still remains just as popular.
Olivier salad “A la original”
Ingredients
1/2 grouse fillet (or veal, quail or chicken)
3 potatoes
1 cucumber
3 leaves lettuce
mayonnaise to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 teaspoon capers
3-5 olives
Method
Boil, cool down and skin potatoes. Fry the grouse.
Dice potatoes, cucumbers and grouse into cubes of the same size. Put into a bowl.
Add capers and olives, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce.
Mix well. Add salt and pepper if needed. Decorate with lettuce leaves.
Serve cold.
Rus: Olivier on any usual day is just so salad, Oliver at New Year’s night is the food of gods! (Think of UK roast dinner for Christmas, when usual Sunday food gets a sacramental flare 🙂 )
