Buckwheat braised with turkey
Russian dietary meal recipe with healthy buckwheat that preserves all its nutrients and vitamins due to cooking technique.
Yum
Author Archive
Lavash rolls with smoked salmon
This extremely easy and quick zakuska – finger food – is a modern Russian recipe. It will take only several minutes to prepar e and can be a great bite to eat. You will need thin flatbread lavash that is usually available in Russian or Turkish shops. In the USA lavash should be also available in Walmart stores.
Enjoy!
• If you prepare the snack in advance you can wrap it with cling film or foil and put in the fridge. Cut into pieces before serving – this will prevent the lavash bread from drying up
- Ingrediets
- Spreading the cream cheese
- Adding salmon, dill and avocado
- Rolling up, pressing at every tur
- The final look
Sea-buckthorn
Sea-buckthorns are bright orange edible berries that can be used to make delicious fresh jam of unique sharp flavour.
Rip berries teem on branches of a sun-loving shrub that naturally grows in mountainous regions. Several domestic species have been cultivated that exceed the wild plant in the size of berries and their properties and this tree is very popular in Russian gardens or private lots for growing home vegetables and fruits.
Sea-buckthorn contains 15 times more vitamin C than oranges which places this tiny orange fruit among the most enriched plant sources of vitamin C (perhaps, only rose hips could compete). The high content of this vitamin accounts for quite a tangy taste of berries – you wouldn’t want to eat them on their own – but mixing it with sweeter substances like apple or grape juice to reduce the astringency certainly pays off both in taste and goodness.
Sea-bucktorn is rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids (the same fatty acids you get from eating fish) which are essential to good health and play a crucial role in brain function.
The berries have high content in Omega 7 that help with weight loss and cholesterol control and is important for healthy clear skin. Also, “beauty” vitamins A and E can also be found in abundance in these wonderful little berries.
This richness in goodness can explain why sea-buckthorn is finding their way into many nutraceutical products on the market today.
You can buy those frozen berries in Russian shops, and actually the freezing helps reduce the astringency. You can use the berries for your smoothies and make very quick food condiment or dessert sauces.
5 min sea-buckthorn dip/dessert sauce
Ingredients:
½ glass of frozen sea-buckthorns
splash of water
1 tablespoon sugar
Method:
1. Put the buckthorns in a glass, fill it up with water and let the berries defrost for several minutes. Pour the water out, wash the berries and put them into a blender.
2. Add a splash of water and sugar, blitz up. Sieve to remove pulp and seeds and enjoy.
This will be great with pancakes, blini or syrniki. The sharp and rich taste will add a new elegant note to a sweet meal.
Caviar breads
What can be easy to make and exquisite at the same time? Buttered bread with caviar, of course!
In English language, only fish eggs of Acipenseridae family, are called caviar. This product is black. The rest fish eggs are referred to as “roe”. In Russian though, all fish eggs are called “caviar” (“ikra”), and additional clarity is added by an adjective. So far in Russian there is black caviar (i.e. caviar), red caviar (salmon roe), or capelin caviar (capelin roe) etc.
Salmon roe, or red caviar in Russian, is not as priced as black caviar, yet also a delicacy. Mini buttered breads with salmon roe will be a great finger food and give a Russian twist to your party.
How to make breads:
Butter good white bread with good butter, spread caviar and decorate with parsley. Baguette will be good, or toast bread additionally warmed up in an oven.
You can cut bread into miniature pieces. Do not spread too much caviar/roe as some guests can find it too salty.
Kefir Blini
Blini are Russian pancakes, and there are a lot of varieties of them. Blini can be thick or thin, and with or without yeast. Thin blini can be stuffed with sweet of savoury stuffing.
Kefir blini are made with fermented dairy drink kefir, but you can substitute it with buttermilk or plain yoghurt. These blini are very good for weekend mornings, and they are not only delicious, but very filling.
The general technique, as with all kinds of pancakes in general, is following a few tips:
1. Make sure the frying pan is warm and oiled evenly with a paper towel to avoid excess oil. It’s not necessary to oil the pan after every pancakes, just every so often.
2. The key to success is the thickness of the batter. It should not be too runny, but rather flow slowly and graciously from the ladle into the pot.
3. The probe of the first pancake: The first pancake always serves as a probe to see if the ingredients are in the right proportion. If you couldn’t flip the pancake over, add some more flour into the batter, a few drop of olive oil, stir and go ahead again.
Yum
