# I need Good Russian Recipes



## CookingFanToo (Sep 8, 2006)

Hi Everyone!  

I am looking for good russian recipes. Baking, cooking recipes. You can post them here. Thank you!


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## Robo410 (Sep 8, 2006)

sliced cucumbers, sour cream, dill, pepper

sliced cucumbers, sweet vinegar, dill

herring (smoked or pickeled) , dark bread, cucumbers such as above

there is a good data base of Russian Recipes on line...do a search for it.


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 8, 2006)

Robo410 said:
			
		

> sliced cucumbers, sour cream, dill, pepper
> 
> sliced cucumbers, sweet vinegar, dill
> 
> ...


 
I am sure there are many recipes online. I should have clarifies myself more. I want recipes from the people who actually cooked the meals and enjoyed them. Sometimes, russian recipes seem to produce some other results, because nobody has really tested them, they are just cut and pasted from one source to another.


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## Gretchen (Sep 8, 2006)

Potato salad with cucumbers and peas added with some dill with the mayo.
Shishkabobs are popular.
Pelmeni with butter, --basically tortellini, but everyone we met bought them frozen.
A Russian friend fixed an incredible pork butt grilled with lots of herbs and marinated in a vinegary marinade.


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 8, 2006)

Gretchen said:
			
		

> Potato salad with cucumbers and peas added with some dill with the mayo.
> Shishkabobs are popular.
> Pelmeni with butter, --basically tortellini, but everyone we met bought them frozen.
> A Russian friend fixed an incredible pork butt grilled with lots of herbs and marinated in a vinegary marinade.


 
That, actually, sounds very delicious. I ate pelmeni in the past. The friend who made them used sour cream as a dipping sauce instead of butter sauce, is it pretty much interchangable?


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 9, 2006)

Anyone else?


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## SharonT (Sep 9, 2006)

*Chicken Gorky*

I found this a few years ago - and I'm sorry that I don't remember where - 
when looking for something for a "Russian" menu that was not Beef Strogonoff.   I've made it many times since:

Chicken Gorky
6 small chicken breast halves (about 3 lb.)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces vodka, heated (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon flour 
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups sour cream 
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup feta cheese

Brown chicken in butter and olive oil with the chopped onion and garlic.
Pour heated vodka over the chicken if desired.  Add salt and pepper.  Remove chicken from the pan.  Add the flour, tomato paste and chicken broth to the pan.  Stir in the sour cream, feta cheese and parsley.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Arrange the chicken in a deep casserole dish and pour mixture over the chicken.  Cook in preheated 350º oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is done to an internal temperature of 170º.  Serve with wild rice or noodles.

For the Russian menu, we served this with "Caviar Pie" for the appetizer, 
Marinated Beets & Cabbage Salad, Russian Rye Bread, and a variation on traditional Pashka, which was quite a hit.   Here's the Pashka:
Pashka
1 lb. cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 lb. butter at room temperature
1-3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup currants
1 cup chopped pecans
16 slices pound cake
Place the cream cheese in food processor and process until there are no lumps.  Add the butter and process until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla to mixture and mix.  Add the currants and nuts.  Scrape down bowl well and mix a few more minutes. Refrigerate until firm, 2 to 4 hours minimum.   Yields 16 small scoops.

Melba Sauce:
1 lb. raspberries 
1/2-cup granulated sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup red currant jelly
Puree fruit, sugar and jelly in blender or food processor. Add lemon juice and mix well. Strain through fine sieve into small bowl. Makes about 1-1/2 cups. Chill.
We cut out oval pieces of the pound cake with a cookie cutter and scooped the Pashka on top with an egg-shaped scoop.  A teaspoon of the Melba Sauce was then drizzled on the top.


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 9, 2006)

Thanks Sharon!

How does Melba Sauce taste? I mean is it enjoyable to eat?


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## jkath (Sep 9, 2006)

Another idea for you:
Go up to the top of your toolbar and find the "Search" option. Click on it, and it will give you the option for an "Advanced Search". Do that, and then, type in "Russian" in the search, and click on "Titles Only". Go to the bottom right and click on "Search" 
It will give you about 14 pages of threads.


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## GB (Sep 9, 2006)

CookingFanToo said:
			
		

> Um.... is it the only advice you have given in the 8,122 posts? I mean, what about fellowshiping with people? What about hearing from people in real time who actually cooked the meals and enjoyed them? I'd prefer that over some cookbook.


You can still have that CookingFanToo. Just go into those threads and post a message. It is no different from asking those same people to repost what they have already posted previously.


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## SharonT (Sep 9, 2006)

CookingFanToo said:
			
		

> Thanks Sharon!
> 
> How does Melba Sauce taste? I mean is it enjoyable to eat?


 
Oh yeah - Melba Sauce is a classic recipe which was invented by a famous French chef Auguste Escoffier for Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, for a dessert called Peach Melba.

Do the search thing in here too.   For most anything you find, chances are the ones who posted them are still around and will be willing to chat about the older posts.


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## Hades (Sep 10, 2006)

Borscht is also something wich is generally considered typically russian. Never made or tried it though.
Pickeled vegetables are an essential part of the russian diet, along with (red chili!)vodka. 
If money is not an object: Pommes Moskovites.
And ofcourse there are the bliny. A very old and traditional dish that is basically a pancake to us.
To make them you need :
* 650 gr of flour (up to half of that buckwheat flour if you like)
* 1/2 litre of milk
* 25 gr of fresh yeast
* a few tbspoon of fresh butter
* 100 gr of sour cream
* 2 eggs
* 1tbspoon of sugar
* pinch of salt
---
First make a basic batter with the yeast, milk (luke-warm) and about 1/2 the flour and the butter (softened) and let it rest for halfd an hour or so.
Whisk the eggyolks with the sugar and beat the eggwhites untill stiff. Scoop the cream under the eggwhites. Add the eggyolks to the batter and whisk them in. Then gently stirr in the eggwhites and start adding the remaining flour and a good pinch of salt.
When the batter is nice and smooth, let it sit for a while longer. Fry them as a not too thin pancake.

Then stuff (the shape of a spring roll) the blini with the stuffing of your choice. They stuff them with all sorts of things including fried wild mushrooms or previously fried minced meat with oignons. And for some reason just about every stuffing seems to go perfectly with a spoon of sourcream and a good sprinkle of fresh herbs.


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## Hades (Sep 10, 2006)

Ohh well... since you asked for recipe's...
Recipe for Pommes Moskovites:
Ingredients (per person)
* 1 smallish potato (unpeeled but thouroughly washed and brushed) 
* sour cream
* extremely finely chopped parsley
* kaviar

Steam or boil the potato's.  Holding them lengthwise (as they naturally sit on your chopping board) cut off a piece of the bottom (so it will sit better on a plate) and cut off about 1/3 off the top.  Scoop out atleast 1/3 of the trimmed potato.  Season the hole in your potato very discretely with pepper and salt.  Fill the hole with sour cream drizzle a little parsley over it and top generously with kaviar (obviously, the smaller potato's you take, the less kaviar you'll need).
Serve with cool champagne or freezer cold vodka.

Alternatively, you can replace the kaviar with a nice thick piece of smoked salmon (replace the parsley with dill).  Not russian and not "Pommes Moskovites" but just as tasty.


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## lulu (Sep 10, 2006)

CookingFanToo said:
			
		

> Um.... is it the only advice you have given in the 8,122 posts? I mean, what about fellowshiping with people? What about hearing from people in real time who actually cooked the meals and enjoyed them? I'd prefer that over some cookbook.



I felt a little like that about the search tool initially, but have found that it is actually brilliant : an amazing resource.  And if you have questions about pstings you can just add them on....if the people are here still I'm sure they'll answer, its very friendly and helpful here.  And if they are not around then you are still getting insight into a recipe cooked by the person who posted it, so its all good  

Apart from caviar, blinis and sour cream I am not great with russian food.  We occasionally have borsht.  Nigella Lawson has wonderful looking Georgian recipes in her book "Feast" (I bet they are google-able) if you are counting ex-USSR states as "Russian".  Particularly interesting to me was the cheesey bread she discussed.  

I was somewhat put of exploring Russian food after going to a Russian restaurant in Mayfair where I had a starter that I found horrendous - it is the only part of the meal I remember!- it was layers of flavourless mushrooms in layers with a strong, cheddar like cheese melted to a rubbery texture and cooked in an individual pot....some what Like a ramekin.  Its texture and taste were both unappealing to me, but maybe someone else could appreciate it!


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## Chopstix (Sep 10, 2006)

Russian Tea Cakes recipe (Also known as Swedish Tea Cakes)

These are actually delicious cookies -- crumbly, buttery, nutty. 

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f43/greek-cookies-or-russian-tea-cakes-recipe-3509.html?highlight=russian+cakes


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## urmaniac13 (Sep 10, 2006)

I like this site, with very interesting recipes and infos about their culinary culture.
My personal favourite, I am not sure what I would call it but it is my recreation of something I had at a Russian restaurant in London. It is very simple to make and absolutely delicious.

Slice up the mushrooms (regular white will be fine but more flavourful types will be even better)
Finely chop up the onions.
Sautè the mushrooms with a little butter, s&p.
When they are cooked well, with onions at the point of being caramelized, add some vodka and a piece of bayleaf, let it simmer for 10-15minutes.
Stir in sour cream and chopped flat leaved parsley, and heat it up (but not to the boil) thoroughly.

This was served in a deep "pot pie" style (on a deep jar covered with a crusty bread on top), it is delicious by themselves without the topping as well, or as a condiment for your pasta.

I would love to try blini and pirozhki one day, if I could find a recipe that I can trust upon. I haven't as yet though...


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 10, 2006)

Thank you all for all your recipes! It's amazing. You know what is interesting? Quite a few of you are posting from other than Russia countries yet you enjoy russian cooking. I find it refreshing!

My apology to jkath. Sorry I was a bit harsh in my reply to you. I am just short on time to research it on my own. Still I should have been more considerate.


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## kitchenelf (Sep 10, 2006)

urmaniac13 said:
			
		

> Slice up the mushrooms (regular white will be fine but more flavourful types will be even better)
> Finely chop up the onions.
> Sautè the mushrooms with a little butter, s&p.
> When they are cooked well, with onions at the point of being caramelized, add some vodka and a piece of bayleaf, let it simmer for 10-15minutes.
> ...



urmaniac AND CookingFanToo - I do this same thing but with the addition of a little horseradish along with the sour cream.  It makes an exceptional appetizer using whole mushrooms.


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## CookingFanToo (Sep 10, 2006)

I read somewhere that Russians use all kinds of wild mushrooms, what mushrooms would you recommend?


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## Hades (Sep 10, 2006)

In terms of authenticity, it doesn't realy matter what kind you use.  Wild mushrooms in russia (particulary around Moskow) are realy wild.  I.e. they hand-pick them in the forrests.  And whatever they find ends up in their mushroom dishes (or is sold to the fancy hotels and restaurants).
I would guess that the typical trip to the forrest would yield Cantharelles, Porcini and/or oyster mushrooms.  Either one (or a combination of them) would work great.  Shiitake aren't native to russia, but that wouldn't realy bother me.  Afterall, they taste great so why not use them? 
Or you could ofcourse always use the good old white button mushroom.  They just have a less pronounced taste than the otherones.


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