Besides wine tasting our way through Italy now and then, we’ve also been trying to broaden our cooking repertoire by choosing a country for a month and trying to cook its signature dishes. In November we concentrated on Russian food. It turned out to be a hit!
Before I learned better, my image of Russian food was just cabbage, potatoes and vodka. When we went to Russia we ate a variety of foods, and although the dishes we remember mostly were Georgian food (which sent us on a subsequent trip there), this time we focused on what we thought were “traditional” dishes from Russia.
During the month we cooked borscht, piroshki, pelmeni (described to one of my students as Russian gyoza), beef stroganoff, and blini. On the last day Kuniko even did a bonus (Ukrainian) dish of Chicken Kiev. This was the first time to cook most of these dishes, so we learned a lot about what we would do next time. I think we decided that we’d be happy to make any of these again.
For the borscht, we started with an online recipe that featured chunks of beef and thanks to some very deep purple beets from Nagano it was delicious. Topped with sour cream and fresh dill, the dish really came together. Kuniko upped the amount of cumin which pushed the dish a little to the east of Moscow – yum. We did a second version later on with pork, and I think we liked that one even more. The pork chunks ended up more tender than the beef and so we’ll probably cook it that way from now on.
The piroshki also tasted great, although I need to work on shaping them more consistently. In the interest of science I tried all kinds of different folds to see what turned out well and what turned out… alien. We baked ours rather than frying as a healthier option, and there were enough that I was taking them to work for a few days afterwards. The dough was hard work but the result was worth it!
The pelmeni and beef stroganoff dishes came together smoothly. The big hit was the blinis – ground meat and melted cheese wrapped in a buttery crepe and then slightly crisped in butter – holy shit they were good. If I started a food truck this is the dish I’d focus on – wow!
Kuniko really outdid herself on her day off and cooked up some excellent Chicken Kiev. The last time we had it was sitting on Red Square in Moscow the day before our flight back home – this tasted even better!
In December we have a few parties planned so we’re not cooking a country this month. We’ve been craving Korean food so we might revisit those dishes for a while. I am looking forward to January, though. What country should we cook next?
