On the Menu: Medovik

What could be better than layers of cake with a tangy-sweet frosting?

Nothing.

Medovik is a Russian honey cake with multiple layers and a sour cream-sugar frosting in between. The cake sits for a few hours on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator so that the frosting melts into the cake. The cake becomes soft and chewy,  rather like a brownie.

You can sprinkle the top with chocolate shavings or nuts, but I opted to keep it plain, served with a bit of leftover frosting. I think it would also be very good with a bit of strawberry syrup or fresh berries.

The cake itself was a bit of work - mostly because of the layers - but it is well worth it. I halved the original recipe because it would have made too much cake for only four people and I can't stand to waste food.

Medovik (original recipe here)
Serves 8-10

For the cake:
5 egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cups + 2 tbs all-purpose flour

For the frosting:
16 oz sour cream
3/4 cup sugar

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper.
2. Add egg yolks and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat well until sugar has dissolved.
3. Melt butter and pour into another mixing bowl.
4. Add honey to the saucepan and heat until it starts to boil. Add the baking soda. The mixture will start to bubble and rise. Mix for about 20 seconds, until it gets a nice golden color. Do not let it turn orange! Take the honey mixture off the stove and mix well with the butter.
5. Add the egg yolk mixture to the honey mixture and stir well.
6. Add the flour to the egg yolk mixture, a few tablespoons at a time, and stir well.
7. Divide the dough into four equal logs.
8. Press one log onto the cookie sheet until the bottom of the sheet is covered with the dough. The dough should be very, very thin - about 1/8" thick. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
9. Repeat with remaining dough.
10. For the frosting: Mix sour cream and sugar until combined. Let sit for about eight minutes, or until sugar has dissolved.

Assembly:
1. Cut the cake layers in half. Place one layer on a plate, small cookie sheet, or decorative platter.
2. Spread generous layer of sour cream frosting over the cake layer. Top with another cake layer. It's okay if the frosting drips down the sides of the cake.
3. Repeat with remaining layers. You may have some sour cream frosting leftover (which you can use to make another cake or sour cream brownies!)
4. Place cake in the refrigerator for at least four hours or overnight. The cake is still delicious even after stored in the refrigerator for a few days!

On the Menu: Piroshki

The piroshki: Russian comfort food at its best.

Even our picky little Balin ate more than half of his.

Piroshki can be filled with any number of things: ground meats, rice, potatoes, onions, bacon...even chocolate and fruits for a dessert.

Since this was our vegetarian meal, our piroshki would be filled with potatoes, mushrooms, and onions. (Though someday I'd like to make meat-filled piroshki - sausage, mushroom, and onion in a Worcestershire sauce, maybe? Or a bacon, onion, and potato-stuffed piroshki with some red wine vinegar?)

Out of all the recipes I examined, I liked this one the most. The dough was delightfully soft and the filling was spiced perfectly. The author claims that you can fry these as well as bake them, but I've only ever baked them. I followed the original recipe faithfully, except for substituting Greek yogurt for the sour cream the second time I made them. The dough was still amazing.

I also found that the ratio of dough to filling was a bit off - that there was too much filling to dough. The second time I made these, I halved the filling and there was just enough. Feel free to play around with the ratios.

Piroshki (original recipe here)
Makes about 10

For the dough:
2 cups milk
4 cups + 8 tbs flour
2 eggs
2 tbs sour cream or Greek yogurt
2 tbs oil (I used olive)
1 tbs yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar

For the filling:
3 medium potatoes, peeled, cooked, and mashed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 stick butter
1 tbs olive oil
3/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water, drained, and chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbs finely chopped fresh dill or 1-2 tsp dried dill (optional)

1. For the dough: Whisk together 1 cup warm milk, 1/4 tsp salt, sugar, yeast, and 8 tbs flour in a large bowl. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes. It should rise and be foamy.
2. Meanwhile, mix together 1 cup warm milk, sour cream or yogurt, oil, eggs, and 1 tsp salt. Add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix together.
3. Add the foamy yeast mixture and combine. Then add the rest of the flour. Mix well.
4. Cover the bowl and place in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
5. For the filling: Add olive oil and butter to a pan over medium-high heat. When the butter melts, add the onions. Saute until they have a carmel color.
6. Add the mushrooms and cook for another five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add dill, if desired.
7. Mix the onion mixture with the mashed potatoes and stir well.

Assembly:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut a piece of dough about the size of a racquetball and place it on a well-floured surface. The dough will be very sticky, so use extra flour or a bit of oil to keep it from sticking to your fingers. Flatten the dough a bit.
3. Put about 1 1/2 - 2 tbs of the filling in the center of the flattened dough. Carefully pinch the sides together.
4. Place on a baking sheet, seam side down. Make the rest of the piroshki. The prioshki will expand in the oven, so space them accordingly.
5. Bake* for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
6. Serve by themselves or with melted butter and garlic.

* Check out the original recipe (here) for instructions on how to fry these.

Russian Fairy Tales

My father taught English in Yugoslavia when he was a young man. He traveled extensively throughout the Slavic countries. He has a fondness for that area of the world similar to my affection for Greece.

When I was a little girl, I came into the possession of two Russian fairy tale books. I cannot recall exactly how I came to own them (I believe they were gifts), but I read them over and over again. The pictures were so lovely and the stories so interesting that I would often re-read them for hours.

My boys are bibliophiles as well, but in addition to actually reading their books, they usually tear them up. (Not deliberately - they usually play "library" with their books or leave them on the floor after pulling half their books off their shelf in order to find the one they want.) I've kept the fairy tale books away from the boys, but decided to bring them out for Russia Week to share some stories with them.

I'm sorry to report that they weren't all that interested, mostly because Russian stories (like many fairy tales from other cultures) are long, involved, and repetitive. I had hoped that they'd at least like the pictures, but maybe they are a bit too young to really appreciate them.

Your local library will probably have many books about Russia, but these are the two books I grew up with. You should be able to find them for purchase online or, if you are very lucky, at your local bookstore or library.

Russian Fairy Tales
Translated by Marie Ponsot
Illustrated by Benvenuti
Published 1987 by Ideals Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 0-8249-8160-X

The Three Kingdoms: Russian Folk Tales from Alexander Afanasiev's Collection
Illustrated by A. Kurkin
Published 1985 by Raduga Publishers
ISBN: 5-05-000056-4

On the Menu: Tea...with Jam

I'm not a big tea drinker, but Bobbi and kids drink the stuff like it's water.  Luckily for them, so do Russians.

Although we were surprised to learn that many people in Russia put fruit jam and/or jelly in their tea.  Yeah, that's right, jam…not sugar or honey…jam.

The kids were pretty excited to try it out.  They scooped some homemade strawberry jelly into their tea.  It actually was pretty good.  And I guess it makes sense.  It's like putting honey into your tea, only it adds more than just sweetness, it adds a little fruit flavor as well.

On the Menu: Rassolnik (with leftover Black Bread)

How can you make stew any more amazing than it actually is?

Pickles.

It sounds strange, I know, but pickles in stew is delicious. The pickles add such a lovely tart taste that I almost wouldn't dream of not adding them to my next batch of stew.

Plus, it's a great way of using leftover relish (which, because of my crazy family and our canning adventures, we have plenty).

The boys were tolerant of the pickles, though Balin ate around them. Arthur was as surprised as we were that pickles were a good addition to stew.

Rassolnik (original recipe here)
Serves 8-10

For the broth:
10 cups water
1 lb beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup barley, rinsed
1/2 tbs salt, plus more to taste
3 medium potatoes, diced
1 carrot, thinly sliced

For the Zazharka:
1 1/2 cups dill relish
4 tbs olive oil, divided
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely sliced
1 tbs tomato sauce
2 tbs fresh dill
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black pepper
sour cream (optional)
extra dill to serve (optional)

1. In a large pot, boil water, beef, barley, and salt for 30 minutes. Skim off any impurities that rise to the top. This is imperative to ensure that you have a lovely, clear broth at the end!
2. Saute the relish in 1 tbs oil for a few minutes. Add relish, potatoes, and sliced carrots to the pot and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
3. To make the Zazharka: Add 3 tbs olive oil to a large skillet and sauté onion for two minutes. Then add grated carrot and sliced celery and continue to sauté until carrots are soft (about five minutes). Stir in tomato sauce, then add this mixture to the soup.
4. Add bay leaves, black pepper, dill, and salt to taste. Continue to simmer for another two minutes, or until the potatoes have fully cooked. Serve immediately with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill.

On the Menu: Lobio with Black Bread

The best thing about this whirl-wind trip around the world is getting to indulge in some new foods. I love to cook and trying new recipes is somewhat of a challenge for me because I usually end up adapting recipes to my family's tastes before I actually make the original recipe.

I don't usually do this with breads, however. Breads are one of those things that generally require such precise measurements that if I fudge with the recipe without making a loaf first, I end up with a loaf of bread that no one eats because it's too...interesting.

I will readily admit that I was nervous about the black bread. It has a few questionable ingredients and I wasn't sure that my two boys (who, in reality, are quite adventurous foodies) would be able to handle it. I had my doubts about the coffee grounds. I had my doubt about the chocolate. I had my doubt about the caraway seeds. But what emerged from the oven was so beautiful and tasty, my mouth is watering a bit right now.

And the boys loved it, too!

We cheated a bit with the Lobio, as it is originally a Georgian dish, but it was very difficult to find a Russian bean dish that wasn't a soup. Although not everyone raved about this dish, I loved the flavor of the beans and ground walnuts and found the dish to be even better the next day, served at room temperature.

Lobio (original recipe here)
Serves 6

1 cup dried kidney beans, soaked overnight
1 cup walnuts (bits and pieces okay)
1 red onion, diced
1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried savory
1 pinch dried fenugreek
1/2 cup (total) of basil and parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Simmer beans for about 1-2 hours until they begin to fall apart. Add more water as necessary.
2. Saute onions in oil until transparent.
3. Grind walnuts with salt, pepper, garlic, and the dried herbs.
4. Drain the beans, reserving about 1-2 cups of water. Add the onions, mixing well, then add the ground walnut mixture. Add additional salt and pepper, if needed. Add water a little bit at a time to make a sauce.*
5. Add the red wine vinegar and fresh spices. Mix well. Serve hot, warm, or cold. The longer the Lobio sits, the stronger the flavor.

*This is based on your personal preference, so add lots of water if you like sauce and just a little if you prefer drier foods.


Russian Black Bread (original recipe here)
Makes 2 large loaves 

4 cups rye flour
3 cups white flour
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 cups bran flakes
2 tbs caraway seeds, crushed
2 tsp coffee grounds
2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed
4 1/2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 square (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water

1. Combine the rye and white flours.
2. Using a large bowl, mix 2 1/3 cups of the flour mixture, sugar, salt, bran flakes, caraway seeds, coffee, onion powder, fennel seeds, and yeast.
3. Combine 2 1/2 cups water, vinegar, molasses, chocolate, and butter in a saucepan. Heat over low heat until liquids are warm (butter and chocolate do not need to fully melt).
4. Gradually add the mixture to the dry ingredients and beat for about two minutes with your mixer. Add 1/2 cup of the flour mixture. Beat for another two minutes. Repeat until the mixture forms a soft dough. Let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Knead for about 10-15 minutes, then place dough in well-greased bowl, turning it so that the dough gets grease on the top as well as the bottom. Cover and let rise in a warm place, until doubled (about 1 hour).
6. When the dough has doubled, punch it down, remove from bowl onto a floured surface, and divide in half. Shape each half into a ball. Place the balls onto a large, greased pizza pan or two small, greased cake pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk again (about 30 minutes to an hour).
7. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes.
8. While the bread is baking, combine the cornstarch and the ice water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to boil. Continue to cook for another minute. As soon as the bread is baked, brush the cornstarch mixture over the tops of the loaves. Return the bread to the oven and bake for another two or three minutes, until the glaze sets. Remove from the pans and cool on wire racks.

Russia Week: The Menu

Growing up in Alaska, I'm used to the plethora of late summer vegetables; primarily cabbages, potatoes, and carrots. The growing season in Russia is quite similar to Alaska's, so it isn't a surprise that most Russian recipes integrate some form of cabbage (either fresh or brined or fermented), carrots, or potatoes.

We worried a bit about the heaviness of all the breads and potatoes, but the meals weren't nearly as heavy as we thought they would be.

This week we will be eating:

Lobio with Black Bread

Rassolnik with Black Bread

Piroshki

Medovik

Alternative Menu Ideas:

Pelmeni
Borscht
Shchi
Blini
Botvinya

Russia Week: March 15-21

Arthur picked Russia for his second country. He pointed to the map and said, "This BIG country here." Can you tell he's five going on six? Everything's better when it's giant-sized.

There's a heavy Russian influence in Alaska, especially along the coastal areas. Many people in those areas are often bilingual or trilingual: English, Russian, and a native language (such as Yup'ik or Alutiiq). There are old Russian Orthodox churches everywhere in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Southeast Alaska. When I went to Nome, there was a lovely little Russian store where I found Robinson a carved chess set.

Long after colonization and Seward's Folly, Russian culture remains strongly embedded in present-day Alaska.

We were studying Russia itself and not any of its former colonies, so to kick-off the celebration, we checked out a movie from the library that was part of a series called "Families of the World." Each video is of a different country and is about a half-hour long. The one about Russia followed two kids, one from a rural area of Russia and one from a city.

The boys loved seeing how their lives were different from the children in the movie. They were amazed at the amount of cabbage, carrots, and potatoes the rural family stored in their cellar. They were surprised that the kids often had sandwiches for breakfast and drank their tea with jam.

But there were also similarities: both kids went to school and did homework. They had after-school activities and their own interests. In essence, my boys realized they were almost exactly the same as the children in the movie.

The movies themselves are pretty old (almost 10 years), but they are interesting enough to make viewing worthwhile. Check your local library! They might even have other series that were not available at mine.