Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Fig and Almond Tarts

Recipe Source: Chamberlain, Lesley.  Russian, German & Polish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2006 p. 86

You all already know that my sweet tooth is kind of stunted.  I don't tend to care for sweet foods.  One exception to that is chocolate.  I will eat as much dessert as you can put in front of me if it has chocolate in it.  I tend to feel very sick if I eat much sugar, which is probably the reason for my aversion to sweet things, but when it comes to chocolate the pain is usually worth it.  I just cannot get enough chocolate.  At least I know this about myself and can take steps to counter it.  For example, I make a real effort to make desserts when I entertain that contain no chocolate whatsoever.  That way I'm not tempted to eat the leftovers... like in one sitting.... in the dark when no one can see me.... I also kind of feel like I should expand my horizons beyond chocolate.  That's why I made this dessert a few weeks ago.

I actually did use the original recipe's crust recipe.  Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered, I'd just have used some variant of the Super Secret MacLean Crust because that's what I know and that's what I'm used to.  The crust here looked very different and very interesting, though, so I figured I'd try it.  I don't regret it, although I still prefer the Super Secret MacLean Crust.  The sour cream was fascinating to me.  I did, however, double the recipe, use whole-wheat flour on general principles and increase the sour cream to accommodate the drier nature of whole-wheat flour.

When it came to the filling, I was a little stumped.  Plums are really not in season right now.  Furthermore, I had purchased some figs on sale (general principles again) and didn't want them to go to waste.  Figs match pretty well with almonds so I figured it would be a good fit.  I omitted the glazing and garnishing steps at the end because I was pretty sure I was out of fig jam and didn't have any more sliced almonds.  I used two different types of figs.  The original recipe purported to feed 6 and I trusted them, so I used brown figs for one tart and green for the other.  Both tasted fine, although I think the green fig tart was a bit more appealing from an aesthetic standpoint.  I tried to do a little stonehenge type thing with the brown figs which, as you can see from the second photo, didn't really work out so great.  Whatever.  The taste was great and that's the important thing.

Fig and Almond Tarts (serves 12 generously; approx. $1.75/serving)

3 cups whole wheat floud

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, chilled and sliced

2/3 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups ground almonds

2 1/2 pint containers of figs, either sliced or quartered, whatever pleases you

Equipment:

• The original recipe called for the crust to be hand formed, kind of like a pizza.  I pressed it into two pie plates instead.
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Large bowl

1. Combine the butter and flour with your hands in the mixing bowl until it resembles fine bread crumbs.  You could probably use a pastry cutter for this too, but with your hands is fine.
2. Stir in the sour cream.
3. Press into the pie plates.
4. Preheat your oven to 425.
5. Combine the butter and sugar in the stand mixer until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs in alternating steps with the ground almonds.
7. Spread the almond mixture into the pie plates.  Top with the figs in whatever arrangement pleases you.
8. Bake 35 - 40 minutes.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Sour Rye Bread

Recipe Source: Chamberlain, Lesley. Russian, German & Polish Food & Cooking. Anness Publishing, London, 2006 p. 90

When I first saw this recipe I thought to myself, "There is no way that I am going to do this. I am absolutely not leaving milk out on the counter overnight and then incorporating that into my food." Then I thought about it. The milk is pasteurized, right? It is set out in a covered container. Then the resulting mixture gets incorporated into something that gets very, very thoroughly cooked. Plus, if it were unsafe they probably wouldn't have been allowed to publish it, right? I decided to go with it and I'm glad I did. The bread was delicious and nutritious and a little something different from the ordinary.

I made a couple of minor changes. I switched whole wheat bread flour for the all-purpose flour, giving this bread more fiber than the original. To accommodate that I did increase the liquid slightly. I used olive oil for the butter mostly out of habit and I included a little bit of celery seed in with the caraway seeds when I sprinkled the loaves.

Sour Rye Bread (makes 2 loaves, approx. cost per serving not available)

4 cups rye flour

4 cups whole wheat bread flour

1 tablespoon salt

¼ ounce active dry yeast

2 teaspoons raw sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 ½ cups warm water, plus extra (see above)

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1 tablespoon celery seeds

¼ cup additional rye flour

3 tablespoons milk

Equipment:

• Bowl with an air-tight seal
• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Baking sheets
• Plastic wrap

1. The day before you plan to cook, combine the ¼ cup rye flour and the milk in the bowl with the air-tight seal. Mix well, then cover and set aside overnight at room temperature. Really.
2. The next day, combine the water with the yeast and the sugar the bowl of your stand mixer. Set aside until the yeast becomes frothy.
3. Add the flours, salt and olive oil. Mix on your mixer's lowest speed until combined.
4. Increase the speed slightly (from 1 to 3 in my case) and knead until a ball forms, about 4 minutes.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise, about an hour or until doubled in size.
6. Punch down the dough and divide in half. Shape each half into a round.
7. Transfer to baking sheets.
8. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at least 30 minutes.
9. Preheat your oven to 400 ̊.
10. Brush the loaves with water and sprinkle with the seeds.
11. Bake 40 minutes.
12. Cool and serve.

Recipe: Carters' Millet

Recipe Source: Chamberlain, Lesley.  Russion, German & Polish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2006 p. 68

I've been trying to explore different grains lately.  Regular wheat bread is all well and good - actually, very good, when done right - and I've always had a strong preference for white rice.  Unfortunately, the nutritional content of both is kind of ... well, low.  They've got calories.  That's about it, especially for the rice.  I've never learned to enjoy brown rice, possibly because I never manage to cook it right.  So I've been trying to find some different grains that have more nutritional value.  I came across some millet in the market the other day, and decided that I would try it. 

Unfortunately, when I made this dish, I had already used up the bacon it called for.  Rather than go back out to the store - something I always try to avoid if possible - I decided to make it a vegetarian Carters' Millet.  I can't see why a carter shouldn't be a vegetarian, after all.  I made up for the lost fat by using butter.  I also omitted the mint, since my husband is allergic to mint.  The result was a tasty if mild side dish.  For all involved - cook as well as guests - this was the first exposure to millet, but I'm certain it won't be the last. 

Carters' Millet (serves 5; approx. $0.81/serving)

1 1/4 cups millet

2 1/2 cups water

4 ounces butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

3 cups Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Saucepan with a lid
• Frying pan

1. Put the millet in the saucepan with the water.  Bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, 30 minutes.
3. In the frying pan, melt the butter with the olive oil.
4. Add the onion and mushrooms.  Cook until the onions are beginning to brown and the mushrooms are tender, about 10 minutes.
5. Add the contents of the frying pan to the millet.  Season to taste.  Re-heat gently before serving, if it's gotten cold. 

Recipe: Zombie Brain Bread

Recipe Source: Ingram, Christine and Jennie Shapter.  Bread.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 205

Yesterday I posted a recipe for Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Salad.  The original wanted to be served with some sort of dark bread.  Well, I hadn't any dark bread, and I hadn't time to make any of the pumpernickel type recipes I had on hand.  I decided to make the "Polish Rye Bread" from a book of bread recipes I resort to frequently. 

I'm not sure what the problem was here.  The bread, despite having very active and lively little yeasties, declined to rise.  The dough was also very dry, which made it nigh impossible to shape.  The rye flour I used was labeled "elderly" back in March when I purged the baking cabinet, but I'm not sure if that would cause this.  I made it pretty much exactly as instructed, with the exceptions of the yeast (active dry for fresh, which I can't find anywhere) and anise seeds for caraway seeds (which I just couldn't find in my cabinet, despite my sure knowledge that they exist.  Time for another purge.) 

Anyway, my friend Hugh walked into the kitchen just as I was removing this disappointing loaf from the oven.  "Oh," he said in his inimitable British way, "it's zombie brain bread.  Excellent."  And if you look at the photo, it does look a bit like a prop from the better sort of horror flick, the kind you watch with your dad on rainy Saturday afternoons in your youth.  All right, the kind I watched with my dad on rainy Saturday afternoons in my youth, and it was time well spent. 

I'm not really in a position to compare the flavor of the bread to zombie brains for two reasons.  First, the consumption of brains, zombie or otherwise, is a great way to pass on diseases like vCJD.  So I don't do it.  Secondly, I didn't get to eat any of it!  We had more people than expected for the open house that sunday.  By the time I finished bringing food out, most of it was already gone!  In the case of this bread, literally all of it was gone, with the exception of a single crumb in my husband's beard (which he ate when I pointed it out to him.)  I'll take that as a good sign.

Zombie Brain Bread (serves 10 - 12; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 cups rye flour

2 cups white flour

2 teaspoons anise seeds

2 teaspoons salt

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

2/3 cup lukewarm milk

1 teaspoon honey

2/3 cup lukewarm water

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with the dough hook attachment
• Small bowl
• Baking sheet

1. In a small bowl, combine the lukewarm milk, yeast and honey.  Let sit until the yeast is visibly active - there will be an unpleasant-looking froth on top of the mixture.
2. Combine the flours and the anise seeds in the bowl of the stand mixer. 
3. Add the yeast mixture and the water.  Knead on very slow speed (speed 2 of 13) on my stand mixer for about 3 - 4 minutes, until the ingredients seem to be incorporated.
4. Increase the speed very slightly (to speed 3) for another 3 - 4 minutes, until the dough forms a ball on the end of the hook.  Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise someplace warm for about 3 hours.
5. Turn the dough out and punch down.  Shape into an oval (hah!) and put onto a greased baking sheet.
6. Cover the loaf with a towel and let rise another hour to hour and a half.
7. Preheat the oven to 425.
8. Make 2 slashes in the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife.  Bake 35 minutes.
9. Allow to cool and serve. 

Recipe: Beet and Apple Salad

Recipe Source: Trutter, Marion.  Culinaria: Russia.  H. F. Ulman, 2007 p. 142

If you've read this blog before, you're already aware that beets are not high on my list of foods to eat.  Yes, they can grow in my area.  Yes, they're usually reasonably inexpensive.  Yes, they're seasonal and no, I don't care.  There's something about the smell of beets cooking that has always just turned me right off.  This was a vast disappointment to my husband, who is very fond of beets.  Fortunately for him, in March Helen of Food Stories helped me to understand that raw beets can be very tasty, or at least not actively offensive.  I made this dish for my husband recently, and he really enjoyed it. 

Now, the first change is obvious: I eliminated the cooking step.  Instead, I used my food processor's grater attachment to grate both the beet and the apples.  I also reduced the amount of beets, increased the amount of cannelini beans and used a little bit more green mix than was really called for.  I substituted rice vinegar for the white vinegar because my white vinegar had gone missing, which wasn't a bad thing as I generally prefer rice vinegar.  Finally, I eliminated the oil, as my husband prefers to avoid oily foods.  This was ultimately a pretty successful side salad and I'm sure it will be making another appearance on my table. 

Beet and Apple Salad (serves 4; approx. $1.86/serving)

1 beet, peeled

2 apples, peeled and cored

1 can (14 oz.) of white or cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 package salad mix

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Equipment:

• Food processor with grater attachment

1. Use your food processor to grate the apples and beet. 
2. Arrange the greens on a serving platter.
3. Arrange the beans on top of the greens.
4. Add the apples and beets on top of the beans.
5. Drizzle with the rice vinegar.
6. Season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste and serve. 

Book Review: Culinaria Russia

Trutter, Marion, editor.  Culinaria Russia.  Tandem Verlag GmbH, Germany, 2007.

 

I heard a rumor that the Culinaria series was going out of print.  A relative recommended them pretty highly (thanks Dana!) so I recently trekked out to my local Borders bookstore and picked up as many as I could fine.  Once my sore muscles healed - these are heavy books - I began reading the book on Russia. 

 

I think I've mentioned before that my mental image of food in the former USSR is kind of dismal, involving lots of long lines and grayness and mostly consisting of my eternal foe, head cabbage.  That's really a shame, because if this book is accurate (and I have no reason to believe it won't be), I've been missing out on a whole lot of tasty treats.  There was a lot of cabbage, and a lot of dumplings, and I read these recipes and passed them over as befits someone with a very limited tolerance for cabbage.  Still, there was plenty to capture my imagination and interest. 

 

The book is organized into five sections: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  This is very useful and helpful.  It would probably be possible to cover all the different cuisines in one go, but the variances in the cuisines would make it confusing.  This way, I got a great view of how people's cuisines adapt to different environments.  As a child of the Cold War, albeit the end of the Cold War, I kind of mentally lumped all of the former Soviet Republics together and called it done.  This way, I got a sense of the many variations and individual cultures that have survived.  This was another aspect of this book that I really appreciated.  While they offered plenty of recipes, and recipes that differed from recipes I already knew at that, they devoted at least as much space to the local food culture: normal ingredients, historical information, the impact of the local religion (and Soviet rule) on the local cuisine and culture.  Since I knew absolutely nothing about either Georgia or Azerbaijan before reading this book, I really appreciated this glimpse of new cultures.  Both Metric and Imperial measurements are given where appropriate, so my friends in England and Australia will be as comfortable using this book as I am. 

 

The one thing that I was less than thrilled with was the type.  Yes, I'm picking on the typesetting now, which should tell you how much I liked the book!  Anyway, the entire book is printed in very small type.  This wasn't too much of a problem for me, although I did come away feeling like I'd strained my eyes somehow.  I've already complained about how heavy the books are; if they'd used larger type they'd have been even heavier, so I shouldn't complain.  Still, someone like my mom would not have been able to use this book - at all.  If they aren't going out of print, perhaps a larger-print version would be in order? 

 

At the end of the day, I really enjoyed this book.  It's opened my eyes to a whole new cuisine - five whole new cuisines, really.  Thanks again to Dana for recommending the series!

Technorati Tags: Slavic recipes,Armenian food,Russian food,Ukrainian food,Azerbaijani food,Georgian food,ethnic food,Culinaria,book reviews

Recipe: Braised Barley and Vegetables

Technorati Tags: recipes,Slavic recipes,barley,rutabaga,turnip

Recipe Source: Chamberlain, Lesley.  Russian, German & Polish Cooking.  Anness Publishing Ltd, London, 1999 p. 67

I've always been a little leery of Eastern European food.  Maybe it's just because I grew up at the end of the Cold War, but if someone mentions Russian food my brain immediately brings up images of long lines, gray buildings and bad smells.  This is probably not an accurate view.  After all, Eastern Europe is filled with millions of people, many of whom are probably not currently standing in long lines.  There must be something to the food there, right?  I purchased this book, part of the Hermes House family, to give me a little more familiarity with the cuisine of this part of the world.  I bought the book, and I read the book, and I put my little flags on recipes I would actually consider making, and then I put it back on the shelf and tried not to think about it.  Recently I had the opportunity to cook for a good friend, and I made the conscious decision to cook something from this book.  I am very, very glad that I did. 

I made a few changes to this recipe, and as usual I am presenting the recipe as I prepared it.  I didn't have enough time to let the barley soak as long as required, but I don't feel that this was any detriment to this dish.  I used olive oil instead of sunflower oil, because that's just what I use.  I substituted 8 oz. turnip for the potato because I felt we had enough starch in the barley, we didn't need to add to it.  Finally, I used a whole lot of black pepper (it said to season to taste...so I did) and omitted the garnish.  You could probably very easily get away with serving this as a main dish.

Braised Barley and Vegetables (serves 4, approx. $1.44/serving)

1 cup pearl barley

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

2 carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced

8 oz rutabaga (around 1/2 rutabaga), chopped into 3/4 inch pieces

8 oz turnips (around 2), chopped into 3/4 inch pieces

2 cups vegetable stock

Kosher salt

1/4 cup black pepper

Equipment:

• Large pot with lid
• Good knife
• Large measuring cup

1. Put the barley into the measuring cup.  Add water to reach the 2 1/2 cups mark.  Leave it to soak for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours or longer, even overnight. 
2. Heat the oil in the large pot. 
3. Saute the onion for around 5 minutes.
4. Add the celery and carrots and cook another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add the barley, its soaking liquid, rutabaga, turnips and stock to the pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover the pan.
6. Simmer 40 minutes.
7. Serve.

I was pleasantly surprised by this dish - all three of us (my husband and my guest as well as myself) really enjoyed it.  I'll definitely be making it again.