My carrot recipes
January 28th, 2012 in Appetizers & Snacks by Julia Volhina Layered liver cake, dish of traditional Ukrainian cuisine, is often served as appetizer on various celebrations, in fact I tried it first time on a wedding.
For this recipe I used chicken liver, but beef liver will work good as well.
Carrots and onions stuffing can be skipped all together – it will decrease cooking time and reduce amount of mayo to be used (since layers will not need that much mayo to stick together). However carrots go great with liver.
How many layers you get from this amount of ingredients depends on the size of the frying pan you use. I think 11” frying pan is the best – not too big not too small. The ideal amount of layers for this recipe is about 12; if you get more split them in half and assemble 2 cakes.
Tags: appetizer, carrot, dill, egg, flour, garlic, liver, mayo, milk, onion, parsley, snack, ukrainian
October 8th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina Beef broth with vegetables is easiest liquid food to make, easiest to consume, good for your digestive system. Why not to cook it yourself instead of pouring it out from a can or a box?
All you need is beef with bones (I find shank cut very suitable for soups and broths), roots (carrots, parsley, celery), onion, fresh greens and this recipe.
Clear beef broth is nice to accompany any food prepared from that boiled meat cooked in the broth (since you don’t need it after broth is cooked), such as crepes with boiled meat stuffing, savory pies or fried dumplings.
Tags: beef, boiled meat, broth, carrot, celery root, dill, onion, parsley root, russian, soup
June 18th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina Sorrel and pork soup, or as it is called also green borscht (obviously because of the color), is one of these dishes you can rarely eat in US, unless you are ukrainian, poland, russian family or visiting one of those 
.
I was a bit unlucky in buying sorrel this time. Sorrel is very seasonal (meaning available only on spring), and for some reason WholeFoods (the only place where I was able to find it) carries it in herbs section – read this as 2-3 branches per a pack.
I ended up getting last 3 packs they had in their stock, but even that was less then needed for this soup (I am actually still wondering, who buys sorrel in WholeFoods in such packs and for what?).
Anyway, if you are more lucky than me and either know where to buy enough of sorrel or growing it by yourself, you can safely use more, and by more I mean much more: 3-4 cups is good. If you want to make it’s sour taste a bit less intense – fry it before adding to the cooking pot or/and use more water when cooking broth.
Tags: borscht, carrot, dill, green food, hard boiled egg, onion, parsley root, polish, pork, potato, rice, russian, sorrel, soup, sour cream, ukrainian
April 16th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina Gentle tomato soup with rice filling garnished with freshly chopped basil is a russian variant of tomato-basil soup.
It is beef broth based and if you want to make it more tomaty and thick, reduce amount of water you use for broth and increase amount of tomatoes.
I’ve garnished soup with basil even though it isn’t very widespread in Russia, but it gives a nice kick to flavor of this soup. After all basil and tomatoes are the combination which can never taste wrong.
Tags: basil, broth, carrot, celery root, onion, parsley root, peas, puree, russian, soup, tomato, vegetables
March 19th, 2011 in Beef, Main Dish Recipes by Julia Volhina Lazy cabbage rolls, or “lenyvi golubtsi” how this dish is called in ukrainian, is an easier version of ukrainian cabbage rolls.
Since it doesn’t require assembling of rolls it is much easier to prepare, and taste is very similar to cabbage rolls.
Lazy cabbage rolls taste great when seasoned with a bit of chopped garlic and a bit of mayo.
Tags: beef, cabbage, carrot, dill, dinner, ground beef, ground meat, meat, onion, russian, tomato paste, ukrainian, vegetables
February 19th, 2011 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina This soup doesn’t include any meat, it is based on mushrooms and have vegetables (carrot, parsley and celery roots, potato) as well as pearl barley.
Such kind of mushroom soup is very popular in Russia. Various kind of mushrooms can be used in this recipe, but I must say fresh or frozen porcini are the best tasting ones, if you can find them, of course.
If you are not trying to follow Great Lent rules – my advise is don’t skip on sour cream, 1 tablespoon of sour cream to the bowl of mushroom soup not only adds nutrients, but also gives the soup its unique rich taste.
Tags: carrot, celery root, dill, garlic, grain, lenten, mushroom, no meat, onion, parsley root, peas, potato, russian, soup, vegetables
January 22nd, 2011 in Chicken, Main Dish Recipes by Julia Volhina An easy tweak to classic pilaf recipe – chicken instead of lamb – will make this dish to shine all different colors. Chicken require less time to cook, it is more lean so, let’s say it is more healthy and also faster to prepare
Using whole chicken is an option, but in this case you probably need to bone it first (unless you like to chew on bones).
Take boneless thighs, if you don’t like to spend time removing bones. Chicken breasts can be used as well, but may end up being too dry – mix them up with some other parts such us thighs or so.
Another trick to this recipe is using cast-iron pan, ideally round one. It makes rice to cook more evenly which is more important part – get soft not overcooked rice.
Tags: carrot, chicken, dinner, garlic, grain, lunch, onion, pilaf, rice, spicy, vegetables
