My dinner recipes
September 4th, 2010 in Beef, Main Dish Recipes by Julia Volhina Russian meatballs (or “tefteli” how they are called in Russia) are prepared from ground beef and rice mix and cooked under some kind of sauce. They usually have big size (1 or 2 meatballs is enough for a serving).
This is a recipe for “tefteli” my mom uses: big meatballs, dipped into flour, then fried over in some oil and cooked with vegetable sauce (carrots, tomatoes, onions and dill) until ready.
I’ve modified recipe a bit to use freshly pureed tomatoes instead of tomato paste. However, if you don’t have fresh tomatoes under your hands, you can use canned tomatoes or tomato paste diluted with water.
Boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes are usually the first choice of side dish for tefteli for me, boiled buckwheat or pasta work good too.
Tags: boiled rice, carrot, dill, dinner, ground beef, lunch, onion, romantic, russian, sauce, tomato
August 14th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina I absolutely love this tender onion and cheese soup with a light hint of spices and dry white wine. It is very good choice for home dinner party or romantic dinner just for you two.
You can prepare most of the steps in advance (from step 1 to step 9), then pour soup to the bowls, add bread and cheese and put them to the oven right before serving. That will save you a bit of time and ensure every meal comes fresh and warm at the right time.
My advice would be to use home prepared broth, cooked with good quality beef, carrots, onions, parsley and celery for this soup. If you need some hints on how to prepare beef broth, follow these instructions.
Tags: bread, broth, cheese, dinner, french, garlic, onion, romantic, soup, sugar, wine
July 17th, 2010 in Beef, Main Dish Recipes, Pasta by Julia Volhina Several weekends ago, when I asked Yuriy what should we prepare for dinner, I got an answer – lasagna, and I was intimidated a bit – I never prepared lasagna before. So I spent some time in internet researching recipes and found several I liked. I’ve combined them, added some touch to my taste and prepared this lasagna.
This was my first attempt to make lasagna. And main challenge for me was to properly prepare noodles: according to the instructions on the pack they required boiling before using. I’ve added 2 tablespoons of oil to the boiling water and was boiling them layer by layer and it totally helped to prevent noodles from sticking while boiling.
This lasagna turned out perfectly: balanced combination of meat and vegetables (just how I like it), noodles were very tender, it was totally worth all the time I’ve spend boiling them, getting out of water and trying arrange them in the pan.
Tags: baked, bechamel, bell pepper, carrot, casserole, cheese, dinner, garlic, ground beef, italian, lunch, noodles, onion, pasta, tomato, vegetables
July 3rd, 2010 in Beef, Main Dish Recipes, Pasta by Julia Volhina Lots of recipes require using clear soup (meat broth, stock), however not all of them also require boiled meat which is often used to prepare meat broth. So the question is, are there any good recipes which actually require boiled meat and no broth?
This is one of them: russian pasta with ground boiled beef and fried onions (btw, it is called “makarony po-flotski” in Russia; I have no idea why, but we always called this dish so).
Any “al dente” kind of pasta will work here: I’ve used penne, just read instructions on the pack and cook them accordingly. You may also vary proportion of meat to pasta to taste.
Tags: boiled meat, dill, dinner, ground beef, lunch, meat, noodles, onion, pasta
May 15th, 2010 in Main Dish Recipes, Pork by Julia Volhina Pork roast by this recipe usually turns out juicy and flavored. It is nice dinner dish, can be served warm or cooled down; leftovers are good for sandwiches.
It takes about an hour to cook from beginning till end. It is very easy to prepare recipe. Apart of main ingredients, which are mainly pork and garlic, you will also need a sheet of cooking foil.
Tastes good accompanied by dry red or rose wine.
Tags: dinner, foil, garlic, lunch, pork, roast, romantic
May 8th, 2010 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia VolhinaThis bright green colored soup-purée (or cream soup) made of chicken, broccoli and some other vegies is probably the quickest to prepare soup I know.
It is also nutritious: loaded with healthy vegetables and white chicken meat, which are boiled, pureed and blended together for tasty creamy texture.
All that makes this soup very good choice not only for kids, but also for people who prefer soft food.
Tags: broccoli, carrot, celery root, chicken, cream, dinner, green food, kid food, onion, potato, poultry, puree, romantic, soft food, soup, soup puree
May 1st, 2010 in Beef, Main Dish Recipes by Julia Volhina That is probably one of my favorite dinner recipes: slices of beef roast under mayonnaise, shredded mozzarella and onions, and it is very easy to cook.
You can make steps 1-7 some time in advance, then put meat into the fridge and continue later; just get meat to the preheated oven about 1 hour before you are going to serve it. That comes extremely handy when you need to get a lot of other things taken care of right before the dinner.
Some dry red wine is a nice addition to this dish, especially if the dinner is going to get romantic.
Tags: baked, beef, cheese, dinner, lunch, mayo, onion, romantic
