My ukrainian recipes
December 12th, 2009 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia Volhina In a lot of countries Christmas Eve dinner gathers whole family around one big table. Borscht with mushroom dumplings is the one of 12 dishes which usually are on that table by tradition in West Ukraine (by the way those dumplings are called “vushka” in ukrainian, which means “small ears”, I guess because of the shape).
Of course, because that is the Christmas Eve and Nativity Fast isn’t finished yet there is no meat used to prepare it: just vegetables and dried mushrooms. This borscht like the rest of the Christmas Eve’s traditional food is lenten, it is very tasty and isn’t heavy at all – most of the vegetables are used to prepare clear broth only and don’t get served with the borscht itself.
At first glance, it may look like cooking it is a bit of a hassle and time spending: so many steps (I’ve prepared 34 step-by-step pictures for this recipe!) and so many manipulations with different cooking utensils. However, you can complete preparation steps a day in advance – for example soak mushrooms, boil them or/and boil beets, you can even make dumplings a day before, freeze them and prepare the borscht next day. And then, nobody said you need to make everything yourself: involve your family into helping you! And have a Marry Christmas!
Tags: beet, borscht, carrot, celery root, christmas food, dinner, dumplings, kohlrabi, lenten, mushroom, onion, parsley root, polish, soup, ukrainian
October 17th, 2009 in Main Dish Recipes, Pork by Julia Volhina Cabbage rolls (stuffed cabbage) dish is very popular food in Eastern Europe. No wander you can easily find cabbage rolls among traditional recipes in cuisines of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania and many others countries.
Making of cabbage rolls from the scratch (including grinding meat, boiling and separating cabbage and then preparing them one by one) would take some time, so it is better if you start cooking in advance. However you can leave prepared cabbage rolls in the oven with heat turned off for up to 1 hour, so they stay warm if you want to postpone serving.
This recipe describes step-by-step process of preparing cabbage rolls in tomato-dill sauce. Enjoy the taste of traditional dish of Eastern European.
Tags: baked, cabbage, dill, dinner, ground meat, lunch, meat, onion, pork, rice, russian, sauce, stuffed, tomato, ukrainian
August 15th, 2009 in Main Dish Recipes, No-meat by Julia Volhina If you’ve got some crepes left or thinking about how to make them more tasteful and nutritious then stuff them with fresh cheese. You can prepare stuffed crepes and store them for future in the freezer. After, all you have to do to get a fresh and tasty crepe with cheese is to get it out of freezer and warm it up.
The only hassle with this recipe can be to find (or prepare) good quark-kind fresh white cheese. Try Russian, Ukrainian or Polish shop if you can’t locate it local supermarket.
Crepes with Fresh Cheese are good for breakfast or snack, also they make perfect food for kids.
Tags: breakfast, crepe, egg, flour, fresh cheese, kid food, lunch, no meat, pancake, russian, snack, stuffed, sugar, ukrainian
July 18th, 2009 in Main Dish Recipes, No-meat by Julia Volhina Lazy Varenyky (lazy vareniki, fresh cheese lazy dumplings) is a dish of Ukrainian cuisine. To prepare it you will need fresh white cheese (tvorog, quark) which can be hard to find in a local shop, so try Ukrainian / Russian / Polish shops for more luck.
The word “lazy” in the name reflects the fact how fast and easy this dish is to prepare. It takes less then 20 mins from putting simple ingredients together till Fresh Cheese Lazy Dumplings are ready to be served, and that includes boiling.
Lazy Varenyky dish is good choice for children breakfast: they include fresh cheese – a good source of the calcium for growing body. And of course they are tasty, your kids will love them!
Tags: breakfast, dumplings, egg, flour, fresh cheese, kid food, no meat, russian, snack, soft food, sugar, ukrainian
June 27th, 2009 in Salad Recipes by Julia Volhina To prepare russian herring salad, “Herring Under Fur Coat”, you need to have whole salted herring. And of course you need to know how to fillet it, so read this post if you don’t.
Herring Under Fur Coat is a word-to-word translation of russian name of this salad: “Seledka pod Shuboj”, which represents salted herring under a “coat” of boiled vegetables. So, as you’ve probably guessed, you will also need boiled vegetables (potatoes, carrots and beats) and green onions. In the rest this is 5-layers salad with a lot of mayonnaise.
This salad requires some time and agility to assemble it, also it needs at least 12 hours for layers to soak after it is assembled. So make sure you have enough time if you decide to make it.
Tags: beet, carrot, fish, green onion, lunch, mayo, potato, russian, salad, sea food, ukrainian, vegetables
May 31st, 2009 in Hot Soups, Soup Recipes by Julia VolhinaBorscht (borsch, borshch) or beet root soup is very popular in a Eastern and Central Europe countries. Who of you didn’t hear about russian or ukrainian borscht?
It is one of 3 common things which usually come to people minds when they are asked about Russia or Ukraine. Well, other 2 would be: good looking girls and vodka, of course.
As you’ve probably noticed, this blog is about cooking (not about dating or drinking), so I will show you how to make Borscht (Beetroot Soup) in this post, please use Google to find more info on slavic brides or famous russian alcoholic beverages if you feel like this.
Tags: bean, beet, borscht, broth, cabbage, carrot, meat, onion, potato, russian, soup, tomato, ukrainian, vegetables
March 29th, 2009 in Salad Recipes by Julia VolhinaRadish and Fresh Cheese Salad is a tasty way to feed yourself and your family a bit of calcium 
I did have some troubles finding a suitable fresh cheese for this recipe, it should be fresh white quark (russian: tvorog), neither cottage cheese nor cream cheese will work here.
So if you have the same problem finding quark style fresh cheese like I had, try local Russian / Ukrainian / Polish store, most probably they have it. Of course, you can also make homemade soft cheese yourself, but guess I am too lazy for this, who isn’t?..
Tags: dill, fresh cheese, green onion, hard boiled egg, lunch, mayo, radish, salad, ukrainian, vegetables
