Recipes: Cooking Around the World: Russian and Polish by Lesley Chamberlain and Catherine Atkinson
Music: Nechjotnyj Voin 2 - A collection of Russian Rock Music (Various Artists)
Cucumber Salad
2 cucumbers scored with a fork to make them pretty and sliced thinly
1 cup sour cream
White wine vinegar (to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped fresh dill to taste
(there really were measurements that came with these ingredients but I couldn't even taste the vinegar when I put in the minimal 2 tbsps - I just kept sprinkling it in until it tasted good to me)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and chill for at least an hour
Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Stuffing
4 lb boned Pork Loin
1 1/4 cup Dry Cider
2/3 cup Sour Cream
1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
For the Stuffing:
2 tbsp Butter
1 onion chopped finely
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 apples cored, peeled, and chopped finely
1/2 cup raisins (I used the Sun Maid mixed bag)
Finely grated rind of one orange
Pinch of ground cloves
The recipe is adapted from a roast suckling pig which is, according to the authors, a big hit at all the best Russian parties. The recipe very clearly calls for the rind to be still on the pork loin. Good luck trying to find that combination without a specialty butcher. I opted for a pork shoulder with the bone still in it. I first had to hack the bone out of the center of the meat, leaving a nice hole to fill with stuffing. Of course, if you can find a loin cut with the rind, you should just cut a neat, not ragged, pocket into the center in order to fit the stuffing in. Saute the onions in the butter, add the other ingredients (it will be a little dry at first but will cook in very nicely). Stuff the meat, tie it off with kitchen twine, but if, after tearing apart your kitchen and living room, you still can't find your kitchen twine, I'm sure it's acceptable to use embroidery floss instead (I used the white color, just to be on the safe side of any dyes). It says to score the rind with a very sharp knife, but I guess my sharpest knives were not up to the task so it went unscored. Mix the hard cider and the sour cream or you could just use a Yuengling if that's handy and the hard cider is not. I think straight hard cider would have been tastier (Special thanks to Jay for carrying over the hard pear cider before getting my message about no longer needing it! It's yummy all by itself, I promise.). Put the pork rind-side down into the liquid mix and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. Flip it over and baste with the juices and cook for an hour, basting again at the half hour mark. Then turn the oven temperature down to 350 and cook another 1 1/2 hours or until the juices run clear and the crackling is crisp and crackly.Wrap the pork in aluminum foil and let it rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Apricot Treat
1 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup chopped candied orange peel and 3 tbsp of water - (OR the juice from the orange that you pulled the rind off earlier when you made your pork stuffing - if you can't find candied orange peel in Harlem)
Whipping cream, to serve
Cinnamon to sprinkle on the whipping cream
Drop it all into a food processor, blend it up till forms a nice sticky paste and then roll it into a log. Slice it up and lay it out on the plate all pretty with it's whipped cream and decorative cinnamon.
Dinner was delicious, the pork was very tender, the leftover beer/sour cream mixture cooked down into a tasty gravy, the stuffing was raisin/applicious, and the cucumber was an excellent accompaniment. Folks were eating seconds and begging for more. The begging part is an exaggeration, but there were second helpings.
Dessert was a nice, not too sweet "treat."
We also finished the last of the chocolate vodka so I will be considering revised recipes in the near future.
About the Book: War is depressing. We know this. But I've never read a book that so clearly captured the arbitrary nature of war so well as this one. I think, beyond the marriage mania and lasting romantic figures, it is the descriptions of the war that make this novel so gripping. There are so many careless mistakes recorded and happy accidents and tragic oversights. And everyone is so much more concerned with how they will come out looking that they have no care for what is right, what is logical, or what is necessary.
There are miscommunications that happen at every turn and while they are looking for one major, he is getting the word that he should meet the generals elsewhere. Cowardice prevents people from sounding the retreat and a whole left flank is left to die not knowing that they should have withdrawn hours ago. A cannon company is left with no covering troops through cowardice and desertion and the French are afraid to attack it because they think no fool would leave their cannon uncovered; Napoleon's general assumes that if they go near it they will be overwhelmed by reserves. Those cannons give the Russians their first partial victory over the French, but the leader of that crew is blamed and almost taken down in rank for "losing 2 cannons." Only a chance comment from another office saves his rank.
Based on this retreat/victory they want to take the offensive to Napoleon. They decry an old soldier for not wanting to attack Napoleon because he refuses to take Napoleon for granted. When it becomes clear that they are going to lose, the architect of the plan keeps his own regiment out of the battle. He doesn't fight. The opposing General leads his troops in faithfully (regardless of the fact that he and all his aides know it is a death march) and he is wounded almost to death. He is blamed, along with the Austrians, and the young man who stays out of it is decorated for having the foresight to keep his troops together and alive. This is the battle of Austerlitz.
It is amazing to me that a war can take place at all. Forget about the fear of the men or the grenades and grapeshot and cannon fire. It's amazing to me that the armies can even get that many men to the right battlefield in the first place or keep them going on short rations and no shoes.
About the music: My first encounter with Russian Rock. Some of it's good and alternative sounding. Some of it's terrible and thrashy. Some of it's electronica and not too bad.
I liked the old blog just fine, but I really enjoy the new stories. You sound like you couldn't be having more fun!
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